ABC Family/Tony RivettiHave all your tears dried yet, Chasing Life fans? Because ours definitely have not.
The ABC Family drama's season one finale was a serious roller coaster of emotions tonight, with April (Italia Ricci) finding out her cancer came back, and realizing she only had 24 hours before she had to move into the hospital for her second round of chemotherapy, attempted to detach herself from feeling any emotion about her relapse in order to stay strong for her loved ones and get her life in order.
That meant deciding whether or not she was going to fight for her job at the paper, effectively putting her work buddy out of a job since there were major budget cuts, so she ended up quitting knowing that she wouldn't be able to put forth the same effort he would. But most of all, that meant taking a good, hard look at her relationship with Leo (Scott Michael Foster), and surprising even herself when she accepted his spur-of-the-moment marriage proposal at her bedside in the hospital.
That's right, these two crazy cancer kids are engaged!
"I was so proud and relieved that they gave away the final answer!" Ricci tells E! News of April answering Leo's proposal before the credits rolled. "I was like, ‘Oh god, that would have been such a teasing cliffhanger! Thank you for not doing that because honestly that would have been so easy.' But I was okay with it. It was very left field and I liked it."
Expect season two to deal with the ramifications of April and Leo's hasty engagement while simultaneously going through her second round of chemo.
"You're going to see them go through what engaged people go through in addition to that," Ricci says. "And you're going to see how her family reacts to it and what they think of it, and you're going to see how everyone else reacts. Maybe this will light a fire under Dominic's [Richard Brancatisano] butt."
Ricci explains that even though Dominic is dating April's half-sister Natalie (Jessica Meraz), the main love triangle from the first half of the season—April, Leo and Dominic—is still very much in play as we head into season two.
"I think that love triangle will always be there," Ricci says. "Dominic and April were never really finished. They never tried because they never got the chance. There's always going to be those residual emotions for each other because maybe they could have been great, but they'll never know. They didn't break up because they didn't work out, they broke up because they never stood a chance against what she was dealing with."
She continues, "That's always going to exist there, and I don't know if that's going to affect him and Natalie. But I can't imagine that if him and Natalie didn't have that excitement over how forbidden them getting together was, I feel like they would have fizzed out a while ago. I'm curious to see how that's going to play out."
But the storyline Ricci is most looking forward to seeing play out in season two is how April handles her chemotherapy the second time compared to her first stay in the hospital.
"I'm excited for fans to see April take control of her diagnosis this time around," Ricci says. "The last time, she just sort of let everything happen and waited to see what was going to happen next, this time she's proactive about everything."
What did you think of the Chasing Life season one finale? Hit the comments section below to weigh in!