SPOILER ALERT: This piece contains spoilers for the entirety of Season 2 of My Life With the Walter Boys.
Season 2 of My Life With The Walter Boys unfolds in ten more episodes of Nikki Rodriguez’s Jackie Howard further acclimating to Silver Falls, Colorado while she navigates the ongoing love triangle she finds herself in with two brothers, Alex (Ashby Gentry) and Cole Walter (Noah LaLonde).
The latest installment watches the brothers alternate in their roles as Alex returns from his summer at rodeo camp with more confidence while Cole really hits the books to turn his college trajectory around, but Cole still has some work to do on his self-destructive habits as seen in Episode 5 at the Fall Formal when he takes to drinking out of anger at not being included in the football team’s pregame. Both Cole’s twin brother Danny (Connor Stanhope) and Jackie give him a talking to because his disruptive behavior prematurely ends the event for everyone.
“I’ve always felt like Jackie was this motivating force for Cole — someone who he could look to that is going through something as life-altering as him, but even more so and then continuing to wake up and push forward and still have goals and still adjust to this new life,” LaLonde told Deadline before Season 2’s launch. “It’s pretty eye-opening for him to get that response from her, because he sees her version of life as his light at the end of the tunnel. If he can get to that version of perseverance and that version of discipline for what you want, then I think his entire life can change.”
In the below interview, LaLonde unpacks the new layers to his rivalry with Alex in Season 2, the dynamic with Jackie once she comes back to live with the Walters, Cole’s decision to try out assistant coaching his peers and what is going through his head in those last moments of the finale.
L-R: Noah LaLonde And Ashby Gentry in ‘My Life With the Walter Boys’
Netflix
DEADLINE: How would you say the opening scene when Cole picks up Alex from the bus sets the tone for their relationship thin Season 2and the tension between them?
NOAH LALONDE: Oh man, it’s funny that you asked about that scene, because when they released that eight minute preview, I thought it did a really good job, the whole eight minutes, but specifically the part you’re asking about of bringing you right back into what’s happening and catching up to speed on what you missed, almost to the point of, like, “Whoa, here’s Alex,” and he immediately asks why Cole looks like he’s been underground all summer.
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It sets the tone for that contrast that will be present for the brothers, which is a little bit flipped from the first season. I definitely think it does a good job of getting everybody back up to speed. Hopefully everyone’s been refreshing, because if they’re not, then maybe they’ll forget that there was ever a Cole Effect, and they’ll just assume, “Oh yeah, Alex, was that charming older brother.”
DEADLINE: Ashby praised Cole for playing it cool at seeing Alex’s glowup, but is Cole threatened by this new version of him?
LALONDE: I think there’s a thing with siblings and family members where, for some reason, I just don’t think it registers like that. I think it registers as different, but I don’t think it registers as threatening. It’s like, “Whoa, look at baby brother.” Because realistically, so much time has passed, and although the events of Season 1 unfold in such a tumultuous type of way, I, myself, was wondering and hoping a little bit that the scripts for Season 2 might just pick up the next day, or that next morning, or what happens after that thing? But, I think distance can heal some wounds, and there’s just kind of a weird, non-spoken thing going on, so in Cole form, the presence he has at the beginning of Season 2 is a little bit guarding all the things that are at play. He wants to make things feel normal, and he wants to have his brother be his brother because he knows it’s about to probably not feel like that as soon as the other car pulls into the driveway, and we soon after see exactly that.
Noah LaLonde as Cole in Season 2 of ‘My Life with the Walter Boys’
David Brown/Netflix
DEADLINE: The coaching arc is also a big one for Cole this season. Could you talk more about how he has to step into that role? I know Danny gives him advice, which seems like the turning point.
LALONDE: Yeah, it’s interesting because I’ve had some similar experiences to this in my own life, and I think it’s pretty jarring to be so close to something that used to feel so familiar and so lived in. It’s like that pair of shoes that you just throw on, they just fit right to your feet. You don’t even have to tie ‘em, and you walk out the door. That’s what football was to him. So to have to squeeze his way back into that environment and find a new place for himself, it’s a very intimidating idea.
I think he trusts his twin brother, Danny, and I think he’s given enough of that affirmation from the people around him. People of authority. His dad at one point, his coach, all the players in the team, even though it doesn’t feel like that once he starts, they’re all reminding him that, “we need you, we want you, and you could be the key to this thing.” There’s a theme, and just for Cole as a whole, this whole season, as he is trying to grow and trying to be a better person and ultimately, maybe the person that someone else needs him to be if they’re ever going to have the version of a life together that I think he subconsciously is vying for.
