‘The Other Two’: Josh Segarra Talks Lance & Brooke’s ‘Strong

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Other Two Season 3 Episode 9 “Cary Pays Off His Student Loans.”]

Could Brooke (Heléne Yorke) and Lance (Josh Segarra) find their way back together on The Other Two? It won’t be easy.

After all, in the latest episode, she breaks into his apartment, determined to prove that he hired a PR team to get him the cover of People Magazine, ends up wearing prosthetics and hiding out when his extended family stops by, and sets a fire in his building in her attempt to escape without being seen. Lance is the hero who makes sure everyone gets out safely.

Here, Segarra talks about filming this episode and teases the June 29 finale.

Something I love about Lance is the fact that he’s such a good guy and so sweet, and this episode really highlights that. We can see why he put his extended family group chat as his PR team. That makes complete sense to me for Lance.

Josh Segarra: [Laughs] It’s a smart joke, right? I loved that. I got a good kick out of it when I read it.

Talk about filming this episode because we get the comedy and the sweetness from Lance, but then there’s also a bit of action with the fire.

It was a ball. First, I loved the idea that you’re meeting my whole family. We’ve spoken to Aunt Connie on the phone. We see Brooke and Lance’s love for Aunt Connie, but now we get to meet Aunt Connie. You get to meet my cousins, you get to see some of my nieces and nephews and my tios and my tias, and bringing that to life on screen was such a fun experience because it makes me think of my own family. My own family’s not far off from that. I have a lot of tios that raised me, a lot of tias that raised me, a lot of really funny people in my life that I’m really thankful for and I love a lot to this day, and they are responsible for what I get to do today. So getting to play my family on screen, that was so fun.

Getting to play an action hero? Come on, you know that’s every teenage boy’s dream. I got to live out my Bruce Willis days. I got to live out my own Harrison Ford days. So that was really fun. And coming out of a burning building. And you also got to see Lance’s relationship with his neighbors, which I thought was really cool. You get to see him through a lens that you’ve yet to see him in on the show. We always see him relating to the Dubeks or in that world, but now you get to see him kind of like a voyeuristic eye, if you will, of what he is outside of that orbit. And you realize that, yeah, he’s just a good dude. He’s just a good dude.

Greg Endries/HBO Max

And saying hello to everyone on his way up.

Yeah, for sure. I love that whole sequence of him saying “What’s up?” to everybody. It’s very fun.

Going back a bit, talk about finding out that Lance became a nurse during the pandemic, because at first it was a bit surprising. Then I realized, wait, this makes total sense. And then everything we see from him this season…

It makes total sense, right? It’s so funny. I had no idea that’s what they were going to do with him. I shot Chris [Kelly] and Sarah [Schneider] a text before we started the season. I said, “Alright, yo. So what’s up? What are we doing now? I know we’re picking up three years later in the pandemic, so, what? Now we got another fashion line with Nike? Are we doing this or …?” And they’re like, “No, man, he’s going to be a nurse.” And I was like, “Oh, OK, cool.” Like he says on the show, he’s just good. He’s innately good. He’s fiercely loyal. He’s ride or die. And what brings him the most joy is when he is bringing joy to others. So he followed his gut and he became a nurse.

Even when he was doing fashion, I think that his biggest joy was when he made other people feel fly. Like he says in Episode 1, Season 1, “People want to look like a million bucks, but now they can sound like a dollar.” That’s exciting to him that he’s got change in his shoes. He wants to make you feel fly, so you know that he’s making that hospital feel good. [Laughs] He’s rocking that blue sweater, he’s got his vest on. He’s bringing a little fashion to the hospital. He’s making sure everyone’s feeling really good at the hospital. So I loved it.

Speaking of being a good person, he went to the play, even with his work schedule, and I love him just settling in to sleep. That was hilarious. Everyone in the audience for that play…

[Laughs] That play episode is so good. What a genius episode of TV that is right there.

