The Buffalo Wild Wings Connection Explained in Mrs. Davis

"This is so dumb!" Simone (Betty Gilpin) certainly earns that moment of spontaneously uttered incredulity in the finale episode of Mrs. Davis, “THE FINAL INTERCUT: So I’m Your Horse.” It erupts out of her when she gets receives a particularly jaw-dropping revelation from Mrs. Davis' code creator, Joy (Ashley Romans).

For weeks, Simone (and the audience) have been game to forge forward in a whirlwind global chase to find out how the Mrs. Davis A.I. got so powerful. So, it tasked Simone to retrieve the mythical Holy Grail in exchange for granting the nun's singular wish: to turn itself off. 

** SPOILER WARNING! Spoilers below up through Mrs. Davis Episode 8 **

In the opening sequence of the season finale episode, Simone finally meets Joy, the algorithm's creator, when she crashes her family's birthday celebration. In a epic tale worthy of the ages, Joy helps Simone unravel that her weeks-long, ridiculous quest to seek The Holy Grail was actually just latent code. Yes, Joy is a coder who created a customer service app that was pitched to, and rejected by, the Buffalo Wild Wings chain restaurant. So, Joy made the code OpenSource allowing the A.I. to evolved into Mrs. Davis which terribly misinterpreted its origin code to make Simone's quest. A gut-punch of a reveal for Simone, and a pretty hilarious ta-wist for us watching it all unfold. 

RELATED: The Ending of Mrs. Davis Explained

While the news certainly gives Simone pause, it doesn't deter her mission. But what about all the questions we still have?! Like where did that idea get birthed? Were the writers craving hot wings for lunch and voila?

How Mrs. Davis landed on that Buffalo Wild Wings twist

Mrs. Davis showrunner Tara Hernandez tells SYFY WIRE that while we have a true understanding of writers' room lunch dynamics, no the Buffalo Wild Wings of it all was neither product placement, nor a lunch menu Hail Mary.

"We just thought it was really funny that once you reveal the 'wizard behind the curtain' that it's not this powerful figure like Max Headroom. But in fact, it's this corporate entity," Hernandez said.

Hernandez shared that she and co-creator Damon Lindelof spent a lot of brain time considering the right reveal. "We thought it was really funny and the name sounded really good," she offered. "We kind of played around with some other options because we never thought that [the company] were going to let us do it. Never. So, it was kind of our working placeholder for a long time, thinking full well, 'Oh, we're gonna have to change this. They're never going to agree to this.'"

To the credit of the Buffalo Wild Wings execs and marketing team, they approved the joke, going so far as to feature the company in the season finale. "It was amazing," Hernandez said of their inclusion. "They will be holding a place in the TV writers rooms — at least that I'm a part of — for a long time. That was incredibly cool for them to play along."

For more about the Mrs. Davis season finale, check out our SYFY WIRE recap and exclusive post mortem. 

Watch all Season 1 episodes of Mrs, Davis on Peacock now.