[Warning: The next incorporates spoilers from the Season 1 finale of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. Learn at your personal danger!]
After the Clarkes went looking for Mitch’s (Peter Gallagher) coffin and burial plot within the penultimate episode of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist‘s first season, followers ought to have been ready for a tragic finale. However even for those who anticipated Mitch, who has suffered with progressive supranuclear palsy all through the present, to take a flip for the more severe, the devastation and heartbreak his dying dropped at Zoey (Jane Levy) and her household was felt in each observe of the season’s last track: Don McLean’s “American Pie.”
This episode was significantly private for showrunner and collection creator Austin Winsberg, who not solely penned the hour however misplaced his father to the identical illness. Zoey has been getting ready herself for shedding her father for the complete season, and now that it is occurred, it’s going to trigger a big shift in her perspective on life and what she needs from it.
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This can make her already complicated private life much more difficult. Earlier than studying that her father was starting his last downturn, Zoey was hooking up with Max (Skylar Astin) after being drawn to his newfound confidence. Nevertheless, it clear that Simon (John Clarence Stewart) has higher perception into what Zoey goes by way of as she navigates the lack of a father or mother.
TV Information spoke with Winsberg concerning the deeply emotional episode, how this impacts Zoey and her love triangle going ahead, and what precisely was up with the physician and his magic MRI machine.
Jane Levy, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist
Was there something on this episode that you simply had Zoey say to Mitch that you simply weren’t in a position to say to your personal dad? Was there catharsis in that?
Austin Winsberg: When she provides him the speech at his bedside — that is truly paralleling the speech that she gave for her father within the pilot. Within the pilot, she’s speaking about how she’s acquired this new energy and he or she would not know what to make of it. The man she likes at work has a fiancée and so many issues are going improper in her life. After which to point out over the course of these 12 episodes that she truly now appears like there’s some good that is come from the ability, and he or she sees the probabilities of the ability and the power, and that it is not only a destructive for her. That the man who she preferred at work likes her, work stuff goes effectively, and he or she tells [Mitch] that she’s okay. By telling him that she’s OK, I really feel like that’s the factor that kind of provides him permission to maneuver on. I really feel like I do not know if I fairly acquired that second with my father, however I preferred Zoey letting him know that she was going to be all proper and that was essential. That is a part of the positivity and the optimism [of the show].
I believe with some perspective after my father’s dying, and it took time, however I believe with some perspective, I attempted to show that tragedy right into a optimistic, and to embrace the compassion and the empathy and a few of the different issues that I believe I acquired out of it. It sounds unusual, however making an attempt to place a considerably optimistic spin on [Mitch’s death] was essential for me. The opposite large want success factor was [that] I used to be there with my father till the very finish. And I like the concept Mitch calls [Zoey] away from that. In that second, it is for her in order that she would not need to be there to witnesses [his death]. They’re in a position to get this final dance collectively, however that final dance can be for her to not need to witness [Mitch dying].
Shedding your father was clearly a seismic occasion in your personal life. Are you able to speak about how this can change Zoey transferring into Season 2?
Winsberg: I believe it modifications the whole lot. I believe once you lose a father or mother, your entire worldview begins to shift in some methods. I believe it forces you to develop up faster. I believe that the opposite factor is you ask lots of questions backwards about why. A number of what I wish to do in Season 2 is sort of trying on the thought of rebounding and the way will we recuperate after a tragedy, and a little bit little bit of kind of exploring man’s seek for that means — how do we discover that means in our lives after tragedy and how much folks will we need to be? And I believe that not only for Zoey, however I believe it is also [important] for the whole lot that we’re all going by way of on the planet proper now. We’re seeing a lot tragedy proper now and we’re all variety remoted on our personal little islands. What occurs after we come out of this? What new perspective will we deliver and how much humanity will we deliver with us? Zoey goes to be battle with all these questions.
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The episode ends with Zoey singing the road “The day the music died” with no musical backup. How a lot ought to we be studying into that selection?
