‘Hightown’ Stars James Badge Dale & Riley Voekel Tease a ‘Reckoning’ For Ray & Renee in Final Season (Exclusive)
Ray and Renee’s relationship has never been smooth sailing, but will all their lies catch up to them? James Badge Dale and Riley Voelkel are breaking down what’s to come in the final season of ‘Hightown.’
Ray and Renee finally got the chance to be together at the end of Hightown season 2, but is it happily ever after? The web of lies between them has yet to be untangled, and all of their secrets will come back to haunt them in season 3. Hollywood Life spoke exclusively with James Badge Dale and Riley Voelkel about Ray and Renee’s relationship in the wake of Renee refusing to confess that she killed Jorge.
“When you’re kind of a shady person, I noticed you don’t trust other people, you know what I mean?” James said. “So it’s kind of like the baggage of all these lies. So when I look at Ray, it’s like Ray has gotten himself into such an entanglement. He can’t get out of his own way. Riley and I’s relationship has always been complicated as our characters have done this dance, but what I think is kind of cool is that there’s a reckoning coming and that Ray and Renee have to really get honest with each other.”
Renee had the opportunity to come clean to Ray, but she didn’t. Riley addressed whether or not Renee ultimately trusts Ray.
“I think at the end of the day, there’s a part of both Renee and Ray that will maybe never trust each other until possibly a reckoning,” Riley admitted. “If you look at how their relationship started, it was based on lies and using each other and back and forth. They’re playing house now, but I think the old Renee and the old Ray still live within them. There is just this level of like, can I actually trust this person? And so I think why she doesn’t (1) it’s a very big secret. It’s a very scary secret to tell anyone. I think she’s hoping it will just all go away. And (2), I think she’s concerned in his reaction. He is a cop. He’s very engulfed in his work. Would he help her? Would he understand? Can she trust him? I think all those questions are kind of weighing on her.”
The thing about Ray is that he usually refuses to let things go, even when he should. While Ray has a lot on his plate with his job and new baby girl, Jorge’s death is going to continue to nag him. “Ray’s gonna dig a lot of things, and maybe it’s his own hole,” James quipped. “The thing about Ray is Ray is also so narcissistic and self-involved. He kind of just glazes over a lot of other things. But where we’re coming from, the difference between season 2 and season 3 timewise it’s not that much. The death of Jorge is still a big part of our driving storyline.”
When Hightown season 3 picks up, it’s a few months down the road. Renee has given birth to a baby girl, and she’s become overwhelmed with mom life. “On the surface, I think it almost represents the life that she really was fighting for, which is possibly a stable life,” Riley told Hollywood Life. “A lot more safe. But I think we also see a part of her that maybe misses the rush of her old life, maybe misses the power. She’s been made to be kind of powerless by men throughout her life, and I think there’s a part of her that feels like she needs to fill this void that she’s missing. Maybe this housewife life isn’t exactly what she really did want. She’s kind of convinced herself she did, but is it what she really wants or really needs or really is?”
While Ray and Renee are trying to make everything work on the outside, Frankie lives to fight another day in prison. Despite getting brutally stabbed at the end of season 2, Frankie has managed to survive.
“One of my favorite things on this show is that the bad guys are good guys, the good guys are bad guys, and what Amaury [Nolasco] has done with Frankie… Frankie is such an amazing, complicated, beautiful character that is also empathetic, so get ready for Frankie this year because he ain’t going down without a fight,” James revealed. New episodes of Hightown season 3 will debut Fridays on STARZ.