After just six months of waiting for the highly anticipated next chapter of our favorite spy trotting the world and getting into more than mischief, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan returns for its fourth and final season on Friday. The last six episodes from showrunners Carlton Cuse and Graham Roland, starring John Krasinski as the eponymous character, are sure to leave fans at the edge of their seats, but as the Prime Video flagship series wraps up, series stars Abbie Cornish and Betty Gabriel have made an incredible impression with fans wanting more. In the possibility of a spinoff series, could we see the two come back? In an exclusive with Collider, the show’s leading ladies talk about what could potentially come next while dishing on their respective characters.

The final season of Jack Ryan sees Jack (Krasinski) on his most dangerous mission yet as the intelligence officer is tasked with unearthing internal corruption stemming from foreign and domestic threats. With far worse realities taking place beneath the surface, with the help of Greer (Wendell Pierce), Mike (Michael Kelly) and the guidance of CIA director, Elizabeth Wright played by Gabriel, the dangers that threaten the U.S. are much closer to home than any of them could have imagined. In addition to Jack tending to national security, he is also trying his hardest to make the relationship he had with Dr. Cathy Mueller, played by Cornish, a strong reality. After having been last seen in Season 1, Cornish returns with much fan fervor as many following the books and films are aware that Cathy inevitably becomes Jack’s wife.

In chatting about the final season with Collider in a Q&A, Cornish and Gabriel reveal what surprised them the most, the relationships they’ve forged on and off-screen and if there is more to their stories after these final episodes conclude.

COLLIDER: I’m so happy to chat with you both about the show! The final season is phenomenal. I loved all the episodes, and just looking at everything so far with this season, it has been so intense for both Cathy and Wright, and I’m wondering, what was the biggest surprise about your characters this year that you never imagined coming?

ABBIE CORNISH: I think for me, personally, I didn’t see Cathy getting caught up in his world. You know, in Season 1, they were so separate; what he did and the life that he was leading when outside of their relationship. It was so cool to just be in it for a minute.

Also, Betty, Wright is in a tough position this year with the confirmation hearing, and her hands are tied with a lot of what’s happening with Jack. Can you tease what her direction is going to look like this year?

BETTY GABRIEL: Oh, wow. It’s a bit challenging without giving any spoilers, but we do see that she leaves the Ivory Castle of the CIA and goes out into the world. So that’s kind of, I think, intriguing, and within that, as she’s having this sitdown with the Nigerian President, it’s a really interesting conversation where they explore topics that I was surprised [by]. I was like, “This is the Jack Ryan show, and we’re talking about being Black?” [Laughs] I think that’s great, and I think the audience, hopefully, will be sort of like, “Oh!” Or like, “Yeah!”

Image via Prime Video

Yeah, for sure. And Abbie, Cathy is back, and I know a lot of fans are really excited. When we’re looking at the original books and then the movies, it’s also Jack’s last chance to make things right with her. So, what can you share about the relationship this season and the test they’ll be going through?

CORNISH: So, in this season, we come into it, and they’ve already decided to be together. So to give their relationship a second go. I think at the end of Season 1, it’s open-ended, and they weren’t entirely committed to each other, so it’s kind of cool. Straight off the bat, we have two people that we want to see together that are together, they’re actively together, and it’s really sweet.

Betty, I love how you share a lot of scenes with Wendell [Pierce’s] Greer this season. How has that relationship grown to what it is versus Season 3 when you guys basically all first met?

GABRIEL: Right, it didn’t seem like we were all in each other’s corner at first. Well, you know, Greer and Ryan, they’re two peas in a pod, but I was the foil and the sort of adversary, so to speak. But here at the top of this season, after what they all went through last season, we see that they’re almost—especially with Wright and Greer—there’s one really touching scene, there’s a couple of them, and we see that they’re almost family. To see his family, his actual family, and how complicated that is, that reality is, I don’t know, there’s just a really beautiful juxtaposition of the career-family, the work-family, and the family-family, that I think is quite lovely and real.

I think one of the interesting things about watching this season was that there was the theme of family permeating in every scene, every episode, and it was like, found family; it was making a family, like Jack trying to get back with Cathy, and then obviously we saw Greer. And we saw little elements, also, of Wright, she had somebody. But we don’t know much about it. With that sort of family aspect — I watch this with my sister and my dad, and we love it so much — when you have a show this broad, what does it feel like for you guys making these shows when there’s a huge audience watching it and relating to it? Especially those actual nuggets that are something that you can relate to — not the action sequences, we don’t all just drive off of cliffs like Jack does.

GABRIEL: [Laughs] Right? I mean, it’s a pleasant surprise. I think you could just as easily make it all action-packed, all gun-toting, and it would still do well. But these moments, these slices of life, really being folded in, you create a bigger, fuller character with all of them, and I think that’s so rewarding for me as an audience member. That’s what I wanna see. I wanna see the entirety of a human being, not just them flying off a building.

Image via Prime Video

Yeah! And Abbie, you got to come back this season, so I’m wondering, what was that like? Was it like coming for like a school reunion? Because I feel like a lot of elements have changed, the production was higher, and I feel like there was more going outside for shooting. What was that like?

CORNISH: Yeah, I mean, just strangely enough, it felt very similar. When we shot Season 1, we were in Montreal, so we had a Canadian crew, and for Season 4, we’re in Budapest with a Hungarian crew, so that was a different experience for sure, behind the scenes. In terms of the show, everything felt very much the same. It’s crazy to think that so much time has passed from 2017 to when we shot last year in 2022. I mean, it’s wild, right? But yeah, it was sort of an easy thing to step back into, in a way.

Did each of you have a favorite moment filming this season and maybe even the entire series? Was there something that when you filmed it you were like, “Oh, this is a very special show for me. This is going to be something that goes with me wherever I go?”

CORNISH: I enjoyed just getting into the action a little bit. That was really fun. Yeah, it was cool, I felt like a big kid, you know? I got to do some of the stuff that the guys are doing, so it was fun.

GABRIEL: I did not get to do any fun things, but what I consider fun, especially this season, was I got to—it was scary, but I got to walk into a room full of people as a Senate hearing room, I gave this big, beautiful speech, and I almost feel like there’s a little badge of honor, it’s invisible, but it’s like a little badge of honor or accomplishment as an actor to do that, to just speak in a room full of people.

Image via Prime Video

Before I let you guys go, Abbie, I know that we got to see Cathy really take off this season and we also get to see Wright coming into her own, seeing what happens at the end — I’m not going to spoil it — but I’m wondering, do you think there’s a possibility we could see your characters come back for maybe a spinoff series with Michael Peña’s character since he is one of the [Tom] Clancy original creations?

CORNISH: I’m not sure. I mean, there’s so much content, in terms of the Jack Ryan Empire, and also in terms of the characters, so I’m not sure where anything will end up. But it’s fun, and it’s exciting, and people love the show.

The final season of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan is now streaming on Prime Video with a new episode dropping every Friday. Check out Collider’s interview with John Krasinski, Michael Kelly and Wendell Pierce below.