Nikki Rodriguez Talks Sex Scenes & That Walter Boys Finale Kiss

Jackie Howard is a whole new woman in Season 3 of My Life With the Walter Boys, which meant Nikki Rodriguez had her “first filming experience” performing a sex scene. The new season, which released Aug. 6 on Netflix, has Jackie taking a pivotal next step with her boyfriend Cole Walter. But as complications around their divergent futures drive a wedge between them, Jackie and Cole’s relationship is a big question mark by the cliff-hanger finale. As the fourth season gets started on production, Rodriguez tells Elite Daily what that last-minute kiss really means.

Spoiler alert: This post discusses events from the My Life With the Walter Boys Season 3 finale.

After two seasons being caught between Cole and Alex Walter, Season 3 finally lets Jackie explore a relationship with Cole... for a while, at least. After professing their love for each other in Season 2’s finale, Jackie and Cole start to get physical in the barn, before a rude interruption. Then, as Jackie shows Cole the abandoned convenience store she plans to remodel into a community center, the two lovebirds have sex for the first time.

“This is a whole new side of Jackie,” Rodriguez tells Elite Daily of the season’s steamier moments. Although it was the actor’s first time filming a sex scene, she didn’t find it to be “any different from filming any other scene.” Instead, her main focus was communicating how the two hookups were distinct emotional experiences for Jackie.

“They’re similar, but they’re different,” Rodriguez says. “I think the end of Episode 3 [the barn hookup] is an in-the-moment type of vibe. And the end of Episode 4 [at the community center] is both of them consciously making a decision. I think it’s really nice we got to explore both.”

However, the rest of the season isn’t exactly smooth sailing for Jackie and Cole. Their relationship crumbles when Jackie’s uncle Richard and her childhood friend Eliot convince Cole that he’s distracting Jackie from her dreams of attending Princeton, causing him to break up with her without giving her a reason for the abrupt split.

This dichotomy between Jackie’s passion for Cole and the Silver Falls community versus her long-held ambition to get an Ivy League education is the main theme of Season 3. And although it seems like Richard and Eliot are the bad guys for pushing Jackie toward Princeton and away from Cole, Rodriguez can see their side of things.

“I would love to see Jackie go to Princeton, I have to be honest,” Rodriguez says. “Because that was her original dream and goal when she first got to Silver Falls. I’ve always been really adamant that I want to see her follow her dreams.”

“Jackie’s so focused on Cole this season — she doesn’t really see anything or anybody else.”

What she sees a flaw in is the idea that Jackie can pick only one path for her life. “You don’t have to choose! You can have both!” Rodriguez says she wants to scream to her character. “In a perfect world, she could have her focus and her drive and what she wants in her life and career, and also some of the stuff that she loves about Silver Falls. I think both are really good for her, but I would really like to see her go to Princeton.”

The future is more up in the air than ever after Season 3’s cliff-hanger finale, in which Cole gets into a life-threatening car crash while racing to try to repair things with Jackie. At the same time, Jackie kisses Eliot at the opening party for her community center. (Well, more accurately, Eliot kisses her.) Rodriguez clarifies that Jackie doesn’t really see Eliot as a romantic option — more so as a representation of what her academic life could look like — so the season-ending smooch wasn’t as mutual as it may have seemed.

“I think Jackie is totally caught off guard. I actually think it’s a total miscommunication, to be honest,” Rodriguez says. “Jackie’s so focused on Cole this season — she doesn’t really see anything or anybody else. Eliot’s just a familiar family friend that she’s really inspired by because he’s living this life that she always thought she wanted. She even told him that she’s not ready for anything more. So I think it’s just a miscommunication between the two of them.”

All the college talk in Season 3 brings up another pressing question: Just how long will My Life With the Walter Boys continue? At the end of Season 3, Cole has been accepted into the University of Texas, and Jackie is considering a trip to Greece to beef up her Princeton application. The actors have already started production on Season 4, but after that, the show will have to decide how to deal with the main cast being spread out among various colleges.

Rodriguez admits she’s in the dark on future plans beyond Season 4, but she’s intrigued by the prospect of seeing the characters aged up a bit. “I think it would be interesting to see them later and how that dynamic could work or not,” Rodriguez says. “But honestly, I have no idea.”

For now, the actor is just hoping Jackie and Cole can find a way back to each other. “They’re being affected by outside forces so much,” Rodriguez says. “All they need to do is come together and talk about the problem.”