While a lot of the episode felt very final with the relationships between the characters, why did you want to leave the story open-ended?
I thought a lot about other series finales and certain ones that leave the audience gasping, wondering what happens next, like The Sopranos, or some where they send the whole cast to jail like Seinfeld, and others like Lost where everybody is dead and they find each other in the afterlife. I thought about what kind of series finale fits this show best and to me, it was, "and the adventure continues ... ." That's what we wanted to go for. I want to know that Scott and his friends have many more stories to tell. This story isn't over. He goes off and fights many more battles, makes new friends, faces down new enemies. That felt right for the finale. And I was also able to get people like Tyler Hoechlin and Dylan O'Brien in that last shot as part of Scott's pack from day one onward. It's a testament to the show and how many people loved working on the show that everybody came back.
I thought a lot about other series finales and certain ones that leave the audience gasping, wondering what happens next, like The Sopranos, or some where they send the whole cast to jail like Seinfeld, and others like Lost where everybody is dead and they find each other in the afterlife. I thought about what kind of series finale fits this show best and to me, it was, "and the adventure continues ... ." That's what we wanted to go for. I want to know that Scott and his friends have many more stories to tell. This story isn't over. He goes off and fights many more battles, makes new friends, faces down new enemies. That felt right for the finale. And I was also able to get people like Tyler Hoechlin and Dylan O'Brien in that last shot as part of Scott's pack from day one onward. It's a testament to the show and how many people loved working on the show that everybody came back.
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All major characters survived for the most part. Did you ever think about killing a main character?
There was a time when I was thinking: Who do we kill, how do we make this momentous? And then you have to think: Is this a show where the series finale should have half the cast die off and blow up the show at the end? I thought to myself, I don’t want to see most of these people die, I want to see them off together again on another adventure. Even watching them walk toward us at the end, there were people I missed. There were people I would’ve liked to see with them, including Allison. I don’t think it would’ve been our show if we’d killed off half the characters. There was a moment I told Cody Christian we were going to kill his character off, and by the time we got to around episode 16 or 17, I said to him, “I can’t kill you.” [Laughs] I think he was hoping for an epic death scene.
There was a time when I was thinking: Who do we kill, how do we make this momentous? And then you have to think: Is this a show where the series finale should have half the cast die off and blow up the show at the end? I thought to myself, I don’t want to see most of these people die, I want to see them off together again on another adventure. Even watching them walk toward us at the end, there were people I missed. There were people I would’ve liked to see with them, including Allison. I don’t think it would’ve been our show if we’d killed off half the characters. There was a moment I told Cody Christian we were going to kill his character off, and by the time we got to around episode 16 or 17, I said to him, “I can’t kill you.” [Laughs] I think he was hoping for an epic death scene.
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