Sullivan’s Crossing star Tom Jackson spoke to PopCulture.com about his dynamic with Scott Patterson. Jackson’s Frank is a big part of the Crossing and has been a dear friend to Patterson’s Sully for years. He proved that he would do anything for his friend when Sully needed to get out of the hospital earlier in Season 2, leading Frank to pull the fire alarm and bail him out in Episode 2, “A Storm is Brewing.”
However, with a hurricane on the way, the two had to hunker down in a cabin where secrets were revealed. The two spent a lot of time together for a few episodes, and Jackson told PopCulture that the “whole piece of the storyline was very enjoyable because it allowed Scott and I to dig deeper into not just the relationship between his character and mine, but also personally. We got to know each other more, and when it rains, it’s real rain.”
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“When it’s hurricane, it’s real hurricane. And when you’re out in a cabin trying to help somebody get through the dilemma of alcohol when you don’t actually know whether they are currently in it, it’s quite intense,” he continued. “But at the same time, as a responsible show, we, as human beings have for the last, call it, three years, have had a great weight upon our shoulders. The world has had a great weight upon its shoulders. And it’s really important for us to be able to provide what I call social prescriptions to make you feel better.”
“Not necessarily something you go to the medicine cabinet to get,” Jackson said. “But I was trying to figure out at some point what this show was all about without digging too deep. I wanted somebody else’s opinion, and I asked somebody. And they thought for a second, and they went, ‘If I was to describe this show, it’s pleasant.’ I thought, ‘Wow. I would never have thought of that word.’ So, when I talk about social prescription, Sullivan’s Crossing is a social prescription. It makes you feel better. It lifts the weight off your shoulders. You don’t have to think so much about your problems. And talking about the time that Sully and Frank spent in the cabin is really within their characters is a social prescription. Although it may not appear to be that on the surface.”
The moment in the cabin between Frank and Sully brought on some repressed memories for Sully, who admitted that he was the one who caused Lola’s (Amalia Williamson) accident when she was little, having hit her on her bike. Since there is surely a lot to uncover between the two with this secret now out in the open, at least between them, Jackson thinks “it’s important for honesty to come to the surface. I don’t believe if you hear the words truth and reconciliation. We use that a lot up here. You can’t reconcile something if you don’t know the truth. You have to find the truth. You have to admit the truth, and then you can reconcile. And that’s the case between Frank and Sully and Sully in particular, particularly with the circumstances of his past.”
The reveal about Lola’s accident not only came as a shock to viewers but to Frank, since he was the one who had found Lola afterward. And it’s not going to go away so easily. “It’s being a surprise to him is one thing, but being a shock to him is another,” Jackson explained in regards to Frank’s reaction. “And I think that he as the older, has a responsibility to mend not just the relationship between Sully and Lola, but as well with the community because this is going to be a shock to the community. And as we’re able and free to point fingers, often, if you don’t know enough about a situation, you can’t actually make an honest call. You can make an honest reaction, but you can’t necessarily make an honest call.”
With the second season winding down, there will still be a lot to look forward to regarding Frank and Sully’s secret. Not to mention the fact that Lola is starting to look more into the accident as well. There’s only a matter of time until the secret is made public to Lola and everyone at the Crossing, and who knows what the consequences will be. Fans will just have to see what happens in new episodes of Sullivan’s Crossing on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.