'Smoke' series finale — Jurnee Smollett and Dennis Lehane talk about the show's fiery ending
Earlier in the year, I sat down with both show star Jurnee Smollett and showrunner Dennis Lehane to discuss the nine-episode miniseries and its explosive conclusion, and now I can finally reveal what we discussed. Obviously, there are some major spoilers ahead. So if you haven't seen the show or its series finale yet, boot up Apple TV Plus and come back once you've finished "Smoke."
If you've seen the entire nine-episode run of "Smoke," then you know that the show kicks off with a twist. At the end of the two-episode premiere, it's revealed that Taron Egerton's Dave Gudsen is not only chasing the show's serial arsonist — he is the serial arsonist.
I thought it was such a cool twist. An unexpected twist. I immediately had all the questions — and Dennis Lehane had all the answers for it. And then to see the transformation — the hair and makeup team did such a phenomenal job.
It's not long before his partner, Calderone (Smollett), discovers Gudsen is her suspect, and by the end of a fiery showdown in a raging forest fire, she's got her man. But in the subsequent interrogation, we learn that Gudsen doesn't look like Egerton — he's projected a heroic persona onto himself, and we only get a brief look at his real appearance before the mask comes back on.
"I thought it was such a cool twist," Smollett told me when I asked her about the reveal of Gudsen's true appearance. "An unexpected twist. [I] immediately had all the questions — and Dennis [Lehane] had all the answers for it. And then to see the transformation — the hair and makeup team did such a phenomenal job. It didn't feel like makeup. It felt very real."
Like us, she didn't know to expect this shocking reveal right away. "I learned it maybe like midway through shooting the show," she told me when I asked her about it. So it wasn't just us that got a shocking reveal.
This wasn't the only shocking twist over the nine episodes that had Smollett excited, though. When I asked her about killing her boss in the penultimate episode, she lit up.
Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips.
"I was shocked! I was shocked," she told me, so excited about her character's big moment she couldn't help but laugh. "I was so excited. [Laughs] Maybe that says a little too much about me, but I thought it was a real cool idea and shocking. My jaw was on the floor."
This twist, admittedly, she knew early on in filming, as opposed to Gudsen's physical transformation. "I knew it pretty early on. Dennis told me before we even started shooting — where the show was heading. And I loved it. Because it's so unexpected, but not, because they're in such a toxic relationship and such a toxic dynamic."
When I asked showrunner Dennis Lehane about his decision to give Gudsen a split personality in "Smoke," he pushed back on the use of that specific descriptor.
"I don't know if I'd call that split personality," he clarified. "I would call that projection. He sees himself one way and the world sees him another way. It's all about running from yourself. That's one of the big things about Dave from the beginning: You put the proof in front of me, I'm not going to see it. You put the mirror in front of me, I'm going to see what I project onto it."
But it's not just Dave that's being held up to a mirror — he's also a mirror for a real-life serial arsonist, John Leonard Orr, perhaps the most prolific serial arsonist in U.S. history.
"Orr had plenty of the characteristics that Dave Gudsen has," Lehane explained to me. "And he was so completely in denial of who he was. Just 100%. He literally took it so far as to write a book, (Gudsen is also writing a book in "Smoke") in which he — in some ways — confessed to a whole bunch of crimes. And yet he [Orr] said, 'No, that was just fiction.'"
Gudsen's not the show's only serial arsonist that Calderone and Gudsen are tracking, though. Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine plays Freddy Fasano, another serial arsonist operating in Umberland, and he's not based on someone that was inherently a rival of Orr's, so I wanted to ask Lehane about the choice to give Gudsen a foil.
"One of the things you see in Dave Gudsen and in John Orr is this white victimization complex," Lehane explained when I asked about Freddy. "This 'Oh, they've given everything to the special interests' and 'White people have no more advantages in society.' Which is just complete and utter horseshit."
The real-life inspiration for Freddy immediately jumped out at Lehane as a counternarrative to the "white victimization complex" he associates with Orr and Gudsen. "When I read about the actual arsonist that inspired Freddy, he continued, "I said 'Wow.' That's somebody who literally has no education, no family, he's the wrong color in the wrong country at the wrong time. His education was shit. So he's foisted out into society at 18 years old and he's expected to function. And it didn't work out well for the real guy, and it doesn't work out real well for Freddy."
If you haven't already seen how it doesn't work out for Freddy — or Gudsen, for that matter — go check out all nine episodes of "Smoke" on Apple TV Plus now. Then, check out our guide to the 31 best Apple TV Plus shows to stream on the streaming service right now.
