‘Happy’s Place’ Cast Talk Season 2 Premiere’s Biggest Moments (Exclusive)

Happy’s Place Season 2 finally premiered on NBC Friday night, and the cast chatted with PopCulture.com about the episode’s big moments.

In “Promises, Promises,” everyone at the tavern tries to get used to Bobbie (Reba McEntire) and Emmett’s (Rex Linn) blossoming relationship, but there are secrets that might cause some trouble.

With the show now in its second season, Happy’s Place is really able to explore and dig more into these characters, including Bobbie and Isabella (Belissa Escobedo). During the first season, the two were finding their rhythm as long-lost sisters, discovering more about each other and their dad. This also includes some great sister moments and talking to one another about things they weren’t necessarily able to with anyone else before, such as guys.

Despite Isabella not really enjoying the fact that Emmett is constantly coming over to check in on Bobbie at night, she’s been tolerating it, knowing how happy he makes Bobbie. Additionally, Bobbie tells Isabella she’s never had sisters to talk about boys with, further proving how close they’ve gotten since finding out they had the same father. And the moments will only continue as the season goes on.

Escobedo said she was excited for the season to “really get more into their relationship and kind of the walls that each of them understandably would have, because of their history and all the unknown. And so I feel like we got to dive into that and see them get even closer, overcoming things and getting more silly with each other.”

“Feel comfortable about being silly with each other,” McEntire echoed. “I have two sisters in real life, a sister and a brother. And my two sisters and my brother, my closest friends. So I think that’s what Isabella and Bobbie are finding in Season 2 is a camaraderie and closeness. And then that they shared, they’ve gone through all the hardships and the heartaches and the lies and the secrets that we found out about in Season 1, we’re dealing with it more. And we’re kinda like peeling the onion, finding more layers and staying as a unit, a strong united front with each other. And I think whatever life throws to Bobbie and Isabella, they can handle it.”

Something that Bobbie and Isabella have to be on a united front about is Bobbie’s relationship with Emmett. As fans saw in the premiere, after confessing their feelings to each other at the end of Season 1, they are doing very well… for the most part, at least. Bobbie works up the courage to ask Emmett out, partly thanks to some help from Gabby (Melissa Peterman). She was against it at first, but then saw how happy and giddy Bobbie was, so she gave in.

Peterman thinks Gabby “gets territorial sometimes about her friendships, and definitely Bobbie, and I think that’s because that’s her family to her,” which is why it took her some time to warm up to the idea of Bobbie and Emmett.

“I think that work family is really her found family, and she’s created that family,” she continued. “So she’s very protective. She doesn’t wanna upset the apple cart, and she knows that if it goes bad, a bad romance could totally ruin everything. But, ultimately, sometimes it takes Gabby a little longer to get there, but, ultimately, she would do anything for Bobbie. And if it makes her happy, she’s ready to be on board. And I don’t know how to explain that other than she’s on board. She’s on board for it.”

Gabby is really on Bobbie’s side when Emmett initially turns down Bobbie. Not surprisingly, Gabby and Isabella side with Bobbie and Takoda (Tokala Black Elk), and Steve (Pablo Castelblanco) side with Emmett, despite not knowing what actually happened between them. Since he frequently works with Emmett in the kitchen, Takoda knows a lot about him, but more on a professional level. Even though the personal level is different, Elk says he likes to “look at Takoda as being a sibling to everybody that’s inside of Happy’s Place.”

“And I kinda feel like Emmett is a brother as far as Takoda is concerned,” he continued. “So his caring for Emmett would come from a place that is very brotherly, and it’s the same way for the way he would think about Bobbie as well. I feel like the relationships between our characters have grown and will continue to grow. But the power that’s there, it’s not something that’s gonna disappear. You’re gonna see the power like you’ve seen in Season 1, and you’re gonna probably see a little bit more of it, too, in Season 2.”

That being said, following the divisiveness of the tavern, Emmett reveals to Steve that he made a promise to Happy. Bobbie eventually finds out and, knowing her feelings for him, kisses Emmett after confronting him about it. It was certainly a long time coming, especially since McEntire and Linn have been together for a while and are currently engaged. Linn said that working with McEntire and being able to play off that dynamic with her is “great.”

“I mean, Emmett’s got a little secret that nobody knows about just yet, but I can’t talk about it. But it’s been fun to carry that secret to the storyline,” he teased. “But as far as developing Emmett and Bobbie, it’s been a lot of fun because a lot of people think, ‘Oh my god. Just working with your significant other all day long and then going home, that’s gotta be a drag.’”

“But, man, it’s a lot of fun,” the CSI: Miami star continued. “It’s not a drag at all. It’s been great for the two of us. And now we get to bring a little bit of home to the screen. So when we have our scenes together, we’re really comfortable doing it. And I think it shows. And I don’t mean that narcissistically. It’s just we’re together, we’re comfortable in front of the camera or behind the camera, we’re comfortable.”

As for what’s next for the on-screen couple, McEntire recalled in Cheers how everyone was rooting for Sam Malone (Ted Danson) and Diane Chambers (Shelley Long) to get together. “And if we get together, then what happens then? Something has to happen,” the country star shared. “It makes it so much fun. Our writers are wicked funny, and they come up with the best storylines and things for us to do. We just sit back and have fun.”

It may not all be sunshine and rainbows. As Linn was teasing, Emmett did have a secret, and it wasn’t that he promised Happy he wouldn’t date Bobbie. At the very end of the episode, Emmett told Steve that he had known about Isabella for years. There are many questions to come from that secret, and now that Steve also knows, what could this mean?

“A little bit why I love our writers and the thing I come with because first, it’s built on the friendship that Steve and Emmett built Season 1 that I found so genuine that he would then open up this big secret to him,” Castelblanco said. “And it’s also funny because you are giving it to the person who doesn’t like his world to change too much, so of course it’s then gonna just make Steve go into a little bit of a spiral in his own way of how does he keep this thing for himself? But Steve loves his friends, and he loves them, and so he’s gonna also try to be on his friend’s side and try to help him go through that whole situation. And it’s a fun journey for the season.”

“And I think it plays out differently than what I thought after first reading that first script,” he continued. “So that is what I love about the writers, is that we don’t always know how it’s gonna end. And we just have to play each episode with the information that we have, and that’s been really, really fun this season. And I think even the writers sometimes pivot in moments when they see things.”

Even though Emmett has been keeping this secret about Isabella for a while, he will have to navigate this while now dating Bobbie, which might not be so easy. And now that Steve, who took a few seconds to process what he was told and was appropriately surprised at the news, knows, there’s no telling how his perspective will change. So fans won’t want to miss a single second. New episodes of Happy’s Place air on Fridays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC, streaming the next day on Peacock.