With everyone presuming that it would be Frank (Charlie Weber) or Nate (Billy Brown) who will be the casualty under the sheet in ABC's "How to get Away with Murder" season 3, nobody — except a sneaky few — figured out that the two characters will be safe and that another beloved character was going to be killed off.
In the midseason finale of the show, the showrunners finally delivered on the promise of revealing the identity of the person who perished in the fire at Annalise's (Viola Davis) house. While everybody thought that Wes (Alfie Enoch) was safe after he was revealed to be making a deal with the Philadelphia PD office to be the chief witness in Annalise's case, fans of the show were blindsided to find out that he was the one who died in the house fire instead.
According to a recap of the midseason finale episode, it turned out that he received a call from Annalise, which brought him back to her place. He returned to the Philadelphia PD office building shortly after as a corpse with half of his face burned beyond recognition.
In an interview with Executive Producer Peter Nowalk, he said that it was not an easy decision to kill off one of the main characters of the show, especially one that has such an impact like Wes. However, it would not have worked as well if he was not the character who perished in the fire.
"I kept waiting to come up with an idea that worked. Then it became clear the only way it could work would be if it had impact emotionally. We considered every option, ever character, and the poor actors realized that discussion was happening while they still had to do their jobs every day. It wasn't easy. Episode 7 was when I thought, "Ugh, I really have to decide this." And that's when I did. Ultimately, it was about a gut feeling, and [killing off Wes] gave me the biggest pain in my gut," he explained.
The well timed revelation will give shocked viewers time to process their feelings about Wes's death as the show goes on a brief hiatus before it proceeds to answer even more questions upon its return.
"In the first episode back, we'll see what happened to Wes after he left the police station. We won't get all the answers, but slowly, we'll be pulling back the curtain. We'd been doing flash-forwards, and now we'll be doing flashbacks. And by the end of the season, if not earlier, we'll find out what actually happened to him and who killed him," he promised.
