Warning: The following contains spoilers for Sunday’s Ride season finale. Proceed at your own risk!
Cash’s final Ride of the season was an eventful one.
The bull rider made a deal with Tucker to throw his ride in exchange for Tucker bailing him out of jail. When Missy found out what was going on, she told Cash he wasn’t his brother and pleaded with him not to take the easy way out. After those words, Cash instead won, making an enemy out of Tucker, who threatened his new sponsorship.
Missy also gave Cash a talking-to after she discovered the necklace he intended for her. She accused him of always sitting by when it comes to his feelings for her, but he argued that loving her means wanting what’s best for her. Missy replied that maybe he doesn’t always know what that is, and with that, Cash kissed her. But when he and Gus — who told Missy that he was falling in love with her — both later showed up at Missy’s door, she was gone, having opted for a new trick riding gig in Albuquerque.
Also, surprise, Cash is an uncle! Turns out Austin needed money to help out Pauline and her son Wyatt, who is Austin’s kid from before he met Missy.
Below, Beau Mirchoff weighs in on Cash and Missy’s romantic confrontation, the possibility of a Cash/Val coupling, and the show’s renewal odds.
TVLINE | Was Cash actually going to throw that ride before Missy came over and talked to him?
I can’t reveal that secret. I don’t think he knew until he got on the bull. I think Missy coming over definitely influenced it, for sure. I’ll leave it at that. He was contending with it all the way up to the last moment.
TVLINE | What was it in particular about what she said that broke through Cash’s walls and got to him?
The easy way out would have been to throw it, and no one expected him to make it eight seconds on Hurricane anyway… But he bet on himself. And there was some type of poetic retribution in riding the bull that killed his brother. The main thing, too, was I don’t think he’d be able to look himself in the mirror if he did that. Cash prides himself [on] being a man of integrity, and throwing that ride would have spat in the face of everything he stands for.
TVLINE | Missy said some interesting stuff after she found the necklace and left it for him. Is she right — was he being too passive about his feelings for her? Or was he being respectful of his brother?
I don’t know if there is a right answer. I think it’s a two-way street. Like, if she knew how he felt, why didn’t she say something? Why didn’t she ask him what’s up? Why is it just Cash’s responsibility? It’s not… Austin and Missy were already together, and I don’t think it was Cash’s responsibility. That wouldn’t have been OK, I don’t think. He did what he thought was best, and he had to kind of stomach it and move on, and that’s a big reason why he left home in the first place. He didn’t know how to deal with it.
TVLINE | You think she knew back then that Cash was in love with her? Or is this something that’s just recently come to her, this realization?
You’ll have to ask Tiera [Skovbye] for the truth there. But the way I saw it was that she had to know. She had to know at least something. They had a lot of moments alone…but he didn’t feel like he got enough from her to make a move. When he announced that he was leaving, and she didn’t say anything, I mean, that was the writing on the wall for him.
TVLINE | He kisses her, then she kisses him, but he walks away at the end without a word. What kind of conversations did you and Tiera have about the scene, how it should play out, what the characters were thinking and feeling?
We talked a lot about it. It actually changed a few times, too, like with who kissed who and all that kind of stuff. We didn’t really know what the right way was. You could justify it in so many ways. So yeah, the blocking of it really changed. It was just where she’s at, emotionally, I think. She’s not ready at this point, and Cash is trying to respect that even though it goes against everything that he wants. He wants nothing more than to be with Missy. It’s everything to him.
But emotionally, playing it was really great because at that point, it’s the final episode, [and] we’ve been with these characters for months and months, and what starts happening is…it starts taking over, and like, we knew exactly how to play it, emotionally. We didn’t really have to talk about what was going on, exactly, once we got there.
TVLINE | Both Cash and Gus show up at her door, and she’s not there. Is that a bad sign for Cash that she chose to go to Albuquerque instead?
I don’t know. Ostensibly, yeah, but who knows? I mean, maybe she needs that right now. She needs to figure out what she needs and live life on her terms at this point. And she might realize, when she has some time to heal and have some separation, oh, Cash is the right person for her at this time. Who knows? The journey she needs to go down right now is, I think, maybe independent of either man.
TVLINE | What was your take on the whole Cash and Val thing? What did you think of those two together? Were there genuine romantic feelings there?
He says it in one of the episodes, like, “I like having fun,” and he has fun with her. And they have a history. Cash isn’t a girl-in-every-port kind of guy. He truly just wants a partner. He’s pretty simple, I think, at the end of the day. He wants a family, he wants to live that ranch life and be in nature. But there’s definitely chemistry between them. But at least at this point, he’s so enamored with Missy. Everything is Missy. It’s like the sun rises and sets with Missy. And even if Valeria is great and they have chemistry, it’s not the same thing for him. This is what he thinks now, which can change, but he thinks that [Missy is] it and life will not burn as bright without her.
TVLINE | What are you hearing about a Season 2 renewal? What are the odds?
I don’t know. I don’t want to jinx anything, but I mean, fans seem to love it, the ratings are pretty good. More people are discovering it, that’s really cool. Sometimes, shows need a little time. It’s a really great show. I think they’d be silly not to give it a second season.
Ride fans, what did you think of the season ender? Grade it below, then hit the comments!
This story originally appeared on TVLine
