‘The Lowdown’ Star Ryan Kiera Armstrong Weighs in on Francis & Lee’s Father-Daughter Bond

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Lowdown Season 1 Episode 8, “The Sensitive Kind.”]

The Lowdown‘s season has come to a close, and while Lee Raybon’s (Ethan Hawke) ending felt rather open-ended, there was plenty left unexplored between him and his daughter, Francis (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), who has a similar drive to uncover the truth.

As viewers saw in the finale episode, “The Sensitive Kind,” Lee solved Dale Washberg’s (Tim Blake Nelson) death, but also had to face the reality that his profession puts his daughter in harm, both physically and emotionally. While we saw Francis have a few close calls earlier in the season, Armstrong admits, “I don’t think that she realized how big it was,” in terms of danger. Still, the star tells TV Insider, “I also think that she’s really intelligent for her age, and so I think that she knew something was up.”

After he missed her parent-teacher conference, Francis recited a poem at an open-mic event where she spoke candidly about the way her parents’ breakup hurt her, but particularly her father’s absence. When it came to reciting the speech, Armstrong shares, “I read it, and at first I was really moved, and then the next thought was I have to make it really good.”

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“It was also my last day on set, so I was like, I can’t regret anything, it has to be perfect. So I memorized it and ran it a bunch, but I was really, really excited,” she says of tackling the pivotal moment. It’s clearly an eye-opening turn for Lee, who determines by the end of the season that Francis should live full-time with her mother, Samantha (Kaniehtiio Horn) and and stepfather Johnny (Rafael Casal).

Lee shares the hard truth with his daughter during Samantha and Johnny’s wedding, leaving the father-daughter duo at odds, in a way. “It’s really bittersweet. I don’t think that there’s really one way you can look at it. It’s hard to hear from any parent, but we got to see how strong she was over the season,” Armstrong remarks. “She became a different person, almost more confident in herself, and so I hope that she feels stronger.”

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As for crafting the big wedding sequence, Armstrong says, “I was nervous for the wedding. It was just so many people, and I was wearing a dress…” She adds, “It was actually quite lovely because we got to see Francis in a different light and in a more mature way.” When it comes to The Lowdown‘s future, Armstrong shares, “I would love to see more journeys. I want to see another adventure. The writers have got it, they’re so good that I trust anything that they’ll write.”

Will we get to see Lee and Francis as they move into the next phase of their father-daughter bond? Only time will tell, but stay tuned for any news about The Lowdown‘s return, and let us know what you’d like to see for the characters.

The Lowdown, Season 1, Streaming Now, Hulu