SEPTEMBER 20, 2007
OUT WITH A BANG

It had long been decided that the last two episodes of the season would constitute our first two-parter. Two stand-alone hours, but one story: the biggest, heaviest, most action-packed story we could tell in 14 days of filming. Season-long mysteries would be dealt with. New mysteries, worthy of future seasons, would emerge. Michael would have to contend with heroin dealers, blackmailers, kidnappers, rocket-propelled grenades, the man who burned him, and of course, Fiona and his family. It all had to ramp up to a cliff-hanger that would keep them guessing over the long winter until Season 2.

And because we're team players, we said, "Good luck, Matt!" before heading towards the door to start our vacations. Then he stopped us and said that he and Alfredo Barrios were going to write the second half...and we were going to write the first half.

Oh.

Of course, we're kidding. It was a real honor to be asked. We were thrilled by the challenge. We were also a little daunted.

Breaking the two-part story was like putting together two jigsaw puzzles that had gotten mixed up in the same box. And because two of us were in Miami filming and the other two were back in LA writing, we had to do a lot of it over the phone. "What piece are you looking at?" "Cowan getting shot." "Hmmm." "Yeah." "Which episode does that go in?" "Ah. There." It was fun to see it all slowly come together.

By the time we were writing, it was all blue skies and smooth sailing. And then we got some huge news: Richard Schiff signed on to play the man who burned Michael, Phillip Cowan.

Now, allow us to be huge TV nerds for just moment. RICHARD SCHIFF? The guy from The West Wing. That Richard Schiff? Saying stuff we wrote? Wow. Let's see, maybe I want to take another brush over that dialogue and make sure it's worthy. Fortunately, time ran out and we had to stop revising the thing.

And then (as always happens around this point in the blog) we went to Miami. And this time there was less rain and fewer bugs. And Jeremiah Chechik was a super-charged directing machine sent from the future to kick ass. And Richard Schiff was even better than we had imagined. And once again, the cast and crew were fantastic. We chewed through the most ambitious script the show had ever undertaken. Major stunts. Bullets flying. Fiona jumping off a bridge. And a 70 foot fireball.

Oh yeah. The fireball. The script called for Kent and Melissa's shocking death to come when a rocket-propelled grenade (Matt doesn't like it when we call it a bazooka) destroys their car. And we sure did destroy a car. The flames shot up into the sky, and just KEPT going up. The explosion mushroomed right up to the level of the passing cars on the towering freeway on-ramp where we were filming. You had to wonder what all those commuters were thinking. "Is this the end? Have the North Koreans targeted Miami?" It was really cool...and a little scary.

After a great first season, the best experience we've ever had writing television, it was a fitting way to go out. With a bang.