[Editor's note: The following contains spoilers for Big Sky, Season 2 through Episode 8, "The End Has No End.”]Janina Gavankar made quite the debut as Ren in the first half of Big Sky Season 2. With her right-hand man Donno (Ryan O’Nan) by her side, Ren rolled into Helena ready and eager to track down her cartel’s missing drugs and money. She’s not trying to lie low or take an all-business approach to her work. Ren is absolutely brimming with energy and personality, and she enjoys letting people know it.
However, when Ren fails to get the job done quickly enough, she’s sent some unwanted backup - her little brother Jag (Vinny Chhibber). Not only is it very evident that Ren isn’t thrilled about her brother’s arrival, but you can also see the way she carries herself change. While she doesn’t lose her spark, Ren’s clearly threatened by Jag who, in his very first scene, goes above and beyond when establishing his authority.
We were lucky to have Gavankar on Collider Ladies Night when the first half of Season 2 wound down in December, but we saved a clip from the conversation to share with you just in time for the show’s mid-season return on Thursday, February 24th. During that portion of that chat, Gavankar shed some light on how Jag’s arrival impacts Ren and what we can expect from their dynamic going forward:
“I think a lot of people out there have family politics that they have to fend for themselves within. And we go off and we create our own lives and find our people, and then when the people that we grew up with show up, it can really darken the environment. She’s under a lot of pressure, and we’re gonna learn a lot about what she’s dealing with outside of Helena through Jag.”
Given how much Gavankar popped in the role of Ren in the first half of Season 2, seeing the character’s evolution through the back half should be an especially big treat. Ren's excited about the bid she put on the local ranch, her family’s at war with the local drug distributor, and she’s going to have to make some big moves if she’s going to maintain her command in Helena with Jag around.
We’ll get a sense of how things are going for Ren when Big Sky returns on Thursday, February 24th. While you wait for Season 2, Episode 9, “Trust Issues,” why not check out Gavankar's full Collider Ladies Night interview? We’ve got the uncut version of the conversation below covering Gavankar’s earliest gigs to joining the Star Wars franchise, working on True Blood, joining the Big Sky cast and so much more!