THE IRRATIONAL’s Maahra Hill and Travina Springer on the Season 1 Mystery and Marisa-Kylie’s Friendship

THE IRRATIONAL returns on Monday, January 29 to finish out its final four episodes of season 1 with a case that hits very close to home: Alec tries to help a young burn victim, leaving the profiler—and those who care about him—dealing with their own residual trauma from the bombing that upended their lives years earlier.

“I think that for Kylie, it’s bringing back feelings of how it was when her brother went to the hospital and when this happened to him,” Travina Springer tells Give Me My Remote in the video below. “She probably has some guilt for how she showed up then…she couldn’t have control over it, but [also] she couldn’t protect her brother and that’s kind of a thing you have when you have a healthy relationship with a sibling—that whatever goes down you wish you could have helped them or saved them, whether it was physical trauma or emotional trauma.”

“This episode is going to bring up a lot of things, and bring back that moment,” she continues. “And I think it’s very exciting that the writers wrote something like this to speak to Alec’s very specific experience.”

While they’re working on the case, Marisa (Maahra Hill) is also still hard at work investigating new clues related to the bombing that initially injured Alec, now that it’s clear it’s part of a larger conspiracy. (Showrunner Arika Lisanne Mittman previously told GMMR that the mystery is “a season-long question; I don’t like to artificially drag things out.”)

“That case is going to get a lot of attention through these final episodes,” Hill teases. “It’s gonna get a lot of attention in the last part of our season. “It’s been something that’s created some trauma.”

For Marisa, resolution holds extra weight: This was her first case as an FBI agent—and the case that introduced her to her now-ex-husband. “Getting some closure and some justice in that regard is really important to the both of them,” Hill says. “So we’ll see where it goes. It’s getting pretty exciting towards the end with that particular case.”

“I think that Kylie has become reactivated with her interest and like, ‘Yo, what’s going on, because we thought the situation was resolved,’” Springer adds. “So we’ll probably see her get a little more hands-on and getting more answers about that…Not only is she curious for herself, but she’s also invested in her brother’s healing. And she thinks that with more information and a resolution there…it will be healing for him and helpful.”

On a non-work level, the women did at least have a bit of a personal victory earlier this season: The former in-laws rekindled their own friendship.

“Well, that for me was really special to be able to explore the relationship,” Hill says. “Of course, when you marry someone, then that is the most important relationship in your life—but you marry their family as well. And there was a sisterhood there…we don’t talk often a lot about what happens when friends break up…she was more like a sister to her.”

Hill also points out that Kylie can bring a lot to Marisa’s life, professionally, too. “There’s a very specific skill set also that Kylie has,” she says. “She’s very smart. She’s very techie…she’s been very helpful with cases and throughout the season. I hope that she can continue to do those things. I hope that their relationship will get stronger since they took a fall after the divorce; they came back together. I love that they were able to reconnect and start to maybe just explore the ways that their sisterhood exists outside of that relationship.”

“I’m looking forward to exploring Marisa and Kylie’s relationship as women, as sisters,” Springer adds. “And being independent…of the male story; of us talking about our lives and what we’re doing…and we’re not talking about work, but what it’s like to be Black women in our fields and navigating that. So I’m looking forward to discovering that some more in the second season.”

The actresses also delight in their time working together. “I’m hopeful about [that relationship] just because I love Travina,” Hill gushes. “I could not be happier to hang out with her on any given occasion. But Kylie [is] so intelligent, you know? And she’s so, so fun…for Marisa to be able to maybe have more fun because she’s spending time with Kylie would be great.”

“I just absolutely love doing things with Maahra and getting a chance to just see friendships between Black women,” Springer says. “I think it’s very important. It’s loving, it’s not catty, and we respect and admire each other, but I also think we both bring really great qualities out of each other as well because we’re different, but we’re stuck together. Just because she’s not married to my brother anymore, it doesn’t dissolve our relationship or our bond that’s been established through the years. So I definitely look up to her like an older sister. And, yeah, their paperwork being dissolved doesn’t change the love that’s in my heart for her. She will always be a part of Kylie’s life, if I have anything to do with it.”

THE IRRATIONAL, Mondays, 10/9c, NBC

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