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Then … fade to black.
Its a heartbreaking, bittersweet moment.
Jeffrey Neira/FX; Inset: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images
Will they ever see their children again?
Will they ever return to the States, years down the line, when the dust has settled?
They just lost almost everything because of it.
Patrick Harbron/FX
And, at the very last second, they couldnt keep them.
(Cue U2s With or Without You and all the tears.)
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Lets start with the ending.
Patrick Harbron/FX
But in your opinion, is that them expressing acceptance or just wishful thinking?
[Laughs] But we dont want to answer that.
I think heartbreaking would be more the word that comes to mind.
Eric Liebowitz/FX
Theyre home, but theyre there without their children.
So its got a prettiness to it, but its also got a roughness to it.
Speaking of heartbreaking shots, why did you choose to show Paige drinking vodka back at Claudias?
When you see her sitting there, shes sitting there with a heavy heart.
You could certainly see that in Hollys performance.
But, you know, I dont think we imagined her walking off to jail.
Its also striking to me how she chooses to leave her parents.
We never wrote up or played out any sort of final conversation, did we, Joe?
FIELDS:So I dont think we can answer why, except that it felt right in the moment.
The scene in the garage, with Stan confronting the Jennings, felt like a one-act play to Noah.
That was not something we had until the final season.
And even then, that was very much something that hadnt developed until we started writing it.
What was the biggest challenge in figuring it out?
The other challenge was the emotional one.
Will Stan let them go, and how?
And will that be real?
And what will get him there?
We wrote that scene as we felt it would have played.
Its really a testament to Chris direction that the scene is staged in a way that feels really true.
We didnt have to rely on any camera movements or blocking tricks to create extraneous taste in the scene.
Again, based on your research, is it possible for Stan to keep his job after this?
Well let the viewers imagine what his fate might be after this.
I do have to ask about Renee (Laurie Holden), of course.
What was it?WEISBERG:Were definitely going to keep that a secret.
Oh man, I thought this would be a way in!
Has she asked you guys?FIELDS:You know, only once or a hundred thousand times.
WEISBERG:And if she couldnt get it out of us, probably no one else will.
FIELDS:[Laughs] That would be pretty funny.
WEISBERG:But no, I dont think there were any deaths that we pulled back on.
Well then …wasthere anybody you wanted to kill?WEISBERG:No, were really peaceful people.
All the people that got killed in the season, we didnt even want to kill them.
Just, certain things had to happen.
We probably wanted to kill fewer people!
FIELDS:But his girlfriend worked in security, so we had to!
It seemed like what she would be dreaming about.
So Gregory came back, but it wasnt because we thought, We gotta bring Gregory back!
It sounds funny, but he came back on his own.
The episode title, START, refers to the 1991 arms-reduction treaty.
At least you got U2s With or Without You.
Was it tough to get those song rights?
Did you have a backup ready to go?FIELDS:We didnt have a backup by that point.
I think weve always been after the same thing, which is we want people to feel something.
Oh it would, and Ihadto ask.
Its hard to get any better than that.
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