Animal Kingdom Post Mortem: Showrunner Unpacks Vengeful Series Finale, Hitting “Emotional Landings” & Death!

J takes the haul while Pope burns the Cody kingdom to ash.

If you’re still reeling from the events of Animal Kingdom Season 6 Episode 13, from J’s vengeance, those heartbreaking flashbacks, and the devastating deaths, then you are not alone.

After six seasons, Animal Kingdom ended with a high-octane, fiery, emotional, and even predictable finale. It certainly hit all the notes!

TV Fanatic had the pleasure of catching up with Daniele Nathanson, executive producer, showrunner, and writer, to break down that Final Ride with the Codys and what it all meant.

Check out our chat below!

I imagine you guys got to end things on your terms because you knew the end was coming. Was this outcome always your end game, or did you consider multiple options before you settled on this one?

Yes, that was always the end game. Even from the beginning, the setup was for the avenging of Julia by J.

The trick going through seasons is to make sure the audience sees that. I believe, honestly, that J may have doubted at certain points, you know what I mean?

You can decide for yourself. But yeah, it was the plan. Life gets complicated, connections are formed, but people are reminded. That’s what we tried to do in Animal Kingdsom Season 6, too, is remind people why he would not have just let this all go.

Was there a lot of pressure to get this right — as a series finale? What was the most important thing you hoped to achieve for these characters and this plot? Do you think you succeeded in it?

Yes. First of all, I think what was most important is that we give a finale worthy of what I, and I believe that all of us, think was a really great show. Basically, I did not want the audience to feel that they were not given a worthy finale of something that we’ve all invested a lot of time in. In terms of the pressure, you know, of course!

As a writer of this specific episode, I just wanted to land these emotional landings for the characters and the people who became so invested in these characters. I just wanted people to feel there was a resolution. I don’t know that everybody will be happy about the ending [laugh].

I was talking to somebody once, and I feel endings need to sort of feel surprising yet inevitable. And I know that people are expecting J to do this or that, but what’s surprising is how Pope finds him, and he wouldn’t have succeeded if Pope had not let him go.

Yeah, I was going to get into their standoff. Could you just get into that more? Pope’s decision to let him live and him burning everything down was the game changer.

Yeah. [Laughs] No, I’m glad. I think it is, and I think it’s very arresting. We talk about original sins in these shows, and there’s a lot. Smurf did a lot of things.

But in terms of the original sin, meaning what set everybody and everything in motion, what set this drama, this ending ultimately in motion — Pope feels that it was when he abandoned a pregnant Julia, leaving her in that moment when he could have gone with her.

But he was afraid of Smurf, and he didn’t. He believes in his heart that everything would’ve been different had he gone with her. J wouldn’t have done all of this. None of this would’ve happened if it wasn’t for him.

And so that’s what is dawning on him: his sister is who he abandoned, caused everything, and broke her heart. Of course, she wouldn’t want her son to — he loves his nephew now. That’s what overcomes him as well during those moments. Is he really going to kill the son of the sister he’s trying to make things right?

Right. The entire season there was a lot of speculation about what that Original Sin could have been and what it meant.

Yeah, well, I know where people were going, and it’s because of the Pope and Julia kiss — I just want to be really clear. That was the one kiss between the two of them.

He had tried to kiss her, and that was it. There’s never, ever, ever another thing that happened between the two of them.

Right. Thanks for the clarification. [Laughs] I felt that given their background, it would make sense why he would feel that way or express himself like that.

Yeah. You know, he has some issues already. And then it’s when you are around, if not literal incest, but psychological intimate incest, which is sort of what Smurf was doing. You can understand how somebody who already has some issues doesn’t understand the difference.

I also appreciated there was a lot of religious symbolism with Pope and also water symbolism over the years. I thought it was cool that the final Pope scene mirrored when he woke up at the pool after his fugue state. So, was it intentional to have all that sort of symbolism?

Yes, yes, yes. And the pool is interesting because it is sort of aspirational, at least in the beginning. The seasons have changed over six years. It’s like party in the pool. But then, as we continued, the pool took on a different meaning.

