Ethan Hawke's Lowdown Season 2 "Unpredictable" Relationship Previews By Creator & New Star

EXCLUSIVE: The creator and one of the stars of Ethan Hawke's crime dramedy The Lowdown have teased what fans can expect from a very unpredictable relationship this season.

The series recently began airing its second season on FX, with Hawke returning as Lee Raybon, a bookstore owner and citizen journalist who investigates and uncovers shocking secrets and mysteries in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Betty Gilpin and Tommy Lee Jones joined the cast for The Lowdown season 2, playing Ginger and Lee Raybon Sr., respectively.

Ginger has feelings for both Lee and Mekko Dean, one of her clients who's gone missing. In an interview with ScreenRant's Grant Hermanns, Gilpin opened up about how developments with her character will unfold this season.

She first acknowledged that The Lowdown "doesn't treat the audience like it's stupid," despite being "silly and zany and entertaining and wild and weird." Viewers can handle two or more intertwining developments simultaneously.

For Ginger, that refers to her feelings for Lee and Mekko. She's falling in love with both of them at the same time, which can happen in real life. She's experiencing an existential crisis, according to Gilpin, while also being linked with multiple individuals.

"That experience is really hard and overwhelming and unexpected and makes you behave in unexpected ways," the actress explained, adding that Ginger and Lee going through all of that together ended up being a "very profound experience for me as an actor."

Betty Gilpin: "Something I love about the show is that it doesn't treat the audience like it's stupid. While being silly and zany and entertaining and wild and weird, it also asks the audience to hold two things at once, or five things at once. I think where Ginger's heart lies is one of those things where she's sort of falling in love with two people at the same time in a way that happens in life. I think that you can be in existential crisis or heartbreak while you're linked arms with someone else, because that experience is really hard and overwhelming and unexpected and makes you behave in unexpected ways. I think watching Lee and Ginger go through that together was a very profound experience for me as an actor."

During the same interview, The Lowdown creator, executive producer, writer and director Sterlin Harjo echoed Gilpin's description of the situation Ginger finds herself in and said that it's "much more fun" to watch characters be in a messy situation than to have them know exactly what they're going to do at all times.

The Lowdown season 2 premiere ended with the surprising reveal that Ginger has feelings for a second character on the show, which adds a brand-new complication to their dynamics. After finding that out, Harjo hopes that viewers continue to watch so they find out what happens.

Harjo, who previously co-created Reservation Dogs, also explained that his movies and TV shows tend to take place in the aftermath of someone dying because he loves exploring the characters as they experience "a moment of unpredictability."

It's not always easy to foresee what they'll do or say next because these characters are in a situation where they're not always acting like their true selves anymore, which Harjo finds "interesting." It forces Harjo as a writer and producer to ponder questions about why they're not themselves and to figure out how they'll react while in extreme circumstances.

Sterlin Harjo: "Also, just to piggyback off what Betty's saying, just to make it messy, you know, life's messy. It's so much more fun to watch this messy situation than like, 'Oh, I know what's going to happen now.' I think it's a big surprise at the end of the first episode when you find out that she also has feelings for this person, which complicates everything, and then you're like, 'Oh god, what is this going to cause?' So I think that a viewer might stay tuned and come back to the other episodes just to [see that unfold]. That's one layer of trying to see what is going to happen in this situation. One of the reasons why most of my movies and shows take place after someone's passing is because I love watching characters and writing characters that are in a moment of unpredictability. You don't know what's going to happen, you don't know how they're going to react because they're in this situation where they may not be themselves. But it's so interesting to watch a character not be themselves. How does this character not be themselves? How do they react in this extreme circumstance? And to me, that's just interesting writing and is exciting. I like making stuff like that."

When Ginger makes her debut in The Lowdown season 2, she reveals that she has two stalkers, a horrendous development that started after Mekko's disappearance.

Lee begins looking into the matter, which includes a visit to Boontill Prison. He later tells Ginger his theory that some of the prison guards might have something to do with it, but Lee ends up putting himself in danger along the way.

Aside from Hawke, Gilpin and Jones, The Lowdown also stars Keith David, Kaniehtiio Horn and Ryan Kiera Armstrong. The new season currently has a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes, an increase from the 98% that season 1 got.

The critically acclaimed series is only two episodes into its eight-episode run. As Gilpin and Harjo teased, the relationship drama will lean into unpredictability, as the mysteries and shocking reveals continue to ramp up in the weeks to come.

The Lowdown season 2 airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. EDT on FX and the next day on Hulu.

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  Lee Raybon

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A comic neo-noir series following the gritty exploits of citizen journalist Lee Raybon, a self-proclaimed Tulsa "truthstorian" whose relentless pursuit of the truth constantly lands him in troublesome situations.