An unresolved love triangle. A kiss on the dance floor. A potentially devastating rollover car crash. 

In its final, fast-paced seconds, My Life with the Walter Boys Season 3 delivers moments of blossoming romance, heartache, and tragedy that will undoubtedly ripple into Season 4. And it’s not just Cole’s (Noah LaLonde) world spinning out of control. Jackie (Nikki Rodriguez) is trying to reclaim a sense of joy for herself, while Alex (Ashby Gentry) is processing a kiss he never saw coming.

My Life with the Walter Boys has never been shy about ending a season on a cliffhanger. Season 1 concludes with Jackie boarding a flight back to New York, choosing not to be with Alex or Cole, and Season 2 ends with Jackie telling Cole that she loves him right before George (Marc Blucas) has a medical emergency.

Rodriguez explains that Jackie’s Season 3 arc grows directly from a history of trauma. “Jackie has never put herself first, ever. That manifests in her being such a perfectionist people pleaser all the time. This season, for the first time, she starts to put herself first.” Kicking off the season amid so many unknowns, even Rodriguez was uncertain what to expect. “I was surprised to read [the script] because when Season 2 ended, I was like, ‘Where do we go from here? How could it possibly be OK?’”

But the Season 3 finale, titled “The Beautiful and the Damned,” stacks three cliffhangers on top of each other, leaving plenty up in the air. “I’m never shocked with how much is hanging in the balance on this show,” LaLonde says, comparing Cole’s season-long drift into the world of car racing to “Chekhov’s gun,” the storytelling principle that suggests that if an object such as a gun is shown early in a story, it must be fired at some point later on.

Eventually, the racing does catch up with Cole, but, as LaLonde points out, it’s not in the way audiences might expect. “The way Cole actually ends up getting hurt is not a race. It’s a crazed competitor gone rogue.” That rogue rival is Danvers Stacey (Jedidiah Goodacre), who is upset with Cole for bailing on their race with prize money at stake. Cole doesn’t care about the cash: He’s solely focused on finding Jackie and winning her back. Danvers, fast on his heels and furious about the missed opportunity for money, bumps Cole’s car and causes him to wreck.

“This feels very earned,” LaLonde says of the stunning conclusion, adding, “There’s a lot to unpack within Alex and Kiley’s [Mya Lowe] relationship. All this stuff is going on.” So, what else can be said about the stories actively unfolding in Season 3’s final moments? Delve into the finale with the cast and creator Melanie Halsall below.

PHOTO BY DAVID BROWN

Why did Cole break up with Jackie in the first place?

In Season 3, Episode 7, Cole coldly ends things with Jackie after her childhood friend, Eliot (Naveen Paddock), quietly convinces him that, as a small-town mechanic with no clear college plans, he can’t offer her the future she deserves, and that the most generous thing he can do is push her away. “Cole’s fatal flaw is his insecurity and his inability to believe in himself,” Halsall says, adding, “He feels like he’s worthless and Jackie stops him feeling like that. But when Richard [Alex Quijano] and Eliot get in his head, that’s disastrous because Cole’s going to believe it.”

If you found it difficult to watch Cole break Jackie’s heart, you’re not alone. LaLonde recalls, “Reading the scripts, I was like, ‘Just tell her why you’re doing this.’ But in Cole’s head, it just feels too far gone. He’s decided that he’s not right for her, he’s not good enough for her.”

In the finale, Cole has a moment of clarity ahead of his race and regrets his instinct to self-sabotage, deciding to track down Jackie and tell her the truth: that he never stopped loving her and that he only broke up with her because he didn’t feel worthy.

But he never gets the chance.

What happened with Cole’s car crash?

Cole spends the majority of Season 3 replacing football with an arguably far more dangerous, adrenaline-filled substitute: racing. But on the precipice of competing in a race that could provide him with a much-needed win, he receives a thank-you text from Jackie for helping to fund and organize annex repairs on her behalf. He immediately goes to find her, but on his way he’s intercepted by Danvers, who rams into Cole’s car, causing him to spin out of control and crash. “Danvers running him off the road felt like the right place to leave him,” says Halsall. “I hope he’s alright for Season 4.”

Though Jackie doesn’t know that her text unknowingly set off the chain of events that led to Cole’s accident, Rodriguez is “glad [Jackie] texted him.” She says, “I don’t like that he got into the car accident, but I was glad she texted him. I feel like this season all of her worst fears come to life. She doesn’t know about the crash yet, but what happens after that? I don’t know. It’s literally all of her worst nightmares.”

