Tell us about the writing process for End of the World.
The End Of The World is also one of my favourite episodes of the show.
From a story point of view the show is working at its best when it starts with a very high concept idea. And [here] it’s a very science fiction idea, which is that a version of Max from the future comes back to warn Liz away. Basically he comes back to tell her she has to break up with present day Max or else the world will end. It’s a huge idea.
But what I love about it is it really becomes about a teenage girl trying to figure out what to do with her boyfriend. It’s very relatable and you’re very much connected to it. It really brought me back to what I loved about the very beginning of the show on the first season. For that episode at least, it just became about this young girl who was overwhelmed by this news, overwhelmed by what she’d gotten herself into, and I thought that that was really moving.
I particularly remember the ending of that episode when Liz has this dance with future Max after she’s done this heartbreaking thing of making present day Max think that she betrayed him. She has this dance with future Max and as she’s dancing he vanishes, and in that moment she and the audience realise that she’s done it, she’s changed the course of history. That version of Max 14 years from now will never exist.
To me that’s one of the best moments we’ve done in the show. It’s interesting and complex because she has been successful in what she’s tried to do and yet in being successful she’s lost both present day Max and future Max and their future together.
That episode is definitely among my favourites of the show.
