Why Timing Is Everything In Love

Minka Kelly and Josh Duhamel talk about Season 2 of Netflix’s ‘Ransom Canyon.’

Photo by Jeff Neumann/Netflix

Josh Duhamel and Minka Kelly star in Netflix’s Ransom Canyon, a heartwarming yet undeniably steamy drama set against the vast, rugged beauty of Texas Hill Country.

Though many would describe it as a sexy Western drama, the series centers on the idea that some people seem destined to be together, but only when the timing is finally right.

The show follows the intersecting lives of the people who call Ransom Canyon home, and season two, which premiered on July 23 with eight episodes, picks up six months after season one’s brutal ending.

Rancher Staten Kirkland (Josh Duhamel) is still fighting to reclaim his legacy after being unseated as trustee of his family’s Double K Ranch when he learns that the love of his life, Quinn O’Grady (Minka Kelly), has returned to town.

Quinn is settling back into small-town life after an exciting chapter in New York City, where she met and fell in love with someone new.

At the heart of the series is a universal question: Why do some people spend years orbiting each other before they finally find their way back together?

Duhamel and Kelly sat down to discuss the complicated love affair between their characters.

Staten tells Quinn that she’s always been the one, but that they each had to have other relationships and experiences. He concludes that they each had to experience love, loss, and everything in between before they were finally ready for one another.

Duhamel had a clear answer when asked why he thinks some people spend years orbiting each other before they finally connect.

“I just feel like it’s true because both people have to be at a place where they’re willing to engage,” he said, adding that love and fate go hand-in-hand.

“I think about my wife, for example, and, yes, I’m older than her, but I was ready for her when she was ready for me. It doesn’t matter how old, or when, or why. You just know when you know. And I think that this season, especially, plays with that idea a lot, and I think that my character is resistant to that because he doesn’t believe in all that stuff. He feels like it’s just a bunch of foo foo, but it’s not. It’s real, and I think that he sort of comes around and realizes that you can’t force it. You have to let it come to you, and when the time is right, the universe will tell us.”

For Staten and Quinn, that timing proves especially heartbreaking. They’ve loved one another nearly their entire lives, but fate kept pulling them apart. One night at a dance decades earlier changed the course of their lives, leading Staten to marry Quinn’s best friend, with whom he had a son. Now, after years of missed opportunities, grief, and other life experiences, the possibility of a future together finally exists.

When asked why she thinks this happens so often in real life, where two people can circle each other for years before the timing finally works out, Kelly acknowledged just how painful it would be to love someone that deeply for so long.

“She’s loved him her whole life, and when there’s finally the opportunity to come together and to really reveal to each other, we’ve actually both wanted each other this whole time; it just didn’t work out that way.”

Kelly revealed that at the end of season one, Quinn was done trying.

“She was so frustrated with him, that she finally goes, ‘Enough is enough. Okay, I accept it’s not going to happen.’ She decides to go to New York to fulfill her purpose and her dream to play with the New York Philharmonic. She’s living her best life, and she meets someone else, and it’s everything she’s ever wanted in someone.”

This new man is everything Staten was never able to be for her.

“He tells her all the things she’s always wanted to hear and treats her in the way she’s always wanted to be treated. It’s really easy in that scenario to romanticize the new, shiny thing, and then she goes home and is faced with this new version of Staten, who is now suddenly saying and doing all the things she’s always wanted, and it’s this fear of ‘Can I trust this?’”

To that, Duhamel laughed, “Yeah, of course.”

Kelly also laughed, adding, “Most men don’t know what they have until they lose it. I’m happy we got to show that. She’s faced with this new, funny, charming, adorable version of Staten that makes her laugh, and that reminds her of why she loves him so much, and she has this other guy who’s seemingly perfect on paper, and says and does all the right things, but it’s just the wrong person, and she has this history with Staten, which helps her remember that home isn’t necessarily a place, it’s a person, and it becomes pretty evident pretty soon that this is where she belongs.”

Ransom Canyon suggests that two people can share an extraordinary connection, but if the timing isn’t right, they may spend years finding their way back to one another. When asked whether timing is as important as chemistry, both agreed that chemistry has to come first.

“It’s hard to be able to put what makes a relationship work in a box with one rule,” said Kelly.

“Chemistry is an absolute,” added Duhamel.

“Chemistry is everything,” Kelly agreed. “Sometimes the timing sucks. But the chemistry is so strong, and you make it work anyway. You find a way to make it work because when you know, you know, this is your person. You can try and resist this chemistry all you want, but for better or worse, the universe is just going to keep bringing you back together. There’s this pull.”

Kelly concluded with her thoughts on timing, particularly when it comes to men.

“I think timing is a big thing when you’re younger. You know, a guy has to get to a point where he’s ready. Otherwise, it’s just going to be a mess unless he feels what it’s like to lose you, and then he’ll step up to the plate and go, ‘Wait, actually, I’m very sorry.’ If he’s lucky, she’ll give him another chance. And this show is about second chances.”