rewrite this title ‘Stick’ Creator Jason Keller Talks “Natural” Introduction Of Clark Ross, Facing The Past And Season 2 Hopes For Apple TV+ Show

SPOILER ALERT: This post lightly spoils the final episodes of Stick on Apple TV+.

The first season of Apple TV+’s Stick has come to an end with its finale episode, titled “Déjà Vu All Over Again.”

Owen Wilson’s Pryce Cahill and Peter Dager’s Santi Wheeler faced their respective demons on and off the golf course. For Pryce, it’s Timothy Olyphant’s Clark Ross who brings the rest of his backstory to the forefront, and Santi’s dad Gary Wheeler (Mackenzie Astin), shows up in the final two episodes of the series.

“Bringing Clark Ross back into Pryce’s life was always just a natural thing we wanted to do, because he was there for this meltdown at Sawgrass and so it’s fun to see all of these characters coming face to face with the things that they’re running from and being forced to deal with it,” creator Jason Keller told Deadline. “Of course, Pryce has a very dramatic past that comes back, that he must reconcile with. [Clark] coming back into Pryce’s life is another level of that for Pryce. You see [Elena] facing a past where she felt marginalized by the men in her life and less than in by the men in her life, and facing that and overcoming that.”

The parallel between Pryce’s confrontation of Clark and Santi’s showdown with his father, who takes advantage of his son’s eagerness to have him back in his life and becomes caddy for a few rounds of the tournament, sets up some moments where the pair almost get pulled apart. But they come back together again by the end.

In the below interview, Keller clarifies the mechanics of Episode 8’s hustle, how Pryce has grown as shown in that moment between him and his ex-wife Amber-Linn (Judy Greer) and ideas for a Season 2 should the show get renewed.

DEADLINE: The whole hustle on Clark that they pull in Episode 8, could you clarify what was part of it and what was just emotions?

JASON KELLER: It was a fun challenge to try and pull that hustle off in that episode. What we did was we created this hustle within a hustle. I’m talking as if I’m Pryce or Mitts, but he idea was that we couldn’t probably hustle Clark with a straight hustle. We needed to come up with a hustle and then appear as if our plan broke down, so that Clark could really believe that he was fully up to speed and seeing the charred remains of this grand plan. In that way, we would get him as a hustling team. So, it’s this very tricky thing in the middle, where Santi and Zero get into this fight that seemingly plays as a real fight. All of it was meant to pull Clark in in a way that made him feel comfortable. And the idea of that final shot being his idea, that was always the key thing is that, on any mark in a hustle, you want it to be their idea. You want to suggest the idea, but you want [them] to think that it’s their idea ultimately.

DEADLINE: That moment with price and Amber-Linn where he almost went into her hotel room, and then he was the one to kind of restrain, it feels like towards the beginning of the show, that would have played out really differently. What growth does this show for Pryce? Could it ever work out between them?

KELLER: That’s such a beautiful scene for me, and maybe one of my favorite scenes in the entire show. Judy Greer and Owen in that scene, it’s really touching and beautiful. I have a few thoughts about it. In that scene, what Amber-Linn sees is the Pryce that she always wished she would have seen years ago when they lost their son. This was the Pryce that, had he shown up in this way a long time ago, they maybe would have survived their marriage and they would have stayed together, and for many different reasons, Pryce just couldn’t get there.

It’s this really bittersweet, beautiful but heartbreaking moment where these two people see each other for the first time in a long time, the way that they remember one another, and it’s really beautiful and also impossible that they could ever get back what they had. There’s just been too much that’s transpired since the death of their son. It’s always played for me as this just really touching, heartbreaking moment of realization and “Hello,” and “God, I haven’t seen you for so long,” and “There you are.” And “I remember how funny and sweet and wonderful you are.” For Pryce, too he’s looking past all the sadness and disappointment, and he’s seeing this wife that he loved so much, and they have this moment.

