Ethan Hawke in 'The Lowdown' Shane Brown/FX Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment Logo text [This story contains spoilers for "The Sensitive Kind," the season finale of The Lowdown on FX.] A lot of dark things have happened over the course of The Lowdown, including a host of murders; a man being literally tarred and feathered by a white supremacist cabal; and the death of an elderly Native man (played by Graham Greene) that series protagonist Lee Raybon (Ethan Hawke) inadvertently caused. That's all in keeping with the kinds of noir stories that influenced creator Sterlin Harjo. The season finale of the FX series, however, breaks from the often despairing endings of many noir tales by giving the good guys some victories - albeit at a cost. After doggedly investigating the shady dealings of Oklahoma gubernatorial candidate Donald Washberg (Kyle MacLachlan) and the death of Donald's brother Dale (TIm Blake Nelson), Lee prepares one final exposé about how Dale really died. Related Stories TV 'Snowfall' Spinoff on Leon and Wanda Ordered to Series by FX TV FX's 'The Shards' Adds Jordan Roth to Cast (Exclusive) But after laying out the tale to Donald, he pivots, making a deal with Donald to return some Washberg family land - which Donald, through a group of business leaders, was set to sell to the aforementioned white supremacists known as One Well - to an Indigenous nation within Oklahoma. Lee, in turn, publishes not a damning takedown of the Washbergs (though he doesn't pull punches) but a tribute to Dale that he titles "The Sensitive Kind" (which is also the name of the finale and was a working title for the series before it became The Lowdown). It even closes with a wedding, as Lee attends the marriage of his ex-wife Samantha (Kaniehtiio Horn) and her fiancé Johnny (Rafael Casal) and tries to explain to his daughter (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) why she'll be better off living with Samantha and Johny full-time. "I'm very proud of the finale," Harjo, who directed and co-wrote the finale with Liz Blood, tells The Hollywood Reporter. "I think it encapsulates everything that I like about doing this show. We were trying our best to land the plane, and I think that we did it." Harjo talked with THR about why he chose to move away from a bleaker ending, why Donald Washberg isn't really a bad guy, his thoughts about possible future seasons - and how a conversation with rock legend Robert Plant inspired one of the funniest scenes in the episode. One of the things that really struck me about the finale is that it ends on a more upbeat note than a lot of noir stories do. I'm curious why you chose that way to go for rather than the "Forget it, Jake" route. It's obviously not as grim as Chinatown is. But I think that there is a conflict at the end that we have to recognize, which is everything that Lee has said that he believes in as a truthstorian, he kind of has to go against by writing this article and not writing [a version of it] that he claims is going to get the Pulitzer Prize. It's a measure of, are you a good man? That's something Betty Jo [Jeanne Tripplehorn] says early on the pilot, she's talking about Dale like "He was a good man. He was good man." Then we cut to Lee, and the question is superimposed over him as well. That's, in the end, what he has to figure out. Is it worth bruising your ego and not writing this amazing article? Is that more important? Is that good? Is what's righteous more important than that? There's that conflict. I don't like happy endings, per se. I like them sliding right in the middle. I feel like it could have been happier, but it could definitely have been a lot more bleak. But also, it's a show, and I feel like after taking people on this ride, I want to give them something [positive]. People have been saying to Lee throughout the show that his self-perception is not the way he comes off to other people, but after Chutto [Mato Wayuhi] throws the brick through his window and they have their conversation about how Lee caused Chutto's grandfather's death, it seems to be the moment where it finally sinks in that his crusade is not uniformly making the world a better place. I think there's a question of, as journalists, who are you writing for? Because [Lee] is not listening to the people around him that he supposedly cares about. Chutto has told him this is only going to cause problems, and he didn't listen, and he got somebody killed. So who is truly writing for? Where does his passion lie? Is it really just to make a name for himself, or is it to tell the truth and to try to be as pure as you can in your endeavors. He kind of committed the worst sin as a journalist, because he was getting involved, and it got somebody killed. I mean, that's one of the more bleak things. Yes, he has some personal triumphs and the show e