‘Ransom Canyon’ season 2 arrived to Netflix on July 23
Credit: Anna Kooris/Netflix
NEED TO KNOW
- Ransom Canyon returned for season 2 on July 23 on Netflix
- The Western drama stars Josh Duhamel as rancher Staten and Minka Kelly as successful pianist Quinn
- The second season came to an emotional finale that left the fate of several couples up in the air
Ransom Canyon has come to another emotional conclusion for its second season.
Season 2 of the Western romance drama, which dropped all eight episodes on Netflix on July 23, picked up where the first season ended and continued following the members of the Ransom Canyon community in Texas.
Similar to the first season, the series stars Josh Duhamel as Staten Kirkland, the owner of Double K Ranch, who is in a will they/won’t they relationship with his high school crush, Quinn O’Grady (Minka Kelly). Of course, in true drama fashion, Staten and Quinn’s relationship is far from straightforward, and they each find ways to avoid revealing their true feelings for each other.
Meanwhile, Staten and Quinn’s dynamic isn’t the only complicated one. Lauren Brigman (Lizzy Greene) finds herself in a love triangle with brothers Lucas (Garrett Wareing) and Kit Russell (Casey W. Johnson), and Ellie Estevez’s (Marianly Tejada) relationship with Yancy Grey (Jack Schumacher) gets thrown for a loop when his dangerous ex-wife Sidney (Heidi Grace Engerman) appears.
Although the series hasn’t officially been renewed for season 3, showrunner April Blair teased to Deadline that she’s hopeful for a third season and is already figuring out the “next story.”
Here’s everything to know about how Ransom Canyon season 2 ended.
Warning: Ransom Canyon season 2 spoilers below!
Do Staten and Quinn end up together?
Credit: Netflix
Throughout the first two seasons of Ransom Canyon, Staten (Duhamel) and Quinn (Kelly) have struggled to find their happy ending.
In the beginning of the season, Quinn and Staten hit the pause button on any potential romance because she left to work as a pianist in New York. To further throw a wrench into the situation, she meets the British heartthrob Oliver (Ben Robson), who seems to be perfect for her.
“On paper, Oliver is probably, arguably, the better choice,” Blair told Entertainment Weekly. “[He] represents this other part of her life that is equally full and rich, and is just all in, and doesn’t question his own feelings or hers.”
Although Oliver seems to be Quinn’s match, she ultimately turns down his proposal and breaks up with him after realizing she still has feelings for Staten. Even with both Quinn and Staten single, they still have difficulty committing to each other. Staten feels like he isn’t good enough for her, while Quinn is scared of giving him her heart.
Luckily for the couple, Quinn’s mother Claire O’Grady (Patricia Clarkson) sees how the two are meant to be together and intervenes. Claire, who was previously opposed to the relationship when they were in high school, tells Staten to fight for her daughter.
The two meet up at his cabin, where Staten finally breaks down his barriers and tells her, “Fate kept us apart for a reason. Amalah and Randall [his late wife and son], I don’t regret a single moment of my life with them. Fate was making us ready for each other.”
Staten and Quinn fully commit to each other, and Staten asks Quinn to move in with him.
“I think, moving forward, there will be hurdles and challenges, but it’s not about breaking them up,” Blair told Deadline of the couple. “It’s two seasons to bring them together, and I don’t want to just keep doing that to people, apart together.”
She continued, “A relationship, finding each other and falling in love, is actually the easy part. It’s making a life with someone and figuring out who they really are deep down, what are the skeletons in their closets, and ‘Can you love someone at their worst?’ ”
Who does Lauren end up with?
Another love story that’s far from over is the sheriff’s young adult daughter Lauren trying to find her person too.
Prior to season 2, Lauren was dating her high school sweetheart Lucas, but their relationship was far from perfect. When the second season picks up, it’s revealed that Lauren has developed a strong bond with Lucas’ older brother, Kit. In the midst of the love triangle, Lauren and Kit kiss, Lucas sees and subsequently sleeps with Lauren’s friend Ashley (Jennifer Ens).
In the emotional finale, Lauren’s dad, Sheriff Dan Brigman (Philip Winchester) learns about Lauren and Kit’s kiss and encourages him to flee town. Kit listens to Dan and decides that the responsible thing to do would be to move away and not be with Lauren. Lauren rushes to find him and sees Lucas instead, but their interaction helps her realize she wants to be with Kit.
Lucas appears to understand as he tells Lauren where Kit is getting on a bus, so she runs to him and tells him that she’s “not letting you go.”
“What [Lucas is] realizing is he needs to stop focusing on Lauren and winning her back,” Blair told Deadline. “He needs to have his own sort of experience and figure himself out. We have a lot of fun with that in season 3. Let him have his you know his own bad boy era. Moving forward, in our idea of season 3 — we’re just in the room — it’s a potential season 3 right now, but the idea is that Lucas is hurt, but he’s trying to put on [a brave face].”
What happens to Sydney?
Credit: Jeff Neumann/Netflix
Yancy (Schumacher) and Ellie (Tejada) are another Ransom Canyon couple who have had no shortage of ups and downs over the last two seasons — from past secrets resurfacing to sketchy business deals.
However, by season 2, Ellie is pregnant with their child and has accepted his proposal, after all. Just when the two seem to be getting into a groove, his secret ex-wife Sidney (Engerman) shows up and causes chaos. Not only does Sidney refuse to grant him a divorce, but she also convinces him to scam a senator into buying worthless land. Ellie even goes along with it in the hopes that Sidney will agree to the divorce and leave for good.
In the midst of the con, Ellie encourages Yancy to fake he went through with the scam to Sidney in order to get her to sign the divorce papers. Sidney believes him and agrees to the divorce and to leave town.
Unfortunately, Sidney returns in the nick of time to find out the tables had been turned on her. She gets upset and confronts Ellie, which causes her to fall and go into early labor. Sidney flees before police can find her and her future with or without Ransom Canyon is unknown.
“Who knows? The best part is nobody knows,” Blair told EW. “I have this vision that she’s in the wind, changed how she looks, and is grifting. She’s like a black widow … She’s deep undercover. Somewhere fabulous though, I’m sure.”
What happens to Ellie and Yancy?
Credit: Courtesy of Netflix
Ellie is rushed to the hospital for her early labor, where doctors were luckily able to treat her placental abrasion and safely deliver the baby and keep Ellie healthy. Ellie and Yancy welcome a daughter and name her Isabella.
However, Ellie and Yancy’s future isn’t as guaranteed. After giving birth, Ellie comes to the realization that she now has to protect her daughter, as well as herself, and may not be safe with Yancy. She checks out of the hospital by herself and decides to break up with Yancy over the possible danger he poses to her and her daughter’s lives.
Ellie returns home, and when Yancy finds her there, he also sees Ellie’s ex Kai Flores (Justin Johnson Cortez) protecting the house.
“The end of season two is a sign of things to come, which is that scene on the porch between Kai and Yancy,” Blair teased to Deadline. “That’s the beginning of a new story. We’ve hinted and had these little Easter eggs in two seasons that Kai and Ellie have this history that Kai was a bit of a bad boy back in his own day, like reformed, but he’s always been very steadfast and truly concerned and loving of her.”
She continued, “I think we’ve got to the end of Season 2 where Ellie is faced with a choice: is it now that her daughter is here and she’s making decisions that aren’t just about her, is she going to choose her head or her heart? Is she going to choose the guy that she feels safe standing watch on her porch, or is she going to choose the guy who makes her weak in the knees?”
Blair said that the final scene with Kai, Ellie and Yancy is “really the launch of the next story.”
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