Search and Ten of Swords

In the episodes, months after the death of Gordon Clark (Scoot McNairy), his friends, collaborators, and family ponder the futures of their personal and professional lives.

Joe MacMillan (Lee Pace) and Cameron Howe (Mackenzie Davis) prepare for the relaunch of Comet's website as a web portal, but an unforeseen competitor threatens his company and their relationship.

The episodes were acclaimed by critics, who praised the closure reached for the main characters, the emotional scenes between Donna and Cameron, and the uplifting yet ambiguous ending.

At the startup company Comet, several months after the death of his business partner Gordon Clark (Scoot McNairy), Joe MacMillan (Lee Pace) prepares for the relaunch of their website as a web portal, for which his girlfriend Cameron Howe (Mackenzie Davis) led the software development.

Departing for Bangkok, Joanie Clark (Kathryn Newton) bids her mother Donna Emerson (Kerry Bishé) and sister Haley (Susanna Skaggs) farewell at the airport.

After receiving a clean bill of health, John Bosworth (Toby Huss) tells his wife Diane that he is ready to travel the world together.

While Joe and Cameron review a beta version of Netscape Navigator that her financier Alexa Vonn (Molly Ephraim) had sent her, they find a hyperlink to Yahoo!, an upstart web portal, is prominently placed on the browser's toolbar.

's rise will mean the end of Comet, and that AGGEK will explore selling Rover's search algorithm so it can revert to its original purpose, indexing medical records.

As he leaves, he is nearly hit by a car before encountering a former colleague from IBM, Dale Butler (David Wilson Barnes), who tells Joe he is excited to see what he does next.

Later that evening at the party, Donna gives a speech reflecting on her experiences as a female in the tech industry, during which she refers to Cameron as "my last and best partner".

The two later visit the former office of Mutiny and Comet, and envision what it would be like to work together again at a hypothetical company named "Phoenix"; dreaming up the history of the venture, the two decide it would ultimately fail but that their friendship would endure this time.

"[2] Cantwell said the intent of the Phoenix scene was for Donna and Cameron to recognize a pattern in their behaviors: the excitement in pursuing a new idea and coalescing around it but ultimately harming their interpersonal relationships in the process.

Kusama initially faced scheduling conflicts while working on the film Destroyer, but according to Bernstein: "Eventually, I think she just folded to wanting to be a part of bringing this series to a close.

[9] The cocktail party scene at Donna's house was filmed at a mid-century modern-style home in northeastern Atlanta that was scouted by Kusama, director of photography Evans Brown, and production designer Ola Maslik.

Instead, it was a bright day with almost no cloud cover, and temperatures in Atlanta reached 94 °F (34 °C), a high for that month; Brown called the combination of conditions "the worst nightmare".

Since close-ups are easier to color grade in post-production than wide shots, the crew waited to film Bishé's coverage until the end of the shoot.

For Cameron's fall into the pool at the end of the scene, the crew did a test run with a body double before filming Davis, who only required one take.

[7] Donna's idea at the end of the scene is never revealed, but the producers ensured that each camera shot in the diner showed an analog aspect of life for which there would be a future digital innovation.

For the production design, Maslik chose a 1990s color palette of dusky rose and emerald green, the latter being used in the kitchen backsplash, blinds, furniture, and tablecloths.

For the cocktail party scene, the yard was decorated with paper lanterns, bouquets of off-white peonies, and lights floating in the pool to impart a "serene sense of luxury".

Hair designer Joani Yarbrough collaborated with Bishé to develop Donna's hairstyle, and they decided to lighten it from a deep red to a light copper.

Originally, "Take Me Home" by Phil Collins was written into the script, but due to the high cost of licensing it, the producers opted for a different song; Rogers advocated for a track by the Clash for a while.

[7] While cutting the final sequence, Kusama and editor Rob Komatsu consulted playlists that the music supervisors had prepared for the fourth season, and decided to try out "Solsbury Hill".

[8] Rationalizing the song choice, music supervisor Thomas Golubić said, "it allowed us to land on Joe in a way that gave us a sense of like—of course he's a teacher.

Club rated the two episodes an "A" collectively, saying, "The series has become such a deeply human thing itself over the years that every development in 'Search' lands with an inevitable and affecting grace."

[18] James Poniewozik of The New York Times said the Phoenix sequence was a "remarkably staged scene, unusually theater-like for a series that operates in the language of cinematic realism".

Suarez of PopMatters rated the finale a 9/10 and said that the show "culminat[ing] in one of the best series finalés in years is a testament to the thoughtful work of its creators".

[31] Danielle Turchiano of Variety included "Ten of Swords" on her list, writing, "While it has gone unwritten as to whether they are happier and healthier characters outside of that uber-competitive world, it was nice to see them end on a high note, especially when Donna... called out the true heart and soul of the show, her partnership with Cameron".

[13] TheWrap included Halt and Catch Fire on a list of 21 series whose finales "stuck the landing", writing that the ending with Cameron and Donna was fitting and "the absolute perfect grace note".

[36] Mental Floss's book The Curious Viewer, edited by Jennifer M. Wood, included "Ten of Swords" among its collection of the best TV series finales of all time, writing that the episode "sends the show's trinity of remaining major characters in promising new directions, even as they all come to terms with the fact that they can never again recapture what they once had".