Stream "Smoke" on Apple TV Plus
Malcolm has been with Tom's Guide since 2022, and has been covering the latest in streaming shows and movies since 2023. He's not one to shy away from a hot take, including that "John Wick" is one of the four greatest films ever made.
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Time Magazine
a day ago
- Time Magazine
Breaking Down the Smoldering Finale of Smoke
Warning: This post has spoilers for the finale of nine episodes, Smoke traced destruction as it traveled from suburban streets and storefronts into more figurative places—the dark recesses of identity, the fragile façades to which people cling in order to survive. By the season finale, "Mirror Mirror," long-buried truths surface, demanding a reckoning as emotional as it is inevitable. Creator Dennis Lehane always envisioned a climax that erupted on every level. "It's such a cliché, but I wanted to have an explosive finale," he tells TIME. "This is a show about fire. We've been promising them fire, so we're going to give them the fire of all fires. We wanted to go as big as we can—just go for broke, and if we miss, we miss." That eruption plays out most vividly through the series' two central figures. If Michelle Calderone (Jurnee Smollett) serves as its moral compass, Dave Gudsen (Taron Egerton) is its shape-shifter, the man whose presence destabilizes every scene because even his sense of self is built on deception. Over the season, he was both predator and partner, the charming investigator and the arsonist hiding in plain sight. By the end, the armor he constructed—and the story he's told so often he nearly believes it—has crumbled. Into the growing inferno The finale opens in the aftermath of Michelle's darkest act. In the penultimate episode, "Mercy," she accidentally wounded Captain Burke (Rafe Spall)—her colleague and former lover—then let him die, torching his home to eliminate the evidence. Before fleeing, she planted a glove bearing Gudsen's DNA, crafting a false trail. Now, in "Mirror Mirror," she struggles to steady herself, continuing to investigate alongside Gudsen while her composure falters beneath the surface. Her act of arson ignites something far more catastrophic: an uncontained wildfire rising from Burke's ruins, flames roaring as windborne embers spiral into the dark. She and Gudsen drive headlong toward the blaze, racing through the woods while heat presses in and smoke thickens the air—until the path reveals itself to be a trap. Gudsen, unmasked earlier as one of the two serial arsonists she's been hunting, unbuckles her seat belt and wrenches the wheel, sending them into a crash designed to kill her. Harry Nilsson's "Jump Into the Fire" pulses as Michelle—not dead—ties back her hair, preparing for battle. Gudsen crawls from the wreckage; she kicks him, slams him against the car, and presses the barrel of a gun into his mouth. She doesn't pull the trigger. Instead, a storm breaks—rain cascading in a moment of symbolic and literal cleansing. "[It's] as clean as Michelle's gonna get in that moment," Lehane says. "She's pushed this all the way, and there's nothing left to do. Because if it didn't rain at that moment, something bad could have happened to Dave." The downpour pulls her back from crossing an irreversible line. As rain drenches them both, she reads him his rights. For Lehane, the scene's tension lies partly in its soundtrack. Many of the show's song selections were his. ("That's where I really do feel a bit like an auteur," he adds.) He crafted the entire sequence around Nilsson's drum solo, playing it endlessly in the writers room. "When I shot that, I said to the creative team, 'Look, guys, we are doing this to Harry Nilsson's 'Jump Into the Fire,'' Lehane recalls. When the initial cut used different music, he personally recut the scene to match Nilsson's rhythm, and the editor ultimately agreed it was the right move. "We worked that to the bone to get it exactly where I wanted it." It's a primal, visual crescendo he conceived during what he calls a "mad scientist" burst in the Los Angeles writers' room, scribbling notes while listening to the Oppenheimer soundtrack. "I love 'Go Big or Go Home' moments," he says. "I don't do them much... I like to twist, twist, and twist. But this was a big moment." A battle of damaged wills After their confrontation in the woods, Michelle delivers Gudsen to a waiting Jeep, where Esposito (John Leguizamo) greets her with an air of triumph. Back at Columbia Metro Police Headquarters, the station falls silent as officers watch Gudsen enter, their contempt palpable. In the station bathroom, Michelle catches her reflection, and then sees him—Burke—not in the mirror, but in her mind, planting a warning that if anyone discovers their affair, the truth could unravel everything she's accomplished. In the interrogation room, things shift to psychological warfare. Gudsen weaves stories, reframes evidence, accuses Michelle of bias, and dismisses the glove bearing his DNA as circumstantial. He maintains he was merely investigating, but Michelle counters with his manuscript, cross-referencing it with actual unsolved arson cases and highlighting details only the perpetrator, or someone with access to classified files, could possess. Still, he deflects. Perhaps a lawyer leaked the report. Maybe a private investigator shared too much. Then Esposito sends Michelle a photograph: the disguise Gudsen