Sometimes when the worst thing you can imagine happens, the hardest adjustment is realizing that life pretty much just keeps moving forward. Maybe you’ve experienced a death, or lost a job, or your house burned down, but the next day the sun rose and people went to work and Wheel of Fortune was on at 6:30. Did you know that the literal day after Hiroshima, they restored power to undamaged parts of the city and the trains started running again? Society is an organism that trends toward “normalcy”, no matter how grotesque the circumstances. People are elastic, and they’ll generally adapt to whatever insane situation they find themselves in.

**Spoilers below, tread carefully**

When we were crafting the season, we knew we wanted to keep the audience guessing by moving the alert and the resolution into different parts of each episode. In “I Do Drive A Hard Bargain”, not only does the missile (missiles?) land, but it does so only 4 minutes into the story. Most of Season 1 has been about terror, anticipation, urgency, and relief. But this episode asks the hardest questions: What’s next? How do you survive and ultimately rebuild?

When Chris and I were breaking the story for this episode, we started with a provocation: Who would you absolutely NOT want to be trapped in an apartment with? Hannah and Andy don’t share the same vision of where they stand; Hannah is moving out one suitcase at a time, while Andy still thinks they’re only ‘taking a break’. Jesse has the self-possession they both lack - she knows what she’s after, and she’s willing to haggle and argue to get it. Both Andy and Jesse want to be with Hannah, but does she want to be with both of them? Or neither?

Despite the obviously tense dynamics, once it’s clear that they’re going to be cooped up together, they fall into a rhythm. This is where we decided to make it tough for them: what if there was yet ANOTHER person on the other side of the door? And what happens if they disagree on what to do about it?

Ultimately, we decided to end the episode without defining exactly what happens to any of them. They each head off into a murky unknown, the world and who they’ll navigate it with totally up for grabs. Jesse makes her decision, and then Andy makes his… and Hannah, once again paralyzed by her options, rides off on a bus to some distant place, where at long last she’ll have to make a life for herself. She even sounds a little optimistic!

(BTW, what happened to Patti? I think I may have heard her voice at the refugee staging area?)

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Once again, this incredible cast assembled by Marika exceeded every expectation. Karen Rodriguez is an actor of tremendous skill and humanity, and her comic timing is only equaled by her emotional depth. Isa Arciniegas made a Jesse that is both strident and sympathetic, and I can feel both her love for Karen and her empathy for Andy, no small feat. Adam Bartley had a tough job making his character more than a doormat - Andy is one of those people who’s always trying to find a solution, to make everyone feel better even at his own expense, which is what makes his performance in the last scene so heartbreaking. Adam is a rare combination of deeply emotional and technically precise, and he elevated everything.

I want to give a special thank you and an actual OMG to my pal Marilu Henner, who gave us such an indelible Patti. She is alternately desperate and furious, funny and sad, and it requires such incredible skill to turn that woman into a real person. It is no surprise Marilu pulled it off. That’s how you become an icon. I’m lucky to be her friend and collaborator.

We got some great cameos in this one too, including Tim Riff, Leo Singer, Eleni Lima, and Kevin Driscoll. These are some of my nearest and dearest, and I’m thrilled they’ll be a part of this thing forever.