Walton Goggins talks The Unicorn: ‘I’m proud of every episode we’ve done’

The Unicorn season finale is another superlative episode for Walton Goggins, who tells Hidden Remote what to expect, including a Justified reunion.

Thursday brings The Unicorn season finale, and another reminder that the CBS series is the best comedy in the last 20 years. In “No Matter What The Future Brings,” Wade (played wonderfully as always by Walton Goggins) faces some important milestones—and looks back at what’s been an emotional year for him and his circle of friends.

It’s a finale that has the show’s impeccable balance of both hilarity and humanity, and Hidden Remote spoke to Walton Goggins ahead of the episode to discuss what’s coming up and how the role of Wade Felton has changed him. Plus, he lets us know how they were able to get his former Justified co-star Natalie Zea for a guest appearance!

Check out our Walton Goggins interview below, then definitely don’t miss The Unicorn‘s season finale tonight on CBS!

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Hidden Remote: The Unicorn Season 1 has been about Wade learning so much after the passing of his wife. What’s the biggest thing that Walton Goggins has learned through this journey?

Walton Goggins: That I’m enough, meaning Walton, because I’m okay. I started this experience with an extraordinary amount of insecurity going into this job, because of the idea of on some level being a parent, a father on CBS, which is very different than my experience in cable and movies.

I thought, well, wait a minute. I don’t look like the other people that have been cast in this. I don’t speak like them. I don’t sound like them and, Walton, are you sure you can do this? Are you okay with it? Are you okay just being you, or a version of you that is closer to you than anything else you’ve ever done?

It’s been almost a year since we did the pilot. I can say that I am okay, and moreso than that, I actually love it, and I didn’t think that I would, but I love it. I love this cast, I love my showrunners, I love the writers, I love this crew. But more importantly, I love this guy, Wade Felton, and I love the message that this story has for people.

I’ve been out in the world now, we’ve been on the air for six or seven months, and I’ve been stopped countless times by people that have said, thank you for telling this story the way that you’re telling it, it has brought me some relief from my own struggles in life. That’s all that I wanted to do, and we’ve done it. That’s the thing that I’ve learned the most from this experience, and the greatest change, the greatest takeaway from this experience for me personally.

HR: This is another episode where The Unicorn is both poignant and really funny. It avoids the trope of needing to be overly emotional. How do you consistently balance being a sitcom with genuinely discussing serious topics?

WG: That was there in the very beginning. That’s kind of what we wanted to do. Grief is not linear. It just rears its head the way that it rears its head, and it plays itself out. But the situations that these people find themselves in are just absurd, and it was always going to be a show about this group of people, and not just about Wade.

I wanted that from the very beginning, and that was my pitch to this group of people, Michaela [Watkins] and Rob [Corddry] and Omar [Benson] and Maya Lynne [Robinson] and the girls [Ruby Jay and Makenzie Moss], and all of these people that are so good at comedy. It was always going to be that.

Now that the audience kind of knows who we are, we opened ourselves up to this experience. I suppose our true north is finding those situations where you can have both, and they do exist in life simultaneously, everywhere you turn. Our version of it, in a half hour on CBS, we feel very comfortable with. That’s only going to continue, and probably even get funnier, because you know these people. But when it lands, it’s going to land because of the nature of the story and what these people are going through in life.

HR: Did you have favorite parts of this final episode? What resonated with you the most?

WG: I so love the relationship between Michaela and Rob, and between Maya Lynne and Omar. I just love watching their relationships with each other and their children. But I really was waiting to have the conversation that I personally wanted Wade to have with his wife, Jill. That was difficult, but liberating in a way, and really uplifting, which is what I wanted to do, and what we all wanted to do

I think the conversation that I have with my friends when the five of us are sitting on the back patio talking about life, and how quickly things change, and where did time go, and understanding in that moment your own mortality or your place in all of it, and taking inventory is always one of my greatest joys in life with the people that I love. That was so different on this show. I so enjoyed that scene, it made me laugh and it made me cry, because it is real. I think we’re all going through that all the time.

HR: It’s been revealed already that Natalie Zea, who was on Justified with you, is appearing in this episode. How did she get involved with The Unicorn?

WG: There were a number of names that we were batting back and forth, and as soon as Natalie came up, I just begged them. They were as excited about Natalie, and CBS was as excited about Natalie as I was. I didn’t have to beg that hard, but I said, look, she’s the one. She’s it. She’s magic. She’s alchemy, and that was it. We really didn’t look any further. That was our top pick, and luckily for us we got her.

For Raylan Givens’ ex-wife to have a scene with Boyd Crowder, that’s crazy. (laughs) But to share the screen with her, as somebody who’s been a friend of mine for almost 14 years, is really special.

We’ve all been around for a long time, and we have a deep bench of really good friends that are so unbelievably talented, and they’ve all come to play with us. Tim Baltz, who I’m doing The Righteous Gemstones with right now, he did Episode 4 with us, and a number of Michaela’s friends that she does improv with. And they’re all down. They get it, they get the tone, and they’re having such a good time with this tone that it’s like, wow. Wait a minute. I feel so good about this work and in this way, and that’s just so gratifying.

HR: The Unicorn stands out as a series because it leaves us with more than just the laughs. Is there anything you want to particularly leave viewers with as the first season ends?

WG: I would say this, that having gone through the struggles that I’ve gone and a number of friends that have gone through it—including one of our producers, Grady [Cooper], who the story’s based on—the thing that I wanted to convey, if you will, and [The Unicorn creators] Bill [Martin] and Mike [Schiff] wanted to do the same thing, is that we all grieve. It’s part of the process of being a human being.

But we are not alone in our grieving, and there is life on the other side of this. There is a new normal and that hope springs eternal, and that’s been my guiding principle with every episode, angling towards that message. I felt that that would resonate with people, and it might bring some peace to their own life and make them laugh in the process.

I’m proud of every episode we’ve done. It’s hard to turn in 18 good ones, and I know that now, because my seasons have been between nine and 13. It’s not easy, but I stand behind every one of them, including this one. I can only say that if it speaks to you, tell a friend. We hope you enjoy the season finale, because it is a springboard into absolute joy and chaos for Season 2.

The Unicorn season finale airs tonight at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.