Sheriff Country Showrunner on Secret Mom Twist, Cast Changes

Sheriff Country came to an epic end with a secret mom twist — but what comes next in season 2?

During the season 1 finale on Friday, May 22, Mickey (Morena Baccarin) took down Alec (Wes Chatham) after discovering her boyfriend and DEA agent was secretly working for Miranda (Kelli O’Hara). She was then tasked by the Deputy Director of the DEA — Eva (Rachel Ticotin) — to work with her dad, Wes (W. Earl Brown), despite their estrangement.

Wes was brought in to discuss his role as a confidential informant but that went off the rails when he recognized Eva as Mickey’s mother — who was supposed to be dead.

“We’re told in the pilot of season 1 that Mickey’s mother is dead and it’s quite clear she’s dead. She’s not part of the picture. One of the writers pitched it to me relatively early in season 1 [that she was secretly alive], and I dismissed it,” showrunner Matt Lopez exclusively told Us Weekly. “Over the course of the season, more and more writers started to get on board. I was a fairly late convert because I don’t want to just turn over a card to turn over a card. If it gives us really good story and reveals something about the characters we care about and it’s grounded in real human emotion then I’m interested.”

Lopez is excited to unpack that in season 2.

“It resets our family dynamic that’s at the heart of this show,” he teased. “And it addresses all the interesting character wrinkles that it gave us to play. We’ll see in the early episodes, Wes thinks he and Mickey are on the same page that they were both betrayed by this woman. Mickey isn’t as on board and in some ways you can make the case that Wes’ betrayal was worse. We’ll unpack all of this.”

He continued: “She hasn’t been part of the picture since Mickey was like 5 or 6 years old and who owes Mickey a bigger debt of gratitude? Wes believed she was dead and we will unspool that whole story of what went into that decision to essentially stage her death. It’s really fun and it’s got a lot of delicious turns to it.”

Looking ahead at the show’s future, Lopez said the return will “subvert expectations,” adding, “There is a time jump but then we will fill in like what happened in the scene that we didn’t see. The emotional aftershocks are going to last much more than an episode and we’ve set up this incredible dynamic where Mickey’s essentially barely speaking to her father and now their handler is the woman who Mickey has thought was dead for the last 30 years. It’s got a great sort of engine out the gate.”

There will be some cast additions as Skye (Amanda Arcuri) and Hank (Ian Quinlan) get more screen time. When asked by Us about Baccarin’s husband, Ben McKenzie, pitching himself for a role on Sheriff Country, Lopez mentioned he “recently had lunch” with the actor.

“I had lunch with him on the weekend and I came in on Monday and was like, ‘Let’s start thinking of something for Ben.’ He may pass and I don’t know if we can afford Ben but that would be great,” he teased.

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As for Mickey’s romance with Boone (Matt Lauria)? The actor and Lopez broke down what to expect in a separate interview with Us. Lopez is also working on a pilot for a medical drama set in the Fire Country and Sheriff Country universe.

“I would love to have that headache to figure out how to do a crossover of all three shows. There’s a natural sort of nexus between a hospital, a fire station and a police station. What excites us and the studio and network about a medical show set in this town is the same way that say Mickey does law enforcement differently, how is healing patients different?” he told Us. “How is practicing medicine with our doctors and nurses different in a small town like Edgewater?”

Sheriff Country is currently streaming on Paramount+.