It’s a Big La Petite Mort in ‘Rivals’ Season 2’s Summer Finale
'Rivals' clever half-season finale managed to create a fandom-mania moment and set itself up for Emmys glory. David Tennant for Best Actor, or we riot.
From the moment Disney+ revealed the Rivals Season 2 airing schedule, it’s been obvious that the streaming service had planned it with Emmy voters in mind far more than viewers. A three-episode premiere, followed by one a week for three weeks, was too unbalanced to be anything but a play to ensure over half the episodes were released before the May 31st deadline, while still streaming the finale the week before voting closes to create a natural, effective push for nominations.
While FX (a Walt Disney company) practically swept the Drama Emmys in 2025 with Shogun, Disney+ has never gotten the same kind of respect or attention. It’s a bit of a “that’s what the money is for!” mentality, that things that are baseline popular cannot be high art. Moreover, Rivals, with its bonkbuster source material and Bridgerton-level sex scenes, is prime stuff to be snubbed by Emmy voters as too geared towards women. Season 1 got zero nominations, so the strange rollout – complete with a second half of the season to come in...November!?... seemed oddly desperate.
That is, until I watched Episode 6, and discovered the show had decided to take a major zag from the source material. I held off on posting this until Sunday night to make sure everyone had a chance to watch first, because we’re about to talk massive spoilers from here on out.
