Like the entire series, the ending of “Tiny Beautiful Things” — adapted from Cheryl Strayed’s best-selling book — is a mess.
The eight episodes follow Claire Pierce (Kathryn Hahn) as she begins writing for an anonymous advice column called Dear Sugar, while her own personal life drives her reactions and brings up otherworldly feelings. Claire attends marriage counseling with her husband, Danny Kinkade (Quentin Player), as the two are not seeing each other in their marriage. At the end of the series, Danny shows Claire a letter he wrote as Dear Sugar which encouraged the advice-seeker to “settle down” and let something go if they knew deep down it was time.
“Danny has to rediscover himself. He has to rediscover the man he was that attracted Claire in the first place,” Player told TheWrap. “I don’t think he’ll have a chance with anyone until he works on himself.”
Claire never tells Danny that she started writing as Dear Sugar, and the player feels that if Danny had known that she would have written the words she read before leaving, he would not have said that. What he said would have happened.
“Maybe there’s this feeling on his end of ‘Man, this thing that’s been hurting so much, I finally understand [it] Outside. I come across this guy who’s willing to work on himself and he’s literally giving me back my own words to give up on me,” Player said. “I can’t imagine someone taking his advice. What can he do for what he has given is being used in this sense, in a way, against him. It would be hard to sit with. I know that if Danny had known, he would have written these words, he would not have said that.
Hahn agrees with her co-star that Quentin made the decision for both of them – a call Claire didn’t want to make.
“I think Danny was already going down that path for himself. I don’t think the letter necessarily changed that for him,” she told TheWrap. “I think if he knew it was me, he’d know I probably would have made that choice earlier. I just didn’t give myself permission. I can’t take my own advice.
Showrunner Liz Tigelaar told TheWrap that while she wanted the series to have a solid ending, she would continue working with Strayed if it was an option.
“Limited series are kind of my jam. My mother taught me, probably because of the endless childhood improv plays, that everything should always have a beginning, a middle and an end,” she said. “I think because of the nature of this mother-daughter story, we really I wanted to convey something that felt satisfying and complete with adult Claire’s relationship to her mother’s death.”
“But of course, you know, I’m working with Dessi Gomez Cheryl [Strayed] Just for one year. Will I do anything to keep this up and do anything and everything with him forever? He added. “I could work on ‘Tiny Beautiful Things’ for the rest of my life.”
“We can make many things beautiful,” said Strayed.