This week we bid farewell to FX’s new hit show, Fosse/Verdon. I’m so sad to see this series close. I’m sure you are all too. Here’s how this week’s finale episode went down.
This episode opened up with nine years left in Bob Fosse’s life. He’s working on pre-production for All That Jazz. Paddy, his closest confidant, is recovering from his own heart attack. The pair sit together on a park bench, Paddy reads him to filth for his twisted love life and how it should play out in the movie about Bob’s life. It has everything to do with Bob’s mistakes and how in the end, Gwen Verdon was the only one for him, but it was too late. In Paddy’s version, Bob dies before this can happen. The worst part is, Bob knows it’s true.
Back at Bob and Annie’s apartment, he’s listening back to tapes he recorded with Gwen about All That Jazz. This is where we found out that his girlfriend, Annie, left him. Gwen and Bob are talking about her experience with the show, but more importantly her experience with Bob. Gwen shares that she doesn’t feel much of anything about Bob anymore. The tape cuts and legend/icon/star Nicole Fosse returns home, before curfew and everything. She’s moved in with Bob and there’s a cute scene of them dancing together in the living room.
Annie, Bob’s ex, goes for an audition for herself in the movie of Bob’s life. Bob is incredibly hard on her. He takes the script from the actor reading with her and reads the lines. While this is going on, Nicole is at his apartment. She’s drinking wine and taking pills. The scene cuts and we’re back with Annie in the audition room. He’s making her say the same line over, and over, and over. She breaks down because these are not fake words, this is her real life in a script. She gets the role, but at what cost?
Bob returns home, with an actress of course, to find Nicole drunk on the couch. She admits she’s been drinking and took some of his pills. Bob leaves his struggling daughter on the couch as she cries to go sleep with yet another actress. Meanwhile, Gwen is talking about leaving New York with her boyfriend. She wants to live a normal life in the country. Somehow, she convinces Ron to join her very easily.
Jump to six days into filming All That Jazz. Nicole and Gwen are on set as they watch a rehearsal of a scene between the actors playing Bob and a young Nicole. Real Nicole is clearly bothered by the scene and leaves the set. Gwen meets Bob in the hallway after, come to find out Nicole is moving back in with her and she’s smoking. She tells Bob about her plan to move to the country and he drops a bomb on her that he wants her to do a tour of Chicago. Of course she’s stunned at the offer, but accepts. When she told Ron, he was really disappointed. She goes back on her idea of moving to the country, saying it was never a plan. Ron says no because he is sick of feeling like he is in a three way relationship with Bob and Gwen. He threatens to leave her if she does the tour.
Then we get a montage of Nicole smoking on a rooftop, that she almost fell off of, by the way. During this montage we also saw Ron leave Gwen. All of these sad moments were happening as Bob basked in the limelight on set of his movie.
Cut to Gwen, ten months into her tour of Chicago, with seven years left of Bob’s life. She’s hosting a fundraiser for mental healthcare, a true queen! All while this is happening, we see clips of her completely miserable in her empty apartment. Meanwhile, Bob’s new young actress he’s shacking up with is in school and he is jealous she’s going out with people her own age. He then gets a phone call that Paddy has died. He did some weird interpretive dance at his funeral.
Bob has three years left now. All That Jazz was a hit, but his next film flopped. Bob and Gwen are at dinner. Ron went on to get married, have a kid, and star in a tv show. Bob wants to do yet another revival show with Gwen. She goes to LA for it while Bob stays in New York, working on lord knows what, with another actress living in his apartment. Gwen is having a miserable time working on the show. He gets in a plane to help her out.
Gwen’s revival show, Sweet Charity, goes on tour. Bob joins her in D.C. As the pair walk to the theater, Bob collapses to the ground. Gwen thinks he’s having a seizure, but she soon realizes it’s far more serious. Bob is pronounced dead at the emergency room.
This series was filled with emotion. The real life connection Bob and Gwen had was obvious within their work and personal lives. In the end, it was clear they loved each other, and the world of Broadway and film was given gifts because of it.
Let us know your thoughts on the series in the comments below! I loved chatting with you all about it each week!