The eighth episode of the fourth season and the 32nd overall, it was directed by Nathan Fielder and co-written with Leo Allen, Carrie Kemper, Michael Koman, Adam Locke-Norton, and Eric Notarnicola.
While it was initially billed as simply the season finale, one year later Comedy Central confirmed that Fielder had decided to end the series.
"Finding Frances" received universal acclaim and was named one of the most memorable TV episodes of 2017 by the New York Times.
During his visits Bill is preoccupied by a woman named Frances Gaddy, whom he dated in his youth and lost touch with.
They post flyers with the image around town and are contacted by a man who thinks it may be his great-grandmother, but when they go meet her, she is not Frances Gaddy.
Nathan enjoys meeting her and hires her for several more dates where they spend time together and eventually kiss in a hotel room.
They park down the street from her house and Nathan encourages Bill to call Frances because arriving with cameras might startle her.
[1][2] The episode was co-written by series co-creator and star Nathan Fielder with Leo Allen, Carrie Kemper, Michael Koman, Adam Locke-Norton, and Eric Notarnicola.
According to Fielder, when he and his team initially decided to film the search for Frances, "it turned into this two-hour feature-length documentary they aired as a special.
"[5] Karen Han of The Daily Beast referred to it as "a meditation on love and the passage of time" in a manner similar to Twin Peaks.
[6] Critics discussed how the episode complicates reality television and scripted works within the depiction of Maci and Nathan's relationship; Errol Morris wrote in the New Yorker, "What’s the difference between a bad impersonator and a meta-impersonator?
"[7] Similarly, Cameron R. Flatt of Vox stated, "Whether the entire thing is genuinely real, completely scripted or, most likely, something in between, that’s not the point.
Nathan, who tends toward an on-screen awkwardness that distances himself from his subjects, often fails at this...But, in the end, the viewer sees how all the gears interlock, and how the entire enterprise seems to be borne of the best intentions.