Exclusive Interview

‘Rivals’: Alex Hassell Reveals Rupert’s Unsaid Words to Taggie in Season 2 Car Scene (VIDEO)

Just as Rupert (Alex Hassell) and Taggie (Bella Maclean) finally confronted their feelings for each other, their path to happiness was quickly obliterated. Rivals Season 2, which dropped the first three episodes on May 15, picked up where Season 1 left off, only to jump ahead several weeks. (Warning: Spoilers for the first three episodes of Rivals Season 2.) 

In the first episode of Season 2, Rupert came face-to-face with a bloody Cameron (Nafessa Williams) just as he walked away from Taggie at The Priory. Rupert then whisked Cameron off to an undisclosed coastal location to protect her from Tony (David Tennant), and they certainly didn’t hold back on the sexual escapades during their lengthy vacation. Meanwhile, Taggie was left confused and heartbroken over Rupert’s disappearance.

Rupert and Taggie finally got the chance to talk in the same place where they shared their first kiss. Rupert attempted to explain the situation with Cameron and stressed he was trying to behave honorably. As their conversation got heated over him sleeping with Cameron, Rupert told Taggie that he shouldn’t have kissed her. Taggie replied, “It’s true, what everyone says about you. You aren’t capable of love.”

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Bella Maclean told Swooon that Taggie immediately regretted what she said to Rupert during their emotional private moment in the kitchen. “I think she really deeply believes he’s capable of love, and I think that’s like the whole thing she tries to encourage in Rupert and to give him the confidence that he is capable of a healthy, loving relationship,” Maclean said. “I think that she knows that in her soul. I think she’s so hurt by what happened and so confused… I think when it came [out], or the way I wanted to play it, it was like it being agony coming out of her mouth and not something she actually wanted to say. And actually, I think there was a lot of regret in saying that to him.”

Hassell stressed that hurting Taggie is “the worst thing for him” and it’s the “last thing he wants to do.” He added, “That’s what he’s so afraid of, that he’s going to hurt this person that he cares about so much and who so deserves to be loved and cherished that I think he’s trying to really cut off his emotion. Being in contact with his love for her to protect her is, I think, what he’s trying to do. He also says something like, ‘I was trying to do the right thing, you know.’ He’s trying to learn to be more moral because of her example, and that sort of is painfully taking him further away from her.”

In the following episode, Taggie tried to avoid Rupert, but their lives continued to orbit around each other. After a wonderful day with his children, Tabitha and Marcus, Rupert drove Taggie home. They discussed Helen (Hayley Atwell) and her older husband, Malise (Rupert Everett), and Rupert confessed that he’s never made any woman happy.

Taggie quickly chimed in to say that she’d help with the children any time he wanted. She just didn’t want to step on Cameron’s toes. “Oh, God, I wish Cameron could handle the kids as well as you do.”

After telling Taggie that she will “make an incredible mother one day,” Rupert looked over at Taggie and said, “I wish…” He stopped himself before he finished his thought. The writers didn’t finish the sentence in the script, but Hassell revealed what he believes Rupert was going to say.

“I think it’s ‘I wish that we could do this,’ or ‘I wish in the first place that’s what had happened or something,’ or ‘I wish I could take all the barriers away or whatever,'” he said.

Her day out with Rupert and the kids gave Taggie a morsel of hope that he wouldn’t continue to push her away. But that’s exactly what he did anyway. Helen was a constant reminder to Rupert of the man he once was, and he couldn’t take the risk of hurting Taggie like he had hurt Helen. “I won’t break you, too,” he told Taggie.

Now that Rupert has seemingly severed any possibility of a romantic connection to Taggie (for now), will she look for love elsewhere? “I think she really wants to try and move on,” she began before clarifying, “Do you know, I don’t actually think she does want to move on. I really don’t think she does. I think she wants to distract herself. I think she probably goes, ‘I probably should do this. I should probably attempt to try and have a go at other romantic avenues.'”

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The universe couldn’t keep Rupert and Taggie away from each other for long. While secretly cooking for Sarah Stratton’s dinner party, Taggie needed a hero to help save the meal, and Rupert was more than willing to swoop in. He showed up with the main course just in the nick of time. Rupert and Taggie found themselves in close quarters as they moved in and out of the kitchen pantry to avoid being seen.

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This latest kitchen scene was just one of many pivotal moments in Rupert and Taggie’s relationship that involve the kitchen. “I think that’s where you feel the most safe and at home, isn’t it?” Maclean told Swooon about what the kitchen represents for Rupert and Taggie.

Hassell called the kitchen “Taggie’s space,” and it’s “so beautifully domestic, actually, that ultimately what they want, probably… Yes, there’s all this big, huge houses and cars and noise and parties, but actually, they just would love to just be tucked up in the kitchen together, chatting.”

The actor then mentioned a moment in Episode 3’s kitchen scene that “happened naturally.” Maclean added, “You know what I thought about at one point the other day. Oh, God. It’s so sweet because it felt, and I hope you won’t mind me saying this, it felt Rupert and Taggie, and it also felt Alex and Bella.”

Rivals, Season 2, Episodes 1-3, Streaming Now, Hulu and Disney+