‘Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist’ Season 2 Ends With Wild Twist as Renewal Remains up in the Air

This post contains spoilers for the season two finale of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, “Zoey’s Extraordinary Goodbye.”

Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist wrapped its second season on Sunday night, and it really went out with a bang. Not only did it seem to settle the love triangle once and for all (Pour one out for Team Simon), the show threw a massive curveball in the final moments. Not only do Zoey (Jane Levy) and Max (Skylar Astin) get together, but Max somehow has heart song powers as well! After initially struggling since Zoey’s powers put them on extremely unequal emotional footing, this new development ought to level the playing field.

Series creator Austin Winsberg spoke to E! about this wild development and what this means for the couple moving forward. “We spent a lot of time this season and even in season one talking about the inequality in Zoey and Max’s relationship,” Winsberg explained. “He felt like there was something inherently unfair about the fact that she could hear his heart songs and know what’s going on in his heart and his brain, but he couldn’t do the same with her, and they had many fights and conversations about that where we’re clearly, in our minds, planting the seed for what was to come.”

“Then she has this moment in [the finale], where she has this talk with her father, and he talks about how he is part of the universe now and there’s been a lot of talk this season where Zoey’s screaming at the universe, and ‘Why is the universe doing this to me?’ And Mitch infers that maybe he has something to do with everything that’s going on with her, and maybe that the universe is doing all of this for a reason,” Winsberg continued. “And the last thing she says before Max gets the power, is she talks about the universe. And then she sings him a song. So, certainly from my perspective, part of him getting the power now is so that he could get an insight into Zoey, and that for once there can actually be real equality in their relationship.”

“I don’t know if relationships can really succeed unless there’s some equality on both sides,” Winsberg concluded. “I feel like for Max and Zoey to really move forward, he needed to get the power to really understand what’s going on with her. And, on top of that, I think there’s a lot of great romantic comedy to be mined out of what happens when you’re with somebody and you both know exactly what’s going on in the other person’s head.”

Unfortunately, that massive cliffhanger could be the last that fans see of the little NBC show that could. Zoey’s has struggled to maintain a live audience but has done massively well in streaming and built up a pretty passionate fandom online. At this point in time, it has not been renewed for a third season, although there has been some discussion of it making the jump to NBC’s streaming service Peacock if it is picked up for more.

Winsberg also spoke to TV Line this week and expressed cautious optimism about renewal. “I know that there have been plenty of nice articles written about us and potential awards consideration,” Winsberg explained. “I know that we have a really passionate fanbase that really cares about the show. I know we have a lot of internal support at NBC. So I’m cautiously optimistic that good things will happen, but we don’t know yet what the show’s fate will be.”