Monica Raymund wants you to know Jackie is done. “She’s sick and tired of being sick and tired,” Raymund says, not so much delivering a soundbite as making a confession. “She’s been coping her whole life—booze, drugs, sex—just trying to feel something. And now she’s trying to figure out who she is without any of that.”
Welcome back to Hightown, the STARZ series where everyone is unraveling and the sand dunes are littered with secrets, spent needles, and this season, at least one missing woman and a murdered sex worker. Season 3 is the last dance, and Raymund, along with creator Rebecca Cutter, spoke with Kyle Meredith With… about wrapping things up in a blaze of emotional and narrative chaos.
“This one’s a Breakneck Pace,” Cutter says, capital B, capital P. “We had seven episodes to finish telling this story, so anything I’d been holding onto for a future season—we had to let it rip.” What she delivers is a jigsaw of blurred memories, beachside blackouts, and characters digging through the debris of their own self-destruction. Raymund’s Jackie is now off the wagon and off the force, which in this show basically means: it's Monday.
The season opens with a two-day memory hole and a body on the beach, a storytelling choice that Cutter says was as metaphorical as it was thrilling. “You’re investigating a mystery, but really, you’re investigating yourself. Jackie is the mystery this time,” she says. “She’s the body on the beach. That’s the energy.”
Raymund, who also directed an episode this season, says the emotional weight of the role is matched only by the challenge of switching hats behind the camera. “I’m still learning my process,” she admits. “But when I direct, I focus on performance. Because I’m an actor, I get how important it is for everyone in the scene to take ownership of the moment.”
She also praises Cutter for giving her the space to shape the show while maintaining the tonal consistency across directors. “My job is to make sure my bit is part of a whole. Rebecca is the boss, she created this world. Every word is her world.”
Cutter returns the compliment without hesitation: “She’s a fantastic director. And the love she shows the cast? That’s where the best performances come from.”
There’s a moment in the interview where Raymund reflects on Jackie’s destructive cycles, and it’s clear this show isn’t just drama for drama’s sake. “She wants to help people,” Raymund says. “She just doesn’t always know how to do that without hurting herself—or the people she’s trying to save.”
And then there’s Rachel, a new character introduced this season who might as well have kicked in the door wearing a 'chaos incoming' name tag. “She could’ve gone a few different ways,” says Cutter, “but Janine [Nebres] came in and just blew us away. We all got invigorated. You can’t take your eyes off her.”
The energy may be chaotic on screen, but off camera, the joy is what keeps it bearable. “We’re shooting really dark scenes,” says Raymund, “but we keep it light between takes. It has to be fun to do—even when it’s sad as hell.”
Cutter’s next project, The Hunting Wives, promises more of the same “sex, murder, soap, propulsion,” but with a Texas setting and some affluent housewife chaos. “A little lighter,” she jokes, “but not by much.”
So Hightown wraps not with a bow, but a flaming Molotov of memory gaps, unresolved trauma, and one last desperate attempt at redemption. It’s a story about addiction, but it’s also about agency—who gets to come back from the edge, and who’s left face down in the sand.
As Cutter puts it: “I had to leave it all out there.”
They did. And we’re better for it.
Watch the interview above and then check out the trailer below.
