La Brea Boss Teases Season 2 Reveals, A Dangerous New Threat, And A Walk On The 'Beautiful' Side Of 10,000 B.C.

New primeval critters, a percolating love triangle and the introduction of another human threat all figure into Season 2 of NBC's timey-wimey La Brea.

La Brea began with a massive sinkhole opening in the middle of Los Angeles, pulling scores of people into a dangerous 10,000 B.C. — Eve Harris (played by Natalie Zea) and her son Josh (Jack Martin) among them. As the rest of the "topside" world sought to understand what happened, Gavin Harris (Eoin Macken) and his daughter Izzy (Zyra Gorecki) labored to reunite with the "lost" members of their family.

In La Brea's freshman finale, Josh, his sorta-girlfriend Riley (Veronica St. Clair) and a tween named Lily (Chloe de los Santos) were all abruptly pulled into a light portal and transported, we soon learn, into the year 1988.

In Season 2, the Harris family remains separated as Eve is reeling from Josh's vanishing. What she doesn't know yet is that Gavin, Izzy and Ella (aka grown-up Lily, played by Michelle Vergara Moore) just landed in prehistoric Seattle, and now must brave the elements (and animals) to make their way to L.A.

TVLine invited showrunner David Appelbaum to share a peek at what to expect  when La Brea's 14-episode sophomore season (...or at least a chunk of it) premieres this Tuesday, Sept. 27 at 9/8c.

TVLINE | Coming out of Season 1 and heading into Season 2, what were the things you decided to lean into, and what did you decide you could maybe dial down a bit?

We were definitely leaning into the idea of the Harris family and their quest to reunite, which has been a story that we started in the pilot episode, but this season we want to put that front and center in a new way. It's different now in Season 2 because Gavin and Izzy jumped into a sinkhole at the end of Season 1, and they're in 10,000 B.C., and Josh is now in 1988. The family is divided in a whole new way, but they're still on a journey to reconnect, so that's something from Season 1 that we definitely wanted to put front and center.

As far as things to lean away from.... I have to think a little harder on that. Nothing is jumping out at me.

TVLINE | Zyra Gorecki told me the other day that Season 2 "is not what you think it's going to be." Was she accurate in that assessment? 

I think that speaks to the idea that we're constantly trying to surprise the audience and unfold new mysteries and give them things they weren't expecting. One of the ways we're doing that is by telling the story of the [glass-and-steel] building that we see at the end of Season 1. Scott and Aldridge come upon a building in the middle of the wilderness in 10,000 B.C., and the audience is wondering, "What's in it?" We're going to go inside, we're going to meet the people there, and we're going to understand its connection to some of our cast, so there's going to be a lot of interesting surprises within that that I think the audience might not have seen coming.

There are also new groups of people down here in 10,000 B.C. that we haven't met yet, that people are going to be surprised by.

Also, the different character pairings.... We have a really large and interesting cast, 13 series regulars, and many of them didn't have scenes with one another in the first season, but now we're going to have different pairings and different relationships evolving that I think people might not have expected after watching the first season.

TVLINE | l feel like the "topside" storyline this season might be a little lighter, a little less intense/"Time is of the essence!" Will Josh and Riley be Back to the Future-ing, having fun and getting lost in the era?

There is definitely some of the fun of being in a new time period and experiencing a culture from 30 years ago — the music, and all of that — but it's always important to us, as in Season 1, that the stories in the topside are speaking to the stories in 10,000 B.C. Josh and Riley are going to get sucked into a larger mystery, and it's going to start to give answers about some of the larger mythological questions about why these sinkholes exist in the first place, and if there's a way to actually stop them. And at the same time, our characters in 10,000 B.C. are going to be drawn into that mystery as well.

TVLINE | The last time you and I spoke, I had done the math on how long it would take Gavin, Izzy and Ella to walk from 10,000 B.C. Seattle to Los Angeles — 22 days, with minimal sleep breaks. Can you tease whatever solution you came up with for that?

