‘Love Story’ Turns JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’s Happiest Episode Into a 2-Scene Gut Punch

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Love Story: JFK Jr. & Carolyn Bessette Episode 6

If Love Story’s episode last week exposed the cracks in John F. Kennedy Jr. (Paul Anthony Kelly) and Carolyn Bessette’s (Sarah Pidgeon) public image, it’s Thursday’s chapter, “The Wedding,” that forces them to walk straight through the noise. As Episode 6 opens with the Battery Park incident sparking news and tabloid headlines, Uncle Teddy (Donal Logue) and Caroline (Grace Gummer) are furious that John let his guard down. Meanwhile, his aunt Ethel (Jessica Harper) offers Carolyn a warning that feels both affectionate and ominous as she notes “these men will break your heart” and “make you want to scream.”

But all of it leaves the two unshaken as they decide to move forward with their wedding, even with the pressure of legacy and recent optics weighing down on their privacy. Yet, the hour is never staged as some glossy reenactment of a fairytale wedding. Instead, the episode directed by Gillian Robespierre and written by Juli Weiner narrows its focus to mood and intimacy — from the easy, lived-in chemistry between Pigeon and Kelly to the fracture in Carolyn’s professional life as she steps away from Calvin Klein (Alessandro Nivola).

And yet, in an episode that enchants from the moment they head to Cumberland Island for their wedding to the recreation of that photo on the steps of the little, candle-lit chapel, the most striking moment arrives at dawn. After having fallen asleep on the beach and running into the ocean to skinny-dip, the aerial shot of them floating, small against the open water, plays romantic at first glance but also quietly devastating if you know what’s coming.

In an interview with Collider about the golden hour, Robespierre jokingly admits she felt “trepidation and fear” when she was asked to helm the wedding episode, but leaned into what she loves most. “I love love,” she says, explaining that she wanted to capture the ceremony “with as little dialogue as possible” and let it feel like “visual poetry.” In addition to breaking down the wedding everyone wanted an invitation to, she gets into that haunting Atlantic Ocean moment of them floating together, and what it means to end the happiest chapter of their story with a plane waiting on the runway.

How ‘Love Story’s Latest Episode Balances Public Myth With Private Romance

Robespierre leans into “magical, intimate” visual poetry to cut through the myth and find the private romance.

COLLIDER: This episode lives inside one of the most photographed, romanticized weddings of the 20th century. How did you approach directing something that audiences already “think” they know?

ROBESPIERRE: With trepidation and fear! [Laughs] No, just excitement! I was really excited when Brad Simpson, the exec on Love Story, called me and said, ‘We want you to direct the wedding episode.’ And I was like, ‘Let’s do this!’ I love love, [and] romance and trying to capture it with the camera, trying to capture it with as little dialogue as possible. But a director is only as good as the story in the script, and this script was handed to me, and it was brilliant. It was a really great television script. I really felt the emotion leap off the page, and I just had to do that justice.

I also grew up in the ‘90s. I was in high school in the ‘90s, [and] I remember being in New York because that’s where I was born and raised, so I remember a lot of these pictures being on the cover of People magazine that my mom was reading or The Post, as you were walking to high school, passing newsstands — much like the character on the show. I don’t believe that there are a ton of photos of the wedding. I feel like you see this church, and you see it’s illuminated by candles, and it was small. I think there’s only one or two pictures that I can recall of the reception where she’s wearing his blazer and laughing, and not much else.

A lot of people have wedding videos, royalty. I just remember really seeing more imagery of Lady Di and Prince Charles, and this was really trying to take those images that we didn’t have many of, and capture the essence. I didn’t realize how ragtag “low key” was, but it’s intimate; there were only a small amount of people there. The church was the size of a New York City apartment. It was on an island that was hard to get to. And then the Kennedy family had to get onto these flatbed trucks and be driven from their inn to this remote location where the church was because of the paparazzi and the Carolyn character, wanting the intimacy. So it was really trying to piece together some of these snapshots that we’ve seen. We had an amazing production designer who did so much research and had a thick binder.

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I think, also, there are so many things where you guys have so many fragmented pieces leading up to the moment, trying to figure out and fill in the gaps of what it would have looked like in the dynamic that they were in, especially after the whole Battery Park incident, too. There’s so much emphasis on guardrails — what the Kennedys show the public versus what’s happening internally. Were you directing this episode with the idea that image management is the third person in the relationship?

ROBESPIERRE: I think what we wanted to capture was something that felt magical, intimate; that felt like a wedding, but without all of the “I do’s” and just be very poetic, and to make it feel more like poetry, visual poetry, rather than trying to be exact and to show the emotion and the celebration of love. The ceremony is one aspect of it, and the night before is always a big part too. And I think that’s one of the romantic, the most romantic scenes for me to shoot was when they were waking up on the beach, and they decided to go skinny dipping. It’s almost like they’re christening their marriage, and it’s just the two of them and their bodies and the water and a beautiful song playing — the Nina Simone song that we chose for that scene, it’s sexy and sad and romantic and haunting and a little ghostly. And I think that’s what we were trying to do, and the writer really just gave us such beautiful language on the page.

How “The Wedding” Turns Romance Into a Ghost Story for Just a Second

Robespierre says the skinny-dip shot is meant to feel “bittersweet” and haunting for a beat, but then it snaps back to the wedding’s joy with a subtle “levitate” moment.

