Note: The following contains spoilers for the “Daisy Jones & the Six” finale.
With such an emotional breakup of the band and couples within, it would take something big to bring all the members of Daisy Jones & the Six back together to tell their versions of what really happened. But the finale for the Prime Video series did just that, revealing that — just like in Taylor Jenkins Reid’s book — the documentarian who’s been collecting all these interviews in the future is none other than Billy (Sam Claflin) and Camilla’s (Camilla Morrone) daughter Julie (Seychelle Gabriel).
Julia, whose younger version is portrayed by Naya Kodeh, turns out to be the one behind the camera, asking all the hard questions that led to her parents’ band members heading their separate ways.
“Julia being the person who’s actually pulling it all together is one of the things that I think makes it so rich and emotional,” executive producer and president of film and TV at Hello Sunshine Lauren Neustadter told TheWrap in an interview. “It’s really interesting, you know, when we reveal who [the documentarian] it is to realize her point of view is invaluable as well. She saw all of this. I mean, I am hoping and praying that after fans watch the finale, they’ll watch the show again knowing that it’s Julia. Her point of view is incredibly important, realizing that the little girl that we’ve seen through all of these episodes and that we saw growing up, that’s her, that’s who she is now. This whole thing is a story that she feels really passionate about telling, and her mom’s legacy will live on through her and obviously, also, I think in huge ways through Daisy and Billy and all the other band members.”
Executive Producer Nzingha Stewart, who directed episodes 6,8,9 and 10 had to stand in for Gabriel at times because the actress wasn’t always available for the doc beats.
“I would have to remind [the actors] ‘In answering this question, remember you’re talking to — baby Julia, Billy’s daughter.’ When I would give that note the performance would change,” Stewart told TheWrap. “We never wanted to give anything away, but you would see a warmth come in or a guardedness like, ‘I want to protect her from that information.’ That would come in when I just remembered who this was really for and that that’s the only reason these people would ever sit down and talk about that moment like that again.”
It is Julia that also makes it possible for Billy and Daisy to reunite at the end of the finale, because Camilla has died from cancer, but she left one final request for them that Julia captured on tape — to call each other up because Billy still owes her a song.
“For Hello Sunshine, one of the essential ingredients in every story that we tell is hope. I think this is such a beautiful, hopeful ending,” Neustadter said. “Camilla’s sentiment is so beautiful and so honest, and so generous. She knows these two people so well, and she’s giving them this ultimate final gift. So I do think it really is a happy ending that these two people are able to sort of have lived their lives and taken a breath and then they have an opportunity to come back together. It feels like it could be a new beginning.”
Camilla Morrone, who portrays Camilla Dunne, sums up the layered love triangle that her character, Daisy and Billy have as one in which the women support each other.
“Even though there’s so many complexities between Daisy and Camilla and there’s obviously this like massive love triangle, at the heart of it there’s deep respect and admiration that they have for one another,” Morrone said. “I think they’re really able to put into perspective the different ways that they can contribute to Billy’s life and his art. There’s great female dynamics in this show, everyone is just fleshed out and incredibly supportive of each other even in the most tense of moments.”
Author Taylor Jenkins Reid, who also executive produced the series, set the foundation for the female characters’ complex narratives in her book.
“One of the most important things to me is that these women were presented as all very different and not in conflict, even though they may have had competing interests. You bring up Daisy and Karen and they have two very different ways of functioning in the world. And Karen’s way doesn’t negate Daisy’s way and Daisy’s way doesn’t negate Karen’s way,” Reid told TheWrap. “Camila is different than both of them, Simone takes a whole other journey. All of them meet up in a much more sincere and, in my opinion, very compelling way, which is to say ‘I respect how you’re doing it, and I’m doing it differently.’”
Billy and Daisy’s reunion is also suggested in the book.
“The feeling of the book is like, the story’s not over, and these two people are inextricably linked,” executive producer Will Graham said. “They’re going to have different chapters and they’re going to come out of and come into each other’s lives, and it’s never going to be easy.”
Daisy Jones & the Six is now streaming on Prime Video.
