‘Firefly Lane’: Cliffhanger Ending Leaves Fans Desperate for Season 2 and That’s Exactly What Creator Maggie Friedman Wanted
Firefly Lane is a best friend drama based on the novel by Kristin Hannah that stars Katherine Heigl and Sarah Chalke. All of season 1 — which features 10 episodes — is now available on Netflix.
Thanks to the season’s cliffhanger ending, fans who’ve watched the entire season have a lot of questions. Now, fans are desperate for season 2, and that’s exactly what creator Maggie Friedman wanted.
The season 1 ‘Firefly Lane’ cliffhanger featured a falling out between the two main characters
Firefly Lane explores a decades-long friendship between besties Tully (Heigl) and Kate (Chalke) that begins when they are lost and lonely teens in the 1970s. The friendship survives their careers and motherhood, 80s fashion disasters, and epic romances. But the season 1 ending left fans with so many unanswered questions.
The finale saw Tully quitting The Girlfriend Hour in protest of her controlling boss before asking Kate to start a new show with her. Meanwhile, Johnny (Ben Lawson) fell victim to an IED while in Iraq. It’s not clear how badly he’s injured, and some fans are wondering if he’s alive.
But what really had fans talking was the flash forward to two years after the present day. That’s when Kate shockingly tells Tully, “I don’t ever want to see you again.”
Fans want to know what Tully did to Kate
After three decades of friendship, fans want to know what Tully did to Kate that caused their friendship to implode. The flash forward to Bud’s (Paul McGillion) funeral saw Kate getting furious when Tully shows up.
“No one wants you here,” Kate says, to which Tully replies, “Don’t you think you’ve punished me enough?”
“When I said that I could never forgive you for what you did, what did you think that meant?” Kate asks. “Go home. Now. I don’t ever want to see you again.”
The shocking twist came after 10 episodes of fans watching what they thought was an unbreakable friendship. What could Tully possibly have done to Kate to ruin that?
The ‘Firefly Lane’ creator planned for the season to end exactly where it did
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Firefly Lane creator Maggie Friedman gave some insight into the writing for season 1. Friedman explained that she planned for the season to end with Johnny’s life hanging in the balance. As well as Tully and Kate not speaking without the audience knowing why.
“The Johnny moment, I knew for sure was going to come,” Friedman said. “In the writer’s room we had all these big whiteboards and that particular moment — we called it Johnny Goes Boom — we knew that was happening then the whole season. I knew that Tully and Kate were going to be estranged at the end of the season, but I didn’t know how I was going to dramatize that.”
Maggie Friedman wanted the audience asking big questions
Friedman said that throughout season 1, she knew she was working towards the signpost of Tully and Kate’s estrangement. This is because she felt like a “good cliffhanger” would have fans asking some specific questions.
“I felt like a good cliffhanger for season one is: ‘Oh my God, wait, these Firefly Lane girls forever are suddenly not? What happened?” I wanted to leave the audience with some big questions.”
‘Firefly Lane’ doesn’t always stay faithful to the book
The Firefly Lane novel does have a sequel titled Fly Away, which gives the show’s writers plenty of source material to mine from. But they don’t always stay faithful to the books. Will the reason for Tully and Kate’s fallout be the same as in the books? Friedman wouldn’t say because she wanted that detail to remain a mystery.
“One of the things I think that’s been fun is that we have kept some big moments from the book and been very true to those, and then there are other things that we’ve done that are different,” Friedman said.
“I hope that people who are big fans of the book, can watch the show and be like, ‘Oh, my God, there’s that moment I remember!’ And also be like, ‘Oh, I’m surprised by this, but it’s cool because it’s in the spirit of the book, but it’s a different thing.’ So I don’t want to say whether it’s directly the same thing.”
Firefly Lane season 1 is available on Netflix. The season 2 release date has not yet been announced.
