Hank: Welcome to future talk, episode 99 the second-to-last episode of the Lizzie Bennet Diaries with Hank and Bernie.

Bernie: And we're looking at, the, the strikingly good looks of. Daniel Vincent Gordh, DVG.

Hank: DVG.

Bernie: So this is the last episode of Darcy, that Darcy's in, and you know, it's a long one, and, of course Darcy starts out with vlogging, you know vlogging to the camera, and so I think it's cool that we can see his growth of someone who's, who's just been so reclusive, and now he's, now he's just like, you know what? I wanna say some things. I wanna say some things about this girl.

Hank: You know what I wanna see? What we should have done? Is gotten Darcy the character to watch like, filmed his first reactions to all of the the whole Lizzie Bennet Diaries.

Bernie: Like he would have done that!

Hank: Well we could have set up a little hidden camera.

Bernie: [laughs] I - I, going back to sixty, I mean like, what 60 did for us, that we - that I don't think I figured out that would happen was it made a lot of the subscribers re-watch all the episodes.

Hank: Yeah.

Bernie: And the vision of Darcy. And I think that was fascinating to see because now you can see him from a different perspective. What does Darcy seeing when he's watching these videos?

Hank: Mmhmm.

Bernie: So we play with that a couple times, I think that was, was really fun. But anyway, here we go. We are on episode 99, this is the last episode of Darcy. So it was tough, story-wise, to find what, you know, what's their happily ever after.

Hank: Right.

Bernie: We didn't want to have Darcy just give Lizzie a job. And then Lizzie accept the job. That's -

Hank: Right.

Bernie: That doesn't sound like a way to do it. They're modern women -

Hank: We also couldn't have them get married in episode 99, that would have been a little fast.

Bernie: Yeah, or proposed, even, like, you know a little quick here. This is the, the, I think, you know, some of the audience members didn't like that our version of Pride & Prejudice didn't end with a marriage. Like, how can you not?

Hank: That's the thing!

Bernie: Pride & Prejudice without a marriage!

Hank: That's how it ends!

Bernie: Yes! Exactly, and this was a byproduct of our our format. We are telling the story in real time. It is, you know, real.

Two episodes constitutes a week in the time of the story, so if they get together in episode 95 - 96, 96? 97. Um, they can't like get married within two weeks! It doesn't make sense!

So, so we, we did our best. To do, to find that balance of, what is it, and it became, well of course Darcy's going to offer her the job, like that makes sense. Like, nothing about that -

Hank: Right, right. She's qualified.

Bernie: She's qualified, he clearly wants her around, and he's gonna play the, the. I have the power card. Um like not power over Lizzie, but like "I have power, and I can," You know, it's kind of like, "I can help you with this, here." Helped! Right?

Um -

Hank: I just wanna say, that I like that this episode is 7 minutes long and you just get to see them relating to each other and having a relationship and being nice together. Like, that, that's a huge payoff. that's a big payoff to have seven minutes of tie stroking.

Bernie: Aaaand cut. Talk about a controversial jump cut! Like the fans were like "what'd you cut out? How could you cut stuff out of that?" "Why did you do that?" Yeah, like, why would you cut - like, I had fans messaging me going like: "You denied us a Dizzie kiss?" Like, "How dare you?"

Hank: Yeah.

Bernie: When really, that jump cut was in the video - in the script. There is nothing between those two moments.

Hank: There's nothing there.

Bernie: Nothing there.

Hank: Nothing to put in the special features.

Bernie: Nothing there, I'm sorry, there's no smoochies that we cut out we just implied that, you know what, use your imagination, you know what happened there. Um, and back to the story. So yeah, now we kinda bring it back to reality a little bit, where, you know, they're talking about the future. So here's where we kind of layer in the "What's gonna happen to these two?" Where's the, where's the happily-ever-after so here he offers her the job, and she's like.

Oh, that's, that's really awesome and I think, you know, Lizzie, being someone who went to Pemberley, to the offices, had such a great time there, loved the city so much, you know, like has to make a choice here, you know, this is not, you know, this is a life choice that she has to make. It's kind of like the message we've done for this entire series, this modernization, of, of this big romance, and there's still romance. I mean we didn't knock it out, we just made it more about the life.

Hank: Right.

Bernie: And the growth of Lizzie Bennet. I think.

Hank: Yeah.

Bernie: And part of it was falling in love, of course, a lot of it was growing as a person, you know, growing a friendship, and, you know, being closer with her sisters and understanding them more, and really learning about herself.

Hank: Yep.

Bernie: And so here she does it.

Hank: It's a, it's a, she looks like a different person to me. Even. And I know that, like, the lighting is better, and I know that, you know the make up is different, and that she's carrying herself differently, but it's like the growth to me is so clear, um... of the series, and of the character, it's just really great.

Bernie: Totally great.

Bernie: [laughs] I also like how we're tighter now. We're really close to them, it's intimate.

Hank: Yeah.

Bernie: It works for this arc, and even the arcs where there's more physicality, you know, further back. and you know, that framing was right for that, but I think right here we really wanted to show you, not just the intimacy between Lizzie/Darcy, just Lizzie with anybody, just with her her growth, like you said. Her becoming a new person, becoming a stronger person, a stronger woman. In this modern era, and so,. And here it is.

They figured it out. This is our happily ever after. This is what we're gonna do.

And Darcy has to accept it.

Hank: They're so CUTE, Bernie.

Bernie: [sighs] I know. I'm not taking credit! It's a team effort, a team effort!

Hank: Well, you didn't make them cute, their parents did that.

Bernie: Exactly. Exactly.

Bernie: Team! Good job!

Hank: Good job.

Bernie: DVG's team. And Clements' team. Man it's so good. I think a funny thing here was people were discussing like, how exactly are they sitting?

Is she like, is she sitting on his lap and everything? And um, you know, no. Ah, pocket watch. [laughter] Lizzie gets a pocket watch - er - Darcy gets a pocket watch.

Hank: Yeah.

Bernie: Something we wrote in. And here we go.

Hank: Oh my goodness.

Bernie: Darcy cracking a joke?! What? What is this growth?

Hank: Growth, growth, growth.

Bernie: Sense of humor? William Darcy? Whoa.

Hank: No one can tell when I'm teasing.

Hank: NO ONE CAN TELL WHEN I'M TEASING. [laughter]