Vida season 2 ended the reveal that Lyn and Emma’s father, Victor, is still alive after all this time. While the sisters have been grappling with their mother’s death, they’ll now have to contend with the fact that their father is still out there. HollywoodLife sat down with Melissa Barrera and Mishel Prada at the Television Critics Association winter press tour to talk about how the sisters will react to finding out their father is alive. Melissa said Lyn and Emma will respond “very differently. Let’s not forget that the father is alive but the only person that knows that is Eddy. So they still have to find out, and you’ll see how they each react and what they do about it. He doesn’t know that they know. Eventually, when they find out it’ll be chaotic.”
Secrets have been rampant over the course of the past 2 seasons, and that’s not going to change in season 3. “There’s going to be more secrets of Vidalia’s revealed that just keep rocking the boat,” Melissa continued. “As hard as the sisters are trying to get along and be a family, all these outside factors keep trying to destabilize them. We’re going to see all of that in season 3.”
Vidalia may have died in the very first episode, but she has still had an incredible crucial influence on Lyn, Emma, and Eddy. “We learn a lot about Vidalia’s backstory,” Mishel told HollywoodLife. “She’s obviously a very present character. Like the wind, you see the effects of her. You don’t see her very often, but you really start understanding her this season. With Emma, I think it’s less about forgiveness but more of acceptance. You understand why somebody is the way that they are and why they did the things that they did. The truth of it is, all of us are doing the best that we can with the hand that we’re given. We’re all these walking traumas in a way. We look at our parents and look at the people that are raising us, and we put them on this pedestal. When they fail us, we’re like, ‘How dare you?’ But you start realizing the ways that people have failed them. I think with this season, we really start kind of understanding that a little more.”
Both Lyn and Emma will go through illuminating journeys this season. They’ll both be dealing with problems in both of their relationships. Emma will be trying to open up her heart to Nico. “We see her finding this space of vulnerability because to love is to be vulnerable, right? You show somebody the best parts of you but also the yuckiest parts of you,” Mishel said. “Nico has proven herself as somebody that is willing to accept this. But we know Emma and that doesn’t come easy. I think we’re going to see a little bit more of who Nico is because Nico is presented as this knight in shining armor, and nobody can ever live up to that. We start seeing that and how quickly even in her state of maybe being more accepting, still having a hard time letting somebody in.”
As for Lyn, she’s still with Rudy but they’ll experience “cracks” in their relationship. “I think Lyn understands that, in theory, her relationship with Rudy works and there’s nothing wrong with it,” Melissa noted. “It started in a good way. He really loves her, and she is good for him. But we get to see another side of Rudy. The cool thing about this season is I think that we get to explore class within the Latinx community a little bit because Rudy is from a very wealthy family. We get to see what that does to Lyn when her usual charms, the way that she seduces people, and goes into people’s lives isn’t really working as well as she thought and how that puts cracks in her relationship. Johnny’s also there, and now there’s a baby. He’s in the neighborhood, and now they’re both having to coexist and that’s hard.” Vida will air Sundays at 9 p.m. on STARZ.