Meanwhile, as Cole’s accident unfolds, Eliot kisses Jackie.

Does Jackie end up with Eliot?

No — at least, not by the end of Season 3. Jackie spends the finale focused on the community center’s opening night, determined to enjoy herself without thinking about Cole, fueled by Grace’s (Ellie O’Brien) argument that she’s earned the right to have fun. When Eliot, who originally steps into the fold in Episode 4 and seems to charm Jackie as a “safe” alternative to Cole, slow dances with Jackie, he shoots his shot and kisses her just as the season concludes.

While it remains to be seen how Jackie will respond, Halsall suggests that sparks and some degree of chemistry are there. “There’s something between Eliot and Jackie. Eliot’s had this thing for Jackie and they got closer after she broke up with Cole. I think there’s a moment for Jackie where she looks at Eliot and thinks, ‘Maybe this is the kind of guy I end up with. Maybe this is the world I should belong to.’”

Halsall is careful to make clear that she doesn’t see Eliot as a bad guy. “I don’t think Eliot’s been exploitative. Eliot genuinely thinks that Jackie does [deserve] better than Cole. I don’t think he’s a villain, but Jackie definitely has a moment where she’s thinking, ‘Well, [Cole] broke up with me.’” If you’re wondering what’s ahead, Halsall teases that there’s more story left to tell. She expresses interest in showing “how Eliot’s going to stick around and what kind of mischief he’s going to make. He’s a great character; I think his story’s probably not done yet.”

Rodriguez believes the kiss from Eliot comes as a surprise for Jackie. “I think she’s super caught off guard because, from Jackie’s perspective, it’s not romantic at all. He’s somebody she just feels super comfortable with. It’s like a friend you’ve known forever.” Rodriguez adds that Eliot’s arrival stirs up something bigger than romantic confusion for Jackie. “I think Eliot showing up makes her feel torn between her old life and new life. It starts to remind her that she’s different because she feels like she can’t really connect with him the way she used to.”

Looking ahead, Rodriguez has a pretty pointed hope for Season 4: “She tells Uncle Richard off in this season, so I want her to do that to Eliot for sure.” LaLonde jokingly shares the same anti-Team Eliot mindset, saying, “I really think there’s a lot of good people in this show, except maybe Eliot. I don’t know what he’s doing here.”

Whichever way Jackie responds, it’s a safe bet she’ll reckon with what the kiss did or didn’t mean in Season 4 — but that’s not the only potential love triangle happening. …

What’s going on with Alex, Kiley, and Dylan?

Alex’s Season 3 arc is all about identity as he chases his place within the Hartford rodeo crew, eventually walking away from rodeo entirely in Episode 7. That same instinct to retreat is evident in his romantic life, as his feelings for Kiley deepen even though she’s dating Dylan (Kolton Stewart). After kissing Kiley in Episode 9, Alex walks it back, calling the smooch a “mistake.”

Lowe, who plays Kiley, says the connection goes back much further than a single impulsive kiss. “I think those feelings have lingered since middle school for Kiley. Never enough to act on or want to change the friendship. I think the friendship has always come [first] for both of them, so that’s why Kiley never says anything.” She adds that filming the kiss was its own turning point. “That was like the first time I’ve done a scene with Ashby where I can’t really look at him. There was no going back. It’s so different from just sharing a look and feeling a certain way. It’s like, now you’ve physically acted upon it, so it’s a point of no return.”

After Dylan asks Alex to give Kiley some space, he does the exact opposite, showing up at her doorstep to profess his feelings. But Dylan cuts him off and shuts the door in his face. While it’s uncertain how the romance will play out, Gentry shared his take on what he believes Alex is thinking. “I don’t think he even had the chance to realize in a coherent thought that he had feelings for Kiley. I think he felt love and kissed her, then said, ‘Oh my God, what did I just do?’ and tried to backpedal out of it.”

Lowe doesn’t let Alex entirely off the hook for calling it a “mistake,” either. “For Kiley, it’s being let down and led on again. You’re going to take the person at their word when they say something as heavy as that. It feels real shitty. She went and did this thing that already makes her feel so bad, cheating on Dylan.” Despite Kiley’s mistake, Lowe doesn’t want to see her relationship with Dylan end. “I love Kolton. We’re good friends and I’m not ready to see it end yet. I’m hoping that if it does, it’s in a way that’s respectful of their characters.”

If you’re wondering what Ashby would like to see play out for Alex in Season 4, he’s got no shortage of ideas. “I want Alex to go to war over Kiley. I want a feud between Dylan and the football team and Alex. I want to see Alex fight for Kiley because she deserves that. I’m talking Romeo and Juliet–level war between two houses. That’s what I want to see.”

