You've had a lot of cast turnover, but you've never killed anyone off.
Messer: Just Strauss! Jayne [Atkinson] wasn't a regular though. ... I think killing them off would be a hard thing to do and for an audience member to watch. It was hard with Strauss. I know how connected we are to the characters and fans of the show are too. I feel like it would be the death of a friend if we had to kill anyone off. That seems almost harsh. This way, they can always come back.
What did you think of the promo spoiling that Reid survives and someone was leaving?
Messer: I know! I was like, "Wait a minute! We've got to milk that, guys!" [Laughs] But it is kind of a bummer that the promo gave that away. The [exit tease wasn't as bad] because you could still think it was Reid if it didn't show him awake. Obviously he was still in danger after he woke up. ... But I mean, given that any time there is a cliff-hanger like that, everybody watches the promo. The fact that it gave it away, I was like, "What?! Are you crazy?!"
Have you settled on how this whole ordeal will affect Reid? Will he fall off the wagon and abuse Dilaudid again?
Messer: My hope is that he doesn't go down the Dilaudid path again! [Laughs] But that's stuff for us to discuss at the beginning of the summer when the writers all come back. That's certainly a very real thing we could make a story out of or just something that we're aware of moving forward. ... Same thing with Garcia shooting someone for the first time. It's interesting because I had written it and I was like, "I should talk to Kirsten before, to make sure she's OK with it." I said, "Here's why. You're saving Reid's life," and she was like, "Right on. Absolutely!" We'll deal with that, but truthfully, she didn't kill him; she just shot him and I feel like when you see the scene, you might be satisfied with the way it is.
This could be a good link for Reid and his mom if Jane Lynch can come back.
Messer: Exactly. I really want to get Jane back again. This will be interesting to see how we pull that off and if it's right away. Because Glee's in its final season, maybe it's something we can't get to until later in the year.
What do you have planned for next season?
Messer: Not much yet. There's a version where we pick up the next day. There's a version where we pick up and summertime's gone by just like in real life, so I don't know yet. We're just unplugging from the show in the next few weeks and the beauty of that is when the writers get back together, we can say, "I thought of this. What do you think?" We had such an amazing year. All of the writers are back for Season 10 and it felt like everybody needed to walk away for a bit. These last two episodes took a lot out of everyone. It's a lot of work, but the payoff is great. But everybody needed to enjoy their break this year because last year, we couldn't enjoy it as much since we didn't [get the early renewal], so everybody was afraid to go on vacation and afraid to do anything. This year, the minute we got that pickup, we were like, "OK, we're good? Who wants to go to Paris?" Not like that, but you know. I think Season 10 is going to hold a lot of fun stuff for us to do.