Feel the gravel crunch beneath your boots and the lavender-scented breeze in your hair? The second season of Ransom Canyon, created by April Blair, welcomes you back to your favorite small town in Texas on July 23 — and you can watch the first few minutes early, only on Tudum.
Last we saw Ransom’s central couple — stoic rancher Staten Kirkland (Josh Duhamel) and dance hall owner Quinn O’Grady (Minka Kelly) — they were at a crossroads. Staten and Quinn’s will they, won’t they relationship finally came to a head midway through the first season, only for Staten’s anger issues and unresolved trauma to push them apart once again. (Rehash everything that happens in Season 1 before Season 2 drops later this week.)
Now, in the first few minutes of Season 2, Quinn touches down in her beloved Ransom after six months working as a concert pianist for the New York Philharmonic. “I love that she gave up this fun, flashy, exciting life in New York for her small town, where it’s safe and comfortable and she knows everybody,” says Kelly. As Quinn looks out on a grassy backyard from her creaky wraparound porch, she exhales. “Guess we’re not in New York anymore, Biscuit,” she says to her cute pup.
But does Staten know she’s back in town? We quickly learn that Staten has had just a few things preoccupying him during Quinn’s absence. For starters, he’s been trying to win back his trustee seat at Double K ranch after his father, Sam (Brett Cullen), ousts him in the Season 1 finale. “When Sam decides to come back, it really throws a wrench into our relationship,” says Duhamel.
Sam returns to Ransom following a failed run for office, ominously warning the ranch hands, “There’s another Kirkland in charge now.” The elder Kirkland clearly knows much more about politics than ranching, to put it more elegantly than Staten does in the first few minutes. “Sam never really took an interest in the ranch. Staten learned everything from his grandfather,” Duhamel adds. “Sam desperately wants to earn the respect of not only Staten but the whole crew out at the ranch.” And Staten will do whatever it takes to win back his old role, even if it strains his relationship with his dad.
In Quinn’s absence, Staten’s has also had a few new bedfellows — or, as Double K ranch hand Jake (Tatanka Means) puts it, “a revolving door of lady friends” — to keep him company. “Staten has missed Quinn. He has been masking all that with his own behavior,” says Duhamel. But Staten’s expression when Jake tells him that Quinn is back shows that his feelings for her have not waned. But is it too late? As we learned in the trailer, Quinn met someone else in New York City. “Quinn’s got her own thing going on. Sometimes that’s all it takes for a man: to feel what it’s like not to have you in his life anymore, to see you doing just fine without him makes him go, ‘Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,’” says Kelly. “But she found a guy who was really nice to her.”
What will happen between Quinn, her new mystery man (played by Ben Robson), and Staten? And what about the rest of Ransom, including Ellie (Marianly Tejada), Yancy (Jack Schumacher), and the suspicious woman claiming to be his wife? What’s happening with high schoolers Lauren (Lizzy Greene), Kit (Casey W. Johnson), and Lucas (Garrett Wareing)? As evidenced by the Season 2 trailer, the first few minutes are just the tip of the spur when it comes to romance and intrigue in this fresh new season.
Watch Ransom Canyon Season 2 on July 23.
