Josh Folsom (Matt Lauria) and Allie Rajan (Mandeep Dhillon) are great friends on and off the set of CSI: Vegas. In Season 1, they worked mainly with each other.
This season, their relationship has changed, and they’re in the middle of a love triangle with the new detective Serena Chavez which bubbled to the surface in CSI: Vegas Season 2 Episode 7.
TV Fanatic chatted with Matt and Mandeep about Josh and Allie’s relationship, the love triangle with Serena, and how Allie helped crack the case concerning Bigfoot.
Hello, Matt and Mandeep. It’s great to see you. This episode is the first one you have worked together this season on a case. What was it like to team up again on a case?
Mandeep: So much fun. The Dream Team is back at it again.
Matt: Josh and Allie have such a good flow, don’t they as co-workers?
Mandeep: They do. It’s also lovely for us to get to work together.
Matt: Yeah, I miss you.
Mandeep: I miss you, too. I miss our lunch times together.
Matt: Last season, in every case, we worked together, so you’re hanging out with this person all day long, and we get on famously. So, we had lunch together, and you were there all day. But now I barely see her anymore because we’re doing different things.
This episode also brought the love triangle came to the surface. Certain people still think that Allie and Josh were a thing. And it also seemed to be the episode where Josh and Serena had issues.
Matt: Yeah, tricky, Serena. She’s got all these secrets.
Mandeep: Well, does she or do you have trust issues?
Matt: Shots fired. I think she misrepresented what was going on. You’re not going to want to hear this, but maybe Josh is concerned because he has feelings and cares. Perhaps he cares for Serena, and maybe that’s what’s beneath it all.
It was a tricky conversation, but Serena and Josh came through it admirably. It’s an uncomfortable situation that no one would have anticipated that Ali would return at that moment. Just bad timing, isn’t it?
Mandeep, what’s it like for Allie to work with Serena and Josh and see everything?
Mandeep: At the start, it was a massive shock for Allie. She was not expecting that. She was hoping to go back and declare her love and make a go of it.
It was hard initially, but as the series continues and she gets to know Serena and gets to know Serena away from Josh, she understands why Josh likes her. She likes her. So, that’s been nice to explore that and to be able to have a bit of girl power. It’s been entertaining.
Allie’s doing a great job at healing her heart and protecting her heart while also still having her heart open to wanting the best for these two people and the best for Josh.
Will the three of you be able to become friends?
Mandeep: Yeah, I believe so. Who knows what the writers have in mind, but I think so.
Matt: They’re all good people at their core. They’re all people working hard every day to give of themselves to make the world a better place, and they’re all incredibly hard-working and devoted to their jobs.
They’re all enjoyable. Josh and Allie have a great shorthand because, for years, they’ve been working side by side and developing rapport and a meaningful personal friendship.
All three of us, even though Serena is newer to the picture, are fun-loving, good people. So, we don’t know how it will all shake out, but the constant is that everybody’s a good person with a good heart who’s doing their best. And then, these complicated situations arise, and we do our best to navigate them.
Okay. Let’s discuss the case. How did they develop the concept of Bigfoot causing a fire?
Matt: I don’t know how they came up with that.
Mandeep: Me neither. The first thing was a massive footprint.
And that’s where they were like, is this big foot, and it turns out it could be Bigfoot.
Matt: Oh, I thought you meant the writers and how they came up with this.
Mandeep: I’d love to be in the writers’ room to see what they’re doing there.
Matt: But then there’s video footage, and it’s like are we looking at Bigfoot here?
What interested you the most in this case, since it wasn’t a typical house fire and these bizarre clues kept dropping?
Mandeep: That’s what’s quite exciting for them. These characters get as excited as the audience gets to solve stuff. And when stuff is not as you’d expect or random stuff keeps popping up, it makes the job fun. They don’t see it as a challenge. They see it as an exciting opportunity.
I noticed that Allie seemed to connect with the suspect. How do you think that helped solve the case?
Mandeep: When Allie connects with people, she sometimes can’t help but bring her stuff into cases, whether she shares that with people or not or whether it’s evidence or not. But it does give her that driving force not to give up. She won’t give up until it’s until the truth is out there, which is excellent.
We all need that. Whatever that is that drives us or motivates us.
And what has been your favorite part of season two so far?
Mandeep: My favorite part of season two is something we filmed the other day with Matt and me. It was a stunt, and it was entertaining. I don’t know if I can go into that too much. But yeah, I like doing stunts.
Matt: You’re great at that, by the way.
Mandeep: Thank you so much. So are you.
Matt: Thanks. She was put into a scary situation and made it look easy.
Mandeep: Thanks. I enjoy stuff like that.
Matt: It was nice hanging with you on set. It’s a pun.
Great answer about Allie. That was insightful how Allie brought something of herself into the case.
So Matt, what is your favorite part of season 2 so far?
Matt: When we get together, we can not stop laughing, and in this episode with Bigfoot, we got the giggles bad, and they could not write it in. It was a hopeless situation.
One of my favorite things about the season so far is that the audience and crew behind the show responded to how the writers infused character-reveal moments throughout the first season, and they’ve doubled or tripled down on it that this season.
So what’s fun is getting to know each of these characters even more intimately, what makes them tick, and how they react in certain situations. For instance, you were talking about the relationship tension with Serena. Then, we’ve got some exciting relationship tension between Allie and Josh.
And what Mandeep said about how Allie. We learn more about Allie as she brings more of herself to cases.
So far, my favorite part of the season is the cases like Bigfoot. It’s fun and dynamic to be a part of those. It’s fun to be a part of these passionate stories, but I love getting to know the characters more, and I love showing up to work because all of the actors and the crew are amazing people.
Thanks for chatting with us, Mandeep and Matt.
CSI: Vegas Season 2 airs at 10/9c on Thursdays on CBS, and you can watch CSI: Vegas online right here via TV Fanatic.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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Laura Nowak is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.
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