Just breathe…
All set?
He promised his cousin that he’d return, but never did.
William finally (so soon?)
Not ready to move on quite yet?
Wondering where we go from here?
Just need a few comforting words from the man who wrote this formidable farewell episode?
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: We know how the audience is feeling right now after watching that episode.
How did you feel aftermakingit?
DAN FOGELMAN:You never make anything in one moment.
It’s a long process to build it out.
I got the first cut, and it was already just great and special.
And when they had mentioned Memphis, that felt very right for William.
So we adjusted it long before I wrote it, and then that became the plan.
I love the actor so much, and the character.
It’s always hard.
WhenGame of Thronesbeheads somebody, it’s hard to keep them completely alive in the story.
We have a slightly different narrative structure, so it allows William to remain a part of things.
So you could’ve played that out a little longer if you wanted to.
What felt right about this timing to you?
There were a couple of things.
The characters in your life don’t die during the season finales all the time.
I lost my mom eight years ago in a very traumatic and unexpected way.
She died during a surgery that wasn’t supposed to be life-threatening in that way…
It’s obviously been a defining thing for me, having lost my mom.
I think that stuck in my subconscious somewhere.
But how will this work with Ron?
You will see him in the next episode.
He’s going to remain a big part of the show.
We’re still figuring that all out.
I told him relatively early on in the season what the plan was, generally.
We hadn’t talked the specifics of the how or the when.
Ron’s such an actor’s actor that nothing knocks him off stride.
It’s actually been trickier for the other cast members who are coming up to me.
Susan keeps coming up to me.
The other day, she was saying, “They’re not ready, Dan!
They’re not ready!”
And everybody loves him so much that nobody wants him to leave that story line.
And he means it.
What was the most challenging scene for you to write as you were plotting out this road trip episode?
There’s so much visual stuff here.
That’s a real tour de force of both music and directing and performance to make that montage work.
[Laughs).]
There’s a lot of circle-of-life moments happening here.
What did you want to accomplish in this final moment of William’s life?
And what were those lines of dialogue that you found yourself poring over and tweaking?
It was a bunch of things.
You’re trying to choose your wording carefully.
I always say that people on this show make ugly, flawed decisions, but they’re ultimately good.
The show is optimistic but doesn’t shy away from the ugly or the bad.
There’s beauty and hope, and there’s a life-affirmingness to death here that was always the goal.
But then not making it too easy either.
So trying to strike that balance for the show.
But then also have a go at find a way to make it life-affirming.
That was what we were trying to do as a whole play up both sides of all those things.
Much of his life had been sad and tragic as he said, bad breaks and bad choices.
What intrigued you about fleshing out this backstory of pain and potential?
I loved the idea that we’ve gotten to know this man.
So there’s this natural question, which is: Who is this guy and how was he formed?
It was the loss of the person who was most important to him.
I found that profoundly sad and beautiful and real.
Which one resonated with you the most?
We’ve always planned these things.
He didn’t seem territorial at all about it.
There’s no resentment, there’s no anger, there’s no jealousy, there’s gratitude.
Thank you for turning my son into a man."
And then he turns away and he goes, “I like him.
Let’s go.”
And he starts making a bunch of choices and decisions that will affect us going into season 2.
And finally, if you were writing the epitaph on William’s grave, what should it read?
That’s a really good question.
I could see it being a Dudley Randall quote.
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