Season 2 of The Paper dives deep into the messy intersection of work and personal life for the staff of the Toledo Truth Teller, and star Domhnall Gleeson has a unique way of describing his character Ned's romantic predicament. "I think he wanted a throuple," Gleeson jokes, referring to Ned's desire to balance his beloved newspaper with his new girlfriend, Mare (Chelsea Frei). But as the season unfolds, that balancing act proves far more complicated than Ned ever imagined, especially when Mare's career takes her to Cincinnati to avoid an HR nightmare—a move that ultimately gives her the professional fulfillment she'd been missing.
For Frei, Mare's journey is about rediscovering her own identity. "I think she felt like she was, in hindsight, losing herself a little bit back in Toledo," she says. "She goes to Cincinnati and has to stand on her own two feet and have this independence. I think it's really scary, and then it's like, 'Oh, wait, I forgot, I also am good at this, and in a different way than he is.'" That newfound confidence is something Frei is excited to explore in a potential Season 3, as Mare returns to the Truth Teller with a fresh sense of self.
Meanwhile, Ramona Young sees her character Nicole's increasingly erratic behavior as a fear of losing control. "Nicole is afraid of losing control," Young explains, especially as Detrick (Melvin Gregg) starts finding his footing without her. Their dynamic takes a sharp turn this season, setting up what could be a very different relationship moving forward.
But not all of Season 2's chaos is emotional. Sabrina Impacciatore admits she "looked like a maniac" while secretly studying kids at the gym to prepare for Esmeralda's undercover storyline in the finale. And Eric Rahill recalls trying to talk showrunner Greg Daniels out of Episode 7's tornado stunt—before ultimately doing it himself. "It was like four men pulling on my body," he says of the sitcom's wildest two minutes, which saw his character and Adelola (Gbemisola Ikumelo) seeking refuge in a ditch from a Midwest tornado.
At the heart of the season is Ned and Mare's complicated relationship. Gleeson notes that Ned's problem is assuming that "if you get everything you want, it doesn't mean you can make it work." He adds, "I think he thought that [he] and Mare and the paper could be these perfect three things that can all make each other happy, and it'll be perfect forever because they all love each other so much. And he just found out that throuples are hard to make work."
One of the season's most poignant moments comes when Ned gives Mare the Glass Club death investigation—a gesture Gleeson calls "truly selfless." "He respects her as a journalist so much that he's like, 'You're what we need for our paper,'" Gleeson says. "It kills him, but he respects it." Frei echoes that sentiment, seeing it as a move that transcends romance. "Outside of romance, outside of everything, it's like, 'We need to do this for our community,' which is, I think, what they both always come back to," she says.
As the season ends, Ned's confession to the documentary crew—that he loves Mare and "can't live without her"—remains unsaid, leaving fans to wonder what's next. For more on the show's future, check out our look at the Office reunion that almost happened. And if you're craving more TV drama, The Rainmaker's Season 2 trailer promises plenty of legal intrigue.
