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After finally getting Reba McEntire and Rex Linn‘s characters together on Happy’s Place, the show broke the characters up over his secret about sister Isabella.
During the Friday, January 30, episode of the hit NBC sitcom, Bobbie (McEntire) was getting ready to tell Emmett (Linn) she loved him — a relationship milestone — when Isabella (Belissa Escobedo) found out that Emmett knew about her existence and didn’t say anything for years.
“I don’t know if Isabella necessarily wanted them to split. I think that’s something Bobbie came to on her own,” Escobedo, 27, exclusively told Us Weekly about Bobbie’s decision to call it quits with her new boyfriend. “That was for reasons of her own.”
Escobedo speculated what led to the decision, adding, “It was probably her just not wanting to talk about the hard things. Because it would be a hard conversation to have — a really hard one. Sometimes you just don’t want to do it.”
She continued: “And you say, ‘Let’s just not do the hard thing.’ But I think Isabella is always like, ‘Let’s just do the hard thing.’ Because she wants that connection. So I think Isabella was a little sad to see them split up. She wanted them to heal and she would love to be the person to facilitate it.”
Earlier in the season, Emmett revealed to Steve (Pablo Castelblanco) that Happy previously told him about his secret daughter, Isabella, which he never told Bobbie. The secret hung over the characters for a handful of episodes before it was finally addressed.
“It shocked all of us when we learned that. It’s very sad when you think about it. This was the first father figure Isabella had in her life that we know of. To have it also be someone who lied to her — who knew about her and didn’t seek her out — it’s like, the heartbreak all over again,” Escobedo noted to Us. “It’s definitely sad to look back on the other moments. Emmett was the first person that she felt accepted by when she came and now we know it’s because he knew about her.”
Escobedo said she was “excited” to finally see everyone’s reaction to the revelation.
“It’s going to be a doozy,” she teased. “It doesn’t blow up for Isabella as much as one might expect. I think the focus is Bobbie — and that’s Isabella’s focus as well.”
Despite the onscreen breakup, Escobedo teased a potential reconciliation, adding, “Isabella will always be gunning for that because I think Bobbie’s happiness is always going to be at the forefront for her. If that means dating, she’s going to push Bobbie to date and she’s going to push Emmett in her direction. Because that’s how they got together in the first place was her instigating. So she’ll do it again.”
The rest of the season will also continue to focus on Bobbie and Isabella’s bond as sisters.
“It’s a lot of them being there for each other in different moments. We see a lot of Isabella stepping up to be there for Bobbie,” she shared. “Then we see Bobbie stepping up to be there for Isabella. It’s just more of that, less of the butting heads and more of the sisterhood.”
Escobedo concluded: “The writers focused a lot more on Isabella growing as a business owner. So we see a lot of her stepping into that role. This season it’s more Bobbie handling her emotions and Gabby [Melissa Peterman]. Meanwhile, Isabella has taken the role of keeping the bar together.”
Happy’s Place airs on NBC Fridays at 8 p.m. ET before streaming the next day on Peacock.
