It's the end of an era.

With Good Trouble Season 5 Episode 20, we saw a significant chapter close for this refreshing, conscientious, and inspiring series.

Sadly, not only did the series finale mark the end of Good Trouble, but it also meant the last chapter of The Fosters franchise closed.

The series' end leaves a massive void in the television landscape for similar series that combined a found family element with a timely exploration of social issues while bending genres.

We've lost something special, and that's a sentiment we unpack in our Good Trouble Series Finale Review.

But TV Fanatic had the pleasure of speaking with co-creator, showrunner, and EP Joanna Johnson.

She chatted about ending a decade-long journey, the unexpected cancellation, and the impact Good Trouble leaves behind.

If you haven't watched the series finale already, be warned that there are spoilers below!

I believe Davia acknowledges what we all feel about it being the end of an era well. What's it like for you to end not only this series but also a decade-long franchise?

Yeah, it's very emotional. I feel very sad.

But at the same time, I also feel so grateful and blessed to have been on this 10-season journey with all these amazing characters, actors, and crew. Much of our crew has been with us the whole time.

When in this business, do you get an opportunity to work with someone for 11 years, you know? It doesn't happen. And so I can't be anything but grateful and feel incredibly blessed.

Of course, it's sad. I don't like change. I don't like endings; as Alice says, I don't like things to end.

But we look back on the journey; you can't be bitter about it. Because there was just so much that was good.

Five years is a very long time for this industry. It's bittersweet, but at least it made it this far.

Yes, exactly.

Unfortunately, of course, the series was canceled, so my question is: did you always have a specific ending you had in mind for this series? How close were you to get to that?

I would have done the show as long as they picked it up.

People would ask me, "Well, don't you want to do something different?" But you're working on something you love, and you get a lot of creative freedom, which we got from Freeform -- always such a wonderful place to work. They were so supportive.

You get to work with all your friends you've been with for ten years; why would you walk away from that? Why leave to go out there and try to get a new show on the air, which is not easy?

I hadn't figured out the ending but wanted to do the Jamie and Callie wedding. I'm bummed that we weren't able to do that. We were going to try to do it, but we just didn't have the money allotted to be able to do it.

I certainly would have loved to do that. And there were more stories to tell with these incredible characters.

But we got to tell a lot of wonderful stories. Again, that's how I choose to look at this now. Yes, it's sad, but I'm just so grateful for the experience.

I love the final scene because, of course, the rooftop and the pool felt full circle. We started the series with Callie and Mariana and ended it with them. Can you walk me through that final scene? It felt like it was as much Cierra and Maia as Mariana and Callie.

Absolutely, and it was. I wrote all those scenes, the new scenes, but especially that roof scene, to be more than just about the characters. They were also for the actors and the show -- when they ask, "Do you think we'll be remembered? Do you think we made an impact?"

And it was the same for the girls at the end, when Cierra says, "It's been quite a journey." And then Maia says, "There's no one I'd rather have done it with."

That was for them, too, because those two are like sisters in real life. They're so close. And they've been working together since they were 17 and 19.

They've been on this journey for 11-12 years of their lives. I knew it would be incredibly emotional for them, as for all of us.

Everybody behind the camera was crying.

The girls said, "Look, it's going to be really hard saying these lines. How much crying do you want us to do, and how much do we let it go? We told them to do a couple holding it in, and then after that, just let it happen.

And, of course, we use the takes where they mostly let it happen. They could have just broken down sobbing, but that wouldn't have been a very good scene. But, like you said, it's full circle. It had to end with them and on the roof, like in the pilot.

I love that it felt like it was them, and poor Cierra Ramirez has been crying so much this season already. She's been, my God, she's been phenomenal. So I can't wait to see what she does next.

She's so talented. I think she's amazing!

Now, for Mariana, was it always going to be Evan? Obviously, at the finale's beginning, she said she was moving on, but by the end, she was with Evan. Was it always supposed to be him? And what makes them a better endgame? How will they be better this time?

