Brandon Sklenar’s Spencer Dutton is alone again.
The third episode of 1923 season 2 saw the former game hunter making his way through Texas with Luca (Andy Dispensa) as they drove to a drop point with a truck full of contraband alcohol that Luca’s cousin had given them.
When Spencer decided to back down, though, knowing the risks of driving with a truckload of alcohol at the height of Prohibition, Luca disagreed, vowing to complete the task his cousin had given him — only to end up shot and killed while Spencer watched.
“I remember Brandon being pretty saddened by Luca’s demise,” Dispensa, who joined as Luca in the season 2 premiere, tells PEOPLE. “Sure, Spencer has Alex, the love of his life, but Luca is probably the closest thing he has to a platonic friendship in the entire series. It’s a complicated relationship that’s painted beautifully.”
Luca, who Spencer met while working on a ship headed to Texas and formed a friendship with after he saved him from a suicide attempt, “flipped” on Spencer’s “protector switch,” Dispensa says. And “even though it goes sideways, it’s almost, in a way, preparing him perhaps for the trials of fatherhood.”
Dispensa continues of the bond Luca and Spencer formed, albeit through “horrific” circumstances, “They’re both people who have experienced trauma [and] I think Luca brings out moments of tenderness and certain colors we haven’t seen from Spencer before.”
Luca’s demise comes ultimately from his “internal conflict [over his] idolization of Spencer and the allegiance he feels towards his cousins,” one of whom appeared to be the leader of an Italian mafia group in Texas and tasked Luca and Spencer with the booze delivery.
“[Luca] wants to be like [Spencer], someone who can fight his way out of any situation and is going the extra mile for his family, but he’s not that type of animal,” Dispensa notes. “Getting out of youth and finding yourself, especially if you’re small and sensitive in a world of brutality, can be extremely difficult. Luca deserved a better life.”
Dispensa calls Luca’s story “quite tragic,” but his time filming the series was anything but.
“It was a dream come true,” he says of the gig. “Working with Brandon was awesome. He’s a special actor. When you walk into a scene with him, he’s just living it. There’s this warmth he brings as Spencer that made it very easy to connect with.”
He adds of working with Skelnar, 34, “I’m really proud of our dynamic, the moments we were able to find together and to have had the chance to work with him on a story as epic as 1923.”
The first three episodes of 1923 season 2 are now streaming on Paramount+ and new episodes premiere Sundays.