{"id":89675,"date":"2025-08-17T14:08:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T14:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/89675\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T14:08:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T14:08:12","slug":"smokes-dennis-lehane-and-cast-on-bringing-season-1s-fiery-finale-to-life-i-wanted-it-to-be-madness-i-wanted-all-the-brakes-to-come-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/89675\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Smoke\u2019s Dennis Lehane And Cast On Bringing Season 1\u2019s Fiery Finale To Life: \u201cI Wanted It To Be Madness. I Wanted All The Brakes To Come Off.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple TV+<\/a>\u2018s Smoke<\/a> started as a slow-burn, but creator and writer Dennis Lehane turned the heat up to 11 and achieved a full, ferocious blaze in the Season 1 finale<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In our detailed finale recap<\/a>, Decider dubbed Smoke Episode 9, \u201cMirror Mirror,\u201d one of the year\u2019s \u201cwildest, most exhilarating, outrageous television episodes.\u201d On top of stellar performances and compelling twists, the praise comes in large part because of a fiery finale showdown between Dave Gudsen (Taron Egerton) and Michelle Calderone (Jurnee Smollett), which features the partners speeding through a flaming forest, several intense fight scenes, and even Harry Nilsson\u2019s banger, \u201cJump Into the Fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curious to learn how Smoke brought the action-packed scenes to screen? Lehane, Smollett, and Egerton broke down the intense episode for us. So buckle up (IYKYK) and get ready to relive the wild ride.<\/p>\n

\u201cMolly Miller, who is my right hand as a writer \u2014 she\u2019s my chief writer on the show \u2014 she had written the eighth episode, and she killed it. She knocked it out of the park. She crushed it. And I was like, \u2018Great. Wonderful. Now I\u2019ve gotta come up with a bigger episode,’\u201d Lehane told Decider over Zoom. \u201cI went into the writers\u2019 room. I blocked everybody else out. Nobody was there that day. I turned on the Oppenheimer<\/a> soundtrack, and I just started going crazy. I just had it on repeat and I went crazy trying to create the craziest episode I could. At the center of it, I wanted to have this insane drive through a fire. I wanted it to be madness. I wanted all the brakes to come off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jurnee Photo: Apple TV+<\/p>\n

With control of the wheel, Gudsen believes he holds the power in the next-level face-off, but in the end, Calderone has the upper hand. She not only survives the crash intended to kill her, but she pummels Gudsen, holds him at gunpoint, and ultimately spares his life so he can receive the long-game punishment he deserves.<\/p>\n

\u201cDennis said to me, \u2018I\u2019m writing the finale. Jurnee, I\u2019m gonna make you a full-on 90s action star.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018Hell yeah, man! Please bring it!’\u201d Smollett excitedly told Decider. \u201cIt was awesome. I trained for it pretty heavily, because I\u2019m not naturally that way. But Michelle is a former Marine, so you gotta feel like she becomes a machine and that Marine in her comes out. It was wild. I mean, the practical effects, the special effects, it was so massive and on such a large scale. It was breathtaking to be a part of it. And I have to say, they kept us incredibly safe. So shout out to Apple and the entire production for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Egerton looks back on the episode from a personal and professional standpoint, he sees a masterful feat that played a meaningful role in the characters\u2019 journeys \u2014 particularly at the end of the finale, when his character has a rare moment of self-reflection.<\/p>\n

\"Fire Photo: Apple TV+<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s interesting, because in some respects, it feels like the culmination of [Gudsen and Calderone\u2019s] relationship, but it also feels a bit like the start. What stands out to me is that both Jurnee and I were kind of manic. The characters, at that point, are both in existential crises. Dave is coming apart at the seams, because he knows everyone is after him. He knows he\u2019s been found out,\u201d Egerton explained, recalling the forest fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe interesting thing about that, is not only that he\u2019s going to get caught, but that he is \u2014 on some level \u2014 going to have to look at who he is, which is the one thing Dave can\u2019t do. He can\u2019t examine himself in a truthful fashion that\u2019s aiming for objectivity, because it\u2019s gonna mess him up. And that is what happens in the final moments of the show,\u201d he continued. \u201cFor Jurnee\u2019s character, she\u2019s perpetrated something terrible and unthinkable in the episode before. So it\u2019s very interesting for them both to be dealing with that at a hundred miles an hour in a burning forest. It was intense, but also felt really, really exciting and big in scale. It was a really expensive episode of television and really thrilling to be a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n

While some might assume that the flashy, large-scale forest fire would have come towards the end of the finale, Lehan knew he wanted a quiet, yet profoundly powerful close to the debut season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to put [Gudsen and Calderone] in a room, because I think anybody who knows my work knows there\u2019s nothing I love more than two people sitting across from each other at a table,\u201d Lehane explained. \u201cI was like, \u2018You can\u2019t do a show about fire unless you have the fires at the end \u2014 on every level, not just practical, physical fire. You have to have fireworks, emotional fire, psychological fire, and then go out with a big disco song.\u201d Duh!<\/p>\n

\"Taron Photo: Apple TV+<\/p>\n

While viewers get a certain sense of closure before the end credits roll, if Apple TV+ renews Smoke for a second season, Lehane assured us he has more story to tell<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve planned a whole Season 2, now we\u2019ve just got to find out if we get it.\u00a0We\u2019re ready to go for you,\u201d Lehane told Decider. \u201cWe always saw the show as three seasons. And just so you know, I always have to know where I\u2019m ultimately going. I don\u2019t know\u00a0how\u00a0I\u2019m getting there, but I know where I am going. So I know where the show\u2019s going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s hoping we\u2019ll find out, too!<\/p>\n

Smoke Season 1 is now streaming on Apple TV+.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apple TV+\u2018s Smoke started as a slow-burn, but creator and writer Dennis Lehane turned the heat up to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[61404,88,5450,61405,37118,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-89675","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-dennis-lehane","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-interviews","11":"tag-jurnee-smollett-bell","12":"tag-taron-egerton","13":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}