I'd like to tell you guys a little bit about the show that we're making.

Please.

This feels like therapy. Feels like we're doing couples therapy.

That's what it's called.

Really?

[ominous music playing] 

I created the show because of my relationship to my parents who have a really beautiful marriage. I have always felt that it was a curse because when you know that true love exists, it can put a lot of pressure on finding that for yourself. I've felt jealous of people who don't have this seemingly impossible standard to go off of.

I don't have it, if that helps.

Right. No, I know, totally. 

I'm somewhere in the middle. 

So the healthy thing to do when you're, like, "I have a fear of commitment," is to make a TV show about it. And so in a way, in creating your characters, I am therapizing myself. I kind of naturally lean toward horror because it's the way that I process everything. The week leading up to a wedding is such a ripe comparison. You're walking down the plank. You're marching toward your death if it's the wrong choice. 

I think a lot of people can relate to that, yeah. 

The feeling of being trapped is such a part of the horror genre. And I think it lends itself so well to the feeling of being in the wrong relationship because you sort of build your life with someone. And when it's good, it's amazing. And when it's bad, you just need to get out. It's not horrific in an obvious way. It's sort of like these little moments where you realize that, "Oh God, if I marry into this family, then this person's gonna be, you know, my sister-in-law, or I have to follow these traditions." Your mother-in-law being, like, super overbearing or marrying the favorite son and having that pressure on you. And so it feels like going to meet your significant other's family can feel like a horror scenario because you're almost, like, seeing your future and deciding if that's what you want. So I think the pressure of a wedding lends itself to this notion of feeling trapped. You've already paid for it. Everyone's coming. You can't back out. The only way out is through. 

Death. 

Death.

[dramatic sting] 

There is a lot of humanity in your writing and showing a young woman struggling with the concept of marriage. I don't think that Rachel is the kind of woman who would necessarily want to get married. I think that she loves Nicky, and therefore, she does it in big part because she knows how important it is to Nicky and his family and his tradition. But Rachel, on her own, is the antithesis of traditional.

[Adam] Yeah, I think, if Rachel didn't have a curse, then you'd be like, "Yes, let's not get married." 

[laughs] 

When Haley and I met, I was, like, "Then why is she marrying this person?" And I think that your explanation of it was really beautiful. And it's because, if you love someone, sometimes you … you bend a little bit. Loving someone is sacrificing yourself and sacrificing your beliefs sometimes. And if it makes the other person happy, then ultimately, what does it cost her?

[Haley] That's so true. At the start of the season, and then I think she realizes that she's not gonna sacrifice herself ultimately for this ideal.

And doesn't Nicky sacrifice the ideal?

Yes. 

Like, the moment he rejects it, sacrifices that. 

We both rebel against marriage and its traditions. Mine is more in the beginning, and for you, it's at the end. 

Adam, what would have happened, do you think, if there was no curse? 

Yeah, that's interesting. I guess that's a question for both of us because Nicky having that moment at the altar and saying, "Let's just not do it anymore." I don't know if he would have got there if Rachel hadn't gotten to where she had gotten with the curse.

[Camila] Also because of your parents. 

[Ted Levine as Boris, Adam’s father] It was irresponsible of us to feed you this perfect story of what a marriage is.

[Camila] It changed your whole idea.

[Adam] And maybe we wouldn't have gone on the hunting trip if we didn't have our fight.

So true.

It's such a domino effect. What do you think? You think Rachel and Nicky would just end up doing the thing? 

I think that there would have been a reluctance with Rachel meeting your family and coming to Somerhouse, seeing this world, seeing the sibling dynamics, seeing your parents' dynamic. I think it's something that doesn't propel her desire for a traditional marriage. If anything, it kind of brings up a lot of questions.

[Adam] When you're in a relationship where you have a lot of issues, you're just like, "We'll just put those to the side. We won't talk about those." And then enough time goes on where it's, like, well, you have to open that box. And just feel like we've stuffed so many things into this box, and when you open it up, it's like when those snakes pop out of a can or something.

[Camila] There's a lot of problems under the surface between them. And the biggest one is that from the very beginning, Nicky doesn't believe her.

[Nicky] Does it really matter?

[Rachel] It does matter, Nicky! It does matter because I finally thought that I met someone who felt the same things as me.

From their very first moment, their relationship was based off a lie. 

Or it's just facts and logic because the plane didn't crash. 

If you started in a lie, what else have you lied about? And how can I now trust you and trust our fated story when none of it was even true? 

I… I didn't write it. [laughs]

[laughing] I obviously have some feelings about it. I understand Nicky, and I understand his need for romanticism.

[Adam] Mmhmm.

And I sort of understand the lie. I feel like it is a relationship that both of them are projecting certain things onto…

 Yeah. 

…and not seeing fully the person in front of them but seeing a version that they're projecting.

A version that they want to become too.

Yeah. 

Yes. 

It was really important to me that Nicky was humanized very much because he makes a decision that when we're so locked into Rachel's story, it feels so bad. It felt bad to read it. [laughs]

[Haley laughs]

I was like, "How do I do this?" Yeah.

[Haley] But in that moment when Nicky says no, he is seeing Rachel but the version of her from the beginning of the story.

Not the version that she has evolved to.

[Adam] Yeah. 

But I think these people do really love each other because when the option comes to pass the curse to you and your bloodline… 

Yeah. 

…Rachel chooses not to do that. She says, "You don't deserve it. I wouldn't do that to him." There is a true deep love and caring for Nicky. 

There is. Yeah. 

I think the show is ultimately a breakup story about the kind of strength it takes to leave when you know that something isn't right. There is a deep love and connection there, but maybe it's not the perfect couple.

[dramatic sting] 

When we talked about the show and talked about the concept of soulmates and is a soulmate a predetermined person out there for you or someone that you choose, someone that you build that connection with? I personally, like, don't necessarily believe in soulmates, there being a right person and a wrong person to marry. There can also be the right person at—

Wrong time or right time?

Both. There can be the right person in your life for a right time that brings you something incredible, and that moment, can be your soulmate, whether it's five years, 10 years, 20 years. And then life shifts and happens and changes, and you can also have the right person at the wrong time.

[Haley] Right.

[Adam] Mmhmm. 

But it's, like, such an existential question. Everyone is like, "When am I gonna meet my person?" Right? And the show is so much about, like, well, is there such thing as, like, "my person" in a lifetime? Is there such thing as one true person who is destined to be your equal match and your soulmate, and there is not another human being on earth who can compare? And there's an interesting line that you wrote… What if there's someone else who's 5% more compatible for me and someone else who's 5% more compatible for him?

And it goes down to choice.

Trusting your gut. 

Right, I think it's actually quite romantic to choose someone. Mm-hmm. So you don't believe in soulmates? 

No, I believe that there are multiple soulmates. I actually think the word "soulmate" is too intense. 

On Valentine's Day, like, "This person's my soulmate, and I know it for certain." There is no way to ever be 100% certain that one person is your one true soulmate. 

Yes. 

You can have many soulmates through your life.

[Haley] You can take away a sort of anti-romance perspective when you see how it ends, but I think it's actually really triumphant because it tells the story of someone who is ultimately choosing to believe that the person she's marrying is her soulmate. And I think that's really beautiful and brave.

It's not really about fate ultimately.

Yeah.

[ominous music playing]