Liz Meriwether Definitely Has Ideas for 'Furious' Season 2 After That Twist Ending

Editor's note: The below interview contains spoilers for the Furious season finale.

In many ways, the story of Hulu's new crime thriller Furious was always building to what plays out in the finale. While the episode, "Hart Island," written by series creator Liz Meriwether, provides a devastatingly definitive answer about what really happened to fledgling serial killer Catherine Grace's (Lola Petticrew) trafficked friend Isabel, it only offers so much closure for the greater systemic injustices that led to that tragic night in billionaire Jay Easton's (Peter McRobbie) home.

Yet nothing might be more shocking than what transpires between Easton and FBI agent Alice Black (Emmy Rossum) behind closed doors — and when Alice pays a visit to Catherine, who's in prison for her crimes, the young woman correctly deduces that Easton's death was no mere accident. Pair that with the incriminating flash drive that Alice is now in possession of, and the show — which has officially been renewed for Season 2 — seems to be teeing up an even bigger conspiracy to unravel.

Ahead of the finale's airing, Collider spoke with Meriwether about her early conversations with real FBI agents that informed the direction of the show — including Alice and Catherine's first face-to-face meeting — why she wanted to balance the story's darkness with a happier ending for Alice and Danny (Scoot McNairy), why Furious was always meant to be an ongoing series, and more.

COLLIDER: It's always hard to take the temperature of audiences ahead of time, but it feels like Furious has just really resonated with people.

LIZ MERIWETHER: I had no idea! I was so surprised. I genuinely did not know how this was going to go. I was really scared, and kind of told everybody in my life that I felt like it could really go either way, like any direction. I feel like I've lost all my credibility with them, because I was like, “This could really go south.” [Laughs]

For me, it was so different. It was such a different type of show that I felt really exposed. I just didn't know how it was going to be received. It's interesting and also telling, I think, that it has hit so much of a nerve. I wasn't sure if people were as disturbed and angry as I am, and then I was like, “Oh, okay.”

One of the inspirations that's been cited for Furious is 1987's Black Widow. The show also very much feels like it's in conversation with today's climate, but was there anything other than the film that you looked at as a touchstone?

MERIWETHER: Yeah. In the original pitch document for the show, I brought up Blood Simple and The Last Seduction. Also, the Julia Roberts movie, where she kills her abusive husband, [Sleeping with the Enemy], I went back and rewatched that. I was interested in that sort of late ‘80s, ‘90s erotic thriller, pulp genre, and more classic noir. Laura is also a great old noir movie with an unreliable narrator.

I think the biggest influences were the conversations that I had with real FBI agents who work in trafficking. I had a long conversation with a former NYPD homicide detective, and spoke with a woman who had been trafficked, which was incredibly important.

There's an amazing documentary that's just really stuck with me called A Better Man. He abused her when they dated right out of high school, and they go back years later in their 30s, and they're meeting each other again for the first time and discussing what happened, and she's telling him her memories of what happened, and he's listening and telling her his memories of what happened. It's incredibly moving, and really resonated with me.

There's an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn who wrote a book about domestic violence and the justice system and her experiences with it, and I met with her and Michelle Kaminski. I read some books about female serial killers. There's an amazing book about Ted Bundy called The Stranger Beside Me, by Ann Rule. My friend told me to read that. He's obviously not a woman, but that one really stuck with me — just a serial killer eluding so many people for so long and not really hiding that much. I thought it was interesting how that happened and how he got away with that, and the strangeness of his double life of working at a suicide prevention hotline and then killing people. That was part of it, the caretaking and the killing.

Liz Meriwether Explains the Decision To Bring Alice and Catherine Together in 'Furious'

"That was always really important to me..."

Image via Hulu

I thought the choice to have Alice and Catherine cross paths, almost before you would expect them to meet, was a really interesting turn. When did you have the idea of bringing your two leads together across multiple episodes, instead of waiting until the end?