Image via FX

I’m glad you brought it up because I had a question about that. That whole scene is beautifully done; they’re skinny-dipping, it’s cute. The aerial shot of them floating in the Atlantic, though — so haunting. I remember sitting with my sister watching that, and we knew what was coming. How deliberate was that visual parallel to their later fate? Because when we’re kind of pulling out, they’re so small in the center of this massive body of water, almost consuming them.

ROBESPIERRE: [Pauses] It’s really sad. It’s bittersweet. I think ultimately we wanted to show their closeness and how they’ll, it’s sort of how they’ll eternally live in that moment as an image, as a haunting image. And then you snap out of it, and you’re at their wedding, and she’s on the back of a Jeep and trying to keep her veil on, and you’re just brought to this very beautiful, alive reality. And when he first sees her, you know, his jaw drops, and it’s another moment. When I watched the dailies, I saw Paul [Anthony Kelly] do that. When you’re shooting, you often miss a lot of the nuances of performances because there are so many cameras going, and then, you sit in the edit, and you’re like, “Oh my God, the way he looked at her. I didn’t notice that day!” And I just gasped. And then again, with the reception, it was really so fun to try to take the words that Juli [Werner] had written — it says, “The golden couple levitates to the dance floor.” It was just beautifully worded language.

So the DP, Pepe [Avila del Pino], and I decided to actually make them levitate. It’s very subtle, and you can clearly see it because, obviously, we’re not making a sci-fi movie or Superman where, all of a sudden, Lois Lane gets [lifted]. But we dug a hole in the ground of this beautiful estate and put in a hydraulic levitation system, and it was rotating and spinning almost like a couple on a cake, and they were just so, ever so slightly higher than everyone above, like other friends and family, because that’s what a bride and a groom should feel like. That they’re flying, and it should feel like they’re on a different planet than everyone else.

Robespierre on Capturing the Little Moments That Make ‘Love Story’ Click

Robespierre says the romance clicks because the leads stay “grounded,” letting goofy, messy little moments (bagels, dorky dancing) make them feel real.

Image via FX

I have to go back now and watch that. I live for the little details in film and TV, so I need to see it. But that being said, Sarah and Paul are so natural and easy with each other, and that chemistry moves so beautifully onto the screen. You know, as a director coming in, how did you cultivate that sincerity so the relationship doesn’t really feel like a museum piece? I know the two of them are doing a lot of work, and they’re taking direction from you and the writing on the page, but it’s different because you’re also seeing them from the outside in, guiding them.

ROBESPIERRE: They are so grounded in their performance. Another scene that I think you can see their groundedness and their characters coming out is when they’re dancing to Common People. It’s the beginning of the episode, and showing a side of them where they’re not perfect. She’s eating a bagel and cream cheese, and gets it on her face a little bit, and puts on a CD and starts dancing, and she’s kind of doing goofy moves, you know? He’s staring at her, like fully in love with her, but also, when he gets up and dances, he’s a little dorky and I think it’s just so relatable and that was one of the most fun days on set we had, because we’re just making this up as we go, and we’re talking about it and coming up with ideas, and they had such chemistry, yes, but also they had a groundedness to their performance.

They locked in, especially by Episode 6. It was just a joy. Everyone, all the collaborators, everyone came together, and all I had to do was really make sure I pointed the camera to show everyone’s work because the hair was perfect, the wardrobe was perfect, the production design — everything was there, all the elements were there, and everyone was operating at the highest level of their game. I just couldn’t screw it up; I had to capture everything.

Robespierre on Ending the Happiest Chapter With a Warning Sign

Robespierre says she shot the wedding up close to keep it intimate, then ends on a “cruel reality” warning with that tiny plane.

Image via TLC

In terms of capturing everything, there’s this recurring question of whether John belongs to Carolyn or to America. Was that tension something you leaned into visually or tonally when directing? There’s a clear language in how you set up scenes of long versus medium shots in group settings, and then these tight close-ups, sometimes with the pair.

ROBESPIERRE: Yes, for sure. All of the shots of them together during the wedding, in the car heading to the tarmac [at the end], we shot very close up. We shot with a wider lens, and so we were able to really see more of the world, but also get closer to them. The scene in another episode, Episode 4 [“I Love You”], where they’re in bed together, and that natural sunlight is streaming on them. It’s their first night, their first sleepover that we see on screen, handheld, very close, very intimate. And when the camera is that close to you, you can’t help but sort of change your style of acting. And it felt a little looser than the traditional frames that happen before they fall in love.

I know we’ve got to wrap up in a minute, but I’m wondering about how this episode ends with the two of them boarding that plane, and he’s going to log some hours. Placing that image there in their happiest chapter, it does feel intentional, especially because we’re coming to an end. What were you trying to say by bracketing the wedding with that visual echo? Because I do feel like — it’s such a beautiful series, but we know that the ending is going to be absolutely tragic.

ROBESPIERRE: I think driving up to the plane, they’re just so in love, and they’re smitten, and they’re looking at each other, and they can’t keep their hands off each other. They did it — they pulled it off. No press, no paparazzi. It was the most magical night. And then I think the cruel reality of seeing that tiny little plane and ending on the character of Carolyn looking at it and feeling a little bit scared. Just a little bit, but wanting to also support her husband.

Love Story airs Thursday nights at 9 p.m. EST on FX and streams the next day on Hulu.

Release Date

February 12, 2026

Directors

Max Winkler, Anthony Hemingway, Crystle Roberson Dorsey, Gillian Robespierre, Jesse Peretz

Writers

Connor Hines, D.V. DeVincentis, Juli Weiner, Kim Rosenstock