Accused Boss Howard Gordon Breaks Down Season 1 Finale

SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from the season finale of Fox‘s Accused.

Fox’s crime anthology series Accused wrapped its first season on Tuesday with an episode about a retired rock star who is trying every route imaginable to help his adult son overcome drug addiction. In some ways, the final story brings the season coincidentally full circle.

“In a strange way, this book-ended two stories about [fathers and] their sons,” creator Howard Gordon told Deadline, comparing the season’s premiere episode (about a father who is grappling with a son who he believes may commit a violent act) to its final offering.

Tuesday’s season finale stars Keith Carradine as Billy, who, in addition to working on what may be his final album as he battles cancer, is also struggling to keep his son alive. Throughout the episode, Billy and his wife watch their son go through periods of sobriety followed by traumatizing relapses. They eventually make the difficult decision to tell their son he can no longer live with them until he’s sober, and they ask him to sign over custody of his daughter while he tries to get clean.

The confrontation leads their son to another relapse and, as Billy tries to save him with an injection of naloxone, his wife stops him. When the paramedics arrive and see the needle, Billy takes the fall, telling authorities that he’s the one who stopped his wife from administering the life-saving medication. Now, Billy is on trial for preventing his wife from saving his son’s life. When he receives a sentence of four years, the judge recognizes that that may be a life sentence for him.

“What I liked about the idea of doing an old rock star versus just you know, Johnny lunch pail kind of father is that he’s a bit of a narcissist. He is a rock star,” Gordon said. “Some of the raw moments in the episode, we learned he wasn’t always there. So in a way, this is like one last act of being there, of action that he can actually do for the sake of his family. It’s a sacrifice that he makes.”

Gordon broke down the episode with Deadline and explained the personal connections he has to the Season 1 closer in the interview below.

DEADLINE: So I want to start by asking about the inspiration for this story, and why it was chosen to punctuate the season?

HOWARD GORDON: Well, I wish I had a better answer. It was with my approval. But this is the order the network went with. So I think it’s funny because I was thinking about the symmetry of the series, which again, had a really diverse mix. But in a strange way, this book-ended two stories about [fathers and] their sons. So maybe there was some kind of thematic symmetry to that. But no, there was really no great thought [there]. For me, it was really special too, because it was a very personal episode. I decided to do it when a friend of mine’s son passed away exactly this time last year from a long addiction issue…it punctuates the season, in a very personal way, but nobody else would know that. it probably had nothing to do with it airing last.

DEADLINE: The episode feels very personal, so thank you for sharing that connection. How did you ultimately decide to go the route of the family deciding that it was more humane not to save him, though?

GORDON: As the show tends to do, and is I think at its best, [when] it really provokes in a way. I don’t think for the sake of being provocative, but rather to shine a light on uncomfortable stuff, sometimes that makes us want to think a little bit differently about things that have everything to do with being alive in the world today. I have adult children. I recognize the certain helplessness I experience, even just in my own kids’ very fine, productive lives. We have this relationship, but there’s only so much control we have over them and we have to be hopeful. But there is some relief attached, sometimes, to [letting go of] someone who just is not able to hold on to life — whether somebody is very sick or someone can’t do what they want to do or life is just too hard. It’s something that is a very uncomfortable subject to talk about.

DEADLINE: Well, the other heartbreaking element is that Billy has cancer. So that four year sentence really is an ultimate sacrifice.

GORDON: Bronwyn Garrity wrote the episode, and I really appreciated that fact, because it did, in a sense, it made the choice easier. It really is about the granddaughter, you see that this granddaughter is going to be — her life is going to be traumatized. It’s not just about letting your son go. It’s about recognizing that there’s a pattern of behavior that is going to actually bring everybody down. What I liked about the idea of doing an old rock star versus just you know, Johnny lunch pail kind of father is that he’s a bit of a narcissist. He is a rock star. Some of the raw moments in the episode, we learned he wasn’t always there. So in a way, this is like one last act of being there, of action that he can actually do for the sake of his family. It’s a sacrifice that he makes.

DEADLINE: How did you weave the song into the episode? Billy is adamant that the song shouldn’t go on this album, even though it seems like just another way his son is trying to connect with him. Especially going back to what you were saying about him being a narcissist.

GORDON: That’s so interesting you’re saying that, and I really hadn’t thought in terms of causality, at that moment, giving his son a bone. Or not even a bone but just like, like even the wife says, ‘Would it be that hard to put him on it?’ And that’s where you see that residual narcissism but also excellence. I mean, it is hard when you’re a perfectionist, and you’re an artist and this is your legacy, that is who you are. It’s tricky business. And I think it was very bittersweet. And I’m also very happy. It was the first song I’ve ever written. Believe it or not, my son wrote the melody. He’s a musician. We weren’t able to get a copyright on another song. So it was a last minute thing, but it was a lot of fun.

DEADLINE: How long did it take you to write?

GORDON: You want to know the truth? It took me about four hours and a couple of bottles of wine. I found out four or five days before production that we couldn’t get a song that we wanted. So I just started writing. I just emailed the lyrics to my son, and I was like, ‘Can you please do this?’ It was a work for hire. But it turned out to be I think, in a way, it was good for me to do it. Because I was able to reflect on what the episode was about.

DEADLINE: Do you have ideas from Season 1 that you didn’t use and you’ll consider for Season 2?

GORDON: Totally. It’s so funny. [That’s] the great part of this. I have to say. Because I’ve been on series where I go, ‘Oh, God, the well is dry.’ Or, ‘We’re just beating the same drum.’ There’s so much here to do and more to do. And a couple of things I couldn’t figure out last year. There was one that I couldn’t make work last year that I think I cracked. So there are ones that I’m very excited about. We’re even talking about possibly changing some of the form, which is to say, some episodes may not be set in the present, but actually may be set in the future or even in the past. So the time itself is as a character in the format. We got to take some really big swings on a lot of fronts, both in terms of subject matter and in terms of people who directed and wrote the episodes. It was one of the benefits of being at this point in my life and in my career where I was able to take some chances. Both Sony and Fox supported it. It was great working with Billy Porter and Marlee Matlin and Tazbah Chavez and then some old stalwart colleagues who I’ve been working with over the years. So it was a great, great experience.

DEADLINE: That’s a fun teaser that you might be switching up the format of the series. I guess that’s the benefit of an anthology series too.

GORDON: What’s fun about it, too, as a writer, you just don’t get bored. I’ve had a wonderful experience with the novelistic aspect of being a writer. [On set], with the whole cast and crew, it’s everyone’s first time. So there’s a nervousness. And there’s an energy… I think that energy translates to the storytelling.