Rooster Bosses Explain How Finale Twist Will Complicate Greg's Next Semester At Ludlow — Plus, Grade Season 1

That's a wrap on Greg Russo's first (but not last) semester at Ludlow.

HBO's "Rooster" closed out Season 1 with a Christmastime finale that saw Greg's colleagues gather to surprise him with a going-away party — only for Greg, with Katie's blessing, to decide he's not ready to leave after all. Having finally found a sense of community at the New England university, Greg opts to return for another semester.

But when Greg calls Walt with the good news, he learns that the upcoming semester will also be Walt's last as president... and that his successor will be none other than Greg's ex-wife (and Katie's mother), Elizabeth.

Elsewhere in the finale, Archie ends things with Sunny, the mother of his unborn child. And later, Katie finally asks him for a divorce.

Below, series creators Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses unpack the finale, reflect on Season 1 at large, and preview what's ahead in Season 2.

TVLINE | This isn't a Christmas episode, per se, but how much were you looking to It's a Wonderful Life in shaping this finale — and the overall message of the story?
TARSES | It hit us late. It occurred to us towards the end that we had written "It's a Wonderful Life," and so we decided to embrace that.
LAWRENCE | We always like the metaphor of the nicest thing you can do for Greg in a show that on some levels is about loneliness, and that he's a guy that has no community and has to lie about my going away party with my friends from the cast of "Cheers" [in Episode 3], is that the end is realizing how much you mean to so many people. That was always the ending, and we went, "You know, this is kind of 'It's a Wonderful Life,'" so we just decided to embrace it. Because we're lazy, Ryan! No, we thought it was funny.
TARSES | We got to make the wings joke... it was fun.

TVLINE | By the end of the finale, Greg realizes not just that he's been accepted, but that he's made a real difference and truly belongs — how much is Season 2 about holding onto that, especially with the possibility of his ex-wife disrupting that sense of stability?
LAWRENCE | Here's what's tricky: Ryan has watched TV before, so he knows how things work. [Laughs] For Season 2, we've intentionally established a dude that would come back feeling like it's the return of the hero. And what does life look like once there's some familiarity? And once there's an obstacle that's been placed that people might attach you to? And, for that matter, once you've made everybody go to your going away party and say how much they love you?
TARSES | Some people are saying, "I said goodbye to you!"
LAWRENCE | Yeah... "What are you doing back here dude?" Matt put it into great words, because one of the fun things about this show is we definitely told a Season 1 story that had an ending to it. Greg has at least found a place where he thinks that he has found community and people, and he feels less lonely. We didn't go too deeply into his personal life, but he started to touch on it. And right when he thinks he's gotten past some of these things holding him back from the past, like his ex-wife, she's going to appear back in his life on a more regular basis. And it has been really easy to diagram and write the second year, not only because Steve is so good, but because the secondary characters all have arcs that we set up intentionally that are cool.

TVLINE | Who is going to struggle more with having Elizabeth back in their lives in a big way — Greg or Katie?
LAWRENCE | I'll tell you the truth. I'll answer the first part, and then Matt will answer the question. It's important because we tell everybody that she's an obstacle, but Connie Britton is not a regular next year. [Walt says] "this will be our swan song, Greg. She's going to transition, and this next semester will be my last semester as president." So Walt's journey is can he accept [being replaced]? And what does his exodus look like? But Matt can answer the second question because I'd say I don't know the answer. It's a coin flip.
TARSES | I'm not sure I know the answer. I feel like she's going to be a problem for both of them. I think, in terms of actual story, I think she's going to figure a little more heavily in Katie's life, at least so far in our discussions.
LAWRENCE | Remember, Greg in the back of his head can go, "When she comes on full time, I can just split." He doesn't want to...
TARSES | ... but Katie's not going anywhere. So I think they're both going to have to come to grips with that. We don't want to do the same story — "My parents are cramping my style!" — but there will be a little bit of it.

TVLINE | We talked at the junket about the goal for Katie being that she ultimately feels autonomous and independent — do you see Katie ending things with Archie, once and for all, as her fully achieving that?
LAWRENCE | Yes, we would have failed as writers if she ever returns to that. And, you know, it's really interesting... I'm not going to tell you who's been through this before, but divorce from someone when you're young and you have no kids — especially when you're only married for a tiny period of time — it ends very quickly, often feeling no different than the person you dated for two years in college. It just doesn't have the same stakes. And I think it would be a disappointing retreat for her character to ever be stuck there. With the issue of a kid, though, I think that other relationship is still fraught. Not in terms of Sunny returning, because she's very matter of fact, but for Archie and what he lost.
TARSES | There's even a version of it that we're circling around where, post-breakup, there's actually a new kind of healthy friendship that will evolve eventually.
LAWRENCE | We want to believe that Katie when said, "I hope you end up figuring out how to be happy," that she actually meant it.
TARSES | That she means it, yeah.

