Sullivan’s Crossing premiered earlier this month on The CW, and the Canadian import has been delivering vintage small-town drama since.
Sullivan’s Crossing Season 1 Episode 2, which aired this week, ended with quite the shocker in the form of Andrew (Allan Hawco) arriving in town.
Before that, Cal (Chad Michael Murray) walked Maggie (Morgan Kohan) home after drinks at the bar.
The scene found Andrew threatened by Cal walking his girlfriend home, so naturally, my first question to series creator Roma Roth was: How threatened should Andrew be?
“Well, [Cal] is played by Chad Michael Murray,” Roth shared with a laugh, adding, “So I think very, but I also think Andrew has his own baggage he’s carrying around from a divorce.”
Roth says that Andrew was feeling threatened before he even arrived in town because he was struggling with the fact that his girlfriend fled Boston.
“There’s also the geography and the distance regarding feeling that somebody is slipping away from you.
Then also, maybe in the back of his mind, he’s worried that the longer she stays home, the more she’ll forget what she wants in the city, including him.”
I noted to Roma that it seemed like Maggie was taken aback on Sullivan’s Crossing Season 1 Episode 1 when Andrew said about his divorce being finalized and that they could move in together.
Roma believes they both had their respective careers, so they were only really going to see each other on weekends.
“They’re both surgeons. On the one hand, she thinks he’s a great fit for her because he gives her the space she needs to be a neurosurgeon,” Roma said.
“If you’re a female nurse in this world, you probably have to give up on a lot, so I think she’s really focused on her career at that point.
So having somebody talk about his divorce being finalized, and maybe it’s only been two years, perhaps she feels things are moving a little bit fast for her,” Roth added before saying that Maggie might also be questioning whether he’s the one for her.
Roth says that Maggie is juggling a lot when Andrew tells her about the divorce being finalized, but she’s juggling even more in the aftermath because of her arrest and return to Sullivan’s Crossing.
One of the show’s biggest draws has been the fraught relationship between Sully (Scott Patterson) and his daughter, Maggie.
They’ve been out of each other’s lives for so long, and there seems to be resentment for the past from both sides, something that’s making it difficult for them to communicate in the present.
Roma says that she and her creative team wanted to unpeel the onion that is their relationship throughout the season.
“Maggie wasn’t in his life, and we don’t really understand why, and there’s a whole host of reasons, in addition to her mother taking her away,” Roth shares.
“Those are all things that will be revealed during season one. The idea is to give the audience a bit every episode to show what created this dynamic between these two characters.”
We’ve witnessed Maggie‘s plight to prove to herself and others that she didn’t make a mistake that led to one of her patients dying.
In doing so, she calls the patient’s mother, only to be greeted by the deceased on the voicemail.
“She’s in denial and feels that she’s done everything she could have done,” Roma says of this storyline.
“Many doctors don’t take culpability, and she has to. That’s the first layer of realizing how she impacted the family.
It’s important that she understands that because it’s parallel with her understanding of what’s also going on with her father.
Even though they’re different, it’s about understanding how your actions have consequences.”
Roma also touched upon Cal circling off a date in the calendar.
Roth couldn’t give too much away about how that will inform the rest of Cal’s journey this season.
“You will find out by the end of the season what that means. I don’t want to give it away because it’s there to keep people guessing, but suffice it to say Cal has his own baggage that he’s dealing with and struggling with, and it connects back to that date.”
Roth also worked on Virgin River, so I asked about bringing Lauren Hammersley over to play Connie, a character who is a complete 180 from Charmaine.
“The kismet is that Lauren has moved to Nova Scotia. On the one hand, I thought it would be really fun to have some actors we had recognized,” Roth said, noting that fellow Virgin River alum Linda Boyd is playing Phoebe.
“It’s nice to have that. We don’t want to bring every single actor from Virgin River. However, Lauren’s also from where we’re filming now.”
I observed that Connie is a complete departure from Charmaine.
“I think it’s important because many people despise Charmaine,” Roth said.
“It’s nice to be able to give her a role where people aren’t rooting against her.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Sullivan’s Crossing airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.
Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on X.