Taking a better-late-than-never approach, ABC has officially renewed a slew of shows for the 2013-14 TV season, including rookie drama Nashville and established hits Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, Revenge,Once Upon a Time and Castle.

Sophomore bubble comedy Suburgatory also has been picked up for a third season.

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Question: Do you know if Dalia will still be living with George next season on Suburgatory? I love that dynamic. I hope it doesn’t go away just because George and Dallas broke up. —Tania H
Ausiello: I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it sounds like it’s going away. “Dalia will really want to remain part of George’s world, but given what has gone on with her and Tessa, how realistic is that?” muses series creator Emily Kapnek. “It will be really hard for George to justify spending time with Dalia. It will hurt him probably to turn his back on her. Until Dalia and Tessa can reconcile, there really is no place for Dalia to go with that. I imagine that she would be really upset and hurt, and probably take some of this stuff out on Dallas, blaming her for the loss of Daddy Altman.”

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She sings. She dances. She makes music videos. Suburgatory‘s Dalia Royce may be Chatswin High’s resident mean girl, but it’s kind of hard to hate her.

Whether she’s challenging her neighbor Tessa (Jane Levy) to a dance-off or burning up YouTube with her Rebecca Black-like single, “You Missed a Spot,” Carly Chaikin’s Dalia has quickly become a fan-favorite character on the ABC family comedy. Case in point: On last week’s episode, Dalia delivered a completely off-key and slightly off-lyric rendition of “Send in the Clowns” at Marty’s funeral. “I had an earpiece in my ear with the song and I kept messing up the first line,” Chaikin tells TVGuide.com with a laugh. “I guess in editing they thought it was funny and decided to use some of the wrong lines I did too.”

After first breaking out in dramas such as the 2009 Nicholas Sparks tearjerker The Last Song, Chaikin is enjoying the laughs, and even the many hours of dance rehearsal occasionally required of the role. “It is really nice to be able to now show that I can do comedy and I can do drama and I can play the b—- ,” she says. “It’s allowed me to broaden my horizons. Dalia has really allowed me to play something that I never thought I would be able to play. … TV always used to really scare me and when I saw this script, I was like this is the kind of show that I would gladly want to keep working on for 7-plus years because there is so much to it.”

Dalia will once again add to her impressive resume on Wednesday’s new episode (9:30/8:30c on ABC) when she takes it upon herself to give Mr. Wolfe (Rex Lee) a post-breakup makeover. “One of Dalia’s favorite things to do is get revenge, which ties into the rest of her story line throughout the season,” Chaikin says. “I think she’s good at getting back at people, and I think that she sees Mr. Wolfe and sees an opportunity in someone who is just losing it. She goes in and tries to help, or [does] what she thinks is helping.”

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When ABC’s “Suburgatory” first premiered, it was easy to dismiss the blonde and vapid Dalia Royce (Carly Chaikin) as just another stereotypical mean girl, but as the show has developed, so has Dalia — she’s become one of show’s most unexpected delights, with Chaikin’s deadpan delivery proving the perfect counterbalance for some of the comedy’s broader moments.

This week’s episode, titled “How to Be a Baby,” (Wednesday, March 6 at 9:30 p.m. EST) sees Dalia giving the lovelorn Mr. Wolfe (Rex Lee) some unexpected advice, as well as stealing two of the week’s most memorable scenes. HuffPost TV caught up with Chaikin to preview tonight’s episode and find out what’s ahead for our favorite spoiled Chatswinian.

In this week’s episode, we get to see a very special and unique Dalia trait, which is called “dry crying.” How did you come up with that performance?
Oh my God. I haven’t even seen that yet. Well, filming that was actually really funny. For that scene, we did a bunch of just random takes, where they just let the camera roll, and basically, I just did whatever came to mind and I cannot wait to see what they pick. We had one where it was an extreme close-up on my mouth … It was so funny.

The episode shows Dalia being an advice guru of sorts for a heartbroken Mr. Wolfe, but Dalia isn’t exactly the first person you’d think of when it comes to imparting wisdom … 
I think Dalia is good at getting revenge. There’s stuff that comes out later in the season, and I think this kind of foreshadows that a little bit, about how Dalia wants to hurt people who hurt her … So any chance [she has] to get back at someone who has hurt [someone], she takes advantage of that opportunity to do that.

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Question: Burning Suburgatory Q — will Malin Akerman be hanging around Chatswin next season? —Sharada
Ausiello: “That’s the intention,” says series creator Emily Kapnek. “If her [ABC pilot Trophy Wife], for whatever reason, didn’t go forward, we’d love to do an extended episode arc with her. If we were able to even just get her for a couple [episodes], in the event that her pilot did go forward, that would be great, too.” Should the underrated comedy be back for Season 3 (and I remain convinced it will) Kapnek can easily envision the show “evolving into a co-parenting” situation, with Tessa bouncing between Jeremy Sisto’s George and Akerman’s Alex. Regardless, she assures fans that “George and Tessa are due for a little bit of a reconnection.”

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There’s some serious drama going down in the ‘burbs.

ABC’s Suburgatory always brings the laughs. But this Wednesday’s one-hour season finale (airing at 8/7c) finds the denizens of Chatswin also dealing with plenty of emotional upheaval as George and Dallas’ plan to merge their families blows up in their faces.

Below, executive producer Emily Kapnek gives TVLine the scoop on Tessa and Dalia’s feud — which turns violent in the finale (take a look at the photo to the right for proof) — a mother of a return, and the future of lovebirds Tessa and Ryan.

TVLINE | How is Tessa going to retaliate against Dalia?
Tessa and Dalia have been on each other’s s–t list for a while. [Laughs] As the blows get lower and dirtier, Tessa is scouring her mind for a way to turn this around… Things really get pretty dirty between the two of them. Ultimately, these two really have a lot in common. One of the great moments in that fight sequence between the two of them [in the finale is] where [they're] like, “Your mom said, ‘Hi.’” “Your dad said, ‘Hi.’” They have such a long list of injuries where they have all this overlap about people that have hurt them or not been there for them when they should have been. That makes the emotion that much more at the surface. These two have a long way to go before they can reconcile, and I do have hopes that we’ll get them there.

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Jane Levy, 23, is the star of TV comedy Suburgatory, in which she has red hair. She loves changing her look and will be black-haired in new film Evil Dead.

What can we expect from Tessa in the next series of Suburgatory?
She’s a Chatswinian now. She’s no longer trying to get out of suburbia, she’s embraced it as her home. She also has a new interest in her mother. She spent the summer in New York, found some of her mother’s things and is starting to wonder who she is. Then she meets her. It was such a pleasure to discover that relationship with Malin Akerman, who plays her. She’s a great actress.

It must have been emotional to film the scenes where Tessa meets her mum for the first time?
It was. This is a huge moment, meeting a parent that you never met before. It’s almost so big that Tessa doesn’t even know how to comprehend it yet. In a way it brings her and her dad [Jeremy Sisto] closer together. There’s an episode where she says to her mum: ‘Thanks for having me, but I’m going to go back to my dad now.’

Is it true the show is planning a tribute to Homeland?
I’ve never watched Homeland, but Suburgatory’s creator Emily is in love with it. She likes to make sure she’s not making fun of it but I know there was an episode recently where Dalia [Carly Chaikin] opened up a Torah [Jewish religious text] and prayed. I don’t know why, but that has got to be to do with Homeland.

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