If you ever pass Josh Segarra on the street, there's a chance he could be wearing clothes from The Other Two.
The actor, who plays fashion designer-turned-nurse Lance Arroyo, revealed in a phone interview with Mashable that he owns several of Lance's costume pieces, including cargo sweatpants from the show's second season.
"Every time I put them on I think about Lance," he said. "I'm walking around incognito with my pants on, and I hope somebody says, 'Hey man, I like The Other Two,' so I can go, 'Yeah? You know these pants are from The Other Two, right?'"
His excitement over these pants and a hypothetical fan encounter is absolutely infectious, and one of the many ways in which Segarra proves himself to be the ultimate hype man for The Other Two. By his own admission, Segarra is a fan of the show first and foremost, and a cast member second — and his enthusiasm comes through loud and clear. Throughout our interview, he praised The Other Two's creators Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider, costume designer Jill Bream, and his castmates. He even talked about hyping the show up to passersby while shooting Season 3.
"I always have so much fun shooting in New York City. People walk by and ask, 'What are you guys shooting?'" Segarra said. "And I'm the first to be like, 'We're shooting this show called The Other Two, Season 3! There's two seasons, they're out on HBO Max, check it out! You're gonna love it!'"
Unfortunately, The Other Two was canceled and will not be getting a fourth season. As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, the series was also plagued by HR complaints about Kelly and Schneider's conduct.
But in our interview, which took place days before the cancellation was announced, Segarra's fandom for the show was in no way flagging. He spoke to Mashable about Lance's biggest moments from the series finale, where he sees Brooke (Heléne Yorke) and Lance's relationship going next, and how Lance has become a fashion prophet.
The Other Two gives us a glimpse of young Lance.
The Other Two's Season 3 finale, titled "Brooke & Cary & Curtis & Lance," kicks off with a flashback to 10 years ago. Pat Dubek (Molly Shannon) and ChaseDreams (Case Walker) have yet to become household names, Cary (Drew Tarver) and Curtis (Brandon Scott Jones) are still struggling actors waiting tables, and Brooke and Lance have only just started dating. For Segarra, getting to see Lance and Brooke at the start of their relationship was a true delight.
"Immediately reading that flashback, picturing what these two were like when they were just young bucks, and coming up in the Foot Locker uniform again — it was just a very, very fun surprise when I got to read it," Segarra said.
A highlight of the sequence is getting to see the origin of an iconic Lance staple: the dab. The dance move — and Brooke and Cary's annoyance at it — becomes a running gag throughout The Other Two, and with this flashback, we learn that Lance has been committed to dabbing for 10 years. And as Segarra points out, it's a key element of his character.
"I love that he dabs still. I think that that's one thing that makes him authentic. He just might be a little late on something, but that's okay," Segarra explained. "He doesn't worry about being on trend. He sets his own trends. That's what makes him a good clothing designer, that's what makes him fun and what makes him him."
Lance sticks up for Brooke even after a turbulent breakup.
When the finale leaps back to the present, we see more successful but less carefree versions of both Brooke and Lance. Brooke weathers an intense PR disaster for Pat and Chase, but in doing so she takes the fall for their mistakes — and that includes claiming she sent a slew of very horny texts to Lance. Without even knowing the specifics of the situation, Lance corroborates Brooke's fib to help her out. According to Segarra, it's a testament to the unique connection the two of them share.
"They have this magnet that keeps them together," he said. "No matter what they've been through, they're always going to have so much love and respect for each other. They're going to stick up for each other, they're going to have each other's backs, because that's the definition of a ride-or-die, right?"
Lance helping Brooke out in a tight spot is the culmination of a tough season for the couple: The two started out engaged, but broke up in a blowup argument in episode 5. Segarra loved the scene so much that he sent Kelly and Schneider a thank-you text after reading the script. "I usually text them after reading each script because I just think that they're so smart," he said.
"That's a really honest moment in [Brooke and Lance's] relationship, and it all starts on the page," Segarra said. "You see the love shining through, and you see what they're asking for, and it's just honest, you know... And that's an actor's dream, getting to play in the world for a day."
Season 3 of The Other Two dives deeper into Lance's interiority.
Throughout The Other Two, Lance has always been a bit of a himbo with a heart of gold. But in Season 3, we get to dive further into his life outside of Brooke post-breakup — especially in episode 9, when Brooke breaks into his apartment and sees what his life is like now. "We're meeting his family, we're meeting his PR crew, we're seeing him through a different lens," Segarra said.
Along with this new lens through which to view Lance, Season 3 features a running joke that Lance, whose nursing job lands him the title of People's Sexiest Man Alive, is just so good that Brooke feels horrible in comparison. But in the Season 3 finale, we get a deeper look at Lance's many layers. He reveals that he did hire a publicist to help him get the title of Sexiest Man Alive, but was embarrassed to tell his friends that he wanted something special for himself.
"You see that he's not this guy who's living on a soapbox, and he's not perfect. Nobody's perfect," said Segarra. "He wants to do good, but there is still a struggle to do good. He's just trying to find his way, and I think that's what this whole show is about. It's just people trying to find their way, and that's messy and takes time."
Lance has gone from nurse, to superhero, to... fashion prophet?
On top of learning more about Lance's insecurities and struggles, Season 3 took Lance on a wild career journey. After ending Season 2 as a fashion designer, Lance took the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to switch career paths and become a nurse, swapping plastic hoodies for scrubs and yellow Crocs. He also saw his fair share of acclaim, what with being named Sexiest Man Alive. Episode 9 even gives him his own superhero moment, where he saves his neighbors from a burning building in dramatic slow motion. ("It's my Die Hard moment," Segarra said.)
Even though Lance left fashion design behind, Segarra pointed out that the real world fashion industry certainly isn't done with Lance. The Other Two has always been spot-on with its predictive powers, from a live-action Bambi remake to Disney's new queer icon Globby. But it's Lance's out-there designs that may be The Other Two's most accurate prediction yet.
"There is an entire fashion show that I saw a couple of years ago that had see-through panels on all of the clothes," he said. "There is a dry erase shoe where you can design with a permanent marker and they make that a shoe. Just the other day, I saw a shoe that you can put snacks in with a zipper." All of these bear striking similarities to Lance's own ideas throughout the scenes — and every time he sees one, Segarra makes sure to shoot Kelly and Schneider a text.
"Chris and Sarah and Jill [Bream], our costume designer, they need credit for these things, because somebody's watching our show and putting them into real life!" he exclaimed. "Lance in the show has now created a couple pieces that have entered the zeitgeist."
So now that Lance's fashion genius is being recognized, and he and Brooke are back together, what does Segarra hope the future holds for them? What would we have seen in an ideal Season 4?
"They've got to have a couple of kids — little Brookie monsters, little Lancelots," he said. He imagines the two of them moving into a Brooklyn brownstone, where he'll have a design studio and she'll have her office for her industry work. Maybe Chase will move in with them, and maybe Lance will be the godfather of Cary's children one day.
"A lot of good things to come," Segarra concluded. "A lot of good things."
