If there’s one episode of Netflix’s upcoming animated series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off that fans are going to want to pay attention to, it’s… well, certainly the first episode, because of the end. And then the second, because… okay, there’s lots of episodes to pay attention to. But one that stands out for the writers is the fourth episode, because it featured a breakthrough in their process making the show.

“There's an episode that has one of my favorite things in the season, and the result of it was just Bryan [Lee O’Malley, co-writer and co-showrunner] not feeling like we had done enough,” writer and showrunner BenDavid Grabinski revealed to Popverse during a conversation last month. “[In] episode four, there's an emotional kind of setup and payoff in it that I'd never thought of. And the episode is something that feels like very me. But then when I look at the version before Bryan got involved, I'm like, it is just jokes.”

“We cracked that together,” added O’Malley. “This is the first time I think either of us just sat in a room together breaking story. I've never done that with another human being before.”

It helps that the two writers were friends before the show, of course; as Grabinski said, “It's like you can be really excited about something, but when someone else reads it, they're like, ‘Yeah, but I think this could also be emotional.’ Or, ‘This is emotional, but can't we find a way to also make it funny.’ And it's really, if I got the note from an exec, I might get mad.”

“You would 100% get mad,” responded O’Malley, quickly.

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off debuts on Netflix November 17. Watch for more from Popverse’s conversation with Grabinski and O’Malley in the next few days.

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