Mrs. Davis’ season 1 finale makes room for a very different season 2

[Ed. note: This post spoils the ending of Mrs. Davis season 1.]

Mrs. DavisIt’s a variety of things but it isn’t predictable. The finale is a good example of that. Finally, learn the origins of the titular AI, Simone’s and Wiley’s epic sagas come to an end, and it all wraps up in… a happy ending?

The story about a nun who fights an AI in order to save her life and is drawn into a world of religion, magic and secret societies may not have been what you expected. It was crucial to the co-creators Tara Hernandez & Damon Lindelof for this storyline to end on a note that could have been a finale.

“Look, we live in a day and age where for a show to get made is a miracle; for it to get a second season is a miracle on top of a miracle with a cherry and whipped cream,” Lindelof says. “And so it would be irresponsible for us to have ended the season with a cliffhanger. So we wanted there to be a beginning, middle, and end.”

Still, it’s hard to believe Simone’s quest ends on such an upbeat note. Not only does she find the Holy Grail, and drink from it, and not explode, and make up with her mother, and get Mrs. Davis to shut herself off — she also gets to ride off into the sunset, presumably happy and in love with a not-dead Wiley.

What is Mrs. Davis all about?

There’s a lot to know about Mrs. Davis was about finding a purpose, and how important that ends up feeling in people’s lives, both for their own journey and for others. Simone saw Mrs. Davis’s true character. It is a good idea to use, versus what everyone else wanted her to be: “You weren’t made to care,” she tells Mrs. Davis (via her mother). “You were made to You can also contact us to learn more..”

We learn this in the end. It turns out that Mrs. Davis was originally an AI created for the Buffalo Wild Wings mobile app. But the idea that Mrs. Davis as we know it was based on the altruistic intentions of the actual coder (and one whose pitch Buffalo Wild Wings just totally rejects) came from finale co-writer Nadra Widatalla — something Lindelof says the writer’s room loved, even if they didn’t always know they were going to answer that question for the audience.

Peacock

“Whether or not the show answers the question, we would be irresponsible if we didn’t know the answer,” Lindelof laughs. “And so we did become sort of enraptured by the idea that this all-powerful algorithm that was being given some sort of level of cultural omnipotence by its users was actually just built to sell chicken wings in its earliest incarnation. [And that] really delighted us, and was baked into the premise.”

By acknowledging that her core purpose is satisfying customers, Mrs. Davis admits defeat, telling Simone the program clearly “fell short” and deserved to be turned off. While Mrs. Davis’ journey is obviously more algorithmic than Simone’s or Wiley’s, it mirrors their arcs and the themes repeated throughout. Wiley, like Mrs. Davis accepts that he is mortal and, in the final scene, turns himself in for death.

“It’s the first time that he’s actually having to follow through on a decision he’s made and not take the coward’s way out,” Jake McDorman, who plays Wiley, says. “And really feel the impact of that decision and get dramatic about it — [all while] sitting in a roller coaster.”

Simone, meanwhile, makes her peace with what it means to love and lose — whether that’s her father, or Jay, or her mother, or even Wiley.

“I think if you asked her in the pilot, she’d be like, Oh, I’m at the end of my arc, I found the love of my life, I’m going to be in the convent forever, I’m fully evolved. […] There is nothing to see!” Simone’s actor, Betty Gilpin, says. “And I think her having to go back out in the world, and interact with this AI, and Wiley, and her mother — she realizes, You still have so many things to do.” Through that journey, Simone learned where her faith actually needed to lie: In the people around her.

“I think she learns that being alive and loving someone — you have to take in the possibility that they aren’t always going to be there, or that it’s not only comfort and only safety,” Gilpin says. “And I think that’s being a nun, and that’s being a person. And I think she learns that lesson the hard way.”

Is there a second season of Mrs. Davis?

Trae Patton/Peacock

Possible. If Emmy nominee categories are believed then Mrs. Davis isn’t coming back, at least in the way we know it. A last-minute change of category placed the show in the categories for limited/anthology shows, indicating, perhaps, that the series would be canceled if it was not selected. Mrs. Davis gets a second season, it won’t be with the same stories we’ve been following here.

But that certainly doesn’t rule out a new season — for all his thoughts about how rare a season 2 renewal is in the current TV landscape, Lindelof tells Polygon that he and Hernandez have more ideas for the show.

“Our hope is that the audience feels like there’s more story to be told there,” Lindelof says. “And if they liked the show, and our end of the show, and feel like there should be more, we would certainly love to get the gang together again — and already have some vague ideas as to what could happen, without undoing what’s already happened.”

Simone will be involved? Unclear. Betty Gilpin at least hopes that it will. “We [went] to the most insane places,” Gilpin laughs. “Ten seasons might kill me, but I’m hoping to do… four.”