I think the reason that Pryce ends up not going into her hotel room, is that, it is a real moment of maturity for Pryce, and it’s something that Pryce hasn’t seen from himself in 20 plus years, probably because I think he really realizes that they could never get back what they had, and to maybe try and do that would be,  as he says, “taking a step backwards.” And for the first time, Pryce has hope for his future. In that hallway outside her hotel room, is, he’s excited about what the next day may bring, and he hasn’t felt that way in a long time. And Amber-Linn acknowledges that he’s probably right about it. I never want Amber-Linn to not be in this story. Should we be blessed to do a Season 2 I would want Judy to come back, because I just love that dynamic between those two.

DEADLINE: When Santi is doing press after one of the rounds in the tournament, and he brings up the “Cecilia” song and how that calms him down,  I wasn’t sure whether to interpret that as ‘Oh, he stole Pryce’s thunder a little bit.’, I know a big idea of this show for you is like people can come out of nowhere in golf, but it also felt like the moment where the bartender says that to Pryce when he’s not caddying anymore, there’s a tension there?

KELLER: “Cecilia” mentioned in the press conference, the intention behind that is that Pryce talked to Santi about Cecilia being an important song for him when he found himself lost on a golf course, or really anywhere in Episode 3. And so, for Pryce to hear Santi and realize that he’s incorporated that same thing in his life and in his play, the intention was always for it to land with Pryce, as this is a kid who really listens to me and cherishes what I have to offer. And I’m affecting this kid in a really beautiful, profound way, as a father would a son. So that’s what he hears in that press conference, is, “I’m making a difference in this kid.” He understands he’s been making a difference on the golf course in all these ways, but it’s just a moment where Pryce is really touched that this seemingly inconsequential bit of input really registered for Santi long ago. This show’s always been fathers and sons for me. It’s that glowing feeling as a father, where you realize that [to] your son or your daughter, “Oh, I matter.”

DEADLINE: Was “Cecelia” by Simon and Garfunkle always that song? Did you play around with any other songs?

KELLER: Well, I love that song. I’ve just always loved that song. Simon and Garfunkel are one of my favorite bands. I’m into that kind of music. It was always the song that I wanted to use in the show for that particular storyline. We use it at the end of Episode Five in this really beautiful sequence, which we call the “golden sequence,” where the family is finally spot-welded together and moving in the same direction. We play Cecilia over that sequence.

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That was always a song I was playing in the writers room as we were writing this show, long before we went into production. I would sometimes hit play on our speaker and we would just listen to “Cecilia” to get into the mood and think about the show. It was always the plan, and thankfully, we were able to get the rights to it.

DEADLINE: I loved when the crowd starts seeing it behind Santi at the golf course.

KELLER: It’s funny, somebody just sent me pictures of that day. There was 1000 extras on set that day for filming. And it was no small feat to get 1000 people singing “Cecilia.” Because we were on a golf course, so it was 1000 people spread out over all of this entire golf course. And when we finally got it going to hear 1000 people singing “Cecilia” in that scene was very moving for me too. I remember being on the set and just sort of choked up at hearing this wave of voices singing that song. It was cool.

DEADLINE: You mentioned earlier the prospect of a Season 2. I’m curious how the end of the finale might set that up. When Pryce drives the ball, we don’t see how far it goes, but we can tell from Santi’s reaction that he’s still got game. Is that an idea you would want to play with where Pryce gets back in the game?

KELLER: I’m still thinking about precisely what Season 2 would be. I would love to see Pryce Cahill playing high level golf. It would be fun to see Owen out there, playing in a tournament and seeing just how good this guy is. His story sort of ended with him being 18th in the nation before his life sort of fell apart. So you always ask a question about a guy like that whose career was cut short for one reason or the other, “How good could he have been if he would have kept playing?” That’s something that I’d want to explore in Season 2 for sure.

DEADLINE: Have we seen the last of Clark or Santi’s dad?

KELLER: Not fully knowing where I would go, I think that maybe that story has resolved itself, and maybe Santi understands who his dad is and has reconciled that. Having said that, maybe Gary Wheeler will come back. Timothy Olyphant as Clark. I just love Timothy Olyphant, and I love that character. I would love to have him back if we were able to do a Season 2. I think he’s fun, and I think his dynamic with Pryce — I couldn’t get enough of it in Season 1, and I’d want to bring him back if I could in season two. He’s just so good.