How ‘FBI: Most Wanted’ Wrote Out Julian McMahon’s Jess — Interview

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not watched “Shattered,” the March 8 episode of “FBI: Most Wanted.”

“FBI: Most Wanted” has officially said goodbye to Jess LaCroix: Julian McMahon, who has led the CBS drama for three seasons, made his final appearance on Tuesday night when his character died on the job.

In January, the actor announced he was leaving the show, saying in a statement that he met with the producers months prior about leaving the show “in favor of additional creative pursuits.”  In the statement, McMahon thanked executive producers Dick Wolf and Peter Jankowski, and said that the planned exit would “orchestrate a seamless and productive way for me to leave the show.”

During the episode, the team attempted to track down an abusive man and his ex-girlfriend, who was trying to escape. Jess found the woman, who was fighting for her life, in time. Unfortunately, so did her ex, who pulled a gun on her, prompting Jess to stand in front of the woman in order to save her life. Jess was shot and killed after taking a bullet to the neck.

Variety caught up with showrunner David Hudgins about McMahon’s exit, the choice to kill Jess and what’s next for “FBI: Most Wanted.”

Let’s go back to the beginning. When did the conversation begin around Julian leaving?

The conversation had been going on as the season started. Once it sort of reached a place where, “OK, this is going to happen,” we started, in the writers’ room, trying to figure out what this would look like, how would he leave the show? We had multiple conversations about it with every option on the table, and we just kept going back to this idea that the premise of the show is that we chase the worst of the worst — the most dangerous fugitives that are out there. And inherent in that premise is the idea that it’s risky, it’s dangerous and there’s always the chance that you could get injured or killed in the line of duty. We felt like that was the exit we wanted to have for Jess.

Were there discussions of having Jess survive to keep the door open for the future in case Julian wanted to return?

Well, we talked about everything, every potential option. At the end, Julian being the very gracious person that he is, said, “Look, I trust you guys to do what you think is best for the show and best for the story. I’m good with whatever you guys decide.” So we did consider all those options, but we felt like this was just a very emotional, shocking and dramatic way to do it. We also decided that we’re not just going to have him get shot and killed in the line of duty. You want to keep playing out the emotion of that, which is why we have the ending where Hana [Keisha Castle-Hughes] and Barnes [Roxy Sternberg] go to tell Sarah [Jennifer Landon]. Then we get to dad [Terry O’Quinn], and we end up having to go tell Tali [YaYa Gosselin]. We just felt like that ending of them having to knock on the door and tell Tali was so powerful.

I’d imagine filming those last scenes with Julian were bittersweet.

Bittersweet is a good word — extremely emotional. It was a night scene; it was the last scene up for the day. Julian was a…