La Brea Cast Members Discuss Relationship Dynamics in 10,000 B.C. and What to Expect From the Final Season [Interview] (2024)

Please note this interview contains spoilers for La Brea Season 3 Episode 1.

La Brea Season 3 Episode 1, “Sierra,” is the beginning of the end of the journey that took some extraordinary characters from 2021 to 10,000 B.C. through a sinkhole in Los Angeles. Even though these characters are still trying to find their way home, they’re also learning to accept their new reality.

I recently had the opportunity to chat with Zyra Gorecki, Nicholas Gonzalez, Eoin Macken, Lily Santiago, Josh McKenzie, and Rohan Mirchandaney about the different relationship dynamics in 10,000 B.C. and what it feels like to end the series after three seasons.

From the very beginning of the show, one of the most important things was the bond between family members. Gavin and Izzy had jumped into a sinkhole in order to bring Eve and Josh home, and that was what guided their force to keep fighting in 10,000 B.C.

However, it looks like on La Brea Season 3, Izzy has decided to do her own thing and start thinking more about herself.

“I think you see a lot more of the badass side of Izzy,” Gorecki shared about her character’s journey. “On the third season, she’s like, ‘Nah, I’m gonna do my own thing. You guys need to figure your lives out. I’m tired of you guys. I’m gonna do my own thing.’”

While her focus on the previous two seasons was on her family, now it shifts toward everything that is trying to kill her. According to Gorecki, Izzy will try to figure out how to deal with the dinosaurs and how to survive.

But for Macken, who plays Izzy’s dad, Gavin, this change in her journey presents itself as a parenting nightmare. “One might say uncontrollable or just very self-sufficient. It depends on how you decided to play a scene,” he said.

While Izzy has decided to focus on 10,000 B.C. and staying alive, Gavin is still very much laser-focused on finding Eve and bringing her back. However, La Brea Season 3 Episode 1, “Sierra,” shows us that he cannot do this alone as he still has problems with his memory.

In order to find the love of his life, he must reconnect with his best friend after all the betrayal. For both Macken and Gonzalez, it was important to showcase the evolution of the relationship between their two characters, not only because they are friends in real life but because the relationship between Gavin and Levi had dissolved under extreme situations.

As Gavin reaches out to Levi for help, Macken believes the characters find some common ground.

“They were best friends for a long, long time, and they both realize what’s most important is the rest of the group, is finding Eve and Josh, is Izzy,” Macken said. “And so they both, I think, realize is more important than any disaffection they have.”

Macken highlighted the fact that on La Brea Season 3 Levi begins to put other people ahead of himself. “Levi does, and that’s put him in some pretty peculiar situations because, when you think about it, he’s got less and less to live for,” shared Gonzalez.

Nicholas Gonzalez knows his character has affected so many lives, and now is the time for him to right all his wrongs. That is something he must do not only with Gavin but with Izzy as well. Fans of the show should be on the lookout for a dialogue between Izzy and Levi that discusses their relationship as well.

While Izzy, Gavin, Eve, and Josh are related by blood, there’s another vital bond that Mirchandaney called a chosen family in reference to Veronica, Lucas, and Scott.

“I think what’s really special about 10,000 B.C. for our characters is that, previously, Veronica and Lucas didn’t have a lot of support on the outside. But here they have they do have a family — a chosen family, which I think really helps a lot with how they develop and the sensitivity for care and all of that,” Mirchandaney said. “I know Scott’s a real big fan of Lucas and Veronica and doesn’t want to leave them alone. He cares, and I think they know that.”

Even though he has a family now, McKenzie still believes Lucas is afraid to repeat what his parents did with him with his own child.

“He definitely has a lot of fear about not only protecting his child but also being a good father and not screwing his kid up like he was with his parents. So, it’s a tough journey,” McKenzie said. “There’s a lot from his past that he is running away from and at some point this season he’s gonna have to confront that in order to truly evolve and truly become confident enough to be a good dad.”

Whatever happens, McKenizie is grateful for the arch this character has allowed him to portray.

Santiago, who plays McKenzie’s love interest and the mother of his baby, believes there is another reason why that fear is so high during La Brea Season 3.

“They have found joy for the first time maybe ever in their lives, and it happens to be in 10,000 B.C. surrounded by dinosaurs, but they have found joy and they are lighter all of a sudden. That heightens fear, the fear of losing that joy again and becoming who you were,” Santiago said.

In October 2022, I spoke with McKenzie and Mirchandaney about new dangers they would like to see on the show. McKenzie mentioned dinosaurs, and lo and behold they have arrived.

McKenzie doesn’t want to give any spoilers but anticipates fans will witness competition between dinosaurs and humans for their space. Meanwhile, both Santiago and Mirchandaney believe it’s going to be about adapting to their new circ*mstances.

“We find our society having to adapt and learn to follow another society’s rules that have been living in this era for a lot longer,” Mirchandaney said. “Some really interesting community relationships [are] discovered throughout this season. I thought it was a really interesting direction of the show. A bit of politics as well.”

When discussing La Brea Season 3, it felt important to ask how the actors approached the season knowing that it was the last time they would live in 10,000 B.C. There consensus among them was that knowing this was the final season added a burst of energy when filming each episode.

For Macken, knowing La Brea Season 3 was the end gave him a point to grow towards which is something he pointed out doesn’t always happening when working on a TV show. “Because we knew where the characters were kind of developing towards and what the end goal was, I think there’s a lot of freedom in that and it becomes quite invigorating because now you know exactly where these characters have to go and why.”

McKenzie compared filming the last season to two different occassions that remind everyone of happiness and joy.

On the first hand, he said it was like going back to school after a holiday. “You got to put your head down and work but at the same time you are with people who you love and care about who know your good and your bad parts.”

On the other hand, it felt like a six-month-long Christmas with your extended family. Something Mirchandaney echoed by highlighting what a great time they all had on location.

“We were in a new shooting location, new atmosphere, completely new crew as well. We were all living close to the beach which was really different and had a really positive impact on us all,” Mirchandaney said.

La Brea Season 3 promises to deliver more dangers, more action, and more emotions. In the words of Lily Santiago, “La Brea keeps you on your toes with the stakes being heightened to the max at all times.”

It’ll be quite interesting to see where the show goes, and how it wraps up every storyline.

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La Brea airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on NBC.

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