YOU’RE THE WORST — “The Pin In My Grenade” – Season 5, Episode 2 (Airs January 16, 10:00 pm e/p) Pictured (l-r): Kether Donohue as Lindsay, Aya Cash as Gretchen. CR: Byron Cohen/FXX
The season premiere of You’re the Worst was my soul mate. It was everything ‘90s and by the end it even fit in some of my favorite crazy movie cliches, but Jimmy (Chris Geere) and Gretchen (Aya Cash) were barely in it. They were the storytellers, and we didn’t even see Lindsay (Kether Donohue) or Edgar (Desmin Borges) yet.
So this week we will finally catch up with Lindsay for the last time as You’re the Worst continues its final season. I spoke with Donohue last summer at the Fox party for the Television Critics Association as she was closing in on the series finale. You’re the Worst airs Wednesday nights at 10 PM on FXX.
WLE: Has it hit you and the crew yet that this is it?
YOU’RE THE WORST — “The Pin In My Grenade” – Season 5, Episode 2 (Airs January 16, 10:00 pm e/p) Pictured (l-r): Aya Cash as Gretchen, Desmin Borges as Edgar, Chris Geere as Jimmy, Kether Donohue as Lindsay. CR: Byron Cohen/FXX
Kether Donohue: Oh yeah, I was just saying earlier tonight to Aya, “Remember when we cried at the marketing shoot during EPK day one?” Even in preproduction before we started filming and we were just doing the poster photo shoot and EPK, the guy interviewing me literally had to give me a tissue. So I was crying long before we started. It kind of feels a little bit like the same vibe of senior year of high school. Everything feels very nostalgic like The Breakfast Club We all know we’re saying goodbye so it’s very bittersweet.
WLE: What are you nostalgic for from early seasons?
Kether Donohue: I think the nostalgia for me is the newness of the way I felt seasons one and two, because I’d moved out here from New York. Everything was new. It was the first time I got my own apartment. The steps I took in my adult life in the beginning of the show was a first. Everything was a first for me. My first series, my first apartment on my own, stuff like that. So I’m trying to bring that feeling of newness into this season because I know that it’s my last opportunity to have that feeling with this group.
WLE: Could there be a happy ending for Lindsay?
YOU’RE THE WORST — “The Pin In My Grenade” – Season 5, Episode 2 (Airs January 16, 10:00 pm e/p) Pictured (l-r): Kether Donohue as Lindsay, Aya Cash as Gretchen, Chris Geere as Jimmy, Desmin Borges as Edgar. CR: Byron Cohen/FXX
Kether Donohue: I feel like no matter what ends up happening in the finale, I kind of feel like season four she even kind of ended off for her on a happy note. She has her own apartment. She has her own job. She has some revelation of identifying goodness within her where she wants to help Paul. So I feel like no matter what Stephen Falk ends up deciding is her destiny in the series finale, I feel like we’ve seen her have a good turnaround.
WLE: What did you think when you read Lou Diamond Phillips was your stepfather?
Kether Donohue: Oh, I flipped out because he’s a legend. It’s cool because I still get to work with him because we’re both on the Disney cartoon Elena of Avalor together. So I still get to work with him, but he couldn’t have been a nicer guy. He is literally one of the nicest people on the planet.
WLE: Is there more with Lindsay’s mom and her sister in the last season?
Kether Donohue: As far as I’ve read, because we only have up to episode eight right now, I have not read anything about the mother, but yes, Becca is definitely in it. Thank God. What would we do without Janet? She’s the best.
WLE: Has any time passed since season four?
Kether Donohue: A little time. It’s like a month or two. It’s not that big of a time span which is why I can’t really change my hair very much. I was like, “Wait, can Lindsay have long hair this year” Then when I read that there wasn’t that much time had passed, I was like, “Dammit, I don’t get to have long hair.”
WLE: Is she still killing it at her job?
Kether Donohue: Yes, but you will see some shifts in that department.
WLE: I hope a promotion, not something bad.
Kether Donohue: Well, yes, it’s not a lateral move. There is an elevated professional opportunity that she has. I can’t really say. She’s still working. That’s all that matters. Thank God.
WLE: Where did they go in the car at the end of season four?
Kether Donohue: Oh, that’s a good question. I don’t think I can say.
WLE: Does anything top the acrobatic sex of season four?
Kether Donohue: So, Edgar and Lindsay are still boning, so actually it was funny because this season we had a really wonderful female director, Ryan Pace??? She texted me early on. She’s like, “What sex positions have you not done on the show? I think it would be fun if we talked about a fun sex position to do.” We have some good choreography in that department.
WLE: Did you have all those positions on call for Ryan?
Kether Donohue: Again, I feel like I have to clear my search history on my phone every time I go through a season because I had to look up all the sex positions. I basically sent her cartoon photos of stick figures having sex.
WLE: Have you thought about what you want to do after You’re The Worst?
Kether Donohue: I have. I really would like to work on my music. I write songs and I think it would be really great to focus some time and energy on that because I’ve never really done that before, so I’d really like to do that. I’m really sad the pilot I did with Brandon Michael Smith for NBC didn’t get picked up. Sean Hayes’ production company, so even though it didn’t get picked up, for me it was a really amazing thing to do that because it reminded me how much I love multicam. James Burrows directed it. It just was a wonderful reminder to me. The last time I did a multicam was years and years ago, so it was a really nice reminder for me how much I love that format. I think one of the exciting things in this business for me is the surprises that happen. I’m just excited to see what’s going to happen.
WLE: Have you released music we can listen to?
Kether Donohue: Nothing’s been released but I’ve written stuff that I really would love to put out.
WLE: What is your style?
Kether Donohue: I kind of lean toward a folk, a little country twang in there, but folk, country, a little jazz.
WLE: Can you play an instrument?
Kether Donohue: I don’t. Thank God I have a lot of friends who do so they help me out with that portion of the song. I write the lyrics and a lot of the melody.
WLE: What are your lyrics about?
Kether Donohue: Well, I don’t want to get too much into it because I haven’t fully done everything yet, but there is stuff that’s part of the MeToo movement. I’ve written a lot of songs that speak to trauma that people experience. I think everybody at some point when they’re writing a song writes about a breakup they’ve had.
WLE: Love songs.
Kether Donohue: Yeah, I have a lot of breakup songs but I have some trauma songs, childhood trauma. A lot of dark stuff but still with some hope.
