‘R.J. Decker’: Bevin Bru Explains Finale Ending — What’s Mel’s Next Move?

Mel’s (Bevin Bru) worst nightmare may be about to come true after the end of the R.J. Decker Season 2 finale, and that comes after a couple of major betrayals. TV Insider spoke with Bru about those moments. Warning: Spoilers for the R.J. Decker Season 2 finale ahead!

Ten years ago, Mel’s fellow cop and friend, Bobby, was killed. Gabriel confessed to it at the time, but now he’s saying he didn’t do it. Emi (Jaina Lee Ortiz) believes him and turns to R.J. (Scott Speedman) to investigate. Mel isn’t happy about that, considering how adamant she is about his guilt, but it turns out R.J. and Emi are right: Gabriel’s innocent. (At one point, it looks like Mel could’ve planted evidence; she didn’t, and she’s hurt that R.J. even considers it.) So, who killed Bobby? It was his wife, and this wasn’t the first time she killed a husband for money.

While they’re waiting for the proof needed, Jessica’s daughter is taken from her, and so she retaliates — by calling Mel from outside her house, watching her wife Catherine (Adelaide Clemens) and daughter Sofia (Mélodie Rose Romano). Jessica doesn’t know who she is without her daughter, and “I wonder who you’ll be without your family,” she tells Mel before getting out of her car. Uh-oh!

Below, Bevin Bru unpacks that ending and shares what she thinks Mel’s next move will be. (Plus, read what creator Rob Doherty had to say about the finale and what we could see in Season 3 here.)

That ending with Mel getting that call from Jessica, threatening her family… Right now she just knows it’s bad that Jessica could be about to do something to her wife and daughter. So what’s going through her mind? Because the possibilities seem to be endless.

Bevin Bru: (It’s funny when I read the script and I called the showrunner, and we’re talking about that ending, and I was like, OK, this happened to me, it’s like there’s two things to do here. I know she’s in front of my house. Either one, I try to keep her on the phone long enough to get a SWAT team together and just go in. Or I was like, poor Estelle, the elderly neighbor, I would call Estelle and be like, “Estelle, I need you to come to my house right now. I need sugar immediately,” and use her as a decoy and just try to buy some time. I know it’s terrible, but family first. “All right, Estelle, thank you so much for your service.”

Disney/Dana Hawley

For Mel, it’s that feeling of this woman’s obviously crazy. You know what I mean? She’s sick. She’s capable of anything. No remorse, no empathy. And as we’ve seen with Mel, it’s like family, the loyalty of the people that I love. Nothing could make Mel ever do anything untoward except for family. And the fact that that’s at risk right now, it’s like, I don’t even know. I don’t even know what.

Well, you bring up Estelle…  I was going to ask how far will she go to make sure her family’s safe? And apparently that includes bringing in the elderly neighbor and making her a decoy. But how far is Mel willing to go? What is her line?

It’s interesting. I remember Season 1, Mel went and threatened the six-foot-six jail buddy of R.J., and then she may have slashed some tires. As we learn in this episode, when Bobby [is killed], she takes it upon herself. She’s like, “I don’t care what my captain says, I’m going to go find out because no one else is doing anything to my satisfaction.” She obviously didn’t plant the evidence. She would never fabricate anything, but she will go and blur the line, similar to — I think that’s why her and R.J. are interestingly very similar. It’s just one presents a bit more wacky and out there, whereas Mel secretly, too, is she’ll go out of that box within limits.

So this was a tough case for Mel given that she heard Bobby get killed, then found out the wrong person has been in prison, and then it’s his wife, someone she’s been looking after, too. That’s the thing. All the time she’s been there for Jessica. So has she even really been able to process how she’s feeling beyond pissed off right now?

I don’t think so. And I feel like this whole episode, it was just profound betrayal the whole time. At first thinking it was betrayal from R.J. whom she’s let into her world. They work so closely together. And that was already a complicated figure: Being my wife’s ex-husband and being a felon, and how much Mel went on the line for him. And then to feel that level of betrayal and carry that for three-fourths of the episode, and then for it to totally shift — it turns out Jessica, who she’s been there for her for 10 years actually, betrayed her once and now at the end has betrayed her. I think it’s just that you get so overwhelmed being in that state for so long that no, she has not had a chance to really process and sit with the weight of everything.

Especially because Mel and R.J. have come a long way just in these two seasons. So it must have really hurt her that he was willing to believe maybe she did plant this evidence and investigate this case against her wishes, right?

Yeah, man. It hit like a knife. It hit like a knife. How could you do that after everything?

Disney/Dana Hawley

Do you think this will change their relationship at all, or did how everything ended up, and the fact that now he’s the one that she has on her side right now, he’s there with her at the end, he’s probably the one who’s going to help possibly save her family — Is that going to be like, you know what, this is all in the past, we’re going to move past this, or do you think this tension might come up?