It took on an almost grave site feel several times for J. When Pope goes into the desert, and he’s in the pool with that woman, and he is having a baptism, you know? So definitely, water has been a theme. Yes. I’m so happy you picked it up.

So those endings … How did you decide who would die and survive?

Craig’s passing was tragic, obviously, because he had just proposed, and then Deran’s ending, you left kind of opened ended. Did he honor his brother and go to Renn and Nick in Thailand? Or did he go to Indonesia and find Adrian?

Both! Both. Alternative family.

In terms of alternative family, he’s going to get his brother’s girlfriend, their kid, and then go find his boyfriend, and hopefully, it’s going to work out. I believe true love will elevate that. And I believe that they will be a family unit, and then who knows what would happen from there. But that’s what I believe all the writers we were all discussing. That’s what we think happens.

And Penny. Surprisingly, J did seem to love her despite her ending. What was it about her? It seemed like there were a lot of parallels to Julia. Didn’t he even kill her with Julia’s signature drink?

Yeah. Well, it’s Smurf’s. Smurf and Julia, so who knows who got it first, but yes, it was Smurf’s signature drink, but also, you’re right, at the beginning of the season, she made herself a cranberry vodka too.

For J, this was a classic tale of falling in love with the mark. He saw his game plan when he started combining all the assets. He needed an inside person because he intended to steal all this money someday.

He didn’t think he’d be doing it so soon because he didn’t think Pope would be going to jail, which is why he was so angry about Pope going to jail. But during the process, he falls in love with her.

I’m glad you clarified that too! We saw J still trying to set up jobs and things, so I wondered if Pope going to jail was a turning point that prompted him to enact, accelerate, or stick to his plan.

Yes. Yes. When we started this season, he was in bed with Lark, but he’s talking about real estate because he is squeezing this family and someday wants to take all their money. They don’t know that, so that’s why he’s always cracking the whip, you know?

This series has always felt like a love letter to Oceanside. It was very fitting that the gentrification arc came in and played nicely with the end of the series, too. Even if they did survive and didn’t have to go on the run, they probably would’ve had to leave Oceanside.

Yes. I’m so glad you saw that too.

We spoke briefly before about gentrification. I grew up in Los Angeles. I’m from here. I’ve seen it myself, and I know people in the coastal communities who’ve been dealing with it. It was a specific peeve of mine, and I love that we managed to thread it through.

But happily, it does lead into why they would not and don’t fit there anymore for these same and various reasons. So that was a really nice sort of thing coming together.

And what would you say that final scene with J means?

He did all of this but lost so much along the way, including himself. He’s not the same kid that we knew. He still didn’t seem happy. J grew more inaccessible to the audience over the seasons, so talk about that and what’s happening in J’s head.

Yeah, totally. The final shot of this series is directly mirroring the opening shot of the series when he’s sitting there next to his dead mother.

The idea is that he was alone then and is alone now, and this is the story of what he went through to avenge her. Was it worth it? You decide — that’s sort of the idea. It was very deliberate to have him very specifically sitting on a couch alone because it mirrors the first image of the series.

What legacy do you think Animal Kingdom will leave behind? How do you hope it’ll be remembered?

I hope it’ll be remembered as an exciting, adrenaline-filled, fun show that is also a dark family drama that deals with intergenerational trauma and the love of brothers.

And it had some really incredible performances. I think we have incredible actors. There are people who don’t know about this show. I was included in that at one point. I came to it later.

But they just thought it was about the action. And it is, but there’s a lot more depth, and that’s also because we had these incredible actors who could bring it. Amazing actors.

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Over to you, Animal Kingdom Fanatics. Sound off below with more of your thoughts and reactions. Are you still reeling from that series finale? How upset are you about saying goodbye to this series?

You can catch up or revisit our Animal Kingdom Reviews over the years and our Animal Kingdom Interviews here on the site.

If you’d love to experience the series all over again, you can watch Animal Kingdom online here via TV Fanatic.

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