Mayor Of Kingstown: Mike & Iris’ Ending Means Season 2 Needs A Time Jump

Warning! SPOILERS for Mayor of Kingstown season 1.

Mayor of Kingstown has been renewed for a second season on Paramount+, leaving viewers wondering what comes next for Mike McCluskey and the rest of the characters of the gritty crime drama. Season 1 ended with both tragedy and a sense of hope for Mike (played by Jeremy Renner) and Iris (Emma Laird) as the two sat together in the quiet after the prison riot. How will the show move forward for the residents of Kingstown?

Mayor of Kingstown is a bit like The Wire for a new generation, portraying both the criminal justice system and criminals in a harsh – yet honest – light. Mayor of Kingstown‘s McCluskey serves as a go-between, acting as a convict advocate as well as brokering deals to keep the peace in a city where incarceration is a thriving business. When one of these deals goes wrong, Mike finds himself on the wrong side of a Russian mobster named Milo, who sends escort Iris to try to get close to Mike. When Mike fails to take Milo’s bait, Iris turns against Milo, and the mobster turns her over to a group of violent white supremacists who mistreat and violate her, then sell her to a rival gang. Iris is traumatized by these events, but she finds solace in Mayor of Kingstown at Mike’s cabin in the woods. Season 1 ends on the slightest note of hope as Iris discusses how she had considered ending her life while Mike was attending to the prison riot, because her abusers had taken a piece of her soul. She explains that she decided not to hurt herself only because she wondered, “What if your soul can grow back?” Given the slight optimism of the season finale’s last moment, the show seems to want viewers to believe that something good lies in the series’ future.

That’s why season 2 of Mayor of Kingstown would benefit from a significant time jump. Mike has expressed his desire to leave Kingstown to attend culinary school, and Iris told him that he was a great cook who should become a chef. By jumping ahead a couple years, Mayor of Kingstown could begin to payoff Iris’ hopefulness. She and Mike could move to Ohio for him to attend school, while she adapts to a life without sex work. Their relationship is still undefined, and giving them time to learn to trust each other will help to develop that connection, whether the show takes a romantic or platonic path. For all the characters, the time jump would allow the rawness of the prison riot to heal.

Only when the healing has occurred and the dust has settled to reveal a more “normal” life should Mike be dragged back to Kingstown. Milo (played by Aidan Gillen) may flee Kingstown, given his newfound freedom, but the mobster is unlikely to forget the wrongs that Mike and Iris did to him. Once time passes, he may return or send henchmen to deal with the McCluskey family and Iris. Mike was always a reluctant participant in the family business, but if he’s given time to experience happiness, his return to Kingstown will be a bittersweet reward for viewers.

Mayor of Kingstown gave Mike and Iris an interesting and original initial story arch, and season 1 ended in a way that would have been satisfactory had the series not been renewed. With the announcement that the series will return, Mayor of Kingstown needs to double down on the drama, and the best way to do that is to introduce joy into a series rife with the horrors of the criminal justice system, racism, and American history. A time jump could give the characters the sense of peace they’d need in order to move forward, opening the door for a different sort of drama.