I think absolutely. Mel was hurt at the fact that he was investigating the case to begin with, given that it’s a cop murder; Gabriel had confessed to it. So there is the initial [hurt], but he was right, and he found the actual killer. So I think for Mel, it’s like the truth supersedes. And so yes, you betrayed me, and yes, I felt that, but you were right. And that is more important than me feeling betrayed. And now at this moment, it is just Mel and R.J., and God willing, we get that third season. I’m itching to read what that first episode would look like and what happens. And it is going to bring, I think, Mel and R.J. even closer together because, remember, Catherine’s R.J.’s ex-wife, and he loves Catherine. The stakes are equally as high for the two of them right now. And I think that’s going to really supercharge them in a way that we haven’t seen yet in the show.

How much has it surprised Mel how much she actually does like having R.J. around?

I’ll never admit to it. [Laughs] I think it does surprise her, and I think especially in that scene where she comes to him, and she’s like, “You were right, and I was wrong.” She has love for R.J. She’s grown to love him and care for him and respect him, and I think that has surprised her, but I think she’s also very grateful to have this ally, to have this little yin and yang to her strengths or his weaknesses. His weaknesses are her strengths. So I think it’s a beautiful balance that she appreciates.

How do you think this is going to change Mel and Emi’s relationship?

I think it’s similar to her and R.J. at first being at the end of Episode 6, I’m a big gun. But again, being that they both, I know, have good hearts, I know their hearts were in the right place, and they were right at the end of the day, I think that’s what helps it kind of blow over. Also, Emi and Mel, unfortunately, aren’t as close in the show, and I want more scenes with Jaina. I love working with her. I love her. She’s one of my best friends. I’m like, “Let’s get the Latinas on screen and bring us closer together.” I think it’d be so much fun now that she’s a full-blown attorney, a criminal defense attorney, apparently leaning that way, that could also have a little bit of friction between Mel and Emi if she’s taken on cases that Mel might’ve arrested the — I think there’s a lot to pick at and to grow from that.

Where does Mel stand when it comes to Emi or Trudy for R.J.?

To be honest, I think Mel’s just like, “Get your bag, man. Whatever makes you happy. I’m team… You like Trudy? OK. You like Emi? OK.” I think Mel’s a great wingman. She’s like, “Point me in the direction, and I’ll do what I can,” kind of thing. She just wants R.J. to be happy, whoever that’s with.

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'R.J. Decker' Season 3: Cast, Premiere Date, More Details

So what do you want to see in Season 3? Because we need a Season 3 after that.

We need a Season 3, come on. I mean, I think personally it would be awesome if my wife and daughter got kidnapped and we have the first two episodes of really heavy locking in, trying to find them, getting the department involved, raising those stakes, really pumping it up. And then as the season goes on, we can bring back more of the lightness and stuff. But I think that’s the beauty of this show that we can go — this episode was quite heavy. It’s not the typical R.J. Decker ha-ha, that we can do that, but then we can bring it back to light, and that’s the beauty and the brilliance of Rob and the writers, how we had that ability to go between heavy and light and still maintain the overall feeling of the show. I love drama. I love excitement. So I’m like, Season 3, I’m like, “Let’s pump those stakes up.”

I really like getting the flashback in the beginning of the finale to Mel’s time on patrol. Is there any aspect of Mel’s life that you want to explore going forward that we haven’t yet seen?

I want to know who Sofia’s dad is. I want a Maury episode: Who’s the father? Who’s the father? Bring him out. I would love to explore a little bit more of that backstory. And I think there’s also potential for drama there, for a little bit of R.J. also coming in and feeling protective or feeling like he’s… I just think there’s so much we can do with the show. If you give us 18 episodes, there’s so much we can do with Mel. We can do just every different case with all the characters, with Catherine, Wish [Kevin Rankin], Emi. Yeah, there’s so much.

We got the Dancing With the Stars stuff this season. Is there a dream crossover between R.J. Decker and another ABC show you want to see?

I say Will Trent. I think it’d be so much fun. I know I did do a spot on Will Trent early, early on, and the character went to jail. I think it’d be really wild if it’s my twin sister, but the other sister became a detective for some reason, and the other one was a drug dealer. And just going to Atlanta and working with Ramón [Rodríguez] again because I love him, and he was amazing to work with. And Atlanta and Florida, it’s right there. My brother-in-law was a detective, a homicide detective in Miami Beach, and he had a case where he had to go from Miami Beach to Atlanta to go investigate. So it’s plausible. It makes sense. It’d be fun. Seeing R.J. and Will interact would be wild.

It’d be so good.

So good. They’re both quirky, but so different. What would that look like? I would love to see that.

R.J. Decker, Streaming, Hulu