ANDY BOBROW: This one was hard for all of us. When we mapped out the season, the thought was to bring on a new character for a half season and then lose him somehow at the mid-season break. So that was always the plan, and our initial thought was Lewis would come in, have an arc, get into everyone’s lives, and then get stuck in an elevator and possibly die there. That’s how we pitched the role to Kenny Choi. As soon as he got there, we changed our minds, which had nothing to do with Kenny, but we realized it would be way more impactful if the elevator thing happened to Gail. So we went to Kenny and said, “okay, well, you’re not dying in an elevator, but we’re not sure what the plan is for Lewis yet,” and he was very cool about it and he was up for anything. We came up with the plane thing a while ago and it felt like a great thing for Lewis to do. Lewis the professor.

So it wasn’t initially set up to be his downfall, but then when it came time to get rid or Lewis, it made sense to use the plane. Here’s what we learned: When you’re just meeting an actor, it’s very easy to say, “Hey, welcome aboard, we’re gonna have some fun and then we’re gonna kill ya.” But it’s much harder to think that way once you’ve shot a few episodes. We loved Kenny from the start, and we were just starting to hit our stride with the character, so we had lots of discussion about changing course and keeping him in the group. But ultimately death won because death always wins and death is our currency. RIP Lewis. We were not ready.

There’s a lot in flux with the show’s cast at the moment, between Lewis now being gone, Gail’s status being ambiguous, and Pamela out there looking to find these guys. Why this reconfiguration?

ERIK DURBIN: Will likes to say “nobody’s safe” – including himself.