After Wednesday's chilling season finale of Hulu's The Act, viewers were left wondering: will the hit show return for season two, and if so, what will it be about?
For the uninitiated, The Act is based on the true story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard , who is currently serving 10 years in prison for second-degree murder, after asking her then-boyfriend Nick Godejohn to kill her mother Dee Dee.
This came after years of living with Dee Dee, who suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy (recently renamed factitious disorder imposed on another, or FDIA), a mental health disorder where a caregiver makes up an illness or injury to the person under their care for attention and sympathy, often subjecting the victim to unnecessary medical treatments.
That's exactly what she did to Gypsy Rose , physically and emotionally abusing her by forcing her to stay in a wheelchair when she could walk, use a feeding tube when she could eat, and take unnecessary medications.
The finale chronicled the previously unseen moments after Dee Dee's murder (including, yes, that cringe-worthy sex scene that did happen IRL) and Gypsy and Nick's appearance in court, but it only scratched the surface of their trial and Gypsy's life in prison. Those are two areas the show could explore in season two-if, of course, they get one.
The Act co-creator Michelle Dean told Esquire in March that Hulu has not yet picked up the show for a second season, but if it is picked up, it still might be difficult to continue Gypsy's story, as Gypsy and her family have threatened to sue .
Gypsy emailed Bustle in March saying she planned to sue the show's creators for using her likeness without her permission. "I feel it is very unfair and unprofessional that producers and co-producer Michelle Dean has used my actual name and story without my consent, and the life rights to do so. Therefore, there will be legal action taken against the show's creators," she wrote. (Btw, Michelle Dean penned the viral BuzzFeed article that inspired the show.)
Gypsy's stepmother Kristy Blanchard also told the Springfield News-Leader that Dean cut off communication with her once the show went into development. "I reached out to Michelle, but she's blocked me on everything," she said. "I sent her a voicemail, 'Hi, how you doing?' Nothing rude, and when she called my phone, and I think when she recognized it was from Louisiana, she hung up the phone right away." The Blanchards are developing their own rival TV show titled By Proxy, according to the publication.
With all that in mind, it wouldn't be the most surprising if season two of The Act focused on another true-crime case altogether. Dean told Esquire in the same interview that The Act was conceptualized as an anthology show (similar to American Horror Story, which follows a different plotline every season). "Obviously, the title refers to a couple things," Dean said. "...The act of the crime, but also the act that Dee Dee and Gypsy were putting on for the public, so yeah. If there were a season two, those are the stories that we would be interested in telling."