Last night’s episode of The Good Wife season 5 included a major plot twist that is sure to shake up the show forever.

On Sunday’s The Good Wife, Will Gardner was shockingly killed in court when he was shot dead by a messed up client. Today we’re learning that this death was added because actor Josh Charles asked the showrunners for a way to depart so he could pursue other professional opportunities.

In a letter to fans on their Facebook page, Good Wife showrunners Robert and Michelle King addressed the surprise twist and why they needed to kill the character instead of doing something like sending him out of town. “We could ‘send him off to Seattle,’ he could be disbarred, or get married, or go off to Borneo to do good works,” they write, “But there was something in the passion that Will and Alicia shared that made distance a meager hurdle. The brutal honesty and reality of death speaks to the truth and tragedy of bad timing for these two characters. Will’s death propels Alicia into her newest incarnation.”

They also argue that killing him creates a “dramatic hub for the show.”

“We’re always looking for these turning points—some event midway through the season that will spin everybody’s lives in new directions. These turning points keep the show from slipping into a numbing sameness, and keep the characters fresh: because you see how they react to a completely new status quo. Will’s death in many ways becomes a hub for the whole series, violently spinning everybody in new directions.”

Killing him is personal for viewers, according to King. “We’ve all experienced the sudden death of a loved one in our lives. It’s terrifying how a perfectly normal and sunny day can suddenly explode with tragedy. Television, in our opinion, doesn’t deal with this enough: the irredeemability of death. Your last time with the loved one will always remain your last time. The Good Wife is a show about human behavior and emotion, and death, as sad and unfair as it can be, is a part of the human experience that we want to share.”

All of these reasons are fair assessments and one of the reasons why The Good Wife is so beloved by viewers. Nonetheless, the importance of Will cannot be understated, and for that reason viewers are still reeling.

What did you think of ‘The Good Wife’ death?

Watch a video depicting highlights of the twist and the cast discussing it below:

In related news, CBS announced this morning that Josh Charles will be on The Late Show Monday night to discuss his character’s surprise death.

Additonally, Julianna Margulies, who plays Alicia, took part in a Facebook chat to explain her thoughts as an actress and producer, as well as what this departure means for her character. Unsurprisingly, the chat was quickly overwhelemed by an outpouring of emotion from fans.

Margulies shared some key points. She says she regards Josh Charles as both an amazing friend and actor. In many ways, she’s been dealing with the loss for months because she’s known that it would come, she said. Josh Charles will be directing an episode later this season, and they want him to direct next year as well.

As to how this will affect Alicia, Margulies wrote, “The closure will come eventually, but the next few episodes are very Will centric in Alicia’s mind. You can’t imagine how sad we all are to lose Josh, but we have been living with this a lot longer then (sic) the audience so it’s not as harsh for us at this moment. Josh is one of the best actors I have ever worked with and I will miss him every day. But his death makes the character of Alicia have to move in a different direction and that is very exciting.”

The plot twist that was in the works for almost a year was kept under tight wraps. Some actors with recurring roles such as Carrie Preston seemed to have known, but were able to keep silent. Others, such as Jill Hennessey, seem to have been caught entirely off guard.

Josh Charles also took to Twitter after being silent last night while the episode aired. He shared a link to a TV Line interview where he says he hopes his motivations are clear to fans. He added that he hopes viewers will continue to watch the show.

In the end the move is a risky one for CBS. On one hand, the portrayal of Will’s death had a brutal honesty to it. Certainly death is often unexpected, and in real life, little fanfare accompanies those who die by sudden illness, accident, or violence. There are no grand speeches of goodbye from most people in their final moments. On the other hand, for many viewers, the pairing of Will and Alicia romantically and/or as business partners was their personal, final end-game for the series. The larger question now is how many fans are invested enough in Alicia’s story sans the influence of Will to keep watching? Time will tell.

Meanwhile, The Good Wife season 5, episode 16 “The Last Call” airs Sunday, March 30 at 9 p.m. eastern/pacific on CBS.