wore during the hardware store attack, discovered in a hidden compartment of his impounded car. Even confronted with this evidence, he refuses to confess. It's a standoff Lehane and Smollett dissected at length during filming. "I call [Jurnee] my thespian queen," he says. "At this point, Michelle is desperate. Let's call a spade a spade—she started the incident that caused all this. Her morality is compromised by the end. She's interrogating Dave for a murder she committed and destruction she caused. Yet she's pursuing justice, which we all want. We all want Dave brought to justice." Gudsen's strategy remains unchanged. "He will deny, deny, deny, and attack, attack, attack," Lehane explains. "He refuses to let truth penetrate, but when it slips through, when she extracts it from him, he glimpses himself. Then he turns away." During their final exchange in the interrogation room, Gudsen stares at Michelle. "I know who I am," he declares. She meets his gaze, responding simply, "So do I." The shape of denial The closing montage delivers quiet devastation. Gudsen's ex-wife and son pack away photographs, including one showing a heavier, balder version of the man—a face both foreign and unmistakably his. In a single frame, the myth of the chiseled, commanding investigator collapses, revealing the ordinary figure he's spent years trying to erase. Over Thelma Houston's "Don't Leave Me This Way," the moment turns contemplative—Lehane's final musical choice, selected to underscore the magnetic pull between Michelle and Gudsen, two people unable to fully break free from each other. Whether he'll ever be convicted remains uncertain, the unanswered question hanging over the finale, which ends before a trial. Gudsen's fractured identity—swaggering machismo versus devoted family man—might suggest dissociative identity disorder, but Lehane resists reducing him to a clinical label. For him, Dave represents a broader cultural pathology. "I think of it the same way I think of all these performative males in our culture right now: macho dweebs hiding behind their keyboards," he explains. "If you saw them in person, you'd see some little 5'-6" guy who lives with his mom." Dave's psychology, Lehane argues, stems from denial, particularly regarding his desires and the transgressive aspects of his personal life. The writers explored how his relationships diverge from those of what Lehane calls a "healthy heterosexual American male," suggesting truths Dave cannot acknowledge. "We're all constructing these personas, and it's damaging the world," he observes. That critique carries personal weight. Like Egerton's character Jimmy Keene in Lehane's previous Apple TV+ series Black Bird, Gudsen functions as a cultural stand-in. Lehane was raised in what he describes as an "extremely masculine culture"; his immigrant father and uncles worked with their hands. But authenticity, not posturing, defined their masculinity. "My father had nothing but contempt for posing," Lehane recalls. "If my brothers got a weight set, he'd say, 'Why do you need to push a bar up and down? You can just do hard work.'" Lehane often considers how that generation would view today's performative masculinity. "I think he would be befuddled and appalled," he says. "A lot of the great-grandfathers and grandfathers of the men polluting our culture right now would be appalled." In that sense, Dave is his embodiment of "toxic masculinity,' a man whose identity rests on performance and concealment, whose carefully crafted armor masks profound emptiness. Living with the aftermath Lehane never set out to create a simple morality tale with clear heroes and villains. The ambiguity is deliberate, with Gudsen and Michelle shaped by their compromises, each capable of inflicting harm. Gudsen's intelligence and charm form part of his protective façade, a narrative he's repeated until it feels almost genuine. In his final moments, he approaches self-recognition before retreating, leaving both audience and characters suspended in uncertainty. Michelle, meanwhile, is steadied by duty and singed by guilt, hunting the truth even as the secret she carries could undo her. That deliberate inconclusiveness places Smoke alongside other works that resist easy answers. Lehane draws parallels to The Sopranos' contentious finale. "Whether you liked it or not, you're still talking about it," he notes. He's witnessed similar reactions to the conclusion of Shutter Island, the 2010 Martin Scorsese psychological thriller he wrote. "It's the question I get more than any other. I got it from my 16-year-old daughter yesterday. She said, 'Dad, my friends really want to know.' I was like, 'Honey, I'm not telling you.'" Dave and Michelle constructed identities around control and performance, and now both stand exposed: raw, unstable, unmoored. "What do they have in their lives, really, without each other?" Lehane asks. "They let their ids run so completely amok that there is no way to get half the horses back in the barn. So that is the big final dramatic question: Where are these people going to go now?"Smoke concludes without resolution, offering only consequence. The greatest damage isn't physical destruction but exposure itself: the compromises and deceptions that prove too painful to confront. What lingers isn't closure, but the mental heft of choices that cannot be undone—and the knowledge that carrying them is the only path forward.