Lowe’s own vision for Season 4 is a little less battle-ready. “I think Alex needs to work really, really hard. He needs to earn her,” she says. “He [needs] to pine over her and earn her and make it so people can actually genuinely root for that.” Halsall agrees, saying that Alex must do the work. “The minute Alex tells Kiley he’s in, she’s going to be in, but I don’t think he knows that. She’s still very protective of that for herself, so she’s not going to tell him until she knows, because she values him so much as a person and a friend. She wouldn’t want to ruin that friendship.”

Are Danny and Erin engaged?

Danny (Connor Stanhope) and Erin (Alisha Newton) take their own quietly dramatic detour this season after Danny drunkenly proposes to Erin, then immediately panics about it, his apprehension leaving Erin uncertain what to make of the offer.

However, in Episode 6, a completely sober Danny more confidently confirms his desire to be with Erin, offering her his pinky ring and these words of affirmation: “When we’re ready to tell everybody, I’ll get you a real ring. But for now, I want you to know that I’m serious.” Erin reciprocates the love, assuring Danny she’s “serious, too,” before giving him her late father’s necklace in return.

When we last see them in Episode 10, the couple is still going strong, but Halsall emphasizes that the fate of their relationship is still unresolved. “We leave them on a bit of a cliffhanger as well. We see them at the party at the end, but we don’t know what happened. There’s a story to tell.”

What’s a third space? Was the teen annex really haunted?

Jackie’s big project this season is turning a shuttered general store into a “third space,” a community gathering spot that’s neither home nor school nor work. Jackie and friends spend months painting and renovating the building into a teen annex, a hangout for Silver Falls kids who need somewhere that feels like their own, just like Jackie once did.

And yes, it’s a little bit haunted — or at least it has a history. In Episode 9, pointedly titled “Ghosts,” Jackie, Skylar (Jaylan Evans), and Grace discover an old speakeasy that’s been sealed away in the store’s attic for decades. The president of the Silver Falls Historical Society tells Grace the story of a hostess named Rosalind who was having an affair with a gangster called the Bug. The two were supposed to meet up in Silver Falls before going off to Vegas, but the Bug never showed and Rosalind disappeared. There’s a theory that the Bug had Rosalind killed. It’s less a literal ghost story and more of an old cold case, but it casts an eerie shadow right as the annex gears up for its opening night.

What’s next for Alex and his bronc-riding career?

After breaking out as a confident, swaggering bronc rider in Season 2, Alex is chasing that same rush in Season 3, fully engrossed in Hartford rodeo team endeavors. But winning over his peers and feeling the brunt of being flung from broncs begins to cost Alex more than it’s giving him. “He works on the farm, he rides broncs, but he’s also a nerd. There are so many layers to Alex,” says Gentry. Being the youngest rider on a team of older and occasionally hostile pros takes a toll. “He’s a kid. He’s 16 years old. They’re all older, and it’s a lot of pressure.”

Things come to a head for Alex when fellow rider Wylder Holt (Jake Manley) reveals his use of unprescribed pain pills for riding-related injuries. Alex mentions the pills to Blake (Natalie Sharp) and Wylder denies it, calling Alex a liar. Feeling disrespected, Alex walks away from the team. “I think he’s insulted,” Gentry says of Alex’s decision. “It’s very much the same line of thinking that he takes with Jackie, where it’s like, ‘I can’t do this the right way, and if it isn’t authentic and genuine, then I don’t want it at all.’”

Gentry admits to initially pushing back on the idea of Alex ditching the rodeo entirely. “I threw a major fit about him quitting because I thought, ‘You finally give Alex something cool and make him cool and then you just take it away.’” Halsall, though, says the door isn’t fully closed on horses for Alex. “He still loves horses, he loves riding, but I’m not sure if he wants to continue doing rodeo going forward,” she says, floating horse training as “a great route for Alex to go now because it combines his love of riding and horses with his natural kindness and thoughtfulness.”

Whether horses will remain a bigger part of Alex’s life remains to be seen, but Season 4 will undoubtedly provide answers to all the lingering questions, from Cole’s condition to Jackie’s reaction to Eliot’s kiss. After a rollercoaster season, LaLonde sums it up best: “Everything that gets flipped on its head at the end feels fresh, and it’s like, ‘What the hell’s going to happen now?’”

Revisit the highs and the lows of My Life with the Walter Boys on Netflix and check back with Tudum for future updates.