SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for the return of The Last Thing He Told Me Season 2, the first episode of which is now streaming.
It wouldn’t be an understatement to say that Jennifer Garner is back in action as Hannah Hall for Season 2 of Apple TV and Hello Sunshine’s The Last Thing He Told Me, based on Laura Dave’s sequel novel, The First Time I Saw Him.
The eight-episode second season of Apple’s TV show adaptation, based on the first book of the same name by Dave, which was also a Reese’s Book Club pick (along with its sequel, the first sequel to be selected), launched its first episode Friday, Feb. 20. It’s been five years since Owen Michaels (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) had to leave his wife Hannah and daughter Bailey (Angourie Rice) because of his past and getting involved with his first wife’s father’s business.
It all comes crashing back when a man (Sala Baker), posing as a SoCal gas maintenance employee, weasels his way into Hannah’s Santa Monica home and attacks her. The scene can be glimpsed in the Season 2 trailer, but there is more to follow as Hannah springs into action to make sure Bailey’s safe and they go on the run. Garner also told a story about working with Sala previously and biting off a piece his ear in a different scripted fight for Peter Berg’s The Kingdom (2007) at Apple TV’s press day earlier this month.
“I read the fight [scene], and sometimes a fight reads like it’s going to be much bigger than it actually is. In this case, it ended up being more exciting than that. It even read on the page,” Garner told Deadline.
The actress worked with her longtime stunt double from Alias Shauna Duggins, who coordinated the sequence, and with Baker, with whom she has collaborated frequently for onscreen combat.
“I was not surprised that [Shauna] hired Sala for this scene. He’s a great actor, and he’s one her regulars that she hires all the time, and he’s so imposing that as a character that shows up throughout the season, he really is perfect,” Garner added. “As soon as he showed up, I knew that we were going to have a good time. He did throw me around like a rag doll, but please know that when that’s happening, it’s on me to control it, to make sure that it’s safe, to know that I’m watching where I’m falling. All of it is very much thought through. He’s not like throwing me, and I’m not prepared for it.
“He’s throwing me, and I’m thinking, ‘Okay, I’m going to hit the couch with my hip first, and then I’m going to bounce off of it this way,’ and I’m going to go straight to the ground, and it’ll go really quickly'” she continued. “And when I do it, it doesn’t look as good as if Shauna did it. It would be cooler, but it was me. It’s a great way to start the season.”
Another noticeable difference aside from much more action in this first episode is the relationship between Bailey and Hannah, which was almost nonexistent at the start of Season 1. Understandably so, because Hannah was new in Bailey’s life as her stepmother, but it looks as if she won Bailey over, and good thing Hannah is always planning ahead.
“There’s a solemnity to Hannah and to to her approach to life. She is cautious. She is she’s learned to be super prepared. She’s doesn’t trust easily. And I think in this case, that is a plus for her, because she’s used to looking over her shoulder, and she’s used to questioning people’s [intentions],” Garner said. “She didn’t trust her mother, she didn’t really know her father. So she’s used to being like, ‘Wait a minute, I am looking askance at you, because I don’t know if you are who you say you are to me.’”
Turns out that Hannah’s intuition about something being off is right again by the end of Season 2’s first episode, titled “Cape Cod.”
“Meanwhile, she has an idea of what things should feel like, so she’s worked so hard to give Bailey the freedom to grow up, to go to college, to make mistakes, to not have to look over her shoulder all the time, because Hannah is like,’ I’m going to be right here, and I have got you,’” Garner continued. “I love that.”
The Last Thing He Told Me has new episodes arriving every Friday through April 10.
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