Boots cast share their hopes for potential season 2 following that surprise cliffhanger

That's the story behind Boots, a new Netflix drama inspired by The Pink Marine, a memoir written by former US Marine Greg Cope White.

13 Reasons Why star Miles Heizer plays the lead and he's joined by Liam Oh as Cameron's best friend, Ray McAffey.

Together, they fight to find their place in the marines, overcoming physical and emotional obstacles spearheaded by Sgt Sullivan (Max Parker), a decorated Marine who hides a secret of his own.

Boots ending explained

By the end of season 1's eight episode run, Cameron has finally proved that he has what it takes. Even Sullivan gives him his dues, revealing that he was only so hard on Cameron because he wanted to help make him stronger. The fact he's also closeted might have had something to do with it too.

"You ready, Cope? You’re a Marine now." And with that, Sullivan leaves. Where he goes, we don't find out, but it's easy to see why he left when he did. Prison looms following a bar fight that went bad and the Marines are also questioning him to find out if he's gay too, because it was illegal to be homosexual and join up at the time.

Meanwhile, Cameron celebrates the end of his training in a bar with the other Marines, overjoyed that they've all made it. But he and Ray couldn't have picked a worse time to join, because a newscaster has just announced that Iraq has invaded Kuwait, which means they'll soon be needed on the front lines.

With Sullivan gone AWOL, Cameron suppressing his sexuality, and Ray… Well, Ray's found love, all three characters are in a very different place to where they started this season.

Ahead of the show's launch, RadioTimes.com asked Parker, Heizer and Oh what they hoped to see for their characters next in a potential second season of Boots.

"There are so many ways it could go for all of our characters," said Parker. "I love that moment at the end where I hand over the walkie talkie to Cameron and let him know that he's ready now... Just this battle of what's right and what's wrong.

"That moment of handing over the baton for him to carry on… He could be handing himself in, he could be running away, he could do anything."

Heizer would like to see Cameron enjoy some romance after things didn't work out so well for him on that front in season 1.

"It would be interesting to see him navigating that, especially in this military world," he continued. "That would be cool. But like Max said, there's so many different directions and so many things I would love to see. But just for fun, I'd like to see a little romance."

For Oh, Ray's future is very open moving forward: "He ends the season in this interesting spot of really questioning the path that he's been on for the first time since he was a kid. I would like to see him continue to interrogate the choices that he's made in his life, or the choices that he hasn't made, that have been made for him by his father, by this sense of duty that he has.

"I want him to really find out what he believes for himself."

Whatever happens, there's plenty of story left to mine from that cliffhanger, switching things up from training to real-life combat. Because if being gay in boot camp was tough, imagine how hard it will be for Cameron to stay true to himself while fighting in Kuwait?

Let's just hope Netflix laces up and marches ahead with a much-needed second season so we can see where this might take us.

Boots is streaming now on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.