Spoilers for Off Campus Season 1, as well as the book, The Score, are ahead! Read with caution, and stream the series with an Amazon Prime subscription.
One of the things that surprised me most about the book-to-screen adaptation of Off Campus was Dean and Allie’s relationship. Notably, the book series doesn’t see them get together until the third novel, which is the story focused on them. However, in the show that just premiered on the 2026 TV schedule, the two characters’ fling began in Episode 5. So, I had to ask the actors who play the duo about their story moving up and the cliffhanger at the end of Season 1 involving them and the introduction of Hunter Davenport.
Stephen Kalyn And Mika Abdalla Open Up About Exploring Dean And Allie’s Relationship In Season 1 Of Off Campus
When I tell you I was shook when it was revealed at the end of Episode 5 that Dean and Allie were together, I’m being drop-dead serious. My jaw was on the floor. That's partly because I was surprised by the reveal in the context of the show, and it was also partly because I know that moment takes place more than halfway through their book, The Score.
Season 1 of Off Campus primarily follows Hannah and Garrett, who are the subjects of the first book in Elle Kennedy’s hockey romance series, The Deal. So, I wasn’t expecting Dean and Allie to get together yet. However, they did, and it worked really well. Speaking during CinemaBlend’s interviews with the Off Campus cast about this update and why it makes sense, Mika Abdalla, who plays Allie, told me:
So I knew that they were kind of pulling Allie and Dean's storyline ahead a little bit before the original audition, so I knew it going in. But getting to read the scripts and seeing how they were kind of going to integrate that, it made a lot of sense to me, because, you know, Allie and Hannah are besties, and their stories are really interconnected. And so I think kind of doing things that way gave us a lot of ability to explore more [of] what's going through Allie’s head during this whole secret romance that they're having?
Arguably, Dean and Allie’s relationship moving up is one of the reasons why Off Campus works so well. It juxtaposes Hannah and Garrett’s romance perfectly, and it sets us up future seasons in a thrilling way. As Abdalla said, the two tales are “interconnected,” so it made sense to mash them up a bit.
Dean and Allie’s story in Season 1 also lays some the groundwork for what's to come. There’s still a lot of The Score left to explore, and that’s the point Stephen Kalyn, who plays Dean, made:
I also love The Score as well. I read it before we started shooting, so that was great to know, and kind of have that in my mind quite a bit. But yeah, there's so much more too that we're working on right now, and there's so much more that we're going to explore. So just doing Episode 6 was great because we really got to see what is in store. So yeah, I'm just really excited to get into that more.
I’m also excited to “get into that more,” and that’s especially true considering how Season 1 of Off Campus ends.
Off Campus’ Dean And Allie Actors Talked To Me About Hunter’s Introduction
During Season 1, after Allie broke up with Sean and started seeing Dean, she freaked out a bit about always being in a relationship. She needed to just hook up with someone and not fall into something deeper. So, she slept with Hunter Davenport (Charlie Evans), a guy who has contentious ties to Dean, who also happens to be his newest teammate. However, Allie didn't know any of that.
In fact, Hunter's true identity and connections were revealed in the final seconds of Season 1 of Off Campus, setting the stage for a dramatic arc involving him, Allie and Dean in Season 2. Speaking to that point, and what she’s excited to explore on this front, Abdalla told me:
I'm excited for the potential of Allie keeping it casual, you know? Because towards the end of the season, she starts freaking out a little bit about how serious things are getting in this new relationship that she's kind of found herself in. So I'm excited for Allie to just kind of be single and do her thing.
From Allie’s perspective, I’m excited to see how she grapples with wanting to live a single life and her feelings for Dean. From Dean’s perspective, I cannot wait to see how Allie hooking up with his enemy-turned-new-teammate impacts him. According to Kalyn, it will be a “really interesting” dynamic to explore.
So, with all that being said, here’s hoping that Season 2 shifts its focus fully to Allie and Dean, because a lot has already happened between the two of them…and they’re just getting started.
