‘We’re Here’ Season 2 Episode 2: Bob, Shangela, and Eureka Spill the Tea on Temecula

We’re Here is a show that thrives on human connection, from the hugs and makeovers to the joyous performance that closes out the show’s weeklong stint in a town. We’re Here is a show about human connections—mending them, strengthening them, and building them. So… what does We’re Here look like if the town’s in lockdown and all the connections have to stay socially-distanced?

That’s what the cast and crew aimed to figure out in late 2020 when they touched down in Temecula, California. Filmed months before last week’s season opener, Episode 2 of We’re Here’s second season put the show to the test. What surprised everyone involved, though, was how much the core of We’re Here remained intact. As we’ve all learned over the past year and a half, it takes more than a pandemic to derail personal connections.

Read on for all the tea on Temecula—and come back next week for more behind-the-scenes revelations about Episode 3.

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We’re Here actually filmed an episode before the season premiere’s return to Spartanburg. In late 2020, the show set out to see what this intimate series would look like under COVID filming restrictions. And it was indirectly because of the 2020 lockdown that Temecula was chosen to be the test city.

Jeffrey Marx (lead casting producer): My whole family moved to Temecula several years ago, like eight, nine years ago. It’s not home to me, but they all transplanted there. And every time I go visit my mom in Temecula, I, as a gay person, always feel uncomfortable there. Sure, there’s nice wineries and those are fun, but it really is Trumpland—fancy, rich person Trumpland. In the thick of the pandemic, when we started up casting last summer in August of 2020, [director] Peter [LoGreco] was like, “Let’s start thinking of where we’re going to go”—and I was sitting in my mom’s living room. [I was] visiting my mom because she was one of the few people that was in my bubble at the time and I was like, “What about Temecula?” We wanted to have one episode be in California because, with all the COVID protocols, we wanted to keep within the state line so we could deal with our own state first.

In order to get We’re Here in front of cameras, changes had to be made to the show’s structure—especially the usual opening scene of Bob the Drag Queen, Shangela, and Eureka! rolling into town and interacting with locals.  

Peter LoGreco (director): Temecula was very specific, where we were essentially on full-blown lockdown. There was a certain degree to which we couldn’t get access to the community in a way that’s essential to the DNA of the show, which is why we all collectively made a decision to hold out [on filming more episodes] until things calmed down a little bit.

Johnnie Ingram (co-creator, executive producer): Temecula in particular was a more intimate episode because we just couldn’t splash into town because everything was closed.

Shangela (talent, series producer): Temecula was really the first one that we filmed in the height of the pandemic. When I met my drag kid, when I met Andrei, I knew that the story deserved to be told. So it was like, whatever we need to do, whatever mask I need to wear, a goggle, how far to sit apart—that doesn’t matter. We got to do what we had to do to tell this story because this kid deserves to feel that there is a community in the world to support him.

After a more subtle arrival in Temecula, the queens met their drag kids. Bob was paired with James, a young trans man navigating life on the spectrum and doing so in Temecula.

Bob the Drag Queen (talent, series producer): So, James is really interesting. James is very funny, definitely says what’s on his mind.

Marx: During the outreach process of each show, you hit up everything. One of my tactics is to pop in on PFLAG meetings. There were meetings that were being held on Zoom, so I got on the list to show up at the Temecula PFLAG meeting. I spent the first 30 minutes of the meeting kind of just silently watching the conversation go on, and James was such a physical and vocal force—through Zoom—talking about his issues and wanting to ask the room about stuff. You could tell he was yearning for community. He was yearning for connection. I hadn’t even met the kid yet and in my brain I was like, “Oh, he’s on the show.”

Bob: Him and his mom [Deborah] are really just an interesting duo in general. Deborah and James are—you can’t talk about James without talking about Deborah. The two of them really kind of go hand in hand and they have a real wonderful energy to be around to be honest.

Eureka! had her hands full with not one, not two, but three people to coach.

Marx: Jake, Brad, and Michelle are just quintessential Temecula. I mean, a faith influencer who lives in Temecula, who thinks there are no problems in Temecula and thinks everyone’s accepting and the Republicans have moved on from the gay agenda?

Eureka! (talent, series producer): It was exciting to get to work with Michelle, Jake’s mom. I was on a mission with Michelle, because when I first met her, she was very anti the drag show. She wouldn’t even say the word “drag.” She would be like, “I might let you dress me up a little bit, like do my makeup.” And I’m like, “So… drag.” I knew that she wouldn’t really get it until she got to watch how much fun Jake would have doing this. I think she got to see like, as much as Jake does put on this masculine persona for the area that he’s raised in, there is this element of queerness, we like to have fun and we’re sissies at the end of the day sometimes. As much as we all try to fight it, every gay man has a little sissy in them somewhere.

Shangela’s first meeting with her drag kid Andrei was an emotional one and made the six-foot distance feel even further apart. 

Shangela: We’re sitting six feet apart on the trampoline having a conversation and he’s starting to tear up, and natural Shangie wants to just reach out and give him a big ol’ hug. And in that particular moment, because of the testing requirements and things that we were having to go through so we could do that, which we did get to be able to do later on in the episode. But in that moment, I couldn’t, and it was it was difficult for me. But that mirrored what the world was going through in that moment. We wanted to hug our brothers and sisters, our friends. We wanted to be there with our parents and our grandparents. We wanted to high five and hug and celebrate, and we couldn’t in that moment.

All three Temecula stories centered around mothers—James’ ever-present mother, Jake’s quasi-oblivious mother, Andrei’s absent mother. This provided the show with new storytelling opportunities. 

Marx: I started this season looking for ways that stories could interconnect when and if they met each other during the filming. I think Andrei and Michelle is a great example of something that I had hoped would happen that did.

Eureka!: [Michelle’s connection with Andrei] was really special and it was beautiful to get to see. One of Michelle’s fears about Jacob coming out of the closet was her losing Jacob to the LGBTQ community, which to me is her not realizing what chosen family really means and why it’s there. That fear was a little unnecessary with [Jacob] since she is accepting. That community is there for people that need the chosen family. It was interesting for me to get to see her learn what chosen family is and she got to put it into practice by showing Andrei, like, “I’ll be your mom if I have to.” Seeing Michelle’s full circle moment was really the most special part of the episode to me.

Ingram: Michelle just messaged me yesterday. She’s very excited and a little nervous [about watching her episode].

Eureka!: I’m excited for her to get to see it. I think that she’ll be very proud of what she did because what she did was important not just for Jacob and Brad, but for other kids and other mothers that are gonna watch this.

We’re Here airs on HBO on Mondays at 9 p.m. ET

Stream We're Here on HBO Max