Many expected this character’s death was imminent, and their wish thoughts came true on The Walking Dead season 3 finale.

Now, creator Robert Kirkman is explaining why they decided to kill… Andrea.

In the season 3 finale, we saw Milton turn into a zombie while trapped in a room with Andrea, and she was bit by the freshly turned friend. She opts to kill herself when Michonne and company come and find her already bit.

“We were really working on the Woodbury arc, and it sort of played out that it made sense,” he says in a new interview posted on AMC’s website. “The only thing that would make Rick accept the remainder of Woodbury would be something as tragic as seeing Andrea lose her life. The unfortunate thing about all these deaths is that right now the audience is saying, “Oh my God, why did you kill Andrea?” We understand that’s an emotional thing — it’s supposed to be — but there’s a lot of stuff in Season 4 that comes from that moment. Once the viewer sees the next season, they’ll know why we did it.”

Kirkman also explained how they work with the actor/actress to make their death scene as special as possible. “They get as much input into their death scene as any actor does in any scene. It’s a back and forth, and there are a lot of discussions that go between writers and directors and actors. As far as when they find out that they’re dying, usually it’s a call before the script comes out. It’s very late in the process. We try to be really mindful of the actor’s process — we don’t want an actor to play a scene differently because they know they’re going to die.”

Read more with Kirkman, who was happy to answer lots of fan questions, over on AMC.