Where ‘Rivals’ Left Its Couples & What’s Next in Season 2 Part 2
To say the relationships of Rivals are messy (and toxic at times) is an understatement.
It seems like everyone’s having an affair (or wants to be) on the Hulu series based on Jilly Cooper‘s book of the same name. Furthermore, consequences can be deadly, as the midseason finale revealed. After Monica (Claire Rushbrook) learned of her husband Tony’s (David Tennant) affair with Maud (Victoria Smurfit), the wife of his former presenter Declan (Aidan Turner), she reacted by telling him she was going to divorce him, then insisting on driving in a hurricane — which ultimately led to her death. Meanwhile, Rupert (Alex Hassell) and Taggie (Bella Maclean) continue to dance around one another, but now his girlfriend, Cameron (Nafessa Williams), has become privy to their feelings. The halfway point of Season 2 also ended with good news for fans of Freddie (Danny Dyer) and Lizzie (Katherine Parkinson), whose romance has us excusing infidelity.
With Rivals set to return in November — the wait is going to be painful — we’re taking a look at where the first half of Season 2 left all the couples.
Tony and Monica
As the midseason finale detailed, Tony cheating on Monica wasn’t new. But he took it a step too far with his dalliance with Maud, she explained, because he used her friend to hurt Declan. She decided she wasn’t going to just sit back like she had been and rather planned to divorce him and make sure people knew why if they asked. But before she could do any of that, she died, the result of a tree falling on her car.
Tony and Maud
Season 2 brought Tony and Maud’s affair to the screen, something that is done as a reveal in the book. Once Tony called Maud to warn her Monica knew and was on her way over, Maud worried about her husband finding out. But while Monica’s death keeps it quiet for now, Declan and Maud’s daughter Caitlin (Catriona Chandler) and Tony and Monica’s son Archie (Louis Landau) both know about it. But it sounds like there’s more to come.
“Moving past Episode 6 and going forward, Tony’s going to think, ‘That affair ended with my wife’s death, so maybe it must continue.’ Otherwise, it was all for nothing,” executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins told our sister site TV Insider.
Maud and Declan
These two just can’t let each other go. They fight, they separate, they get back together, and the cycle continues. Yes, it’s clear they’re passionate about each other, and as the premiere shower scene showed, sex is not an issue. They’re back together… for now. It seems like just a matter of time before Maud and Tony’s affair is revealed, and when that happens, you know it will blow up her and Declan’s marriage.
“How does Maud feel about [the affair with Tony] as she gets closer to Declan? And if Declan ever finds out, there will be fireworks,” Treadwell-Collins teased.
Declan and Cameron
Though it seemed like Declan and Cameron slept together in Ireland, the midseason finale revealed, via a conversation that he had with Maud, that they didn’t.
“We didn’t want Cameron to just sleep with anyone. And because Declan’s always going to sort of love Maud, we didn’t want Cameron to be his second choice in that situation,” Treadwell-Collins explained. “We wanted Declan to be maybe the one man who has some sexual morality.”
But he hasn’t ruled out it happening going forward. After all, Cameron’s realized how Rupert feels about Taggie and who knows what could happen once Declan finds out about Maud and Tony. “I love the show Moonlighting and we talked a lot about Cameron and Declan’s sparky relationship and I’d like to keep that going,” the EP added.
Cameron and Rupert
Cameron and Rupert may still be together at the moment, but it does seem like just a matter of when, not if, she ends their relationship, now that she knows how he feels about Taggie.
After seeing the way Rupert looked at Taggie and finding the note the younger woman had sent him in his drawer, Cameron knew, “this is over and I need to figure myself and what my situation after this is going to look like,” Williams told TV Insider.
Added Treadwell-Collins, “She realizes she needs to extricate herself from this situation. Our Cameron is A-list and ballsy and tough and she’s been weakened by Rupert and she realizes that. So as we move forward from here, I think it’s very exciting to see the way Cameron handles it: Is she going to stick around and watch Rupert’s mooning over Taggie or is she going to get out of the situation?”
Rupert and Taggie
Their romance was halted before it even could begin. The two shared a kiss in the Season 1 finale, but then Cameron turned to Rupert for help after she hit Tony in the head with an award. But no one can deny the connection between Rupert and Taggie, and that’s likely to continue in the second half of Season 2. As glimpsed in the trailer, Treadwell-Collins told Swooon that “There’s a famous Hunt Ball moment of jealous Rupert and a wine glass.” Perhaps what’s developing between Taggie and Bas will lead to something major for this pairing?
Taggie and Bas
Speaking of, there’s certainly something developing between Taggie and Bas, and Treadwell-Collins has teased that there’s more to come there.
“Taggie has been slowly seeing this other side to Bas, and as the show goes on, she’s going to fall for him and the idea of him even more as Rupert gets more distant, and we still want the audience to be screaming at the screen that Rupert’s the one she should be with,” he said. “And also, Bas isn’t going to show Taggie every side of him. He’s a love rat. He can be a kind-hearted love rat, but he’s a love rat, and what that does is it adds so many different layers to the relationship, and it makes it all the more difficult.”
Freddie and Lizzie
Off her last conversation with Monica about their own happiness, Lizzie returned to Freddie, and the two seem determined to make their romance work … despite their marriages to James (Oliver Chris) and Valerie (Lisa McGrillis). But as much as we’d love for there to be joy for this pairing, which makes us root for infidelity, it unfortunately feels like it can’t be that easy — especially with Tony targeting those on Venturer’s side, which includes Freddie.
Lizzie and James
James does not deserve Lizzie, and that’s clear to pretty much everyone (including himself). But they are still married, and so far, we’ve gotten nothing to suggest that will change anytime soon.
Freddie and Valerie
There’s nothing bad about Valerie; she’s just stuck in the middle of Freddie and Lizzie. But it does feel like it would take something monumental for Freddie to divorce Valerie or like he would wait for her to take that step, so for now, it feels like they’ll remain married.
Charles and Gerald
We’ve loved this relationship since Season 1, and yes, Gerald (Hubert Burton) is getting married to Muffy (Eliot Salt), but that hasn’t stopped us from getting sweet (and spicy) moments between him and Charles (Gary Lamont) in the first half of the sophomore run. Unfortunately, it’s the ’80s, and that has to be taken into account for whatever their future holds: They can’t be out, Gerald’s career aspirations led to that marriage, and chances are he’s going to go through with it.
Archie and Caitlin
The midseason finale started with some joy for the teens; they had sex for the first time. But then she found the photos of Maud and Tony, and now Monica has died driving her home. Declan wasn’t happy upon hearing about their relationship, and something tells us that Tony’s not going to be happy about his son’s romance especially after where the finale left things. It does feel like there will have to be some sneaking around for these two going forward.