MERIWETHER: The idea that it comes earlier rather than later is from the movie a bit. That happens pretty early in the movie, and they're together for a long time, and they're kind of having a weird moment on a beautiful beach in Hawaii. Initially, we were thinking that it was going to be someplace beautiful, or that Catherine would run away to a beach, and it ended up being winter in a shelter in New York City. [Laughs]

But that was always my favorite part of the movie — when it stops being a cat-and-mouse chase and enters this weird limbo where these two women are just trying to connect. They see each other in a way that feels like it's the first time that they have been seen by another person in a long time. The idea that they meet at a shelter, that was something that was pitched early on in the writers' room, and I loved the idea of actually giving them time and space to talk about things that had happened to them and to bond or connect.

Then we just got into this real logistical nightmare of, like, how would that actually happen? For a while, we were like, “Oh, is Alice undercover?” Speaking to the FBI agents, they were like, “She would never be undercover.” And then I got them to agree that there would be maybe an hour before everybody came in, and then that became this real focal point for me. They have an hour together. It was actually really helpful, having the limits of what would really happen, because I think it made for a better episode.

I like that they got a chance to meet in a non-action place, not a climactic thing where they're running around chasing each other, where they actually got a chance to meet and talk and connect. That was always really important to me and always something I loved about the movie because it was just so odd. All of a sudden you're like, “What movie am I in? What's happening? What's going on?” I like that part of it.

What's come up in my conversations about the show — both with Scoot [McNairy] and Steve [Way], and you mentioned it at the beginning, too — is the theme of caregiving and how that's reflected through different characters. Danny is presented, in many ways, as a safe space for Alice. The scene where he sits outside the shower for her recurs again in the finale, the morning after. Also, I'll just say, in the build-up to them sleeping together, Danny saying, “We don't have to do anything,” and submitting himself to being undressed and letting Alice take the lead was one of the sexiest things he could've done.

MERIWETHER: I think so, too! There’s something about her initiating undressing him. I wrote it, and then I remember watching the cut and being like, “Wow, why is this working?” Yeah, there was something about it. In Dying for Sex, I definitely did not shy away from writing full-on sex scenes, and I feel like in watching that moment of her unbuttoning his uniform, I was like, “I don't even need to see the sex scene.” This is kind of explaining what their physical connection is going to be. I love that scene too.

'Furious' Creator Liz Meriwether Breaks Down Alice and Danny's Happy Ending

"I need some moment of tenderness. I need them to be on this beach together."

Image via Hulu

Why did it feel important to build to Alice and Danny deciding to give it a go at the end of the season and really having what feels like a happy ending, at least for them?

MERIWETHER: I feel like I wrote that scene for me, honestly, because my experience making the show, it was so hard and so emotionally taxing. I can't imagine being someone who's really involved in any of this stuff, so it's hard for me to be like, “It was hard for me to write it!” But it was really hard to live in that world and live in that space, especially after more comedic writing.

I felt like I needed it. So, I was listening to what I needed, feeling like I was standing in for the audience a little bit, where I was like, “I need some moment of tenderness. I need them to be on this beach together.” I like that it takes place in the condo on the beach and in this kind of bubble, in this world that's not really the real world. The question for me is, how do they translate that to the real world in their actual lives? But I love giving them this moment of happiness and peace in this almost fairy-tale space. I felt like they'd earned it, and I wanted that for them.

The finale ends with that last shot of Alice juxtaposed alongside Catherine's words and all of the usernames that have downloaded her video. Do you have any ideas about how the story could continue in Season 2?

MERIWETHER: I think because the last two shows I've done have been limited series, a lot of people in my life had just assumed it was a limited series, and I was like, “No, it was always supposed to be an ongoing drama.” So yes, I'm definitely thinking a lot about it. I'm excited.

I feel like I really love these characters, which is always the only way that I can kind of get past how hard it is to do multiple seasons of a show. If I really love the characters, then I just want to be with them, and I want to continue on with their story.

Steve already pitched to me that he wants Alden to break Catherine out of jail and go on the run, Thelma & Louise-style, so I'm just throwing that into the mix for you.

MERIWETHER: [Laughs] That would be awesome.

All episodes of Furious Season 1 are now available to stream on Hulu.