This post contains spoilers for Season Two Part One of “Firefly Lane."
If you're still crying after watching Season Two Part One of "Firefly Lane," you're not alone. The nine episodes were chock full of emotion. The finale was particularly gut-wrenching.
After Kate (Sarah Chalke) gets diagnosed with a rare, aggressive form of cancer (stage 3) and learns that that needs to start treatment immediately, she goes to see Tully (Katherine Heigl), despite their ongoing feud. But she's too late: Tully has already left for a job in Antarctica.
The good news? Seven more episodes are on their way. The bad news? You'll have to wait until next June to find out how it all ends.
To hold you over in the mean time, TODAY caught up with Chalke to get her thoughts on Season Two Part Two and a look ahead at the final installment of "Firefly Lane."
On Kate's devastating cancer diagnosis
This season’s finale was a shocker for anyone who hasn’t read “Firefly Lane.” Have you read the book? How did you react when you learned what would happen to your character?
Yes, I have read the book. I loved the book and I loved the whole story. But obviously, I didn't know how it was going to come about or what was going to happen, how it would be handled (on the show).
I thought it was beautifully written, but they were really tough scenes to do. It's strange when you know what's coming for your character, and you're not sure when it's going to happen. I was quite moved when I read the script.
Have you ever played a character in this sort of position before?
I played a character once before, it was also based on a book and a true story of someone who had breast cancer. It was a very long time ago. The stories are actually quite different but with one important link. (Ed. note: Chalke starred in the 2006 movie "Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy").
It was just quite a moving experience. There's nobody whose lives have not been touched by cancer. Lots of crew members that I had gotten to know very well shared their stories with me. So there were definitely days on set where you're looking into the eyes of these people that you've gotten to know so well, and they've opened up about their stories. There were some very emotional days on set.
Did playing this role make you think about your own life more and cause you to reevaluate anything?
It absolutely makes you think about it. Part of me was nervous to play out this storyline in terms of what that would feel like. We lost my aunt to cancer and my grandmother had cancer. Those were very pivotal moments in my life that make you take a step back and look at your life. We don't know what the future holds. How do you want to spend it?
On Kate and Tully's friendship and feud
Another huge theme of this season is Tully and Kate’s feud. What do you think was going on in Kate’s mind as she gets this major diagnosis, knowing that she is estranged from her best friend?
I was so curious about what did Tully did. What was going to be the thing that breaks up this unbreakable friendship? And when I read it, I loved it because I felt like it really was something that you could see both sides. You really saw Kate's perspective and Tully's perspective, and I think it was such a hard needle to thread to figure out what that was going to be.
I feel like you can completely put yourself in both of their shoes. But I think for Kate, it was not forgivable for her because it was her baby, it was Marah (Yael Yurman). Maybe it would have been different if it was (Kate) but it was Marah.
I think it's just a line that she can't forgive. I think she wants to and you see her through the whole season wanting to more and more and picking up the phone and wanting to call (Tully) every time she touches her phone. But I think when she gets the diagnosis, everything else just falls away. Tully's the first person that she wants to see and that she wants comfort from and that she wants to talk about it with.
Another big theme this season has been Kate's reunion with Johnny. There are a couple of points where he wants to propose to Kate, but she’s hesitant and he suggests that it might be because she wants to reunite with Tully first. What do you think?
I think Kate has always felt like Johnny was the love of her life, and I think she just wants it to work. It’s working so beautifully right now, so I think she honestly just doesn’t want to mess it up. I also think she doesn’t want to do it for Marah's sake. What would happen if for some reason it didn’t work out and Marah had to ride that roller coaster again?
Do you have any friendships like Tully and Kate's that have spanned several decades?
I’m very lucky that I do. I have a group of friends that I’ve had since kindergarten. I met my best friend when I was five years old and we grew up together. Then she went to film school and wanted to produce and I wanted to act and we actually packed up her truck and moved to LA together when we were 24.
But we’ve never had a big Tully/Kate fight. As roommates, our biggest fight was over cereal because I picked granola out of the granola and flakes and she would look in the box and be like, 'Where’s all the granola?' So she went and bought two boxes and a Sharpie and wrote her name on them and that was like the end of our only fight that we’ve had in 40 years.
On the next half of Season 2
What can people look forward to at the end of Season Two?
Season Two Part One answered a bunch of questions, but it also created a lot of new ones. Those are all going to be answered in Part Two, and I can't wait for people to see it. I feel like it's such a mix of really emotional stuff and balanced with a lot of fun stuff in the other decades as well sprinkled throughout. So I think you'll laugh and you'll cry. And you'll feel all the things.
What are you most excited about for Season Two Part Two?
I just can’t wait for everyone to see it and go on the rest of the ride. I feel lucky that we got to tell the whole story of the book because sometimes in TV, that’s not the case and you find out if you have another season or not. It was always Maggie’s (Friedman, the show creator) plan to kind of arc it out over about this many episodes so that it could be told in its entirety.