“Everyone is entitled to their interpretation, even I have questioned it,” Nick Mohammed said, referring to the scene from episode 10 “International Break” where the couple begin to open the lines of communication . “When I read that speech his dad gave, I said to Jason [Sudeikis], ‘Nate has endured over 30 years of never being good enough. It can’t just be that.'” According to the actor, Sudeikis reassured him that this scene wasn’t meant to magically solve the couple’s problems. In fact, Nate ended up having a father-moment. even bigger son with Ted in the finale.Mohammed continued:
“That’s why there are no tears from Nate and he’s not hugging his dad. His dad isn’t hugging him. It’s all recorded for Ted in episode 12. [‘So Long, Farewell’] and it was deliberate because it only represents the beginning of the healing process. It wasn’t, ‘Oh, that’s right. They’re fixed.'”
Mohammed pointed to Nate’s final editing moment as another element of the show that might have given an oversimplified impression of the couple’s relationship. “There is even, in the editing sequence of [episode 12]they’ve moved on and now Nate is sitting with his family, and they belong at the restaurant, which is the one he was trying to get to impress his dad,” Mohammed said. “I think I’m okay some people probably saw it that way.”
Personally, however, he said he imagines the couple will “always have issues because of the trauma” of their past dysfunction. On the contrary, the restaurant scene and the reconciliation speech allude to something that the series has always emphasized: optimism.