Gil’s life was left in serious jeopardy after he was stabbed by Endicott while trying to save Jessica in the season 1 finale of Prodigal Son. Jessica managed to get him to the hospital just in time, but it was a close call. When season 2 premieres Jan. 12 on FOX, Gil will still be recovering from the attack that nearly killed him.
“He’s definitely in rehab,” Lou Diamond Phillips told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY. “And it’s interesting. I think he’s a character that doesn’t like not being full-strength. He doesn’t like not being the guy in charge. I think we see a little of that frustration and also how he’s not sure about how he’s going to continue from that point on. What’s really wonderful is that Aurora’s character, Dani, is able to sort of step up, and you see her in a very nurturing way, but also able to flip the script a little bit and point out to Gil that maybe his heart got in the way of his head a little bit.”
That’s an understatement. Gil’s growing feelings for Jessica put him right in the line of fire, and Gil will have to reckon with that in season 2. “His feelings for Jessica may have clouded his usually pristine, procedural mind,” Lou said. “I think he has to deal with that. A lot of people last year, which was just hilarious to me, were totally shipping Gil with Jessica. I think, especially in season 1, the writers didn’t want to just tie it up with a nice little bow. They messed it up a little bit, so that tension will continue, and we’ll see how that plays out with the two of them.”
When it comes to Gil and Jessica’s relationship, there’s a lot of baggage. From the Malcolm aspect to Martin, Gil and Jessica certainly have their obstacles. Lou weighed in about whether or not he can see these two together in the future.
“Honestly, I could see it both ways,” Lou revealed. “The one thing that I can say about our writers, and certainly about the scripts we’ve got this season, they never take the easy road. Even if you think you know where they’re going, they’ll take a detour or they’ll throw some roadblocks in your way. That’s what keeps it interesting. I think those feelings are there. They can’t deny them now, but there are complications. Would they be a good thing or a bad thing for everybody? Obviously, they would create an even more complicated situation with Malcolm, who really doesn’t need any more baggage, to be honest. They’d have to deal with that, and then certainly Ainsley would have to deal with it. It would definitely not go on answered from Martin, The Surgeon. We danced around those possibilities a little bit this season without revealing too much, but also without putting too much of an exclamation point on it.”
Gil was busy fighting for his life to witness Ainsley killing Endicott right in front of Malcolm, proving she is her father’s daughter. HollywoodLife asked whether or not Gil will start to probe for answers regarding Endicott’s death. “It’s a dangling thread,” Lou told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY. “We’re not even halfway through and that is still in the outbox. It’s still something that has not been dealt with entirely. It is certainly a cloud over Malcolm and Ainsley, but we have not met it head-on. So much else happens in addition to the crimes of the week, so that’s going to be a season-long arc, I believe. We’ll certainly figure out where it’s going and how it plays out.”
Lou will also be directing an episode of Prodigal Son season 2. “My crime is just deliciously dark and twisted. It has to do with the world of beauty and plastic surgery,” Lou teased. Lou is no stranger to directing, having helmed both films and episodes of television over the years. “It’s just using a different set of crayons man. It allows me to work more hand in hand with this incredible crew,” Lou said.
Lou recently released the novel, The Tinderbox: Soldier of Indira, an epic science fantasy tale. The inspiration for the book started when he began dating his wife, Yvonne. “I’ve written ever since high school. Yvonne is an amazing artist, has been her entire life. When we were first dating, I got to look like I look at her portfolio. She had done these amazing frames for potentially a graphic novel that had been inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen short story, The Tinder Box, but she had done it in the manga style. It was just so evocative to me of post-apocalyptic, fairytale fantasy that I said, well, we should make a movie of this. We set about writing the screenplay, and then when we finished the screenplay, we realized this is so expensive. We’ll never get the money for it. So we decided to do the book next. I had already set it in space because that was going to be the most commercial way to go with a story as a film. And then all of a sudden, I was doing doing a science fiction fantasy as a novel. It was a 10-year process. My day job kept getting in the way. It finally sold last fall and it’s published. I have to say, the reception has been amazing. The reviews were wonderful. The reception has been so warm that we’re working on the sequel already.”