Winsberg: No matter you wish to learn into that. … The present is a musical, so I can not think about us not having a musical ingredient within the present going ahead. However the best way during which it occurs and what it means — I believe that is all stuff that’s worthy of thought and dialog.
Earlier than Zoey came upon about Mitch, she was in the midst of a fairly hilarious hookup with Max the place he could not cease singing. Is that one thing Zoey goes to need to take care of so much sooner or later, or is that uniquely a Max downside?
Winsberg: Nicely, I believe that Max is clearly someone who wears his feelings on his sleeve and has a tough time masking his feelings for Zoey. So I think about that there is a problem constructed into that relationship that she hears lots of what he is pondering on a regular basis. And due to that, too, there’s additionally inevitably — we talked about this in Episode 7, I believe as effectively — an inherent inequality within the relationship as a result of she is aware of what he is pondering and he would not know what she’s pondering. And due to that, that at all times can create battle and obstacles.
What does it imply for Zoey and Simon’s relationship now that she’s formally misplaced a father or mother as effectively?
Winsberg: My aim from the start was to guarantee that each males felt viable, and likewise that each males introduced various things to the desk and happy or fulfilled or match completely different elements of Zoey’s persona. Undoubtedly one space during which Zoey and Simon have at all times bonded is over grief. The playing cards have been flipped a little bit bit in that I believe he is lastly on the opposite aspect of it, simply as she’s actually taking place a distinct path with it. … There’s a large distinction between when someone is alive and also you’re grieving, and after they’re gone. Simon says at one level, “You possibly can nonetheless maintain his hand. You possibly can nonetheless discuss to him.”
I keep in mind that I believed I had ready myself for my dad’s passing in some methods over the past six months that he was alive, however it’s essentially completely different the second they’re not there. So I believe that there’s going to be a connectivity and a bond that’s going to proceed with Simon. And I believe that there is going to be Max and his new confidence and new methods during which he approaches the world that change into very engaging to Zoey. I will proceed to go down completely different paths with each of these guys in numerous methods.
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist forged
On this episode, we very briefly reacquaint ourselves with the physician who gave Zoey the MRI that gave her this energy and he sings “I’ve Bought the Music in Me.” Ought to we be pondering her getting these powers wasn’t an accident?
Winsberg: I believe you may extrapolate a bunch of stuff from that second. … I believe you could possibly have caught with he might have performed it. I believe you could possibly extrapolate that possibly he has the ability as effectively. Or possibly he was simply referencing the MRI machines do superb issues and he simply had that track in his head.
May we meet extra folks with Zoey’s present in Season 2?
Winsberg: That is a extremely fascinating thought. … Right here is my longer reply to that: I believe that the mythology of the powers is one thing that is an fascinating factor to discover and it is one thing we have talked a couple of bunch within the writers’ room. And I believe there are undoubtedly roads we are able to go down. This isn’t me being diplomatic or political there. I believe there’s undoubtedly roads we might go down that need to do with someone else having the ability. , somebody utilizing the powers for good or for evil. I believe that these issues are inclined to begin to really feel a bit fantastical and a bit like a superhero present. … I am at all times making an attempt to determine the road that feels proper tonally for us. I fear about a few of that stuff probably feeling a little bit bit jump-the-sharky. So, my concern is, if we will go down a few of these roads that we do it in a manner that feels tonally proper for our present.
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Have we seen the final of Peter Gallagher as Mitch Clarke?
Winsberg: I believe that all of us love having Peter round. … The character Mitch does a lot for Zoey. There have been methods during which I’ve felt the connection proceed with my father after he handed — you recognize, recollections flashbacks, goals, these sort of issues. So I believe the concept of bringing Peter again may be very thrilling to me. It is determining the fitting methods to do it.
Is there anything you’d wish to say to your followers after they watch this emotional episode?
Winsberg: Hug them for those who’re quarantining with them. Know that life is brief and unpredictable, and to attempt to dwell within the second and admire what you will have. Have compassion and empathy for others that could be going by way of stuff you are not conscious of.
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist has not but been renewed for Season 2 at NBC. Season 1 episodes can be found on Hulu.