I love how you handled the mediation scene, how it’s set up by adults for the kids to work out their issues—but the adult parents won’t even let their kids speak. Their own children being attacked reverts them to this teenage mentality. Chris’s dad is the most monstrous person, and that’s him being aloof, short-fused and threatening instead of actually listening. The opposition to adults who try to be in charge—at work, at school— is also where Margaret White gets that mean firmness that she doesn’t have as much with her daughter in this series; it’s there in opposition to people who have more power than her.
What I thought was especially amazing, the way Hiroki Kamada directed that episode, and I think she just crushed it, is that this meeting is supposed to be about the girls. It’s supposed to be about Chris and Carrie having a conversation, and it’s about everything but that; once they get in the room, it’s about the adults. And the adults, to your point, are bullying each other and sniping at each other and acting like kids. Carrie and Chris only are able to have a conversation when they leave the room and get away from these grown-ups. It’s the only time they’re actually able to speak.
That scene is pulled from a very real story. One of the biggest inspirations for this was I had read an article about a town in Albany, California, where a local high school was torn apart by a social-media bullying scandal, and it animated all of the adults in the community while leading to dozens of lawsuits. It was a national news story. It was one of the biggest inspirations we had; they did a mediation like that in Albany. They tried to stage a mediation between the students, and it resulted in a protest that tipped toward a riot. I thought the show absolutely needed our version of that.
I particularly like the pettiness of John Hargensen, and of Margaret White, as well as the clear indication that the administration is acting out of desperation. Principal Grayle and Morton, the guidance counselor, they’ve gotten them into the room because they think that’s what they need to do to fix this, but they’re really just waiting for someone to fix it for them. They don’t have a plan; they want the individuals to solve it, and that just felt very real to me.
I’d like to talk a little bit about Tim Bagley as the guidance counselor. He’s so gentle. My wife and I loved Somebody Somewhere, so I knew his temperament as an actor, but he’s just so good here. When he and Carrie trade their favorite book quotes and he takes her to the library, that whole stretch just made me weep, a once-bullied man and a bullied girl escaping to literature and the joy that it brings both of them.
Of course. In the same way that Ms. D. might’ve been a version of what Chris Hargensen would’ve grown into, we needed a version of an adult that Carrie White could potentially grow into. I think Morton and Carrie have more in common than any two other characters in the show. Tim Bagley brings so much of that warmth, accessibility and kindness. I mean, that’s just who he is, but that’s why he was such a perfect fit for that character. That scene you’re talking about with Tim and Summer trading book quotes is one of my favorites of the whole series. You get the sense he approaches the world with the same earnestness, kindness and gentility that Carrie intuitively does, that he was likely tormented the same way she was, but he survived it and he turned it into an opportunity to try to help other kids.
Morton serves as a role model for what Carrie could be as an adult, which is also part of the tragedy, because he finds himself destroyed in his own way by the events of the series and is the casualty of that explosive mediation. I adore the character Tim rendered, and I do think that the world still has a place for people who are just so inherently empathetic and who do lead with kindness. Their stories don’t often end as pleasantly as we want them to, but you also get the sense that, on the other side of this, Morton’s still going to be who he is, whether he’s employed at the school or not. You can’t really kill that in someone, at least I hope. Having a chance for Carrie to sit across the table from someone she could easily grow up to be was a wonderful, wonderful narrative opportunity for us.