Creators Breakdown Series Finale “The Good Fight”; Teasing spin-off events

SPOILER ALERT: The following story reveals major plot points from the series finale of Paramount+’s The Good Fight.

The date was September 22, 2009, when viewers were first introduced to Diane Lockhart’s character on the CBS series. the good woman, played by Christine Baranski. Now, 13 years later, Diane is riding off into the sunset one last time — for now, at least — as the show’s streaming spin-off the good fight is saying goodbye to Paramount+ after 6 seasons.

Everyone on the show has really come through the ringer this season, as have most people in the world over the last two and a half years. Diane, Liz Reddick (Audra McDonald), Marissa Gold (Sarah Steele), Jay DiPersia (Nyambi Nyambi), and Carmen Moyo (Charmaine Bingwa), among others, spent a lot of time at their law office, safe from the violence right outside their building , where civil war threatened.

From her desk, Diane envisioned a future away from the court, Donald Trump and the NRA, especially in a beautiful villa in France. But can she leave the life and career she built and all the people she helped follow in the footsteps of their heroes like Ruth Bader Ginsberg? There were certainly clients who made that decision difficult, like Felix Staples (John Cameron Mitchell), who hilariously set out to bring down Ron DeSantis by claiming the Florida governor sexually assaulted him. I mean, where did that stain on the red “Florida is for Lovers” t-shirt come from?

And can she run away from her husband, Kurt McVeigh (Gary Cole)? She suddenly left him because of their political differences, but is it really? Yes, she indulged in a flirtation with her handsome Buddhist doctor, Lyle Bettencourt (John Slattery), but she certainly wasn’t sure Kurt was really over it. Little did she know that her two favorite boys had found each other and she would be forced to choose – that’s funny fate.

Kurt saw Diane appear in some news footage showing the melee in front of her office building that convinced him to leave the NRA to be with his lover. At the front desk, he notices that the elevator is broken, and as he sits on a nearby couch trying to figure out what to do, the silver fox approaches Lyle and reveals that he is also there to see Diane. Both go to the stairs to climb many stairs in the old fashioned way, as if to save Rapunzel. But this princess didn’t need to be saved anyway, she chose her prince – Kurt, of course. If only the United States could learn to put politics aside and just love each other like these two do.

Diane and Kurt make a great team, but their bond with Liz is pure magic. They are two strong and capable women determined to leave the world better than they found it. For all her father’s achievements, I dare say that Liz has never really stood in his shadow. She is her own woman and a beacon for the black community. If the show had gone on, it would have been a pleasure to see her work with Carmen. They brought different approaches to their work to the table like two sides of the same coin – oh, and so fearless.

More of Carmen and Jay DiPersia (Nyambi Nyambi) would have been brilliant too. But alas, Jay will continue his work with Renetta Clark (Phylicia Rashad) and Randy Elkin (Daniel Breaker), which frankly the spin-off is ripe for selection. Now that Carmen chooses not to join Jay’s efforts, she must always team up with Marissa, the duo poised to become the next Liz and Diane, maybe even bigger.

After all is said and done, Liz gives Diane a pep talk that convinces Liz to take the job in DC, where she runs a law firm recently acquired by STR Laurie – and fights the good fight.

Until viewers catch Trump’s goofy dance moves as the episode’s final beats tease that he plans to run for president again, everyone’s story lines up nicely as the villagers start chanting YMCA in the background. Yes, that really is how the series ends.

Robert and Michelle King spoke with Deadline about going their separate ways, why the show ends with Trump and the Village People, and possible spin-off series.

Reporter: Saying goodbye after 13 years can’t be easy. how was it

ROBERT KING: You know what, I directed the last episode and it was difficult. It was difficult because every two or three days someone finished filming. Gary Cole was almost at the beginning of the schedule and I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is very real,’ especially when you have actors who have been there from the beginning. But we had the last show recently and I saw everyone and it was so much fun; now I’m not sad anymore. It was really nice to see so many. I have a feeling we will work with them again. I don’t know why but I have a feeling we will see her again.

