[This story contains spoilers from the season three premiere of The Cleaning Lady.]
For a woman who calls herself The Cleaning Lady, Thony de la Rosa (Élodie Yung) has yet to figure out how to clean up the biggest mess of her own making.
After her well-intentioned but misguided attempts to illegally procure a drug to save her ailing son resulted in the death of FBI agent Garrett Miller (Oliver Hudson) and the deportation of her sister-in-law Fiona (Martha Millan), Thony is dealt another devastating blow in the season three premiere of the Fox crime drama.
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Hoping to smuggle Fiona back into the U.S. on a private plane used to ship drugs to the Philippines, Thony and her partner-in-crime Arman (Adan Canto) find themselves involved in a shootout with authorities and potential mobsters. Thony is able to evade capture by fleeing the scene in a car with Arman’s wife, Nadia (Eva de Dominici), but the two women are unable to get a hold of Arman, leading them to believe that he has been kidnapped.
That storyline was originally intended as a way to temporarily write off Canto, whose health prevented him from beginning work on the third season in December. Canto died Jan. 8, at the age of 42, after a private battle with appendiceal cancer. The news came as a shock to the show’s cast and crew, who were not privy to the exact reason for his absence from the Albuquerque set, but who all harbored hopes of reuniting with him later in the season.
“We’re all so devastated about the loss of Adan, and we really made a point to craft the season around the possibility of bringing him back,” creator and co-showrunner Miranda Kwok tells The Hollywood Reporter in a joint interview with Jeannine Renshaw, who succeeded Melissa Carter as co-showrunner for the show’s third season.
In fact, before they discovered that Canto would be unavailable to work, the showrunners were already planning to dig into Arman’s backstory. “We were already going to have his parents and family come onto the show,” Kwok reveals. “When we had to shift, we realized that we still wanted to create this space for Arman to return. We decided to continue with the storyline surrounding his backstory so that we were all able to explore his character through Thony and Nadia, and learn about Arman in a different way.”
But following the news of Canto’s untimely passing, the writers were forced to pivot once more in a way that could honor Arman and the man who played him. Below, Kwok and Renshaw discuss how much they knew about Canto’s physical condition before his death and how the disappearance of Arman will affect Thony, Nadia and the dangerous people in their orbit in season three.
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When did you both find out that Adan Canto was unwell? Were you informed ahead of time, or did you find out at the same time as everybody else?
MIRANDA KWOK We had heard earlier. It was still a shock to us when it happened, but we knew that he was struggling, and we also knew that he really did not want people to know the reasons [he was unable to work]. He really was a private person, so he didn’t want to share any of those details. It was a challenge for us, because we had to balance knowing what we did and having to figure out how to move forward with that, and be sensitive to him and his family. It was definitely a challenge in many ways, and obviously heartbreaking in many ways as well, so we just did our best to get through it and to honor him as best as we could.
JEANNINE RENSHAW But to be honest, we were always hopeful. He was such a positive person, and he gave us hope. We were as shocked as anybody when we lost him. There was never the inkling [that he was not going to make it]. Although, as showrunners, he had brought us in and we had been part of the process [to determine] what he was able to do.
During the shootout, when Arman tells Thony to essentially save herself, viewers get a brief glimpse of his face. Did you shoot that scene with a body double and CGI Arman’s face in postproduction?
KWOK Yes, there was definitely some movie magic in there. We were discussing with him in the early part of the season how he would be portrayed, so he was on board with that. He, of course, was heartbroken that he couldn’t continue this journey with us, so he wanted to support us as much as he could. This show is such an amazing family, and Adan was such a big part of that because of who he was. He was such a genuine human being; he was a pillar of our show in so many ways, not just onscreen, but offscreen as well. He’s such an artist, so he loved the creative process and the collaboration with everyone. I think that’s also a thing that he expressed that he was missing, of not being able to be a part of it anymore.
From a story standpoint, Arman’s disappearance forces the two most important women in his life, Thony and Nadia, to work together to figure out what happened to him. We get a sense of this unlikely alliance in the premiere, when they decide to meet Arman’s parents, Teresa (Jacqueline Obradors) and Eduardo Morales (Jason Manuel Olazabal), for the first time.
