Search Party’s creators break down the apocalyptic pivot in the final season
Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers discuss the surprisingly gruesome final season of Search Party
TV Features Search Party
Of all the ways Search Party could’ve wrapped up its excellent five-season run, most viewers probably wouldn’t have predicted a zombie takeover. But that’s exactly what happened: Dory’s (Alia Shawkat) unshakable quest to spread enlightenment goes so awry that the side effects turn people into the undead, summoning a zombie apocalypse. The creative team and cast made Search Party’s series finale one of the most appropriately bizarre endings on TV. The A.V. Club spoke to co-creators Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers about the show’s pivot to a farcical The Walking Dead, what it signifies about the growth of its characters, and Search Party’s legacy as a cult hit.
The A.V. Club: Season four felt like a logical end to the show. So when you knew you would get one more season to wrap it up, what were the themes you wanted to address?
Charles Rogers: In writing season four, originally there was a moment we felt it could or should be the end, for Dory to die. In retrospect, I’m glad we took that idea as seriously as we did. There was actual weight of that feeling at the end of season four. When we started to conceive five, we liked the idea of the themes of rebirth, enlightenment, and using that as a turning point in the show to see if Dory is on the other side of the journey you’ve watched so far. Ultimately, it’s a test of if Dory has grown as a person, and is she really what she now professes to be. We wouldn’t have been able to lean into it if we didn’t have the seriousness of the previous finale.
AVC: So much happens this season, but we have to talk about the zombies first. When did you know you were going to go down that path? And what does it signify?
Sarah-Violet Bliss: I don’t know if I remember the exact moment we decided it. I know it was in line with how each season we’ve had a “Can we go there?” moment. If we do, it’s always fun, but we have to justify it. Any time we’ve made big swings, it’s worked out in our favor despite the fears behind it. We thought, “Okay, it’s the last season. Let’s really take what we’ve learned and go as far with it as we can.” When an idea lights me up, or if it lights me up at all, I hope it lights up others, too. I have no idea if people will watch the season and say, “Is that awesome,” or “Is it really not,” though.
CR: Whether or not people like the idea of how big we went is one thing. The other thing is, do people understand the metaphors and why the show ends the way it does. I hope people find that the finale feels meaningful to them through the lens of all this heightened chaos.
SB: In following my own compass of it, I don’t feel betrayed by the ending, so my hope is fans don’t either.
AVC: Did you consider turning one of the main four into a zombie or were you certain of how their journeys would end in the apocalypse?
SB: We did. There were versions where we thought we should lose one of them. But we decided to then let that sad moment be Marc (Jeffery Self) turning. It felt good to have the four of them together at the end to reckon with the post-malaise of living in a new zombie world. How they’re adapting to it all felt more like the show than losing any of them.
AVC: Alia Shawkat hinted that she loved the final shot of Dory—when she looks at those missing person posters after her wedding. How did you land on that?
CR: It’s nice to leave off with the closing shot because that’s a visual we’ve repeated before. It felt like the right thing to come back to at the end, but now with all of the baggage, layers, consequences of what’s happened leading up to this moment. There’s something particularly internal about it as opposed to the previous times we’ve done it, where we know what she’s feeling. Alia has an ability to feel richly enigmatic in a way that’s profound. It feels like you’re in her headspace, but you’ll never know her headspace. That was the crux of writing Dory. She’s someone who was slipping away from your ability to fully grasp. We were able to speak about human behavior and psychology if we kept her at a distance. That’s a part of the feeling we want to leave people off with.
AVC: In episode nine, Search Party essentially turns into its own version of The Walking Dead in the arcade. How did you map out where it would take place, and what each character would be doing?
SB: We knew we needed an enclosed space for the set piece that is all of episode nine. We came up with the idea of the arcade by truly thinking about what’s the most fun location for them to be trapped in. We wanted to make a certain version of a zombie apocalypse work for us, and show it against where Drew and Dory are while it’s happening. They have no idea, they’re singing “Aquarius” while driving, they think they’re saving the world. We also knew we wanted to see Williamsburg again with all the millennials to see what it’s like when it becomes a zombie town.
AVC: Tunnel Quinn’s [Jeff Goldblum] wealth and fame brought lots of value to Dory and her friends, and it’s a way to poke fun at tech moguls. But did you want to do more with how his arc ends? He sort of disappears after being forced to resign.
