Jaina Lee Ortiz on the R.J. Decker season 2 premiere, from Emi and R.J.’s ‘cat and mouse’ dynamic...

Speaking with EW about what’s ahea, Ortiz teases “a challenge from another love interest” and a shocking reveal around Victor Ochoa’s fate. Jaina Lee Ortiz on the R.J. Decker season 2 premiere, from Emi and R.J.’s ‘cat and mouse’ dynamic to DWTS and SNL cameos Speaking with EW about what’s ahea, Ortiz teases “a challenge from another love interest” and a shocking reveal around Victor Ochoa’s fate. By Ryan Coleman :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/RyanColemanauthorphoto0081ce8f0254478080f35972c433877b.

Speaking with EW about what’s ahea, Ortiz teases “a challenge from another love interest” and a shocking reveal around Victor Ochoa’s fate.

Jaina Lee Ortiz on the R.J. Decker season 2 premiere, from Emi and R.J.’s ‘cat and mouse’ dynamic to *DWTS *and *SNL *cameos

Speaking with EW about what’s ahea, Ortiz teases “a challenge from another love interest” and a shocking reveal around Victor Ochoa’s fate.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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September 15, 2026 11:00 p.m. ET

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Jaina Lee Ortiz as Emi Ochoa on ‘R.J. Decker’. Credit:

Dana Hawley/Disney

- Jaina Lee Ortiz is taking EW behind the scenes of the *R.J. Decker* season 2 premiere.

- Ortiz, who plays Emi Ochoa on the ABC procedural, teases a “challenge from another love interest” to her “slow burn” romance with Scott Speedman’s lovable private eye, R.J. Decker.

- She also delves into the shocking fate of Victor Ochoa, Emi’s villainous father, played by David Zayas.

**This post contains spoilers for the *R.J. Decker* season 2 premiere, “The Point of Us Breaking.”**

For the devoted fans of both reality dance competitions and breezy police procedurals (we exist!), ABC is serving up a must-see twofer this fall: *Dancing With the Stars** *airing straight into *R.J. Decker *every Tuesday. The second season of Robert Doherty’s quirky dramedy about a lovable ex-con P.I. (played by Scott Speedman) premiered this week directly after the season 35 premiere of *DWTS*, and Jaina Lee Ortiz sat down for a lively Q&A with ** to break down just what happened, and where it’s all going.

It’s worth mentioning *DWTS* at the top, not just because of the kismet of its airtime before *R.J.*, but also because three faces familiar to dance fans show up in the opening scene of *R.J. Decker*’s season 2 premiere.

As Speedman’s ace investigator weaves through a typically colorful Fort Lauderdale beachfront crowd, tailing a possible pickpocket (season 33 winner Joey Graziadei), longtime *DWTS *pros Jenna Johnson and Val Chmerkovskiy begin cutting a rug as the centerpieces of a staged flashmob.

“I love that we’ve got some dancers from *Dancing with the Stars* on our show to sort of bring in some new eyeballs that have yet to discover us,” Ortiz says. “Because, you know, at the end of the day we’re a Florida-based show, and there’s a lot of weird, wacky stuff that’s infused in it. Really, anything can happen.”

Scott Speedman as R.J. Decker on ‘R.J. Decker’.

Dana Hawley/Disney

Though Ortiz’s Emi Ochoa doesn’t pop up in season 2’s opening scene, she did get to interact with the dance pros. “I was able to do some silly BTS, like, ‘This is my favorite dance move.’ Then Val comes over and we do a little salsa impromptu! And I’m barefoot in the streets of Fort Lauderdale,” she says with a laugh.

It was a natural convergence of Ortiz’s experiences, having “danced salsa professionally from 9 to 20,” she says. “We freestyled a little move and I’m like, ‘I miss it!’ Now I miss dancing so much. But it’s definitely a fun opener.”

