Faking It showrunner takes us behind the scenes of 'It's All Good'

If you’re reading this, I’m assuming you’ve watched the Faking It season 3 premiere, “It’s All Good.” (If not, you shouldn’t be reading this!) The episode title is dripping with irony, because things are definitely not all good between Karma and Amy. Turns out a summer apart has put a lot of distance between them. Now I know that there’s a lot of Karmy ‘shippers out there who probably want to kill me. Why can’t Amy and Karma be a couple?! At least let them be best friends! It may seem cruel for them to be estranged, but it’s the most realistic scenario for two people who’ve been through what they’ve been through.

Each season I invite the actors to join us in the writer’s room to discuss their characters. After all, they’re the ones who bring them to life, and they often have instincts that we haven’t considered in the writer’s room.

Rita Volk was excited for Amy. She was finally taking action to move past her feelings for Karma. Rita was adamant that Amy shouldn’t have to apologize for taking care of herself.

Katie Stevens was sad for Karma. True, she kissed Amy in the pool in episode 219, but she was drunk! Besides, she apologized and wanted to work through it. Amy was going to skip town without saying good-bye.

Both had valid arguments. There’s no way around the issues between them, our only choice is to go through them. Strap yourselves in — as Shane says in the next episode: “Fights between best friends turn ugly quick.” Enjoy the ride, I promise it’ll be over before you know it.

Some other fun facts about “It’s All Good” include:

• The Next Scorsese – This episode was directed by Jamie Travis, who also directed the pilot as well as many other key episodes for the series. He’s brilliant! (Need proof? Watch here.) It was his idea to reintroduce each character with them speaking directly into the camera. He always brings a bold visual style that I love.

• Frosty Frenemies – The pool scene was shot in November and it was C-O-L-D! We weren’t able to heat the pool, so Michael and Katie had to submerge themselves in ice water, over and over again. Here’s a BTS pic they took before they were miserable:

• #WhereIsLisbeth? — Lauren is down one minion. What happened to Lisbeth? We’ll answer that question at the end of the season. Stay tuned!

• “I’m not on Twitter” — Did anyone catch our inside joke when Amy said this? IRL, Rita Volk is terrible at Twitter and only does it when I beg her to.

• L’Chaim Liam! – This season we thought it would be fun for Liam to explore his faith. IRL, Gregg Sulkin is Jewish (and a real mensch). In fact, he had his Bar Mitzvah at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

• Brew & Chew – We introduced this coffee house set last season, but now it has become our very own Central Perk. I love the set, especially because it’s partially outdoors and gets great natural light. It also felt like Austin. Our Production Designer Michael Fitzgerald is brilliant at what he does. Fun fact: He designed the movie GBF, which was written by Faking It writer George Northy and starred Michael Willet!

• Aloha, Dylan! — Jordan Rodrigues joins the cast as Karma’s new boyfriend (and Shane’s new bff). Jordan is Australian and a sick dancer. He starred in an Australian teen show called Dance Academy. Find it, and binge it now! I must admit, I almost named the character Keanu, but the writers saved me from that bad idea.

• Budget Bonfire – We shoot the show in California, but with the drought, there are very few places you can have an open fire. Plus, it’s expensive to shoot outside on location at night. So we built this bonfire set inside on a sound stage. Everything is fake!

• Chair backs! — This was the first season we had chair backs with our logo on them. It finally felt like we were a real TV show!

• Intersex Rights = Human Rights — What Leila says in the episode is true, the UN did affirm the emerging Intersex human rights movement. We’re so proud to be a small part of the increasing visibility for the Intersex community.

• Bailey the Bad Ass — Unlike Lauren, Bailey DeYoung isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. In fact, she and her hubby, Tyler, are renovating their first house themselves! There’s an HGTV show right there!

• Tracks of her Tears — How beautiful was the scene where Katie Stevens shed a lone tear? That was actually in the script, but I never expected her to pull it off. Someone give this girl her Emmy, please! At least a nomination! Here’s a pic I took in the mixing booth, which is the last stage of the post-production process before the episode airs:

And coming up on season 3 of Faking It… There are so many fun twists and turns ahead, including these:

• Everyone will have a new love interest, and we have some great new actors joining the show to mix things up. We’ve got girl/girl kisses, boy/boy kisses, and girl/boy kisses so everyone is happy!

• Not only will we continue to follow Lauren’s Intersex journey, we’re also introducing a transgender character in a ground-breaking story I guarantee you’ve never seen before.

• We’re celebrating the holidays! This season will feature Halloween, Christmas, Hanukkah, and culminate at our epic New Year’s Eve finale!

• Karma and Shane form a band — and yes there will be singing! (No, we are not becoming Glee.)

• We’ll get to see Bailey DeYoung dance again. Because we can’t get enough.

• Someone’s viral video will come back to haunt them — and you’ll get to see it!

• Two words: Game Night!

• Finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: AMY WILL LABEL HERSELF! But you’ll have to stay tuned to find out what label she picks.

If that’s not enough to get you excited, then I’ll leave you with this. It’s next week’s title card! You get to see it first! Thanks so much for supporting our show!

Faking It airs Tuesdays at 10:30 p.m. ET on MTV.