SPOILER ALERT! This publish incorporates particulars from the collection finale of The CW‘s Walker.
If it have been as much as collection star Jared Padalecki and showrunner Anna Fricke, Walker could be persevering with its run on The CW. However, if it needed to finish, they’re glad to ship it off with the Season 4 finale on Wednesday night time.
“I’m heartbroken. I like the present. I like the forged and the crew. I’m and might be eternally grateful for the 4 years we had with one another and the friendships and relationships that I made. However proper now, It’s robust,” Padalecki advised Deadline of ending the present’s run. “I do know it’ll be round for folks to observe and rewatch. So I’m grateful for that, however I’m actually gonna miss it.”
Walker was formally canceled in Could, and Fricke stated they have been unaware of the destiny of the present when writing the finale. As “there’s all the time a danger in community tv,” she defined that she tried to convey sufficient tales to a satisfying conclusion whereas leaving threads to discover in a possible Season 5.
This season, Walker struggled with an empty nest as Stella (Violet Brinson) and August (Kale Culley) started to department out on their very own. After 4 seasons of looking for a work-life steadiness, he lastly takes a step again from his Ranger duties to spend some prolonged time together with his household and informs newly minted Lt. Cassie Perez that he’ll be taking a depart of absence.
“It actually was about getting the household to a superb place. They’re on to their subsequent chapter,” Fricke stated. “That second when the household drives off collectively, the youngsters and Walker and Geri, seems like some type of closure in a manner. In an ideal world, [it would have] gone on and there could be extra tales and extra issues, however they do look like they’re in a superb place.”
Padalecki offers kudos to the writers for the place they depart Walker, as a result of “that’s how I really feel proper now,” he says.
“I’ve had this job for 20 years. There’s by no means been every week of latest tv the place I haven’t been No. 1 on the decision sheet of an hour lengthy present. I’m nonetheless grieving, and I in all probability will for some time. However I really feel actually excited to spend extra time with my spouse, our youngsters…the remainder of my household, my pals. So I’m completely satisfied for Walker, I feel,” he stated. “I’m bummed that he’s not on the following job, as a result of I do know he loves being a canine with a bone and getting his work finished, however I’m so completely satisfied he will get to take this break and reset and spend time together with his family members.”
Because the cancellation resolution loomed, Fricke revealed the community gave her the chance to make adjustments to the ultimate episode to offer audiences extra closure, however she opted to not.
“It didn’t sit effectively with me to attempt to wrap up the entire collection with one revised scene,” she defined. “It appeared too rushed and too hurried, and it might have felt tacked on. So we opted to depart the finale because it was.”
Nonetheless, she did take the community up on their provide to air an prolonged model of the episode, which allowed for just a few extra scenes that she thinks viewers will respect, together with a uncommon scene with your entire Walker household.
“It was the final household scene that everybody was in collectively,” she remembered. “It took without end to get it as a result of everybody was emotional…it wasn’t a pivotal scene, or something like that. It was only a enjoyable power with all of them there, which was all the time my favourite factor. So I’m actually glad that that made it again in.”
Coincidentally, Padalecki additionally remembered that scene fondly, telling Deadline “it simply felt like a pleasant goodbye each on digital camera and off….I’m excited for that, since you really feel the love that all of us have for one another.”
No less than, Fricke jokes, no person was kidnapped or on the point of demise when the credit rolled. As an alternative, the issues left as much as the viewers’ creativeness are largely constructive, like Walker’s eventual proposal to Geri (Odette Annable).
Within the episode, there’s one fast shot of Walker admiring the engagement ring inside its field earlier than tucking it into his pocket and assembly his household exterior. She says that to incorporate the precise proposal would have felt “too quickly.”
“Walker stated this to Emily in a flashback. She stated, ‘What is going to you do if I’m gone?’ And he stated, ‘Marry Geri and work at Sidestep.’ And that was all the time form of a joke for what the tip of the collection could be,” she stated. “However in my thoughts, I didn’t need to get all the way in which to a proposal…I don’t suppose they’re there but.”
If there’s one factor Fricke is most dissatisfied she received’t get to discover, it’s James Van Der Beek’s arc as Walker’s new neighbor — a full circle second for the showrunner, whose first TV job was on Dawson’s Creek.
Within the closing moments of the episode, Van Der Beek pulls as much as the home as Walker and his household are headed on their trip and, although the second is fleeting, it hints at a deliciously dramatic storyline for Season 5.
“It was gonna be a cool. We had massive plans for Season 5,” Fricke stated. “Nicely, possibly there’ll be a film.”
Nicely, no matter iteration of Walker could or could not come subsequent, Fricke provides that she has loads of concepts to discover.
“Even from the primary whisper of possibly that is the tip, the producers have been all speaking about, ‘How can we preserve this going? What can we spin off? What can we do?’” she stated. “I feel these are nice characters and an important world and I completely love working with the crew in Austin. So we positively give it some thought rather a lot.”
When requested if she may reveal any of her concepts, she teased: “We all the time needed to do the Hawk’s Shadow story. I’d actually comply with any of those characters. I actually all the time needed to see extra out of any of them. I’d comply with any of them anyplace, to be sincere.”