KWOK If Arman was not the thing that came between them, [Thony and Nadia’s relationship] would be different. We love exploring that dynamic. While there are a lot of emotions involved with their relationship, they are able to work together for this common goal. We also really love that their journey only begins in episode one, and there will be different twists and turns. [We’ll see] what happens with their relationship, how one may feel betrayed by the other, and how their stories will weave together throughout the season.
RENSHAW What I do love about what we’re doing with them this season is that, yes, they are both powerful, strong women, but they’re so different that if it wasn’t for this situation, their paths would never cross. We’ve thrown these two really dynamic, but very different-thinking people with very different pasts together. But I would say they’re a seminal relationship. Their friendship and their dynamic really carries us through to the very last moment of the season.
Toward the end of last season, Thony began to lose sight of what was truly important in her life. Her actions have left her completely untethered — Fiona has been deported, Garrett is dead, and now Arman is missing. How is Thony dealing with having to make increasingly difficult decisions on her own this time around?
KWOK Thony faced some stark realizations last year that her actions had heavy, hard consequences. Losing Arman is a part of that because in trying to get Fiona back, she loses someone else. She really has to look inside herself to get back to the roots of what matters to her, which is obviously family, and to put that above everything else again is really important for her.
But she is going to be struggling with doing bad things to get her family back. It’s still very thematic in terms of doing the wrong thing for all the right reasons. There is still that push-pull with her; there still is that aspect of having to step a toe deeper into crime, a little further across the moral line, but in service of what she needs for her family. But last season did change her, in that it’s not just about Thony and what she needs. It’s really about, how can she find redemption for the mistakes that she made last season? And to do that, she desperately needs Fiona back; she desperately needs to make amends for her mistakes.
RENSHAW This season is about making amends as well as protecting her family, which adds another layer to her drive and opens up some self-reflection for her. There are some dark emotional places she’ll go to when she realizes what she’s done and what she has to continue to do. By the end of the season, I think there’s a very satisfying end to this [arc]. But in the meantime, I think you’re sensing there is a new depth and level to what Thony’s going through in terms of having realized what her actions created and the impact she’s had on other people.
In the premiere, Thony comes into contact with another part of Arman’s family: siblings Ramona (Kate del Castillo) and Jorge Sanchez (Santiago Cabrera). On the surface, Ramona and Jorge seem to be upstanding citizens — she’s a benevolent philanthropist and art collector, while he is a lawyer and businessman — but they are actually the leaders of a dangerous cartel. How would you describe the relationship between the siblings?
RENSHAW No matter what, the siblings stick together, but they’re very different people. Jorge went to Harvard Law School; he’s very educated. He didn’t suffer as much. Ramona is the older sibling. She really struggled, and she was the first one to come over [from Mexico]. So they’re very different in their worldview, generationally. But I do think it’s a whole interesting world we’re opening up to Thony. She has a ringside seat on this elite cartel that is actually a family and has an emotional connection to her, as well.
KWOK This show has so many characters who have emigrated from another place, who have gone through different struggles, and we gave them very different backstories so that we could explore that. [The siblings’] own immigrant experience is different from each other, which is different from everyone else’s on the show, so that speaks to who they are and how they approach things.
RENSHAW And the third sibling, [Arman’s father] Eduardo, is another dynamic that has changed and shifted over their lives.
KWOK Eduardo really serves as a counterpoint. Eduardo refused to let Arman become [involved] in crime and unfortunately lost that battle. So we’re showing, again, the same family [with] different perspectives and choices, and how those choices can impact each other.
What kind of backstory did you establish with these three siblings?
KWOK Ramona and Eduardo were the older siblings, but they were always at odds because Ramona went into crime. It was only because she went into crime that she was able to bring the rest of the family over. There was this competitive relationship where Eduardo did not want her influencing his son, and yet Ramona and Arman had a very close bond. That bond was also with Jorge, who was around the same age as Arman, so they were also like brothers growing up.
When Ramona and Eduardo split, basically, Jorge and Arman got split apart as well. They were the younger family members that didn’t have control over the situation as it happened. So there are residual feelings with Jorge in particular; he felt like Eduardo and Arman, that side of the family, rejected them. So, for a long time, it was Ramona and Jorge against the world. But, of course, that’s also the dynamic that Ramona created by taking Jorge with her.