TVLINE | In the same way I think the audience would have judged Katie had she stayed with him, it feels like there might be similar judgment if Sunny were to take Archie back.
LAWRENCE | By the way, we're not going to mess with that because everybody would be so mad — but the one thing we promised Phil Dunster, I think I told you this before, was he was, like, "You're going to make me play an irredeemable guy again, aren't you?" And I said, "Yeah, but we'll give you another journey. But we can't do it until he totally bottoms out." Characters don't really become reflective until they bottom out, and I think Phil Dunster is off somewhere right now hoping his character is totally bottomed out.
TARSES | But he hasn't. [Laughs]

TVLINE | We've seen Phil Dunster play the ego maniac who evolves into a more fully realized, less selfish person before with Jamie Tartt on "Ted Lasso." Is there another route forward for Archie that keeps him in that morally gray space where he's not quite the villain... but also not a hero either?
LAWRENCE | Yes. He's not the guy who is going to come around and lead the hockey team to victory. And his redemptive arc will definitely — if it ever happens completely and ever graduates past the one step forward, two steps back — have been earned over a number of seasons.

TVLINE | Beyond having her heart broken by Archie, Sunny had also given up a promising job offer in New York. So what does the dynamic between the two of them look like in Season 2?
LAWRENCE | I think it's a matter of fact thing. This guy, the father of her child, still has to be in her life. But watching her not only try to rebuild [her life], but in a show that's about community, building her own [community]... Look, in a good way, it's a bigger hole to dig out of than, "Hey, we hooked up and I wasn't the best boyfriend," you know?
TARSES | This is more complicated. And we built this strong character in Sunny who, even though she had this emotional moment at the very end, I think is too disconnected from her emotions to not go and make a new plan pretty quickly and keep going. And I think that'll create a dynamic with Archie where he can't quite understand how— well, I don't want to give too much away.
LAWRENCE | Look at it this way: The other writers in the room would kill us if we saw either of those women retreat to that guy again. On the other hand, I would argue that show probably took place [over] less than a month. If you look at the dates, Greg came in late. We jumped ahead over the Thanksgiving break, and then everybody goes home for Christmas. We always knew we wanted to break them both free at the end of the first season. But even with that quick amount of time, the amount of people I try not to respond too much on the Internet because I get myself in trouble even though I enjoy it...
TVLINE | You? Never!
LAWRENCE | I do enjoy it.
TARSES | All I do is say, "You don't have to write back," but he does.
LAWRENCE | There's one thing I didn't write because people are entitled to their feelings. Everybody's like, "How could these two women keep falling back in with this guy?" And I'm like, "So really, none of your friends, male or female, ever hangs around in a toxic relationship for more than three weeks and it drives everyone around them crazy? They just all immediately go, 'I'm done with this'?" Because that has not been the story of my life, my kids' lives, and my friends' lives. It drives me f—king bananas. But the B-side of that is I don't want to see either [Katie or Sunny] make that mistake again, and that's part of the fun. I think Archie probably comes into [next] year thinking that one of them definitely will, and it'll be interesting to see if he's right or wrong.

TVLINE | I really respected that you kept Greg and Dylan friends this season — you even underscore it in the finale when Dylan says that she's grateful they didn't cross that line. Did you ever seriously consider going there after the pilot? And is the goal at this point to keep things strictly platonic?
LAWRENCE | This is a two-pronged answer because Matt and I always agreed not this year. And I never know where endgames are. I grew up in a network environment where, with any single attractive woman who had comedic chemistry with any single attractive man, you had to do "Will they or won't they?" every f—king week. And so to me, I'm like, "Nah, they're going to be friends, and anything that implies otherwise would happen at the very end of the show, when you know the show is ending." And Matt, on the other hand — and I'm not saying that he said it — but he and Annie Mebane, who is one of the female executive producers who works with us a lot, you can say what you guys are, Matt...
TARSES | I guess we're basic b—ches, Ryan! We like romantic comedy, and we like romance. And look, we built the show. We put a lot of Easter eggs in there that imply that these two have a special connection, and I love a romantic relationship evolving from a real friendship, so I'm totally on board with playing this out as long as we want as these two become better and better friends. But I have my fingers crossed that someday there will be something.
LAWRENCE | It's good for us to talk about it because we fight about it often. It'll be interesting to see even what happens [in Season 2] in terms of who wins — Matt or me.

TVLINE | Dylan got a win this season, with Walt ultimately canning Riggs and giving her the job as dean of faculty — but I'll admit, it left me wanting even more for her, and more of her on my screen. What plans do you have for Dylan in Season 2?
LAWRENCE | We under-served Dylan's personal life aside from going, "Hey, here's her friendship with Greg," and "Here's what she wants professionally." I can say — because I said it to someone else before, Matt, so I can say it again — on all of our shows, we put things in one year that [we get into] way into the next. Usually it's because we had intended to get to them in the season we [planted them], but 10 episodes is so short. But the main one was that [in Episode 1] she said that there's a professor at this campus that she said "I love you" to, and then took it back. And then Greg said, "Are you allowed to do that?" And she says, "You can, but they get real mad." And, you know, I think people that have watched my shows, or Matt and my shows before, will be smart enough to go, "I bet you that professor returns to this campus." And to me, I think seeing her professionally in a position of power is great, but since we've established that, there's no real conflict besides the day-to-day episodic story stuff. Expanding on her personal life is a massive priority for us because [Danielle] is so good.