We’ve seen how Brooke has been doing since the breakup, which is clearly not well. And while we do see from her perspective how Lance’s career has taken off with the People magazine cover, how has he been doing personally? How do you think he’s doing emotionally with this breakup?

I think he is having a hard time. I think that there’s something very strong between Brooke and Lance. When you’re approaching any character, you always want to make the strongest choice, the clearest choice. So for me, the clearest, most distinct choice that I can make for Lance is that he is madly in love with Brooke. That’s what’s kept them together for 10 years. That’s why they always come back to each other, right? There’s a magnet between the two.

So I have to imagine that they break up after such a hard fight that they had where they’re being really honest with each other and he just wants somebody to be there for him, and I know he misses her and I’m sure his heart is broken that he doesn’t have his Brookie monster, his Cook Brooke, his partner. So I’m sure he’s struggling with it, too. Because that makes it all the better if they ever get back together.

Greg Endries/Max

I noticed on his phone the Timehop, it’s the photo of the proposal.

Yep, that’s exactly it. Look at you picking up the small details.

What would he have done if he had found Brooke in his apartment any of the times she snuck in? Because there were quite a few times that I was like, how is he not seeing her?

I’m sure he would been, “Brooke, what the hell you doing? What are you doing in here?” I would like to think that they had just had a very honest conversation, so they’ve definitely broken down that barrier. So I’m sure they would’ve had a very honest reaction to each other.

I feel like he could have moved past it though and forgiven her versus if it was the other way around.

A hundred percent. That’s why I say I just feel like he would’ve been like, “What are you doing here? Oh, you want to sit down and talk? You want to get Chinese food? And discuss things?” I feel like he definitely would’ve found a way to try to find the good in it. He’d be like, “It’s OK. You’re just trying to come back and see me again and you’re just trying. It’s all good. I’m sure you didn’t want to bother me by calling me.” He would’ve found some way to make it positive.

But it feels like they need this time apart as much as it hurts.

Oh, 100 percent, don’t they? I feel like they do. Sometimes you gotta be apart to realize what you have, right? Sometimes you got to lose it to realize what you got.

Earlier in the season we saw Streeter (Ken Marino) recognize Pat (Molly Shannon) in the prosthetics. Did Lance have any idea that was Brooke in the prosthetics in this episode?

[Laughs] That’s a funny question. I’m sure he does not at all know that that is Brookie monster in those prosthetics. I’m sure she went through very great lengths to make sure she looked like an old lady. So I think for comedy’s sake, no way he realizes that it’s her.

What can you tease about the finale and Brooke and Lance? Because the trailer for the season features a Brooke and Lance kiss in the rain that we have yet to see…

I like that detective work right there. I will say what I mentioned earlier: There is a very strong magnetic pull between Brooke and Lance. And if I had to put money on it, I think that those two are always going to make their way back to each other. I think they are. How could they not?

If there’s a Season 4, what do you want to explore with Lance?

First, I trust Chris and Sarah, so whatever I think, I’m sure they’re going to think of something better. So I’m just excited to see where they’re going to put Lance. But that being said, if you’re really asking me, I’d love to see where him and Brooke are. We’re going to see where they end up in the finale and then maybe him and Chase [Case Walker] pursue that fashion line, but they make it for hospitals. Maybe they come up with new nurses’ uniforms. [Laughs] They design a whole new nursing uniform. … I feel like Lance will develop the Air Nurses, sneakers just for nurses and doctors. The Air MDs, that’s what they’ll be called.

I think Lance needs to get Chase away from music because clearly music is just not going to happen for him.

Maybe that’s what it is. Maybe Chase needs his Lance in his life. They can go and figure out a different endeavor together. Before we actually started, when I auditioned, Lance was a bookish character who worked at the Medieval Times. So who knows, maybe we bring that back where he decides to franchise some Medieval Times with Chase and then Chase can become a famous Medieval Times actor on a horse, become a medieval knight. That’d be pretty fun.

The Other Two, Thursdays, Max

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