Love & Death Season 2 Would Be a Tall Tale

The following contains spoilers for Love and Death Season 1.

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HBO’s Love & Death concludes in the courtroom. Candy Montgomery (Elizabeth Olsen) details the events of her rampage killing of Getty Gore, which included an ax carried by Gore into the living room, a bout of wrestling, and a trigger—“shhhh”—that sent Candy into such a rage as to repeatedly strike Gore. The psychotic break, described in another testimony by Dr. Fred Fason as a dissociative event, was a description evidently bought by the jury and deemed sufficient enough of a defense to find Candy not guilty.

The real-life case of Candy Montgomery proceeded in a similar manner with attorney Don Crowder enlisting Dr. Fred Fason, a psychologist and hypnotist, to testify in Candy’s defense. Through hypnosis, Fason reportedly helped Candy unpack moments of emotional trauma, dating back to age 4, when her mother did indeed “shhh” Candy. On the stand, Candy said Gore had also used the phrase and that Candy had “freaked out.”

The jury found Candy not guilty, evidently swayed by both testimonies. (You can read about the real-life trial in the 1984 Texas Monthly article “Love and Death in Silicon Prairie, Part II: The Killing of Betty Gore,” itself taken from the book Evidence of Love: A True Story of Passion and Death in the Suburbs by John Bloom and Jim Atkinson.)

But while the trial may wrap up events in the case and the source material for the HBO series, will it mark the end of the show?

Will Love & Death get a Season 2?

There has been no announcement yet for a second season. HBO itself has only referred to Love & Death as a “limited series,” meaning it will likely run for one season only.

If the series were to continue the storyline, it would be doing so without much source material. The lives of its principal characters are not widely documented following the trial. Any future drama would likely be fabricated.