“Dead to Me’s” final season premiered last month on Netflix. Liz Feldman, the creator of “Dead to Me,” wanted to bring closure and healing to the characters, while still honoring the themes of grief, loss, forgiveness and friendship that have swirled around Jen (Christina Applegate) and Judy (Linda Cardellini) throughout the show’s run.

We gathered Applegate and Cardellini over Zoom to discuss “Dead to Me’s” emotional ending.

Before you saw the scripts for the final season, how did you expect it to end? What did you want to see happen?

Applegate: I really didn’t want it to end, but, I mean, we had to. There’s only so much we can do until Jen and Judy, like, join the circus. I didn’t want to look at any of the scripts, to be honest with you. I told Liz, “Don’t send them all to me at once, please.”

Cardellini: I was wondering who was gonna go down for the murders — how they were going to handle that ... Halfway through Season 2, Liz had told me, “I think I know what happens.” And she told me some of it. And I thought, “Oh, OK.” I love when she tells me something, because even if I try to imagine based on what she says it’s going to be, it’s always better than I imagined.

Applegate: She doesn’t tell me because she made the mistake of telling me before Season 2 that Steve was gonna have a twin. And I said to her, “That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Are you ‘Punk’-ing me?” And she goes, “No, it’s happening.” So she knows not to tell me because I have no imagination.

The final season is coming out of a bleak moment with this pandemic. Death has been at the forefront of so many of our lives. And beyond thinking of your own mortality, the real fear is the thought of losing loved ones and having to learn how to live on without them. Do you think about death?

Cardellini: I agree with you. I am more terrified of losing the people that I love than anything else, and that happens regardless of how much you don’t want it to or how much you worry about it or how much you try to safeguard against it. It is something that comes for all of us. That’s what resonates with us as we’re playing these characters. We can always find the humor and the darkness — and Christina is the best at that ... What I relate to the most is that universal truth. It’s all about grief, and it’s all about losing. And grief is really about losing love.

Applegate: I’ve lost myself this last year, you know? Sorry. (Her voice cracks.) I’ve had a death, a quote-unquote “death,” of the person that I was for 50, yep, all those years. And it’s painful because I’m living with the death, I’m living in my own death. That feeling is so (expletive) intense. To try to overcome it, and you’re asked to overcome it, you’re asked to get through it, you’re asked to look at the (expletive) bright side, you’re asked to do all these things in life. And that goes for all of the deaths we’ve had, whether it be a loved one or an icon. We’re asked to move on. And that’s the beauty of this show, is that they’re dealing with it in their own ways. They’re dealing with their grief, their loss ... in their ugly, messy, beautiful ways. And I think that’s what resonates with the audience is that we’re not going, “OK, let’s go to therapy. And now we’re cured.” It doesn’t work like that. That’s not how life works.

Christina, as you alluded to, you were diagnosed with multiple sclerosis during production. I imagine it was a challenging time. What kept you going? And Linda, how was it to go through it with her?

Applegate: I kept going because of this girl right here. (Points to Cardellini.)

Cardellini: I told you not to keep going, I was like, “I don’t care. You do whatever you need to do.”

Applegate: I know you told me, but I don’t care. I didn’t want to stop being with you. I didn’t want to stop being with you.

Cardellini: I just wanted her to do what was best for her. Work is ... it’s a job. Her and I have been in this industry for long enough to know that work comes and goes, but I wanted her to be able to take care of herself. And I wanted her to make a decision that was best for her. And whatever that decision was, I wanted to be there with you for it. So we were lucky that we have the community around us that we did.

Applegate: And I didn’t want this (expletive) disease to define me either. Because that’s my journey now. After all this has gone, after all these interviews and everything, I have a journey which is my life, which is to find ways to feel a little bit better, to be a better mom, to be present — all these things. That’s my job. So part of showing up for work was going, “I can’t let this take me down,” even though I just want to close my eyes and not face it. I can’t let it take me down.