MICHELLE KING: We had slightly different emotional reactions to it. I was just thankful that we were able to end the story in a way that made me feel good. I hope people enjoy it. I will definitely miss these characters. I will miss the ability to process the messages with the writers because they are so very smart. But I suppose we can keep in touch with the people we worked with. So I hope I don’t have to miss them because they stay in my life.

Reporter: What was it like going on this journey with Diane for 13 years?

MK: The beauty of Diane Lockhart’s exploration was that we met her through the eyes of Alicia Florrick [Julianna Margulies] when she was a much more intimidating apparition. And in those 13 years, we got a lot more into her. And while she never lost her strength, we saw her fragility. We see how she tries to deal with difficult times that she never expected.

RC: I think what also made this year particularly poignant is that we know a lot of powerful women or women in business and they are very impressed with how little power they have in the area that matters most to them. On abortion and women’s rights. I think the ending for us was Diane finding out who these women were, who they are and what they are currently struggling with.

Reporter: Diane and Kurt’s relationship this season felt like it was everything double love What do you say?

RC: You know, we go around the room almost every week, “Okay, you know what?” And the dial just kept moving. There’s no way they can be together given the current environment, right? Then word got around: “But I wish they could, because I like Gary Cole.” [Laughs] I think it always felt like not going public with it, even if it’s a controversial decision, really sucks. Kurt, while he is not in the NRA or at least in charge, he is the Republican preacher that he always was and a very conservative preacher.

MK: I’m glad they’re trying to make their marriage work.

Reporter: The world really needs to know what Felix did with that stained shirt.

RC: My guess, since Felix is ​​based on Milo Yiannopoulos, it’s his own… I don’t think ice cream is guessed. I don’t know what the prop people did, but they kept sending us pictures of the post because we wanted it to look like it was at the end of Florida. Not one of the highlights of our experience on the show, but very fitting for the final episode. Find out where you want the cum to end up on this Florida lovers t-shirt.

Reporter: What can you say about Jay’s future? You really left us wanting more. Do you see spin-off potential here?

MK: Jay’s story illustrates the ambitious part of the show. The thought that there is a group that is so capable and finds justice behind the scenes.

RK: We did something about the Book Group in season three, a group of women who wanted to use Trump’s methods against him. Diane became a part of it. It was as if guerrilla action actually made you what you hated, and we wondered if that was always the case. We talked about this in the writers room, was there a way to have a guerrilla effort that could be both successful and ambitious? I agree there is a spin off.

Reporter: As an OG viewer it was great to see some familiar faces and others like David Lee [Zach Grenier] get what they deserve. Is there someone else you’d like to have back?

MK: We found the people we wanted to reach and it was not discussed further.

RC: We didn’t want it to be a big farewell review with people stepping onto the set to say goodbye. They actually want to find stories that suit them. And even then, it would have been nice to see more of Carrie Preston, because we love Elsbeth. At some point you only have out of time what you can do within 10 episodes.

Reporter: Was it just me or was there a romantic spark between Liz and Ri’Chard?

MK: It is interesting. I didn’t think they would find romance.

RC: You know why I thought that when you see her sitting on the floor of his house and there’s a kind of chemistry that feels a little romantic. But you also get the feeling that he often does this with women. But I thought there was something. Again, we didn’t think we would go there because we didn’t want to write a check that we couldn’t cash because of the episodes we had. So it felt like it was a friendship of like-minded people who didn’t want to break the working relationship. Also because of how it was with Adrian [Delroy Lindo] because it had a romantic ending.

Reporter: You ended the series with a funny video of Trump and the song YMCA. Tell me about that decision.

MK: It felt like we had to go back to the politics that started and kept the show going. We also didn’t want to end on a sentimental beat, because some sentimentality was deserved.

RC: We always want to play the pessimism of the time, but play it with a grin on your face. We wanted to end it in good spirit. When we originally ended it, Michelle said it would kind of die out. This was when Trump announced that he would go back to running as it is now, but then it went black. But then we thought we could just keep playing the YMCA while Trump does his little “two man jerk dance” which is really stupid and silly. It felt like a fun and kind of rude way to end the show with this little Trump dance that he does. You know, Trump can’t take mockery, so we thought he’d hate this video of him performing his dance. So it’s a very good and happy way to end the show.