With that being said, it’s almost like [he] need[s] to try something, and [he does] miss it. It’s a very complicated relationship that he has, but I do think he’s got too much knowledge and experience and wisdom when it comes to playing football that it’s very valuable, and it would be a shame to not see it through a little bit. It’s a complicated part of his arc, but ultimately, it’s also inevitable for him to try, because it’s just he has that yearning for the game, and I don’t think he’ll ever quite tap into it the same way, but it’s so hard to be so close to it and not try.
DEADLINE: Speaking of growth, the scenes where Cole says no to weed and then no to Dylan asking him to take the drug test in his place show that too. How did you want to make those moments seem earned for Cole at that point in Season 2?
LALONDE: That’s a great question. I think it’s probably the most clear sign of growth that we have in the show because Episode 5, everything comes to this bubble-bursting moment where it’s like, “Ah, there he is.” He’s back as we remember him. He can’t handle his emotions, he can’t handle his alcohol, and he can’t handle the stress that is being under these emotional circumstances. That’s the moment to stop, and obviously Cole’s upset about that, but I think the way in which Jackie is so dismissive to him after that, the way in which Danny is so dismissive to him after that, whether or not he wants to justify his behavior — it is a little bit convoluted of an explanation, but he clearly didn’t set out to hurt all of these people on the peripheral with his actions. Ultimately, that’s what life is, is understanding the consequences in the fullness of their scope.
L to R: Ellie O’Brien as Grace and Nikki Rodriguez as Jackie in ‘My Life with the Walter Boys’
David Brown/Netflix
That really is a moment where he has to look in the mirror and say, this is the closest person in my life, my best friend, my twin brother, Danny, telling me this. It’s letting your emotions get the best you, and letting your actions swallow you up and hurt a lot of people around you. That is scary. I do think that is the turning point for him. As terrible of a moment as it is, I think it is the moment in which we, for the first time, maybe, he looks at a mistake and he actually grows from it. And that’s all I’ve ever hoped for this guy as the actor. I’ve always, ever hoped that he’ll be written in a way that he can assess what he’s done and grow from it and become a better person because of it.
DEADLINE: In the last moments of the finale , what do you think is going through Cole’s head, as he gets that “I love you” back from Jackie and then the ambulance comes?
LALONDE: I think, like a lot of other moments in the season, it is this combination of frustration and confusion. And although, if you’re reading it on paper, getting told that this person that you love loves you back, that would be great, on paper, but when you put it in the context of how it comes out and how it happens, it is not unlike every other interaction in the season where it is incredibly frustrating and incredibly confusing.
I can think of all these moments when Jackie first arrives, Cole is looking for some sign of reciprocation of those feelings, of an addressing of what happened as a good thing. He’s shut down, because there’s space that’s needed. And then in the second episode, it’s “Well, let’s just be friends.” And it’s just like those moments of the tingling chemistry that feels like something’s about to happen, and it just never does this season. With all the aforementioned stress and emotional journey that is taking place for Cole going on, at least for me, when, when all the dominoes start to fall, it’s like, one thing can set you off.
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It’s almost a miracle that it was only the dance that gets ruined, because there’s so many things that are going on, and I think they continue, like the dance, in the middle of the dance floor. It’s one of those moments where this might end up being the same thing, and it’s frustrating and confusing. And then when they’re in the car and he’s trying to teach her, it’s frustrating and confusing, and it’s just at every turn. I think the finale is not unlike that and it left me second-guessing myself and frustrated and confused and wanting to know what happened next. I think Cole feels the same way, because he’s on this journey with his brothers, but this one thing that I think ultimately is the North Star, which is Jackie — I don’t even know if he knows that exactly in those terms, but it is her. He just can’t figure that part out, or he just can’t get it to work. There’s always something missing. Luckily, I get to work internally on the show, but if I was an audience member, man I would be really wondering what happens next. I’m just glad I get to know.
DEADLINE: That’s my last question for you. Season 3 is an early production. What are you excited for fans to see?
LALONDE: I’m mostly excited for the continued growth of these characters. We find them in such a ripe time where people at this age are starting to become the people they’re gonna be for the rest of their lives. That’s an exciting thing to experience, and I think a lot of people can relate to that. And I think when you start to form a bond with the characters, and you start to care about what happens in their lives, it’s the most exciting thing to watch. I just hope that that growth continues, and I hope that they can continue to look at their lives in a way that they grow from the things that happen to them, and not just let them happen without consequence.