Tom's Guide
a day ago
- Tom's Guide
'Smoke' series finale — Jurnee Smollett and Dennis Lehane talk about the show's fiery ending
"Smoke" joined a long line of thrilling Apple TV Plus miniseries when it debuted back in June. Now, after nine episodes, the show has come to its end with the series finale "Mirror Mirror," and much like other episodes in the crime drama, it didn't lack for shocking moments and surprising twists. Earlier in the year, I sat down with both show star Jurnee Smollett and showrunner Dennis Lehane to discuss the nine-episode miniseries and its explosive conclusion, and now I can finally reveal what we discussed. Obviously, there are some major spoilers ahead. So if you haven't seen the show or its series finale yet, boot up Apple TV Plus and come back once you've finished "Smoke." If you've seen the entire nine-episode run of "Smoke," then you know that the show kicks off with a twist. At the end of the two-episode premiere, it's revealed that Taron Egerton's Dave Gudsen is not only chasing the show's serial arsonist — he is the serial arsonist. I thought it was such a cool twist. An unexpected twist. I immediately had all the questions — and Dennis Lehane had all the answers for it. And then to see the transformation — the hair and makeup team did such a phenomenal job. It's not long before his partner, Calderone (Smollett), discovers Gudsen is her suspect, and by the end of a fiery showdown in a raging forest fire, she's got her man. But in the subsequent interrogation, we learn that Gudsen doesn't look like Egerton — he's projected a heroic persona onto himself, and we only get a brief look at his real appearance before the mask comes back on. "I thought it was such a cool twist," Smollett told me when I asked her about the reveal of Gudsen's true appearance. "An unexpected twist. [I] immediately had all the questions — and Dennis [Lehane] had all the answers for it. And then to see the transformation — the hair and makeup team did such a phenomenal job. It didn't feel like makeup. It felt very real." Like us, she didn't know to expect this shocking reveal right away. "I learned it maybe like midway through shooting the show," she told me when I asked her about it. So it wasn't just us that got a shocking reveal. This wasn't the only shocking twist over the nine episodes that had Smollett excited, though. When I asked her about killing her boss in the penultimate episode, she lit up. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. "I was shocked! I was shocked," she told me, so excited about her character's big moment she couldn't help but laugh. "I was so excited. [Laughs] Maybe that says a little too much about me, but I thought it was a real cool idea and shocking. My jaw was on the floor." This twist, admittedly, she knew early on in filming, as opposed to Gudsen's physical transformation. "I knew it pretty early on. Dennis told me before we even started shooting — where the show was heading. And I loved it. Because it's so unexpected, but not, because they're in such a toxic relationship and such a toxic dynamic." When I asked showrunner Dennis Lehane about his decision to give Gudsen a split personality in "Smoke," he pushed back on the use of that specific descriptor. "I don't know if I'd call that split personality," he clarified. "I would call that projection. He sees himself one way and the world sees him another way. It's all about running from yourself. That's one of the big things about Dave from the beginning: You put the proof in front of me, I'm not going to see it. You put the mirror in front of me, I'm going to see what I project onto it." But it's not just Dave that's being held up to a mirror — he's also a mirror for a real-life serial arsonist, John Leonard Orr, perhaps the most prolific serial arsonist in U.S. history. "Orr had plenty of the characteristics that Dave Gudsen has," Lehane explained to me. "And he was so completely in denial of who he was. Just 100%. He literally took it so far as to write a book, (Gudsen is also writing a book in "Smoke") in which he — in some ways — confessed to a whole bunch of crimes. And yet he [Orr] said, 'No, that was just fiction.'" Gudsen's not the show's only serial arsonist that Calderone and Gudsen are tracking, though. Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine plays Freddy Fasano, another serial arsonist operating in Umberland, and he's not based on someone that was inherently a rival of Orr's, so I wanted to ask Lehane about the choice to give Gudsen a foil. "One of the things you see in Dave Gudsen and in John Orr is this white victimization complex," Lehane explained when I asked about Freddy. "This 'Oh, they've given everything to the special interests' and 'White people have no more advantages in society.' Which is just complete and utter horseshit." The real-life inspiration for Freddy immediately jumped out at Lehane as a counternarrative to the "white victimization complex" he associates with Orr and Gudsen. "When I read about the actual arsonist that inspired Freddy, he continued, "I said 'Wow.' That's somebody who literally has no education, no family, he's the wrong color in the wrong country at the wrong time. His education was shit. So he's foisted out into society at 18 years old and he's expected to function. And it didn't work out well for the real guy, and it doesn't work out real well for Freddy." If you haven't already seen how it doesn't work out for Freddy — or Gudsen, for that matter — go check out all nine episodes of "Smoke" on Apple TV Plus now. Then, check out our guide to the 31 best Apple TV Plus shows to stream on the streaming service right now. Stream "Smoke" on Apple TV Plus Malcolm has been with Tom's Guide since 2022, and has been covering the latest in streaming shows and movies since 2023. He's not one to shy away from a hot take, including that "John Wick" is one of the four greatest films ever made. Here's what he's been watching lately:
