Ex-plosive endings
The Ex-Wife executive producers Chiara Cardoso and Andy Morgan break down the making of season two’s final showdown – a dramatic stand-off filmed in an abandoned quarry.
An adaptation of Jess Ryder’s novel that debuted on Paramount+ in 2022, The Ex-Wife introduces Tasha (Celine Buckens), who appears to have the perfect life – she lives in a gorgeous house with loving husband Jack (Tom Mison) and a beautiful baby girl. But the constant presence in their lives of Jack’s ex-wife Jen (Janet Montgomery) means she starts to think something is going on between them.
Picking up the story three years later, The Ex-Wife Part 2 now finds Tasha hiding out in Cyprus with her daughter following the dramatic car accident at the end of season one. Meanwhile, Jack, released from prison after surviving the crash he caused, is searching for Tasha and for redemption from his ex-wife, Jen (now played by Katie McGrath).
When Jack learns that his daughter is very much alive, he sets out to track her down. But Tasha vows that she “will be the one to finish it” should Jack discover where she has been hiding, leading to questions over how far a parent will go to protect their child.
A coproduction between Clapperboard Studios, Blackbox Multimedia and Night Train Media, which shares worldwide distribution rights with All3Media International, The Ex-Wife Part 2 launched on Paramount+ earlier this year.
Here, BlackBox Multimedia executive producer Chiara Cardoso and Clapperboard Studios EP Andy Morgan discuss a key scene from the four-part psychological thriller and reveal how they brought to the screen its climactic “face-off” in the harsh, sunbaked surroundings of an abandoned quarry in Cyprus.
Chiara Cardoso, BlackBox Multimedia: The quarry scene in episode four marks the emotional and cinematic climax of The Ex-Wife’s second season. It’s the point where everything the story has been building toward finally collides — visually, emotionally and morally.
Filming this sequence was no small feat. We were in the middle of a heatwave, working in harsh, exposed conditions. The stunt work was intense and physically demanding. But what could have been just a tough shoot ended up becoming one of the most memorable. Director Paul Walker really leaned into the location, using the stark, open space of the quarry not just as a backdrop, but as a character in its own right. The heat, the silence, the dust — it all heightened the tension, creating a setting that felt as raw and unforgiving as the confrontation itself.
At the heart of the scene is the final face-off between Tasha and Jack. And this isn’t just another fight — it’s their last conversation. Jack comes in hard, not with violence, but with accusation. He calls out Tasha’s choices, claiming she’s been hiding behind the idea of doing things “for Emily,” when really, she’s been acting for herself. It’s manipulative. It’s cruel. But it also touches on the core of the show: what do we tell ourselves to justify the choices we make? And who pays the price?
Throughout the series, we’ve watched Tasha go further and further down a dark path, each time convinced she’s doing what’s best for her daughter. But this is the moment where she has to confront whether that’s really true. It’s no longer just about survival. It’s about accountability; about facing the consequences of the story she’s been telling herself.
And just when you think the scene can’t turn again, Jen arrives. Her presence shifts everything. Suddenly, we’re in a different kind of standoff. It’s part western, part emotional reckoning. Jen brings the triangle of the series back together, and she holds all the power. In that moment, the big question isn’t what Tasha or Jack will do – it’s what Jen will choose. Love or justice? Loyalty or truth?
Like Tasha, Jen is forced to decide what kind of person she’s going to be, and what kind of future she wants to protect. It’s a moment about choice, about stepping into responsibility, and about how even the most decisive action can come from a place of deep conflict. For a character whose life was upended as she was dragged further and further into someone else’s nightmare, now she gets to have the final say.
The quarry scene is where everything converges: story, performance and craft. It was one of the toughest scenes to shoot, and one of the most rewarding. Because in the end, it’s not just about what happens. It’s about what it costs.
Andy Morgan, Clapperboard Studios: I think we all felt a degree of pressure when thinking about the final sequence of season two. With season one having such a spectacular and (literally) explosive car crash sequence, how could we top that, from both a creative perspective but also one that served the story and brought satisfactory closure to the series as a whole?
For a while, we toyed with various ideas as settings for the finale. We had a potential fall from a rooftop in an earlier episode, so needed to avoid anything similar. We’d heard about an abandoned mine complex just outside Nicosia, close to our production base. The team went to recce the mine, which was such an atmospheric location and could’ve worked really well. However we learned there was a particularly grisly local story attached to the place, which made us steer away from it.
We asked the creative team on the ground to show us any cool locations they could find, the plan being that we’d tailor the script around it. Our brilliant location manager, Nastazia Christodoulou, showed the team the amazing quarry and we were blown away. Whereas season one had a very cool, clean and precise aesthetic, season two feels a bit more raw and dynamic with dirtier, grittier locations, which the quarry fitted perfectly and really suited the intensity of the story.
The quarry sits in a huge dust bowl, with a complex web of towers and conveyor belts all intertwined – an incredible iron structure that wraps around you like a gladiatorial arena. It was immediately cinematic without us having to do very much to it. We brought over Hungarian stunt co-ordinator László Kósa, who did such an amazing job on season one with the car crash. Walking round the location, he had so many ideas, which once shared with director Paul Walker, we knew that was our location for the finale. It became almost like a western, with our three leads in a Mexican stand-off… I recall Tom Mison (Jack) compared it to The Good, The Bad & The Ugly.
Filming at the quarry was incredibly challenging for a number of reasons, but mostly because of the brutal heat. Temperatures were just over 40°C, but with zero breeze and the sand basically acting like a giant reflector, it felt even hotter, and with very little shade for the cast and crew. You can almost feel the heat coming through the screen. And these were big set pieces, with the main cast plus stunt doubles, jumping around the various structures and buildings. It was a huge challenge for all the team, and everyone was very conscious of health and safety. If temperatures get above certain levels, you have to stand the shoot down, a ruling enforced by the Cypriot government. We had to ensure we had the infrastructure and procedures in place to keep people cool at all times.
Despite all of this, on the second day of filming in the quarry, director Paul Walker managed more setups than he’d ever done before. After two days of dust, heat and sweat, the cast and crew took great pleasure getting back to the hotel and jumping straight into the pool.
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tagged in: All3Media International, Andy Morgan, BlackBox Multimedia, Chiara Cardoso, Clapperboard Studios, Night Train Media, Paramont+, The Ex-Wife