As we often hear on This Is Us, life is anything but predictable. Yet some of it can feel preordained—thanks to generational ties and some creative plotting by show creator Dan Fogelman. 

“Amidst all the talk of twists and turns and death and house fires and appliances that cause house fires, where the show really lived was just with a family,” Fogelman, who wrote both of the series’ final episodes, said during a press conference attended by Vanity Fair on Tuesday. “I always thought that the boldest and most confident ending for the show would be pulling out one final magic trick at the end and then one big, obviously emotional, sad ending in death, and then allowing the final episode to be a simple reflection on family and time.”

In the aftermath of Rebecca’s heartbreaking death in the penultimate episode, This Is Us swathes viewers in a cozy blanket of an ending. Untethered by math competitions or football games, Milo Ventimiglia’s Jack and Mandy Moore’s Rebecca spend a quiet Saturday with their kids in the early ’90s for part of the finale. In the present day, those same kids struggle with how to properly eulogize their matriarch on the day of her funeral. 

All of the finale’s flashback sequences were filmed years ago while shooting seasons three and four. This allowed the show to immortalize the younger versions of the Big Three before they overlapped in age with their teenage counterparts—spotlighting Lonnie Chavis as Randall, Mackenzie Hancsicsak as Kate, and Parker Bates as Kevin. Appearances are also made by much of Randall (Sterling K. Brown) and Beth’s (Susan Kelechi Watson) brood, including Eris Baker’s Tess, Faithe Herman’s Annie, Lyric Ross’s Deja, and Ron Cephas Jones’s William, who died in the first season. 

Had that tightly guarded footage not worked when Fogelman dusted it off, there was no plan B. “I didn’t have a big full-fledged backup plan, which is what made it all a little bit terrifying,” he said. “And it’s literally why I had to watch the first cut of the past footage with my wife [Caitlin Thompson, who plays Madison], which I’ve never done before, because I was too scared to watch it alone.” Luckily, every previously shot scene was used, save for some footage of Jack and Randall making breakfast for their respective families, which Fogelman said may be released online.

Prior to the finale, many of the Big Three’s happy endings were already sealed. Justin Hartley’s Kevin has reconciled with Sophie (Alexandra Breckenridge) and is devoting himself to the nonprofit he began in his father’s memory. Chrissy Metz’s Kate has found new love after divorcing Toby (Chris Sullivan) and is opening up music schools for the visually impaired. It is Randall’s fate that remains coyly open-ended.

In addition to becoming a grandfather to Deja and Malik’s son (who will be named in honor of William), Senator Randall has his sights set on a trip to Iowa…at the request of the DNC, we might add. “People don’t like their presidents all weepy and stuff,” Kevin jokes at one point. But viewers never learn if Randall does, in fact, become POTUS. “We all felt that if we had hypothetically flashed forward to Randall sitting in the White House, that wasn’t what the show is, and it would’ve broken a little bit,” Fogelman told V.F. 

Still, the creator admitted to having fun with the possibility, comparing Randall’s teased political journey to The Sopranos’ fade-to-black series finale. “In my mind, I know what happens to Randall and his family, but it’s meant to not be answered and to just leave a hint of promise,” Fogelman said. “I think it’s up to the audience to decide what they think happens next with Randall. Did we watch an origin story without realizing we were watching one of a future leader of the free world?”

Throughout writing the show’s six seasons on NBC, Fogelman has copped to borrowing from his own life. “I should say that my dad, who’s a big Jewish guy from Brooklyn, is convinced that Jack is him,” Fogelman said of the beloved This Is Us patriarch. “So I will let my dad take that one to the grave.”

The parallels are even more obvious when it comes to Fogelman’s late mother. In the finale, Randall—a man born to wax poetic—struggles with how to capture Rebecca’s life in one last speech, one that the audience never hears. “I stayed up all night like a lunatic—and, frankly, like a martyr—trying to write my mother, who I adored, the perfect eulogy,” Fogelman remembered. “And my experience of the day—and, frankly, the week or two after—was as I described it in the script. I just kind of floated through space and time and didn’t hear anything. I worked so hard on that eulogy and I don’t remember a single word I said, and I didn’t remember saying it.”

TV endings are far simpler than real-life ones, and Fogelman was absolute about the last words of This Is Us. “I always thought that the final actual scripted, spoken dialogue in the episode would be Jack or Rebecca just simply saying ‘I love you’ to one another,” Fogelman said. He felt similarly certain about the show’s final frame, in which a young Randall looks to his father as Jack gazes upon the rest of his family. “I just wanted the simplicity of a shot of the child taking in the parent at a moment when the parent is taking in something bigger,” he explained, “and knowing that that child will carry it forward in their own life.”

Naturally, the conclusion of a show that takes place across multiple time frames invites spin-off conversation. But Fogelman was quick to squash any speculation. “I think I’m pretty set on this being it,” he said. “I feel, outside of some understandable questions about Audio the Dog, for the most part, we’ve really answered the questions of the show.” (Of the once-central, now seemingly abandoned pet, Fogelman said: “I believe Kate and Toby, postdivorce, shared custody, and he lived happily ever—a very long, happy life.”) Still, he left the door to This Is Us slightly ajar, should his mind change: “Who knows what change of heart my ensuing midlife crisis brings, but I really feel we’ve put these stories to bed now and certainly for quite a bit of time.”

After 106 episodes full of interlocking story lines and elaborate reveals, Fogelman—like Rebecca Pearson—has earned a rest. “My wife and I are gonna find a beach somewhere and hit it for a little bit. I’m gonna hang out with my kid. And I’m not really thinking about any kind of storytelling at the moment,” he said. But like his heart-on-their-sleeve-wearing characters, Fogelman couldn’t resist one last reflection on the show that was. “Even though there aren’t a lot of bells and whistles on the final episode,” he admitted, “it’s probably as proud as I’ve ever been of an episode of the show.”