‘Dear Edward’ Creator Jason Katims Breaks Down the Season Finale’s Biggest Scenes

In his latest gutting Apple TV+ drama, Dear Edward, creator Jason Katims managed to find remarkable light and life in a story born from darkness and death.

The 10-episode series, adapted from Ann Napolitano’s 2020 novel and inspired by true events, follows a 12-year-old boy, Edward (Colin O’Brien), who became the sole survivor of a plane crash that killed everyone else on board, including his parents and brother. In the three months after the crash, we watch Edward, his aunt Lacey (Taylor Schilling) and uncle John (Carter Hudson), and a group of grievers including wealthy mom and housewife Dee Dee (Connie Britton) process their trauma and offer each other support.

The logline may sound too distressing to bear, but those familiar with Katims’ past work, sensible style, profound storytelling, and (full) heart — from his writing on My So-Called Life to his critically acclaimed series Friday Night Lights and Parenthood — had faith he could unearth heartwarming moments amidst the most extreme heartbreak.

“One of the things I love is telling stories that just feel deeply human. It’s what I most connect to when I’m watching something — sort of these very nuanced, intimate moments between people, and watching how we make our way through the world with people that we love and connect to. And I just feel like that’s something that has become the main thing I think about when I think about shows,” Katims told Decider. “…When you take on a show like this, the subject matter and the thing you worry about is, ‘Oh my god, is it gonna be so heavy that it’s gonna be too sad to watch?’ And I think my takeaway was how full of life a show can be even despite, and maybe because of, being launched from such tragic circumstances.”

Read on for our full interview with Katims, where discusses everything from reuniting with Friday Night Lights star Connie Britton and his love for Steve Kornacki to the Season 1 finale and his hopes for Season 2.

DECIDER: Before we dive into this stunning finale, I have to ask what it was like working with Connie Britton again after Friday Night Lights.

JASON KATIMS: It was a dream to get to work with Connie again. It really was. I’m such a huge admirer of hers. I follow everything that she’s done since Friday Night Lights. I obviously loved getting to work with her on Friday Night Lights, and I’ve always hoped to get to work with her again. And I wrote this character for the show who I had an instinct she would connect to, and she did. And we really dug in together. We had a shorthand, obviously from working together for five seasons, and it was like, weirdly, as if no time had passed.

It was very collaborative. We did a lot of work on the character together even before we started shooting. So once we started shooting we were really so in sync on Dee Dee and who she was that it just became fun for me. I just loved being on set and watching [Connie] come up with things that surprised us. I mean, she’s one of those actors that doesn’t do it the same way twice. Every time she does it it’s really fun to watch her process and watch her work. The one other thing I think was really great is that Dee Dee is so different than Tami Taylor [Britton’s FNL character]. In a way, I think if the character was more similar to Tami, it actually would have been harder, because we’d have to say, “Well, how can we make sure that this character isn’t the same?” We’re not trying to just capture that magic, but we were dealing with somebody who was such a different and such a delightful character. I think it freed us both up to just really dig in and enjoy the process.

Britton’s performance is phenomenal. She nails such a wide range of heavy emotions while bringing an incredible humor to Dee Dee. Off the top of your head do you have a favorite Dee Dee scene?

Oh my gosh. I will say I loved all the scenes so much. I just rewatched the episode last night so it’s on my mind, but the scene when she comes to her daughter at school and basically makes this big, emotional scene in front of her roommates. I just love that scene so much. And the other thing that comes to my mind is a scene where she’s with Zoe and Steve, and has Steve help tell her daughter about their financial issues and then he winds up getting punched in the nose. [Laughs] Both of those scenes have such humor but are also so deeply emotional. And that’s what’s so amazing that Dee Dee — that Connie has done. I actually called her Dee Dee. [Laughs]

[Laughs] It’s hard to tell!

…That Connie has done with that character. She found this sort of sweet spot where she could just be hysterically funny — almost like broadly funny in one moment, and then seconds later, you feel this incredible emotion watching her, because you really feel like you’re watching her process what has happened to her as a result of this tragedy, but then also her learning all these secrets about her husband’s life and how it sort of forces her to look in the mirror at herself in a way that maybe she didn’t do before. It’s so alive because of the way Connie plays the scenes. All the these moments feel so present tense. Just so alive.

Pivoting to the finale, “Shelter,” it takes place on Election Day. Before we have a chance to get too sad about Kojo and Becks leaving for Ghana, we see the Khaki King Steve Kornacki calling Adriana‘s special election results. Please tell me everything about this iconic cameo.