CR: Seasons three and five are our biggest pointed satire moments. In this one, Tunnel is borrowing from Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and these people who claim to herald in a new dawn through technology they control. It felt like the right foil for Dory, who is somebody with a big mission but doesn’t know how she wants it to materialize. What Tunnel was able to bring was this magical Willy Wonka charm that was grounded and believable. In the writing process, there were times we really wondered how to sell the idea that a man out there wants to fund an enlightenment pill. You cast someone like Jeff Goldblum, and 90 percent of the work is done.
We had the idea of Tunnel Quinn, and we pitched ideas for whom to cast in the writers’ room. Jeff was probably the first name we threw out. When it came back to the casting process, it felt surreal to hear, “Actually he does want to do it.” We originally had thrown around a lot of different conclusions his character could come to, but we also didn’t want him to be a big villain. We didn’t want to put so much weight on him to take away from the main characters. We thought of doing a button on his character. The last act of season five was also expensive to film, so we had to make compromises anyway.
AVC: Chantal’s final dialogue to Dory, “You always had delusions of grandeur,” is apt. Why do their worlds collide the way they do during doomsday?
CR: At first it was fun to write Chantal because we love writing for Clare McNulty. We found this pattern where so much importance is placed on Dory’s arc, and so much unimportance is placed on Chantal’s. They are a cosmic foil to one another, so their narratives meet multiple times. Chantal saves Dory’s life, but we love that they’re still living their own selfish point of view for who is responsible for the end of the world.
AVC: Each season of Search Party has felt like its own structured show, with lots of tonal shifts. What was the approach while deciding how serious you wanted to get versus when to comically comment on an issue?
CR: We didn’t really have specific rules that we abide by. One approach that seems to be the anchor for the show’s tone since the beginning is that anything that’s extreme, any situation or behavior, we’re still treating the emotional reality of the characters with real weight. Even at the show’s craziest peak, they’re all reacting in a grounded, emotionally serious way. That can earn you different deviations from what you’ve done in the past.
AVC: What do you hope is the legacy of a show like this one? Is it definitely the end, or would you want to make more?
SB: This is definitely the end. That’s it. I hope the takeaway is that Search Party is something [viewers] really enjoyed it. It’s a lot to sum up.
CR: I hope it doesn’t leave people’s collective consciousness. I hope people continue to think about it. My favorite things have sort of a cult following that stand the test of time. I’d be honored if Search Party had that kind of legacy.
26 Comments
It stuck the landing
Such a great cast. A fearless show, for better or worse
it’s my favorite seasonshan-tullportia being that one extremely devotee/lover that every cult has
dory and her disciples super high on nothing and trying to have the most awkward orgy
all the action and the scale of this season
the world’s (?) population being reduced down to .003% and the 4 acting like it’s normal and on their way to a brunch
You pulled out a lot of the best parts of the season. Portia drinking Dory’s bathwater was a real scream-at-the-scream moment.The awkward orgy almost made up for how much I was annoyed by the disciples the rest of the time. Funny how the show tried to lampshade that from the first episode they showed up in.
I’m on the fence with the last season. It was definitely surprising and unexpected but it also really kind of took away from the rest of the series IMO. Like nothing that happened in prior seasons even matters by the end because the majority of the world’s population is dead. And Dory achieves inner peace by being the harbinger of an apocalyptic event and that’s…supposed to resonate with the viewer?I guess I wonder if the creators of this show think Dory is someone viewers will root for despite her flaws. I always found her to be abhorrent and an absolute garbage person and wanted to see her get some degree of comeuppance vs an ending like Shaun from Shaun of the Dead got. I kind of think of this season as good entertainment but not really a good season of Search Party. Side note – I was thrilled to see Joe Pera pop up in this.
I think it plays into the existentialism theme very well that the entire series has been about, nothing before really does matter. Dory’s message was sort of right, but also delivered really wrong because she’s insatiable in her need to be validated.
I think there are a number of ways to read Dory’s final scene, some more positive than others. Does it show that Dory’s matured because she’s no longer trying to glom onto other people’s tragedies? Or indicate her growing understanding that her alienation makes her normal rather than special? Or is it a sign of ultimate degeneration that she washes her hands of the lost and forsaken at the exact moment when she’s actually responsible for what happened to them? Maybe it’s all of them together.
