The return of Happy’s Place means facing hard truths and working on old pain. Because as much as this is a work place comedy, there’s real hurt that happens between these characters. Front and center for this second half of Season 2 is the aftermath of Emmett’s secret coming to light and everything that happened after.
For those who need a refresher, long before the show even started, Emmett knew about Isabella. For years, in fact. Things started falling apart when this secret was revealed in the Season 2 premiere of Happy’s Place. But Bobbie and Isabella themselves didn’t find out about this secret Episode 9 of Season 2.
What followed was Isabella putting her pain aside to tell Bobbie about Emmett’s secret. That led to those two breaking up and then choosing to be friends in “No.” But we have one thing that hasn’t been resolved yet: Isabella. Because when Bobbie asked her if she was ok in “Silence Was Golden” she replied in the affirmation. The way that Isabella leaned up against the lockers, face dejected, says that she isn’t as ok as she wants Bobbie to think.
Fangirlish spoke with Belissa Escobedo, who plays Isabella, about the aftermath of Emmett’s secret being revealed. And that feeling we had, about there being something unspoken when Isabella’s leaned back into those lockers in “Silence Was Golden,” that was spot on.
Escobedo gave us an insight of what she wishes she could tell Isabella. But she also added what she thought was going through her character’s head in “Silence Was Golden. “There’s so much that I wish Isabella, you know, I wish Isabella could have said in those moments and that I’m sure she wanted to say. But it’s really, I think, she was obviously concerned for her sister, you know, the heartbreak that her sister was going through.”
As for the Emmett of it all, her character has gotten closer with Emmett. And they might not shout it from the rooftops, but in the list of men that are in her life, he’s the closest to a father figure. Escobedo said about the aftermath of the secret coming out, “I think in that moment, she just realized that the father figure that she had just gained also lied to her, and also knew about her and didn’t want her. So I think it was really a moment where she took it very personally.”
Coming back from the hiatus into “No,” Isabella hasn’t outwardly shown how this secret coming out has affected her. But we as the viewer know it has after watching her fight so hard to be part of this family at Happy’s. And Escobedo agrees. When talking about Isabella’s response afterward, she said, “[Isabella] was trying to hide it with the fact that like, I’m gonna be here for Bobbie. I’m just gonna focus on that right now.”
And if Escobedo herself had a moment to talk to Isabella after the revelation, she knows what she would say. “I would tell her that her feelings matter too. Like what she’s feeling is valid. And that she doesn’t have to take care of everybody else first. I’d be like when you’re in the plane, they tell you put your oxygen mask on first. But that’s me. And I am very different from Isabella. But you know, she’s just such a loving person. Like truly just wants everyone around her to be good. And then she can feel good.”
With the teaser for Happy’s Place Season 2 Episode 11 being Bobbie trying to mend things between Isabella and Emmett, the feelings that she’s been suppressing will certainly come out.
Happy’s Place returns February 27th on NBC.