How would you compare the dynamic between Thony and Arman with the ones Thony will have with Ramona and Jorge?
KWOK It is a very different dynamic than it was with Arman. When she met Arman, they connected instantly on a certain level, where she saw his heart and basically was able to draw him to her ways. He was always very willing to do whatever she needed and basically be her hero. Jorge and Ramona are completely different. This is a whole other animal where she doesn’t have them wrapped around her finger the way she did Arman, so she doesn’t have the kind of protection that she had in the first two seasons. Now, she’s really up against people who could kill her and her entire family. She has to watch herself more than before and do the things they’re asking because she doesn’t know what will happen to her if she doesn’t.
RENSHAW I think there’s never been someone that Thony’s more terrified of than Ramona. Ramona has done what she needs to do to get where she is, and she has no regrets about it, as much as she loves her family. Thony will look to Jorge for support as an ally but is not able to grasp him as an ally. It’s much more challenging. Yes, it is nice that they can talk at a level that no one else in their lives can talk at. They’re both highly educated people in crime. There are not a lot of people that you can have a cup of coffee with that have that similarity. (Laughs.) But as much as she has to be involved with these people, at first, it’s more out of obligation and fear than out of anything else. Her desperation to help Arman trumps her fear.
KWOK [Thony and Jorge’s] relationship evolves more slowly and more organically through the season where it is like, “Who are these people? Who are they together?” For Thony, Jorge is a tough nut to crack. But, so is she.
RENSHAW It makes it very tantalizing to watch and to write these scenes, because there’s just a lot of energy in their dynamic.
KWOK Yeah, a lot of energy, but also resistance. There is a different kind of cat-and-mouse where they’re drawn to each other, they’re trying to figure each other out, they’re both a little standoffish — which also makes them even more attracted to each other.
Who is filling Garrett’s role on the law enforcement side of the equation this season, Liza Weil’s Russo?
RENSHAW We’re having Russo be single-mindedly focused on taking Thony down for what happened last season, so the beginning of this season is really the Russo show. She’s working behind the scenes and doing some things that are going to pay off in very surprising and exciting ways later.
KWOK We get to explore how she was always very by the book, very professional, and how losing Garrett was so personal to her. She has to struggle internally about what she does with that. How can she get justice for Garrett but still stay in line with who she is?
Back home in the Philippines, Fiona is reeling from being separated from her children and reconnects with an old flame, Paolo (JB Tadena), who we learn is actually Chris’ (Sean Lew) father. In the final minutes of the premiere, Chris decides to leave the U.S. to reunite with Fiona, without understanding that he may be unable to return. What can you preview about their arc?
KWOK Fiona left for all the reasons that she did, and she was never going to be able to go back again. So to be able to be home, to see her parents, to reconnect with Paolo, is like opening a part of her that she thought she had to pack away.
We loved being able to bring Chris into that equation, as well. He is going to a place that he never thought he would be able to go to and explore his roots. In the beginning of the series, we saw how their relationship fractured because he learned her secret [that she and Chris were undocumented]. Now, we’re taking that secret and just cracking it wide open and exposing Fiona for all the choices she made. Chris is going to understand that [Fiona’s decisions] really created a path for him.
What I’m so excited about this season is really getting back to the roots of this show, which is about exploring immigrants and undocumented immigrants, and the different struggles and challenges that they face. But also the many different kinds of journeys that people can have. This is one way to dig into two of these stories that, hopefully, is surprising and engaging, because so many immigrants that come here make sacrifices. We say sacrifices, and that sounds kind of cliché sometimes because we don’t get to dig into what they are. Parents don’t tell us the sacrifices they make. They keep it to themselves. They don’t even want the children to know the pain they face. So this really allows Fiona to reveal herself to Chris and for their dynamic to evolve from there.
RENSHAW One of my favorite lines is when Chris gets there and Fiona says, “Why are you here?! You don’t know what I went through to get you there!” I just love that so much because that’s their journey. He doesn’t get [why Fiona left]. And by the end of their little journey, he gets it and grows up. It’s really powerful to see him grow up.
New episodes of The Cleaning Lady air Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on Fox.
