“10 Things” Season Finale Tonight

-The season finale of one of our favorite new shows, “10 Things I Hate About You,” airs tonight on ABC Family at 8pm EST. In the finale episode, “Don’t Leave Me This Way,” Kat (Lindsey Shaw) stages a walkout after Padua High enforces a new security policy and school uniforms, while Cameron (Nicholas Braun) has a difficult time getting over Bianca (Meaghan Martin) who is sneaking around with newly single Joey (Chris Zylka).

We’re still waiting to hear if ABC Family will pick up the show for a second season (we’re hoping they do!), but in the meantime, E! Online spoke with creator and writer Carter Covington to get some insight into the show and what we can expect to see. Check out some highlights below:

How have you evolved Patrick Verona this season?
The evolution of Patrick has been a collaboration between us writers and Ethan. We wanted to do a Jordan Catalano-esque mysterious guy, and then we realized Ethan has this funny, sardonic, sarcastic side to him. We started bringing that out more and more, and we found that it suited both Ethan and the character.

Is there more to Patrick than we’ve seen so far?
Right now we’re deciding what pieces of Patrick’s story to reveal in the next 10 episodes. We want to dole out pieces of his past that explain who Patrick is and why he’s a loner. We’ll learn more about his family. For example, why weren’t they there during the fire? I don’t want to give too much away, but we’re really excited to give people an unexpected history of Patrick Verona.

How far can you go with Kat and Patrick’s romance given the restrictions of the series format and the network?
Well, I read on the message boards that people are like, “Why aren’t they together now?!”

Therefore missing the entire point of the show.
Exactly. The most interesting thing about Kat and Patrick is that the obstacle for them as a couple is themselves—it’s not like one of them is in love with someone else. They like each other, and they can’t get out of their own way to be with each other. Neither one of them is willing to compromise or meet in the middle.

What we hope to do is tell the story of an epic romance between Kat and Patrick that unfolds over the life of the show, so we’re always mindful of not taking things too far.

We were nervous about having them kiss in episode seven, but we wanted to handle it in a way where we acknowledged to the audience that these characters now know that they’re attracted to each other, so there was a feeling of “Oh good, that happened,” but that’s not when they’re going to get together. We’re learning how to dole out those moments so that people feel rewarded without taking all of the steam out of the story.

Now, we must discuss Ms. Bianca. Are Bianca and Chastity (Dana Davis) really becoming friends?
Yes, Bianca and Chastity are really becoming friends, and Chastity’s character has a big evolution over the next 10 episodes. Right now, Chastity is pretty arch. The goal is to start to humanize Chastity more and make her a true friend, but it’s a difficult friendship. Chastity is the queen bee of the school, so how does Bianca have a friendship with this girl who’s not used to having friends? And now that Bianca and Chastity are aligned, what happens as they navigate high school together? I like the idea of telling stories about politics, power politics, through high school.

And Chastity and Bianca bring us to Joey (Chris Zylka), who is the Jason Stackhouse of 10 Things I Hate About You. He’s not so bright, but he’s very sweet, and he and Bianca are really cute together.
Chris as an actor is so good at being dim yet charming…and yet he doesn’t think he’s dim, which I think makes him even more charming. There wasn’t a real love triangle for Bianca in the movie because no one wanted her to be with Joey, but in the TV show, you need both of those characters to have some appeal to the audience. It’s fun to write a guy who usually would be the asshole in the show and make him a nice guy. And that’s our intent: Joey is a good guy with a good heart who thinks the world of Bianca.

Bianca has good luck with nice guys, because she also has Cameron (Nicholas Braun) on the string, but fans seem to be frustrated by that relationship. There’s talk that maybe Cameron’s too stalkery and that it’s hard to watch that pair always fail to connect.
I’ve read that too, and I would like to acknowledge that I’ve heard that criticism, and I see the point that people are making. What we explored with Cameron this season was the blind love that people have in high school. That is now played out. Cameron’s puppy-dog phase for Bianca is over. We’re starting to explore the actual connection between Cameron and Bianca. The next 10 episodes are going to be about Bianca and Cameron finding their way back to friendship. Nick is such a talented actor, and he has so many other layers that I’m excited to show for Cameron.

Everyone says 10 Things I Hate About You should be an hour-long—what are the chances of that happening?
I hear that so often. I don’t think [an expansion to one hour] will happen, but I see why people say that, because our show is a strange hybrid and at times it feels like a drama. But I would rather have 22 minutes fly by than have 44 minutes plod along.

Read the full interview HERE. “10 Things” was one of our favorite summer shows. What were yours?