Exclusive Interview

‘Off Campus’: Inside Dean & Allie’s Romance and Their Season 1 Ending (VIDEO)

Rollercoaster is indeed an appropriate descriptor for Dean (Stephen Kalyn) and Allie’s (Mika Abdalla) situationship in Off Campus Season 1. The Prime Video adaptation of Elle Kennedy’s college hockey romance books blends Garrett (Belmont Cameli) and Hannah’s (Ella Bright) The Deal storyline with Dean and Allie’s The Score, giving the latter pairing plenty of drama to sift through. (Warning: Spoilers for Off Campus Season 1 ahead!)

Stephen Kalyn and Mika Abdalla detailed their characters’ complicated feelings for each other with Swooon. The tension between Dean and Allie ignites the moment they dance together at Episode 2’s costume party. They cross paths again during karaoke night at Malone’s and at the hockey boys’ house afterward, but it’s after Allie’s Drunk Shakespeare performance in Episode 4 — and breakup from her longtime boyfriend — that she finally reciprocates Dean’s advances.

Dean is drawn to Allie from their first dance, and after about a month of secretly hooking up, he decides to abandon his “Six Flags” approach to women. “I think it’s [that] they butt heads,” Kalyn said regarding how Allie inspires that change in Dean wanting a relationship. “And I think Dean is very used to kind of getting what he wants, and Allie kind of puts him in his place. And I think that excites him, I would say, her not falling in line like some of the other women that he’s been with in the past.”

By the end of Season 1, Allie and Dean are still keeping their hookups secret, with Allie especially hesitant to keep seeing Dean even casually. She decides to pump the brakes on their situationship by giving them each an assignment to sleep with other people. Dean isn’t able to do it, sparking that realization that he has deeper feelings for Allie and wants something more.

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But Kalyn wouldn’t say his character is in love with Allie quite yet. “With Dean in particular, he’s very impulsive. So if you feel something, he’s doing it right in that moment, so I don’t think he knows exactly. He hasn’t really processed it. He felt some sort of spark between the two of them, and he liked it, so he chased it. I wouldn’t say he necessarily knows if he’s in love with her, but there is obviously a lot more to come in regards to that as we move forward.”

Abdalla thinks that Allie is in a similar boat. “She might be [in love with Dean],” she said. “She just doesn’t know it. She’s just really in her head, I think.”

Could part of the reason Allie tells Dean to sleep with other people be that she’s trying to ignore her feelings for him? “Totally, and I think she’s also trying to be smart,” Abdalla explained.  “She just got out of a super long relationship, and she sees herself kind of being Miss Boyfriend again. And, yeah, I don’t think that’s what she wants, but I think it’s what she knows she’s supposed to be doing.”

Dean and Allie’s feelings for each other are complicated enough, but the matter of Hunter Davenport (Charlie Evans) takes things to a whole new level. Just when Dean admits he wants more with Allie, he finds out that she completed their one-night stand assignment with Hunter. She didn’t know that Dean and Hunter have beef over something that happened with Dean’s sister.

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“I thought it was great,” Abadalla said of the twist ending. “I think it’s really fun to kind of give the fans of the book something that they won’t expect to see. And I think it really serves Allie and Dean’s relationship in a great way. It kind of slows them down a little bit and introduces a little more drama.”

When it comes to Allie in Season 2, Abdalla noted, “I just want Allie to figure it out. I just want Allie to figure out what she wants, and I want her to be comfortable with herself and happy with herself.” Watch the full video at the top of the page!

Off Campus, Season 1, Streaming Now, Prime Video

Off Campus, Season 2, TBA Prime Video