I wasn't convinced that Evan was the endgame until this last season with the memory loss and seeing the two of them together. And I fell completely in love with the two of them together. I love her with Joaquin, too.

But I also felt like the audience really wanted Evan. And I didn't even hesitate. I just think the two of them are so charming together and adorable, and they also have great chemistry as actors.

Oh, yeah. Cierra was great this season, but so was T.J. He had a lot of heavy stuff to deal with and did a really great job.

He did.

The theme was that characters were true to themselves while still pursuing their dreams during the finale. How did you figure out what that would look like for each character, especially with short notice?

We just had to kind of wrap it up. And so we had to be like, "And what are you going to do? And what are you doing next?" It wasn't the most elegant, but we wanted to know who chose whom and the resolutions of certain stories.

We also wanted to know what's next. Everybody got to let the audience know where they were going in the future. Everyone has a pretty happy ending, which is nice.

As I said, we just had to wrap it up. We didn't have a lot of time to shoot, so I knew the scene couldn't go on and on. No one wants to hear a lot of exposition. I didn't want too much exposition.

I understand. Since there are so many plots, is there one specific plot you hate that you couldn't expand on or wrap up a little bit more?

I had different plans for the Silas wrap-up, but I also liked what we had. We couldn't go back to the farm where we were shooting, so we had to shoot that on stages.

I knew we had to do something quick. I think it actually made sense that it came full circle to Jenna.

I would have liked to have done the Callie and Jamie wedding, but I was glad we got to do the engagement party.

And we got to see all our Fosters and moms in that episode. I'm glad we had that as their kind of finale.

I wanted to see Malika running for office and see those debates and how younger people who don't necessarily have 20 years in government can run for office and make a difference. I would have enjoyed exploring that.

Davia wouldn't have gone to New York. We had a story that kept her here that I liked as well. But you know.

You brought up the characters' musing at the pool, which was great, speaking about their impact and how they hope they made such a difference. I absolutely loved that and got emotional at that part.

What legacy do you hope Good Trouble leaves behind?

First and foremost, I hope the legacy Good Trouble leaves behind is love, the importance of the love of family, whether it's chosen or the family you were born into or adopted into or fostered with.

I hope it reminds people how important those bonds are and how important it is for everyone to have a family of friends as well as their own family surrounding them.

I hope we showed people characters that aren't necessarily mainstream in television. The Fosters was the first show and still the only show, I think, on TV about two lesbian women raising children.

We see that LGBTQ+ people can and are really good parents. We see that love is love, and that's what matters the most.

I'm hoping that we were able to start conversations about racism and policing. I'm proud of those, of the Black Lives Matter storyline we did in 2017 before 2020.

I hope it opened some people's eyes because I don't think people understand.

I think a lot of people are very blind to the fact of police aggression and brutality towards people of color and also the rates of incarceration for people of color.

They don't quite understand or maybe choose to ignore how this devastates those communities and families.

I'm hoping that people learned a little from the show and maybe got curious and decided to do a little more research.

But ultimately, of course, the idea is to entertain. So I hope that people walk away saying that it was a really fun show to watch as well.

Absolutely. I am a diehard fan of the Fosters as well. It's one of the greatest family dramas of all time. Good Trouble extended in an unorthodox way. You all have completely influenced and inspired people with both series.

I hope so. I really hope so. And I hope people keep finding it on Hulu and watching it.

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If you want to relive all the beauty of this series, you can stream all seasons of Good Trouble on Hulu.

You can also check out our Good Trouble Reviews.

Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is an insomniac who spends late nights and early mornings binge-watching way too many shows and binge-drinking way too much tea. Her eclectic taste makes her an unpredictable viewer with an appreciation for complex characters, diverse representation, dynamic duos, compelling stories, and guilty pleasures. You'll definitely find her obsessively live-tweeting, waxing poetic, and chatting up fellow Fanatics and readers. Follow her on X.