Taking a slice from the EW, Miranda Cosgrove, the YouTube algorithm behind iCarly, shared that she has always wanted her and Freddie to be the ultimate relationship goal, their impromptu on-screen canoodling, and that “a big question” shall be answered during the season finale. Warning: The cheat codes to season 3, episode 3, “iMake New Memories” lurk below.
Thursday’s episode chopped myth into reality as Carly Shay and Freddie Benson (Nathan Kress, Pinky Malinky, Alive in Denver) finally unleashed their feelings for each other. Although Freddie’s confessed his feelings over and over again since the original 2007 Nickelodeon sitcom, Carly’s only recently been caught on those same heartstrings.
“It’s taken 15 years for them to finally get together,” Cosgrove told EW. “I think that it makes a lot of sense for both of the characters. And if it were real life, I could see it actually taking this long because it feels like every time one of them likes the other, it’s not the right moment or it’s not for the right reason, and now it finally is.”
Looking through an album that encompasses their light-years-long friendship, the troublemaking duo take an innocent walk down flashback alley in “iMake New Memories,” ready to watch now on Paramount+. Wiggling back to where it all began, the iCarly studio inside Spencer’s apartment, Freddie asks, “Is this really happening?” “I hope so,” replies Carly before going for as many kisses as people in the room, or you know, two. Freddie even chimes his signature countdown after the first kiss. Cosgrove confirmed that it was entirely improvised.
“It wasn’t in the script at all,” she explained. “We did it in one take the very last time and we were both really unsure about it. Some of the writers came over and they were like, ‘We have this idea, it might be too much, but just give it a shot for one take.’ And so many times we do things and it doesn’t end up on the show or we’ll improvise. So you never know what’s gonna end up in there. That’s what makes it fun and exciting. When we were filming the scene, we were both like, we don’t know if this is gonna work, but we’ll try it. And it ended up being the last line of the episode.”
Opening up the script, this lingering moment speaks with a more nubile voice than 2007’s iCarly. Cosgrove (School of Rock, Despicable Me 2) said that this is essential while navigating this new chapter of adulting. In the new series, Freddie is still trying to bounce back from two divorces and now has Millicent, his step-daughter played by Jaidyn Triplett (Secrets of Sulphur Springs, The Affair), at the center of his life. Who protects who in the father-daughter relationship is thoroughly up for grabs.
“This season, we dove into more serious stuff than we usually do on the show, while also trying to keep just the weird randomness of the original show,” Cosgrove said. “Sometimes it’s a little bit of a challenge just finding the perfect balance. I think because it’s iCarly, heavy for us is still not very heavy.”
Cosgrove wants to do Creddie justice since fans have waited years for their relationship to blossom. She compared their friends-to-flames quest to Lizzie and Gordo from Disney Channel’s Lizzie McGuire.
“When I was little, I always wanted Gordo with Lizzie,” she said. “I think a part of me always hoped that Freddie and Carly would end up together just because it’s so romantic, the idea of knowing somebody ever since you were young, being best friends, kind of going back and forth liking each other, but the timing always being off. I’m excited for the people that do ship them and want them together. They waited 15 years, I’m excited for them to finally get what they’ve been waiting for and I hope that it lives up to their expectations.”
Not so distant from Creddie fever, Seddie shippers, Jennette McCurdy’s (Little Bitches, Between) Sam and Freddie, still have a rigor mortis-like grip online. Sam and Freddie’s heart decorated knife affection wrapped with the first series. Cosgrove dug up the bones of the original iCarly saying, “There were times, as the character Carly, when we were filming the original show, I thought that they should be together on the show. I love the idea of people that always butt heads, that don’t really get along and are always calling each other out, falling in love. They do love each other on the show as people and they were a good couple when they were on the original series. I think if Freddie had ended up with Sam it would’ve been a really good ending as well.”
But Freddie does end up with Carly to shape the eponymous iCreddie. Cosgrove promised some pretty exciting moments for Creddie, even teasing an episode featuring around 50 rescued cats. And a surprising finale. “The finale episode we touch on something that has kind of been a big question that people have asked throughout the whole series and has never really had an answer to,” she said.
iCarly lovers can flashback to their emotions when Freddie leapt in front of a high-speed taco truck to save Carly. Shortly after, she kissed him and suggested that they start dating but he doubted she could like him past his heroism. In “iMake New Memories” Carly confesses her feelings for her lifelong friend. “Freddie, you’re still my hero, you’re the person who I can always count on.”