SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t seen the season 2 finale of USA’s Graceland, there are major spoilers ahead! You have been warned.
Wait, did they really just do that? Fans of USA’s Graceland gasped in horror during the end of the season 2 finale on Wednesday, Sept. 10, when the FBI drama’s star Aaron Tveit, who plays undercover cop Mike Warren, seemingly died at the hands of the corrupt agent Sid Markham (Carmine Giovinazzo).
After Sid framed Mike for the death of multiple agents, our hunky hero gets shot. He checks into a hospital under a fake name, but when his Graceland pals discover one of Mike’s betrayals, they give his name over to Sid. That pesky corrupt agent then cuts off Mike’s air supply until he flatlines out, and no one in the hospital is the wiser, since Sid puts Mike’s vital signs monitor on his own finger.
Shock waves immediately erupted on social media where fans went to express their dismay at the apparent end for the dashing young star.
“To the writers: Aaron Tveit isn’t Sean Bean. He doesn’t have to die. My emotional stability doesn’t support it. PLZ,” one fan wrote, referencing Game of Thrones’ Ned Stark’s surprising death in the first season of the HBO show.
“Surely they didn’t just kill the main character because without Aaron Tveit I’m out. #gracelandfinale,” another fan declared.
Entertainment Weekly spoke to Graceland’s executive producer Jeff Eastin about the shocking death, trying to get some concrete answer about Mike’s status on the show.
“Well, he looks pretty dead,” Eastin teased. “I won’t confirm or deny, but what you see is what you get. I would say that everything we’ve led up to so far has really been to set Mike in a position where he needs to pay for his sins. Really, the finale was about that payment coming due.”
The show creator, who also worked on USA’s White Collar, admitted that he’s struggled with shows that have killed off their main characters in the past.
“I swore after they killed Ned Stark, I would never ever watch Game of Thrones again, but I was right back there,” he continued. “For me, I always have very mixed emotions about that. For us, it really was about taking Mike and saying, ‘Here’s a guy who has done these things and at some point must pay for what he’s done. Does he pay with his life? Is that the ultimate punishment?’ His heart stopped, so the payment has come due in that sense.”
Also noteworthy, actor Tveit, like Sean Bean, has a tendency of dying in the majority of his roles, including Les Miserables, Law & Order: SVU, and in Broadway’s hit musical Next to Normal.
There’s still a chance for Mike, especially considering he was in a hospital at his time of “death,” but Eastin’s cryptic reference to the opening scene of season 3, could offer a variety of outcomes for the young FBI agent.
“We don’t open season 3 in a hospital,” he dished. “We open season 3 with Charlie and Jakes getting ready for some kind of event and Jakes can’t find his black tie and both of them are in really s-–ty moods. They could be getting ready for a funeral or they could be getting ready for something else.”
Tell Us: Do you think Mike is really dead?