Tom's Guide
a day ago
- Tom's Guide
Apple TV Plus's new historical drama is the best show you're (probably) not watching — and it's 93% on Rotten Tomatoes
I appreciate everyone's probably busy streaming the likes of "Wednesday" and "Alien: Earth" right now, but I have another show I want to shout about: Apple TV Plus' new epic historical drama, "Chief of War." Pitched as a passion project for co-creators Thomas Pa'a Sibbett and Jason Momoa, the series is a dramatic look back at Hawaiian history, and has even invited comparisons to Hulu's own acclaimed epic, "Shogun." I've been looking forward to "Chief of War" ever since the teaser trailer dropped back in May. At the time of writing, we're now three episodes into the season, and I'm pleased to report that I am totally locked in on the series so far. Save for a couple of breakout hits ("Severance", "Ted Lasso", "Slow Horses"), Apple TV Plus is home to plenty of underseen shows, and I don't want "Chief of War" to be one of them. So if this is the first time you're hearing about "Chief of War", here's a little bit more info about the new show, and why I think you should stream "Chief of War" on Apple TV Plus now. "Chief of War" is based-on-true-events drama about the origins of Hawai'i and its people, one that recounts the unification and colonisation of the region at the turn of the 18th century. Try Apple TV Plus free for seven days! Try Apple TV Plus free for one week and sample episodes of "Chief of War" and much, much more. The series follows warrior Ka'iana (Jason Momoa) as he sets out to unite his homeland in the midst of a fearsome power struggle that erupts between the four kingdoms. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. The series is performed by a predominantly Polynesian cast, which, alongside Momoa, also features Temuera Morrison, Luciane Buchanan, Te Ao o Hinepehinga, Cliff Curtis, Kaina Makua, Moses Goods, Siua Ikale'o, Brandon Finn, James Udom, Mainei Kinimaka, Te Kohe Tuhaka, and Benjamin Hoetjes. "Chief of War" is an impressively realized story that I have both been gripped by and that I've relished getting lost in. So far, it has proven to be a series with intrigue and serious forward momentum. Easily the show's biggest boon is not its beautiful scenery or its drama, but Momoa himself. He is turning in what I think is his most impressive performance to date. If you crave action, "Chief of War" is most definitely for you. It's brutal brawls and chases have been captivating showcases of both sheer brawn, but also of a steady hand behind the camera, thanks to both the physical prowess on display, and the cinematic staging the series boasts. Easily the show's biggest boon is not its beautiful scenery or its drama, but Momoa himself. As the multi-hyphenate co-creator, exec producer, director, and star at the center of the show, he's more than successful. The show's assured, and he is turning in what I think is his most impressive performance to date. I'm judging the series without seeing the entire season, but what I've seen of "Chief of War" so far has me impatiently waiting for Fridays to roll around just to see where we go next. It's immersive, gripping television. It's not just me who recommends "Chief of War," either: the series currently holds a 93% score on the review aggregator, Rotten Tomatoes, with a consensus that reads: "Starring Jason Momoa at his ferocious best, "Chief of War" is a brutal epic that recreates Native Hawaiian history with commendable authenticity." In his 3-star review of the season, Empire critic David Opie conceded that the 'plotting somewhat meanders' and that the show 'feels admirable but with something still to prove,' but nevertheless praises the commitment to authenticity and the 'grandiose battles'. Variety's Aramide Tinubu praises the show as "a majestic and immersive story about rebels, home and allegiance" and highlights the series' "highly textured" feel from the costumes and dialogue through to its visuals. Bottom line: if you're looking to be swept up in a bold new drama, one that boasts compelling characters and truly thrilling combat, then you need to stream "Chief of War" on Apple TV Plus. At the time of publication, four episodes are available, with the remaining five set to air on Fridays through to the series finale on September 19. Already streaming "Chief of War," or looking to make the most of your Apple TV Plus subscription? Check out our guide to the best shows on Apple TV Plus for tons more streaming suggestions. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
