WARNING: Don’t read below if you don’t want to be spoiled about episode 7.03.
Joe Manganiello has been doing the interview rounds today to talk about how he knew the big death from last night’s episode was coming and why it had to come.
From TVLine
TVLINE | Even though death is ubiquitous on this show, each one has an effect. How do you see Alcide’s death changing Sookie and re-shaping the direction of the season?
In terms of the plot, I’m sure she’ll feel guilty about it, because it was her running off that led to him chasing after her. Story wise, it had to happen. You have to settle the A and B plots of the show before you finish it. You can’t not finish the story between her and Bill; you can’t not have her settle the score with Eric. It’s vital to the show to go down that road. And with this show, you want to shock people and show them that anyone could go at any moment.
From THR
When did you learn you’d be killed off?
If you do the math, in a final season, you want to kill as many people as possible, which left me — and when you get rid of all the werewolves, I knew that’s what was going to happen. When Alcide got together with Sookie at the end of the season, it was like, I’m in the A plot, but Sookie’s not going to end up with him. You can’t have her break up with him; then the audience wouldn’t like her. You’ve got to kill him.
So Bucky [showrunner Brian Buckner] called me and said, “Hey, let’s have dinner.” Bucky and I do this — we get a steak. He said, “We’re killing you.” I said, “I know.” He said, “You know?” I said, “Of course, and I totally get it.” He handed me the first three scripts of the season, and then we ordered the hugest steaks on the menu.
From Buzzfeed
And here’s why: “Storytelling-wise, you have to get Sookie with Bill [Stephen Moyer]; that’s the beginning of this whole story. That’s the A plot of the show,” Manganiello said. “The B plot is Eric [Alexander Skarsgard]. You also have to have her deal with Eric. I’m not even the C plot — because that would have been Sam [Sam Trammell], or Warlow [Robert Kazinsky] or something. I’m like indigo on the rainbow if Bill is the red.”
So far Joe has been the only cast member to express any discontent with the direction of the show, and personally I think he has had a good point with regard to Alcide’s awful story-line in season 6 at least. I do have issues with his ideal that you have to go back to the beginning of the story at the end, why? Aren’t all great stories about the journeys the characters take and how it changes them? What’s the point of it all if you end up back where you started?
Oh well, so long Alcide, shame you didn’t get to bite Bill’s head off before you went!