[Laughs] Well, you know, it’s funny because I’m just, like many I think, obsessed with Steve Kornacki. We went out to him because we thought we would love to get him to do that little cameo, and any time you can instill your story with something that makes it feel real and have people recognize somebody in that that way, it’s so great. But what was funny about it was he was interested in doing it, but he was also very busy doing his actual election stuff when we were shooting. And so it was always a question of when we would be able to get him and when his schedule would allow him to come in and overlap with when we had time in our schedule. It was this cameo that took all of an hour to shoot, but the amount of planning was so funny. I joked about how many times I would be on set and I would just be walking by somebody on a cell phone and hear “Kornacki.” [Laughs] Constantly. Like, “Can we do Thursday? He can do between 11 and 12.” So it was this incredible amount of planning to make that one moment come to life, but it was so much fun. He came on and there was some scripted stuff, but I said to him, “Look. We want you to do what you do and give it it’s own thing.” And so he just came on and it was like magic. And by the way, it’s a soundstage, and everybody loves what they do, but after a while you get used to it. When we shot that scene though, everybody on the crew just gathered around and watched. It was magic. And he’s the nicest guy, so it was really fun to have him. I love that you asked about that.

What a delightful answer. I love to hear it. I want to quickly jump to the end of the finale when we see Edward and Shay reading a letter from a stranger claiming to be Edwards uncle. I assume this means we’re getting a Season 2?

Well I definitely have designed the show to be an ongoing show and certainly having that morsel at the end is a suggestion there’s more stories to tell. But I think even beyond getting a letter and having a literal cliffhanger like that, I just think these characters are all so alive. One of the things that I love about the show is this community that’s formed of people who never would have known each other, who have now, out of these tragic circumstances, become sort of an extended family. Obviously romantic relationships have been formed and deep friendships have been formed. So if we get a Season 2 I would be excited to continue to follow these characters on their paths. That said, I want to go on with the show. Obviously, it’s not up to me. We’re waiting to hear if that’s where we are.

Something I personally need clarity on in Season 2 is John and Lacey’s relationship. John has that glorious rom-com worthy declaration of love in the finale, but I noticed when we hop forward 10 weeks Lacey, Edward, Shay, Linda, and her baby are sitting down for a meal together and I didn’t see John, which quite frankly stressed me out.

NO, HE WASN’T THERE! I know. I was like, oh my god! He wasn’t there!

Is there hope for a reconciliation between them if we get a Season 2?

Well, the thing about that relationship and that marriage is it’s complicated. And it was complicated before all this happened with Edward. In the pilot, you saw there was a lot of friction and tension between them. And one of the things I really love is to tell a story about any complicated relationship, there’s certainly so much love there, but they also might not always be the the best for each other. Ending Season 1 with them having this separation, that I think they need in order for them to figure out for themselves who they are and what they want, while they’re separated their relationship isn’t over. I do think there’s a lot of love between them, so I think Season 2 would be about watching them. And not to say they would get back together or not, but we would continue to follow the story of the two of them — and not just the two of them in the marriage, but also as guardians for Edward.

We really see the extraordinary growth and resilience of these characters when they unite at the grief group party in the finale, which made me sob tears of joy. Your shows are well-known for sad, and happy, and cathartic cries. Why do you love telling these human stories that find levity amidst grief?

Thank you for that question. One of the things I love is telling stories that just feel deeply human. It’s what I most connect to when I’m watching something — sort of these very nuanced, intimate moments between people, and watching how we make our way through the world with people that we love and connect to. And I just feel like that’s something that has become the main thing I think about when I think about shows. Obviously there are other things that are important. But you also asked about humor, and that’s something I’m so happy you brought up, because when people interview me they’re talking about all the times they cry throughout. But I think the joy and the laughter is what makes you access your emotion…and life has so much humor in it. Here we are in the subject matter of this show. Oh my god it’s so intense. All this loss, and the show is born out of this tragic event. But when something bad happens, for a moment everything shuts down and gets really dark. But that’s the beautiful thing about about humanity. We keep this life and this hope. Bringing it back for a second to Connie, I think that’s what’s so beautiful in particular about her performance. She finds humor in virtually every scene she has on the show. No matter how intense some of them are, there’s always room to find life in it.

Definitely. And as a viewer that really translated. Having wrapped Season 1, is there anything you’ll take away from your Dear Edward experience?

When you take on a show like this, the subject matter and the thing you worry about is, “Oh my god, is it gonna be so heavy that it’s gonna be too sad to watch?” And I think my takeaway was how full of life a show can be even despite, and maybe because of, being launched from such tragic circumstances. I think it made all the characters [put their] hearts right out there. And the grieving process wasn’t just about how to say goodbye to somebody. It was really making them question who they were and if they were on the right path. Were they the person that they should be or wanted to be? And you watch these people make these crazy changes in their lives, like saying, “I’m gonna be a congresswoman. I thought I was leaving politics and now I’m embracing it in a way that’s wildly ambitious.” I felt really surprised in a good way at just how much life there was. I was also just very in awe of our cast as a whole. Everybody just invested and believed in the story that we were telling, and it was very satisfying to watch the beautiful performances one after the other that the cast brought to it.

Dear Edward is currently streaming on Apple TV+.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.