Note: This story contains spoilers from “Too Much” Season 1 Episode 10.
At the beginning of the “Too Much” finale, things between Megan Stalter’s Jessica and Will Sharpe’s Felix can’t get much worse: Felix has just admitted to relapsing and cheating on Jessica, and Jessica has told him to take the day to move his things out of her apartment while she’s at work.
That is, until they do. As Felix mourns their short-lived relationship at Jessica’s apartment, he notices her beloved dog, Astrid, is struggling to breathe, and takes her to the vet, where the vets pronounce Astrid dead. The finale then flashes to a raw and emotional confrontation between Jessica and Felix in the wake of Astrid’s death, in which Jessica calls Felix out for how he’s treated her before he ultimately walks away.
Ahead of shooting the scene, Stalter and Sharpe revealed that creator Lena Dunham separated the pair the whole morning to avoid them joking around and chatting to set the tone for the emotional scene. “We were like, ‘Oh, that’s fun … it’s so method,’ but actually it was really effective because it did put you in a more focused state of mind, and it reminded you that this is an important scene,” Sharpe told TheWrap.
When the duo came together for the scene, Dunham used a cross-shot with two cameras, and Sharpe said Dunham encouraged Stalter and Sharpe, who are both writers themselves, to build on what was on the page and push each other further.
“That felt hard because the stakes were high, and there are emotions at play, but also because it was like, ‘now be really mean to each other, really trying to hurt each other,’” Sharpe said.
“It worked for the scene, but then you had to immediately go film something else, and I felt like, ‘is he mad at me? what’s going on?’” Stalter added. “I felt bad, but it was genius of her to do.”
For Stalter and Sharpe, it makes sense that Jessica and Felix’s relationship imploded, with both of them going through their own, deeply internal struggles — from Jessica’s obsession with Zev (Michael Zegen) and his new girlfriend, Wendy Jones (Emily Ratajkowski) to Felix’s addiction — when they met on that fateful night.
“When you meet both of these characters, they’re both trying to be new/ better versions of themselves,” Sharpe explained. “Jess has just moved to London. She’s trying to move on from her relationship. Felix is recently clean. He’s trying to be a better person. He’s writing his own music.”
Sharpe noted that both Jessica and Felix’s demons infiltrate their new relationship, explaining “both of our characters are getting in our own way, almost because we don’t trust ourselves to believe in that relationship, or to feel worthy of it.”
“It’s all of those insecurities and vulnerabilities and compulsions that they’re trying to break free of that they sort of fall victim to again on the journey,” Sharpe said. “The show is about accepting all of the messiest aspects of a person.”
And accept they did. After having a validating conversation with Wendy Jones and letting go of her anger towards Zev, Jessica makes a grand gesture to show Felix her love by showing up at a climate protest he’s attending on the M25. As Jessica gets arrested, Felix proposes to Jessica, and the couple gets hitched alongside their family and friends by the end of the finale — an ending that Stalter relished.
“You’re seeing them win … they both have been through so much,” Stalter said. “I love the ending because it’s exciting to think … wait, what’s next? If they’re married, then what now? What’s going to happen? Because there’s always so much to tell — it’s just the beginning.”
“Too Much” is now streaming on Netflix.
