‘Running Point’ Creators Break Down Isla’s Finale Love Triangle: ‘We Love Making It Hard for Her’

Note: This story contains spoilers from “Running Point” Season 1, Episode 10.

“Running Point” wraps up its first season by pushing forward the love triangle that has been running through the mind of Kate Hudson’s Isla Gordon all season.

After a season full of tension building between Isla and Waves coach Jay Brown (Jay Ellis), distance grows between Isla and her fiancé, Lev (Max Greenfield), who calls off their engagement in the penultimate episode. By the finale, Jay kisses Isla after the big game, despite preparing to leave the Waves to be closer to his kids in Boston.

“She loves Lev and she has been in it for a long time, and maybe there is a bit of a reason why they have waited so long to pull the trigger and get married, but she really loves him, and he’s very stable,” Ike Barinholtz, who created the show alongside Mindy Kaling and David Stassen, told TheWrap. “But then all of a sudden it’s this person who is a big part of your job, which is also part of your family, and he is incredibly mysterious and wise and smart.”

“We wanted to just to really be a real little love triangle where she was being pulled slightly in this other direction,” Barinholtz continued. “We do not know where it’s going to go yet, but I can assure you it’s going to be hot.”

Kaling noted that Ellis’ character, Jay — whose same first name made Kaling joke the creators are “not creative at all” — leans into the idea of a “work husband,” much like “The Mindy Project” did with Mindy and Chris Messina’s Danny Castellano.

“But then you have Max — he’s not just like some loser at home, playing video games; he’s a doctor, a handsome doctor, who loves her,” Kaling said. “We just love making it hard for her.”

Isla and Jay’s kiss happens after the Waves lose game seven of the playoffs, a loss that crushes Isla, Ali and the rest of the Gordon family, but serves as a “throw forward” to Season 2, according to Kaling. The sophomore installment, which has already been greenlit by Netflix, will now see Isla coming from behind as she fights to continue leading the Waves, despite the return of Cam (Justin Theroux).

“It felt like if she lost, she’s more on her heels, and that it would make the next season going into it a little bit more difficult for her than coming back as a reigning champ,” Kaling said.

“We wanted Isla to grow and become better at her job, and navigating her family, and then the dynamics that go within with working with with your family at business, but also we wanted the show to be able to go somewhere and have her have to learn and do more to make the team better going forward,” Stassen said.

Even before “Running Point” scored its Season 2 renewal, the team had been plotting in their group text chain about potential storylines for the next installment. “We have little ideas, because we are like we believe these characters are real, and we would like to think about what they are doing and having other adventures,” Kaling joked.

“This is the most fun show I think I’ve ever worked on — I love these guys so much,” Kaling said about Barinholtz and Stassen. “I love the cast … we really hope we can do this till the end of our days.”

“Running Point” Season 1 is now streaming on Netflix.

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