At this point, as the cast of Happy Endings joked at Vulture Festival in Los Angeles on Sunday, the ABC sitcom has had more reunions than seasons. And, back in 2016 and 2020, they even tried to imagine what the characters would have gotten up to since the series ended in 2013. But those reunions, as cast members Adam Pally, Casey Wilson, Elisha Cuthbert, and Zachary Knighton and executive producers David Caspe and Jonathan Groff, debated at the panel, are of questionable canonicity. Do we really believe that Alex had a baby, or did she just trick herself into believing she had one? (And if the show were to return, would the writers just find a way to write that kid off just so they don’t have to work with child actors?) Is Jane still off in Japan making sex robots, as was depicted in the 2020 reunion, and is Brad still in the woods? Without Eliza Coupe and Damon Wayans Jr., we couldn’t answer those questions, but we could ponder the others, and these are the answers the cast and writers came up with:
Penny: Casey Wilson’s character is probably still single, though she’s spent a lot of time and money on the apps trying to change that. “I’d like to say that she’s happily doing well, but I don’t think that has been the case,†Wilson joked. She has been pretty successful in her career, however, and has visited a couple of White Lotus hotels — or really, tours of where The White Lotus filmed its infamous shitting scene. She has been catfished many, many times.
Dave: Zachary Knighton imagined that his character has gotten into MFTs, which are like NFTs, but more built around cheese somehow. He is a big Elon Musk guy, paid for a blue checkmark on Twitter, and become a big fan of Harry Styles, primarily through his work in Dunkirk. Dave takes Harry Styles as major fashion influence, has seen Don’t Worry Darling “millions of times,†but does not know his work as a musician well. Dave is also a gigantic fan of, specifically, Jared Leto’s take on the Joker.
Alex: Elisha Cuthbert’s character has leaned hard into the wellness space, and is perhaps a minor influencer in her own right, and she is definitely steaming her vagina and peddling snake oil. She’s adopted more pets and keeps naming them Tyler (like her parrot and her snake), and has a side gig as a DJ. She was also definitely in the Capitol on January 6, but not for the same reasons as everyone else (she thought it was about trying to “save the cowsâ€).
Max: Max was also in the Capitol, and probably in Nancy Pelosi’s office, because he is, as Adam Pally reiterated, a force of chaos. He’s had a career in politics sowing some of that chaos, but has since taken up a job at the New York Post, where his pun skills have been put to use causing further destabilization. On a more emotional note, Pally pointed out that he would love to revisit the storyline around Max’s breakup with James Wolk’s Grant over the fact that Max wanted to have kids and Grant didn’t. If the show were to return, Pally would want a more dramatic arc for Max there — though he’d want to add that Max might also be in Texas, hosting a podcast with Joe Rogan.