Exclusive Interview
‘Maxton Hall’ Writer Teases Elaine’s Attempts to ‘Sabotage’ James & Ruby in Season 2
Maxton Hall – The World Between Us‘ Season 2 trailer confirmed our suspicion: We’re going to have to watch James (Damian Hardung) cheat on Ruby (Harriet Herbig-Matten).
We had a feeling it was coming after reading Mona Kasten’s Save Me, which the show is based on, but we were holding out hope that the painful scene wasn’t coming. (After all, it didn’t make the cut in Season 1, despite occurring in the first book.) The trailer hinted that Elaine’s (Eli Riccardi) pursuit of James won’t stop with that kiss in the pool, either. “Let the games begin,” she says ominously later on in footage.
“As we have known since the first season, Elaine Ellington is deeply in love with James,” Maxton Hall‘s coproducer and head writer Ceylan Yildirim told Swooon. “When she senses how much James cares for Ruby, she begins to sabotage their relationship.”
Of course, it starts with that kiss at the pool party. In the book, James is devastated over his mother’s death, and he goes on a major bender to drown out his feelings. Elaine, who’s also in attendance, picks up on it. “At the party, she notices James’ emotional state and uses the tragic situation to make another attempt to get closer to him,” Yildirim explained.
Prime Video
We were also curious about the decision to move the scene to Season 2, which the producer confirmed picks up exactly where Season 1 left off. At the end of Season 1, James goes to Ruby’s house seeking comfort, having just found out about his mom. However, when he sees a happy Ruby interacting with her family through the window, he leaves without a word to spare her from his pain. (So, when Ruby catches him cheating, she has no idea of the circumstances.)
“For us, this moment [of James walking away] was the strongest beat in the narrative, leaving no sense of destruction for the lovers, but rather raising questions about how they will face this stroke of fate,” Yildirim explained. “In the spirit of love and hope, we wanted to leave it at that.”
Instead, James’ emotional collapse at the end of the first novel will be a main theme of Season 2. “The experience of loss confronts the characters with substantial questions about life and death, about the meaning of love and other interpersonal relationships, and about their own place in life,” the producer said.
We see in the trailer that James is going to try to win Ruby back after his complicated betrayal, but we’ll have to wait another month to see if he’s successful. Either way, fans can expect to see even more obstacles put in the couple’s path.
While in the first season we saw enemies become lovers, the second season is about finding out whether a love like this can ever exist in such different worlds,” Yildirim told TV Insider. “We learn a lot about James’ family dynamics and his toxic influences, and we have to ask ourselves whether this system can even allow for the kind of authentic, pure love that James and Ruby feel for each other.”
Maxton Hall – The World Between Us, Season 2 Premiere, November 7, Prime Video
