HL spoke EXCLUSIVELY with ‘P-Valley’ creator Katori Hall about everyone’s love for Diamond, Mercedes’ ‘next step,’ why Uncle Clifford bailed out Patrice, and more.

P-Valley is back with an all-new episode on Aug. 30. This episode is the penultimate episode of the first season. Mercedes is dealing with the fallout of her arrest and her fight with her mother, while Uncle Clifford is working on trying to save the club. For the first time, Mercedes and Autumn actually bonded over their children, which gave fans a glimpse at what friendship could look like between them. HollywoodLife talked EXCLUSIVELY with creator Katori Hall about the growing bond between these core characters.

“I definitely think that any time a woman suffers a loss like that it is so transformative,” Katori told HollywoodLife. “Mercedes never really had a best friend at her job. She was always just the girl on top, the queen bee. The fact that there’s this woman who she has something in common with, especially something like that is life-changing for her, and now she has a sounding board. This is going to be a very special bond. I always say that the best friendships from your enemies because they’re like, ‘I don’t like this about you, and I don’t like that about you.’ They kind of get all that out of the way, and they can really embrace each other for who they are, and that’s mothers. In the case of Hailey, she’s lost her child. With Mercedes, she’s a woman fighting for their child. I think Autumn is actually going to become a huge support as Mercedes figures out how to be the mother she never had.”

With Mercedes’ plan to buy a gym and start her own business down in the gutter after her arrest, her future is in question. She left The Pynk, but will she be finding her way back in the wake of what’s happened? “I think it’s really hard to leave that life, especially because of the notoriety that she cultivated for herself, but then she has this toxic relationship with her mother,” Katori said. “I think she’s always going to be caught up in this cyclical, emotional roller coaster. I think it’s going to be interesting to see Mercedes figure out that relationship and figure out what she really wants to do with her life. Quite frankly, I do think her life is inextricably linked to the club, but I do think she realizes that she can’t do this forever. But there’s something about the club that it’s a calling for her. It’s going to be interesting what she does in this next step.”

Uncle Clifford made a bold move by getting Mercedes’ mother, Patrice, out of jail. The reasoning behind this decision will unfold the final episodes of the season. “I think people should be very surprised by the fact that these people who we think wouldn’t be aligned with each other, they are striking some unholy alliances,” Katori revealed. “I absolutely think that you’ll be surprised at how well the unfolding alliances work. So I’m looking forward to seeing how the audience takes in this new frenemy-ship between Uncle Clifford and Patrice.”

Since the very first episode, fans have been smitten by Diamond, the club’s protective and lovable bouncer who has a thing for Keyshawn. “He’s very complicated, but he’s sensitive. He’s had a rough past. I’m so excited that people have taken to him, and I think it has a lot to do with Tyler Lepley’s portrayal of him,” Katori told HollywoodLife. “Obviously, he’s wonderful to look at, but it goes beyond his face. I think it’s really about his heart. I look forward to how this relationship blossoms between him and Keyshawn.”

P-Valley has already been renewed for season 2. Katori told HollywoodLife that while she had an initial plan for season 2, the current state of the world will cause those plans to shift. “What was hilarious is when I went into my first pitch, I went on for 40 minutes just because I had 4 seasons in my head,” Katori said. “The first season felt like 13 episodes, so what I ended up having to do was do the first season I had in my mind over two seasons because I got an 8-episode order for the first season. But I will say that next season because of what we’re dealing with right now — the pandemic, the uprising — I really want the second season to be in conversation with what is happening in the world. Even though there are some elements I want to keep intact from my initial pitch, I do think as a writers’ room we need to sit down and just talk through what the world is going through right now and make sure our show feels like it exists now and that it is a living, breathing thing that can echo what is happening.” New episodes of P-Valley air Sundays on STARZ.

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