I don't want to give it away, but there's going to be an unexpected solution that happens during their journey. It's a big spoiler, but the culmination of their journey will be one, I think, that the audience won't necessarily see coming.

TVLINE | Regarding the tower: If I've noticed anything about early promos and photos, Scott and Aldridge are almost conspicuously absent, so I was kind of worrying that maybe you had "disappeared" that storyline. Or, maybe showing photos or footage from it might reveal more than you want to?

Oh no, they're a big part of the story. We're not going to go into the building in the first episode; that is a mystery and a story that we're going to unfold over time, but we wanted to strike that balance between teasing but also not wanting to frustrate the audience. Sometimes you have shows where it can take seasons to reveal questions you want answers to, and it may not be right to give you that obvious answer right now, but it's about  finding that balance. This season will give them answers, but we're not going to give up everything right away.

TVLINE | I imagine that Eve wants to focus on finding Josh, but is it safe to say that some fresh, new drama gets in her way?

Absolutely. Her goal in the beginning of the season is figuring out, "How do I get Josh back from 1988?," and that's what she sets off to do, but she's going to be waylaid early in the season by several things — one of which is a new dangerous group of people called The Exiles. They are going to be important antagonists for us as we move through the season.

TVLINE | Are The Exiles just "sky people" who turned out to be assholes, or had bad hygiene?

A little bit. [Laughs] No, I'm kidding. They've got their own backstory that will be part a larger mystery that we're going to give answers to. But immediately, there's going to be a mystery about who they are and what they want and where they are from.

TVLINE | Of course, Riley is missing with Josh. Is that going to make Jon Seda's Sam a more active character in Season 2?

Yes, he is driven to try to get her back, but it's also affects him personally. Not having anyone in his family is a new dynamic for him, and having to reconcile that will be one of his dilemmas in the character stories that we're tracking through the season.

TVLINE | In Season 1, we had the birds, a dire wolf, the sloth, a woolly mammoth, a saber-toothed tiger.... Any new critters or beasts to be unveiled?

Yes, we have a new beast in in Episode 1. We've got a new one in Episode 5. We have something in the back half of the season that we're planning out right now. So, yes, we have some new animals, and that's part of show, that you never know what dangers lurk. But we're also going to see beautiful things, as well, animals that are not necessarily dangerous. Something fun that we are going to be doing, as well, has to do with 10,000 B.C. being a beautiful place to be, all the untouched earth, so there will be some amazing things to look at.

TVLINE | I recently asked each of the cast members to give me five words to tease their Season 2 storyline, and one of Natalie Zea's words was "sex." Was she pulling my leg, or was she kind of accurate there?

That love triangle and Eve's love story with Levi is going to come front and center in this season. As we started to develop that story in Season 1, we learned that Eve and Levi had an affair years ago, and now Levi's down [in 10,000 B.C.]. In Season 2, he's still down here, and their relationship is going to develop, so I think some of that juicy stuff is stuff that we're going to continue to explore. Beyond the dangers of the 10,000 B.C. world, we're always looking for the conflicts amongst our characters, and I think the one that is front and center this season is her relationship with Levi, and how that affects her relationship with the rest of her family.

TVLINE | And based on my talk with Chike Okonkwo and Tonantzin Carmelo, it sounds like the Ty/Paara dynamic is going to get very interesting, as it develops and grows deeper....

Yes. In Season 1, Ty and Paara started to develop a relationship and a connection, but it's going to be tested this season. There will be a moment where the survivors of the clearing and the people from the village are going to come into conflict, which is going to put their relationship in peril. They're going to have to see, "Are they strong enough to stay together or not?" All the while, Ty is going to be continuing to deal with his cancer diagnosis and facing questions of his own mortality, not knowing if he is going to live or die.

TVLINE | Speaking of Ty and his handsome pea coat, are you all still patting yourselves on the back for having that truck full of Hollywood wardrobe land near the clearing?

[Laughs] You know, it's definitely useful. We want to change the characters every so often into new wardrobe, so knowing that there is a place where it logically comes from is useful. That way we do have some backing when a character shows up in a nice, new pea coat!

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