After breaking records at HBO and earning high grades from critics and audiences alike, Rooster is nearly through its first semester. The Season 1 finale, “Songs of Raisa,” airs this weekend, and it will be a dramatic one for Katie (Charly Clive) and her parents. The series began with Steve Carell’s author Greg Russo arriving at Ludlow College ostensibly for a guest speaker appearance, but in actuality to check up on his daughter amid a personal crisis in her relationship with her husband Archie (Phil Dunster). Now, she’s about to make a massive decision about their marriage, and she’s laid down some boundaries for her parents to follow. However, as always, Greg can’t resist trying to swoop in and help her during such an important moment.

Before the season concludes, Collider can exclusively share one final sneak peek centering on Greg and Beth (Connie Britto****n) arguing over Katie’s situation. From the sound of it, she’s going to reconcile with Archie, and that drives Greg up a wall. Not only did he cheat on Katie, but he left her for a Ludlow grad student, turning their marital drama into a public affair that everyone on campus knew about. It’s Katie’s decision to make, but despite being told to stay out of it, the divorced couple can’t agree on how to handle the situation, even though they conclude Archie is “an arrogant piece of shit.” Greg resolves to break his promise and call his daughter to intervene, but Beth tries to save him from doing the one thing he swore he wouldn’t. Yet, even tucking the phone in her butt isn’t enough to dissuade her ex-husband from wanting to make the call. Needless to say, Katie will be furious, though Connie will be glad to have an extra skiing partner on Christmas.

The future of Katie’s marriage is only one part of what will be a jam-packed finale. Archie will also have a difficult chat with the aforementioned grad student, Sunny (Lauren Tsai), about what comes next for them with the possibility that he and Katie will work things out. In addition to continuing to learn to accept his daughter’s independence, Greg is grappling with the end of his first, and potentially last, semester at Ludlow. The students have all come to appreciate him in his short time at the college, and it’ll be a hard goodbye for everyone once finals week wraps up. Fortunately, that likely won’t be a problem for Russo.

Your answers have pointed to one fictional hospital above all others. This is the ward your instincts, your temperament, and your particular brand of dysfunction were built for.

You are built for the most unsparing version of emergency medicine television has ever shown — one that puts you inside a single fifteen-hour shift and doesn’t let you look away.

You are the person who keeps the whole floor running — not the most brilliant in the room, but possibly the most essential.

You came to medicine with your whole self — your ambition, your emotions, your relationships, your history — and you have never quite managed to leave any of it at the door.

You are drawn to the problem above everything else — the symptom that doesn’t fit, the diagnosis hiding underneath the obvious one.

You understand that medicine is tragic and absurd in almost equal measure — and that the only sane response is to hold both of those things at the same time.

It’s safe to say that Rooster has aced just about every test HBO could hope for. In its first four episodes alone, the series, created by Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses, was averaging 5.8 million U.S. viewers, a pace that would make it the most-watched freshman HBO comedy in over a decade. The network had seen enough by early April to renew the academia-soaked show for another season, this time taking place during Ludlow’s spring semester. Season 1’s finale is bound to set the course for the next chapter in Greg’s college journey and his complex relationship with his daughter. Much of the same cast is likely to return, including John C. McGinley as the academic institution’s president, Walter Mann, and Danielle Deadwyler as English professor Dylan Shepherd.

*Rooster *airs its Season 1 finale on HBO and HBO Max this Sunday, May 10. Check out our exclusive sneak peek in the player above.

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Bill Lawrence, Matt Tarses

Steve Carell