For years, Bones was a staple to the crime procedural community. The series aired for an astounding twelve seasons before airing its finale on March 28, 2017. Bones‘ showrunner, Michael Peterson, sat down with Variety to discuss these new endings and the amount of care that went into designing the perfect last episode. (Spoilers for the series finale of Bones ahead!)

Iconic last shots are hard to conceptualize. In the cases of Lost or Gilmore Girls, creators may have had a long-harboring idea they wanted for the last snippet of their series, whether it’s a piece of dialogue or memorable image. Peterson remarked about the importance of the last words, saying, “I was so honored when they were like, “’You and Jonathan [Collier] get to be responsible for the finale.’ That’s great. But then you think, ‘Oh, we’re responsible for the last line of dialogue for the series, maybe I shouldn’t have said yes.'”

But the series ended much in the way it began, with Booth and Brennan bantering back in forth as they image went black. “But in the end, we felt it would be best to do one those fade outs where they’re doing their back and forth,” Peterson said. “Sometimes it’s scripted, and sometimes it’s David [Boreanaz] and Emily [Deschanel] doing their thing. David asked for some room for him and her to do their thing, in the finale, and we said absolutely.”

And since it was a finale, there was also an urge to do one last shocking act before closing the series altogether. When asked if there was a temptation to kill or maim a main character for the finale, Peterson replied, “The network asked us if we wanted to do anything like that, and we called up [creator] Hart Hanson and agreed at the end of the day that we’re just not that show. We did it that one time, but we wanted to be the ‘riding off into the sunset’ kind of show and stay true to that DNA. Why does the audience watch? Why do they love it? It’s about this makeshift family. You can blow up the house, but not the people.”

No doubt other people will find it hard to let go of such a long-running show. Variety even questioned whether the idea of finality had sunk in to Peterson yet, and he quipped, “It’s complicated. There’s continual denial, because we live in a time when 24, X-Files, all these shows are brought back. And so you go, it’s the end, but it’s not the end. I was on the show for eight-and-a-half, nine years — that’s a lifetime in TV. Once we figured out what we wanted to do a 12th season, I always give credit to David: He said to go back and rewatch Season 1 and embrace who those characters were. It was ultimately about Booth dealing with his guilt and Brennan trying to figure out who she is . . . It’s satisfying because it’s honest to the characters. So I wasn’t as nervous.”