Warning: This story contains plot details from Sunday’s series finale ofVeep.
Broken to its bones.
“Like a dog returning to its vomit” is howTony Halerecently and colorfully described it.
Credit: Colleen Hayes/HBO
It was a sadistic death blow.
“It’s kind of important actually…. and I would also say that it’s not easy.
And it’s kind of also not fair.”
“Nah,” she said, reversing course.
“Never mind, forget I ever said anything.”
“You don’t have to worry,” he said, pleasantly startled.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“I wanted to say a word about sacrifice,” she said.
“It means to lose something.
For the greater good.
“And there’s nothing anyone can do to stop me from standing and walking for my country!”
“Thank you and God bless America!”
This is, you know… it’s roadkill.”
She adds with a laugh: “So, tough s—.”
“There’s not an authentic foundation there.
“It is a decision she’s made.
Because Selina doesn’t go there very frequently.
She’s not sympathetic toward others.
She doesn’t have empathy for others.
So that was… tricky.
This relationship is done.'
She just sent him to jail and knowing Selina, she’s not going to get him out.
It was really like, ‘All right, this is it.'”
Louis-Dreyfus recalls that she had to bridle her own feelings to power through this poignant moment.
“There was just an enormous amount of restraint.
But this is a woman at the end of the day that has sacrificed everythingeverythingto be in this office.
And she can’t really allow herself to question that sacrifice.
I mean, she doesn’t dare go down that path of regret.
That moment also required a degree of restraint for Hale.
I was like, ‘Oh!
Oh, no, no, no!’
Oh, that sucks!'”
“That is the end result.”
“You’d hate the flowers… but I…
He placed the lipstick on the coffin and touched the coffin somberly before walking away.
(An earlier version of the script had him saying that she looked stunning.)
Louis-Dreyfus uses the words “pretty intense” to describe that moment.
it’s possible for you to read that gesture as closure, but not full forgiveness.
“He’s very angry,” says Hale.
“He’s very bitter.
Even with all the dysfunction and all the abuse, he did have this almost spiritual love for her.
That’s why he went back.”
AndVeeptruly came full circle in the final seconds of the episode, as CBS Evening News anchor (!)
Mike McLintock anchored coverage of Selina’s funeral as her coffin entered the vagina-shaped crypt.
“It was just f—ing fabulous!”
declares Louis-Dreyfus, who emailed Hanks for his blessing.
And it was just ideal.
It was so satisfying on so many levels.
I love it so much.
Istilllove it so much.”
Richard (Sam Richardson) became a two-term POTUS!
Amy (Anna Chlumsky) ended up with Ericsson (Diedrich Bader)!
Dan (Reid Scott) is selling real estate in Laguna Beach!
Ben (Kevin Dunn) has been dead!
Kent (Gary Cole) is a full-on hippie-raising alpaca but wants to focus on his watchmaking!
But Hale says that the ultimate revenge may be Selina’s, even from the grave.
“Because she’s in the casket.
And it’s just like, ofcourseshe’s not going to put herself in that.
I can’t imagine the amount of work that that woman had done to her face.
She’s like, ‘I’m going out looking good!'”