Though the ABC synergy allowed Ortiz to step back into familiar terrain, she teases a season ahead that will chart a course straight into the great unknown. Season 1 ended with a bang, literally. Emi’s villainous father, the corrupt Sen. Victor Ochoa (David Zayas), was murdered in cold blood, his lifeless body floating in a pool one of the last images before season 1’s final fade to black back in April.

Though Emi and R.J.’s “simmering” dynamic was always complicated, given that it was Victor who set R.J. up for a crime he didn’t commit *and* sent his daughter to testify against R.J. (sending him to prison), Victor’s sudden death leaves things even more uncertain. “At the end of season 1, they leave off in this gray area,” Ortiz explains. “‘What are we? Are we an item? Is this exclusive?’ They’re both too afraid to actually make the jump, but there is this cat-and-mouse, very intense chemistry that they couldn’t get away from if they tried.”

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Victor’s death will impact more than just Emi’s relationship with R.J., of course. He may have been crooked, and she may have ultimately turned against him as season 1 came to a close, but Victor is (or rather, was) still Emi’s father.

“We get to see how she navigates her life professionally, also personally, how her dad’s death affects her relationship with R.J., and how she now walks through the world” in season 2, Ortiz says. “We start to discover who she is, what her purpose is, and how she defines herself as a woman, as a professional, without having the pressure of her dad. It’s a really complicated relationship with her and R.J., but I feel like it’s a slow burn, one of the slowest burns that I’ve ever experienced… and then comes in a test and a challenge from another love interest.”

The *R.J. Decker *ensemble is filled out by Kevin Rankin, who plays R.J.’s former cellmate and the always-trusty bar owner Aloysius “Wish” Aiken; Adelaide Clemens, who plays R.J.’s ex-wife and close friend, journalist Catherine Delacroix; and Bevin Bru, who plays Catherine’s wife, the tough yet tender-hearted Det. Melody “Mel” Abreu, who often finds her investigations crossing over with R.J.’s.

“There are a bunch of new discoveries” on the way in season 2, Ortiz pledges. Several of those discoveries appear to have been teased in Tuesday’s premiere, from Catherine beginning to suspiciously circle her ex’s new flame to Mel having to work with one of her own, a visiting FBI agent played by *Saturday Night Live *alum Sasheer Zamata.

Ortiz didn’t get to work with the visitors from *DWTS *or *SNL *on the premiere, joking that Speedman hogs all the guest stars, but ultimately, that’s “awesome because Scott Speedman is, I mean — I love working with him. How could you not fall in love with Scott? Because in a way, he is like R.J. He’s this charming sort of forgiving guy. You love to see him win, but you’re entertained when he doesn’t win. It’s great, and he is such a true professional.”

Bevin Bru, Adelaide Clemens, Scott Speedman, Kevin Rankin, and Jaina Lee Ortiz on ‘R.J. Decker’.

Justin Stephens/Disney

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*R.J. Decker* is a classic case-of-the-week procedural, which builds a season-wide arc in the background, episode by episode, while foregrounding the investigation of strange, distinctly Florida-flavored mysteries. The season 2 premiere sees one of the most audacious yet — a white nationalist paramilitary group operating in the Florida panhandle. Was Ortiz shocked by Doherty’s bold choice of story for the second-season opener?

“It shocks me all the time. There’s a lot of ‘Florida man’ weird stuff happening that you couldn’t possibly believe would be true, but then you go, ‘Oh no, actually it makes sense because, you know, Florida,’” she says, laughing. “So I love that we get to tap into that. I love that we get to see that side, and I feel like, for the most part, America will appreciate it. We’re on at 10 o’clock, you know? We can push the envelope a little bit and, and have a little more fun.”

Ortiz is as excited as *R.J.* fans to watch season 2 play out, and concludes the conversation by dropping both the biggest tease and the moment she’s most excited for fans to see: “I’m really excited for everyone to discover that, by episode 3, we get to find out who really did murder Victor Ochoa.”

*R.J. Decker* airs Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET/PT on ABC, and streams the next day on Hulu.

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Published: September 16, 2026 at 08:57AM on Source: MORNING MAG

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