FXXAll good things must come to an end, including a show about awful people. You're the Worst's fifth and final season debuts Wednesday, Jan. 9 on FXX and so begins the farewell routine actors and viewers have become all too familiar with. For the stars, Chris Geere, Aya Cash, Kether Donohue and Desmin Borges, it was an exciting season to film, while tough at the same time thanks to, you know, tears.
"I think this has been the most exciting one for me because it answers an awful lot of questions," Geere told press at the 2018 Television Critics Association press tour. "Plus, you see their personal development, or lack thereof, all the time. It's been a very wistful season really, because we had our idea of how we wanted it to end, and I think the fans did as well. And now that we know, let me just say we all cried when we found out."
Series creator Stephen Falk said they're winding the show down in an "organic way." Season four ended with Gretchen and Jimmy finally getting back together after he abandoned her on a hill following his proposal. Now, the two are well on their way to whatever wedded bliss looks like for Jimmy and Gretchen.
"I hate Breaking Bad for doing it so well and making that a thing. I think we're winding it down in an organic way…[T]hey got officially engaged again at the end of last season. So, this is the season leading up to, and playing with, the idea of commitment and what that means and what it means in a legal structure and in a personal structure and what it means to one's development and what it means vis a vis the end of one being cool or not," Falk said at TCA. "So, you know, I'm trying to be cognizant, when we were writing because we wrote from January to May. When me and my staff were writing, we were trying to be cognizant of not worrying too much about that sticking the landing while making sure we do at the same time."
The first episode of the season barely features Gretchen and Jimmy, the first two acts of the premiere are sans any of the main characters, and there's no Edgar and Lindsay at all. Instead, it's an homage to rom-coms from the 1990s, Falk said.
"This has always been a big gooey love letter to the tension between cynicism and the, kind of, belief in romance and belief in movie style love and endings. And so, we kind of—I wanted to break form and have fun, but, at the same time, make it make a lot of sense to our characters. And that's why what you're seeing ends up being what it is. But, yeah, I like that movie Notting Hill. There's not a lot to say. I thought it would be a fun challenge to semi recreate that movie press conference with our characters. So, we worked really hard to find an organic way to do it. It's one of my favorite episodes. I think it's a lot of fun."
Lindsay, Gretchen, Edgar and Jimmy have done their fair share of horrible things—don't forget the show is called You're the Worst—but there's something that happens this year as they say goodbye that truly shook Cash.
"We do something this season that I think, when we all read, we thought, ‘We've jumped the shark. This is it. We've, obviously,' ‘It's the end, and they're just messing with us,'" Cash said. "And then you read the rest of the episode, and it all makes sense. You're, like, ‘OK, we're fine." But we do something so heinous and deplorable that you think you can never come back from."
The fifth and final season of You're the Worst begins Wednesday, Jan. 9 at 10 p.m. on FXX.