NEED TO KNOW
Warning: This post contains spoilers for season 2 of My Life with the Walter Boys.
My Life with the Walter Boys season 2 might be light on romantic moments for Jackie and Cole, but that doesn’t diminish the love story that’s brewing between them, or so says star Noah LaLonde.
Fans were left on a major cliffhanger for a year and a half after a secret kiss with Cole (LaLonde) sent Jackie (Nikki Rodriguez), who was dating his brother Alex (Ashby Gentry), running from Silver Falls to New York City for a summer of escapism.
In season 2, Jackie comes back and faces the mess she left behind, but while that meant a reconciliation with Alex — the exes start hooking up in secret, as Jackie has yet to admit that she kissed Cole at the start of the summer — it left Jackie-Cole fans wanting more.
In LaLonde’s eyes, there’s still a lot of romance happening between Jackie and Cole this season, even if it’s not as overt as Alex’s moments are.
“I think what I really like about the season is that, although they don’t have as many overtly romantic moments, I think you see the deep love shine through in the scenes where they’re there for each other,” LaLonde, 27, tells PEOPLE.
Courtesy of Netflix
How Jackie and Cole show up for each other “is really building on their relationship, the deep relationship that they’ve built,” he says.
“If you’re looking for another episode 10 barn kiss scene, you may be a little bit worried,” the actor admits. “But if you’re looking for a few longing gazes, and a few unspoken understandings, and real assessments of who these people are, I think they’re doing that ad nauseam this season.”
LaLonde adds, “I think the discipline that Cole shows in not jumping the gun and trying to get her is his way of, even subconsciously, trying to grow into the person that she needs [him to be].”
Still, he was surprised by the route that Jackie and Cole took in season 2, given how season 1 ended.
“I was definitely surprised doing the first few episodes, and thinking to myself, ‘Okay. Where are we together here?'” he admits.
David Brown/Netflix
He is well aware of how much fans want to see Cole and Jackie be together. He shares, “I think I saw a [social media] comment this morning that said, ‘If they’re not endgame or if they don’t end up together in this next season, I’m going to break my television.'”
From his perspective, he says of the characters’ arc this time around: “The thing that I think is really interesting about their relationship this year is, the same distance that Jackie creates with Cole, the ability to have that discipline is, I think, of the same vein of why Cole feels so attracted to her.”
“Because she has the discipline and the perseverance to stay on the path she wants to be on — no matter how many obstacles, good, bad, intense — they are, get in her way,” he explains.
“I think people outside of the show, even her character and other people in the show, they make this reference to her running away from her problems. But I think she’s just compartmentalizing and prioritizing,” LaLonde continues.
“Because she’s lost so much, things rise at the top of that priority list really fast when you lose your family.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Season 2 of My Life with the Walter Boys is now streaming on Netflix.
