'The Staircase' Creator Reveals The Reason Why There Are No Answers to HBO Max Series Ending

HBO Max‘s limited series The Staircase wrapped up this week and left fans with a lot of questions to no definitive answer on if Michael Peterson killed his wife, Kathleen.

In a new interview, creator Antonio Campos opened up about the reason why that is and what it means for any future installment.

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While speaking to The Wrap, Antonio explained that the no-answer conclusion was planned from the start.

In the final episode, Michael (Colin Firth) is seen at two different points: the first being his retrial, and the second in 2017, when he finally took an Alford plea — which allows a person to accept a sentence, which was time served, without admitting guilt.

Antonio also opened up about why viewers may never know what truly happened to Kathleen.

“You have to accept that there are aspects of this story that you just won’t ever know,” he said. “I really love the end of Episode 8, because it’s one of those endings where you feel something, I think. It sits with you and you are thinking about it for a while after.”

He added, “In some ways, the show has ended along the way, if you believe any one of those things really strongly. That’s why the end of the show had to be more lyrical. It had to be less grounded in or driven by plot and more by atmosphere, [getting] individual moments with Michael and getting a glimpse into why this guy could be the way he is. The other thing is also for us, we wanted to end the show with Kathleen alive. That story ends with the last known moment in Kathleen’s life.”

“For a story as complex and twisty and windy as this, it feels like the end needed to be something very definitive in a way that encompasses all of the questions that we’re considering,” Antonio concluded.

If you missed it, here’s why Colin didn’t reach out to Michael ahead of portraying him in the show.