What To Know
- R.J. Decker Season 1 ends with Emi’s father’s death.
- Jaina Lee Ortiz reacts to that and shares her hopes for Emi and R.J. in Season 2.
“They’re too happy right now,” Jaina Lee Ortiz says of her and Scott Speedman‘s characters at the end of R.J. Decker Season 1.
That is true. R.J. and Emi think they’ve won this fight against her corrupt politician of a father, Victor (David Zayas), and they’ve hooked up again but left talk of what that exactly means for another day. But while they celebrate that and the fact that R.J. will not be going back to prison (something Victor had tried to orchestrate), Emi’s father is revealed to be dead in his pool. Who killed him is the mystery going into Season 2.
“I really hope he’s not dead,” Ortiz admits to TV Insider. “I want him to jump out of the water and gasp for air because it’s not fair. I love David Zayas.”
Unfortunately, he is dead — both Ortiz and Speedman’s scenes with Zayas were great in Season 1 — and Emi’s relationship with him was so complicated.
“I feel like it’s going to be very juicy,” Ortiz says.
It should also affect Emi and R.J.’s future. After all, “maybe he had something to do with it, I don’t know,” Ortiz half-jokes. He will, at least, have to be a suspect, as Speedman told us after the finale.
“I love Scott. He’s amazing,” she continues. “I feel like Emi and R.J. will always have this cat-and-mouse game, but something needs to come in between them and ruffle it up a little bit. I don’t know. They’re too happy right now — even though they don’t know what’s going on. They don’t know what they are, but maybe they need to be tested a little more.” She’s sure to get her wish with the fallout of Victor’s death.
Looking ahead to Season 2, Ortiz is hoping for “more wacky Florida cases and the relationships. I want to work with the rest of the cast more and discover what that’s all about. I feel like everyone has secrets and everything’s all a mystery. I want to uncover that with each character.”
What are you hoping to see in Season 2? Let us know in the comments section below.
R.J. Decker, Season 2, Fall 2026, Tuesdays, 10/9c, ABC