I also don’t think I agree that this season renders Dory’s previous development pointless. Sure, everything you’ve gone through might seem pointless once the world ends, but if you’re the one who ended the world, what led you to that point is in fact quite important.I actually think it’s really interesting that the show essentially gets two different endings, the grounded one where Dory dies and the world moves on with scraggly dignity in the shadow of her life lost, and the bonkers one where Dory refuses to become one of the lost, insisting that the world can only move forward with her at the helm, and ends up trapping everyone in her cycle of alienation.
I think I enjoyed 1-4 a lot more overall. But the final scene showing Dory had created thousands and thousands more missing people really worked for me.
I am so glad I gave up on Search Party long before the final season. I can’t stand when shows that are clearly set in the real world suddenly go sci-fi/supernatural. And yes, I am still bitter over the ending of Felicity.
you should still watch it at some point. i wouldn’t say search party was ever ‘grounded’ so it worked (for me). obviously if it’s a huge sticking point just turn it off, but it doesn’t go supernatural until like the last 2 episodes. the character dynamics and writing (and particularly shawkat’s performance) is still as true as ever.
Okay. That’s good to know. I might give it a shot. Thanks for the thoughtful reply.
Yeah I was sad when Lost strayed from government-experiment-gone-wrong to some kinda vague mysticism.
Wait, Felicity went supernatural at the end??
Yes. After they had already completed the series finale, the WB ordered more episodes. And JJ had the bright idea to kill off one of the main characters, and then Felicity had to go back in time to save them. I wish I was joking.
Wowww.
There was nothing sci-fi or supernatural, lol. I didn’t even get that AFTER seeing it, lol…
I respect and admire the big swing, but it was a real miss for me. I think they got mired in trying to explain too much and added too many side characters – and that ended up stealing time from exploring those themes they wanted to more fully and it stole time from their incredible core four cast members who, frankly, didn’t get enough to do. I am still a big Search Party fan, but this final season is certainly an asterisk for me
I appreciate that they went big with every season, and that every season of the show can really be viewed as its own thing.That said, I feel like most of the elements of season 5 were a bit too broad and lost the specificity of Dory’s journey that the previous seasons had. The zombies were ultimately… just zombies, and the metaphors of the show felt a bit strained when they tried to mesh millennial angst onto zombie murders. The moments that shone through were the parts, like their meeting Chantal in the final episode, that thrust the focus back onto Dory’s interiority.I still love the show for its ambition and its attempts to peer into the darkness of the narcissistic young privileged psyche, plus being such a great showcase for these actors. Alia Shawkat was absolutely thrilling to watch, whatever the show asked her to do.
Dr. Amanda Baby was one of the all time best one scene characters.
loved the ending. once i realized what was happening i was hooting and hollering. i love big swings, and this show took some big ass swings.ALSO – can we talk about how funny it was that scott adsit, illeana douglas, michael ian black and lou diamond philips came in for ONE SCENE that was in itself ONE GAG. love it.
I had heard of a horror/supernatural bent to the season before I started watching, and when the IT parody with that group started, I was sure it was going to be important. The fact that it was just a joke moment was so perfect.
Lol, my wife and I were talking about that. Later on in the episode, the bit dawned on us and we both chuckled again at the premise.
In the end I thought they were gonna come back and the Jesper was society was going to be their secret society of monster hunters. Initially I thought it was just going to be the name of an old improv group they were in together.
definitely kept wondering if they would come back and save the day while 100% hoping they only came in for that one gag.
Is that Ted Mosby from the college dorm flashbacks?
I support the idea of a ‘big swing’ and even the overall theme of Dori just desperately wanted to do something – with the something turning into practically ending the world. I just really didn’t care for the execution. Zombies is such a tired trope at this point, it actually feels like the opposite of a big creative swing and more on the safe side to me. And they didn’t really do anything interesting with the form.I also thought all of the influencers were just really badly done, unfunny and ate up unnecessary screen time. For a show that’s supposed to be so plugged into the culture, I didn’t feel like they had an interesting or funny take on social media influencers at all.Lot of good ideas but poor execution imo.