Why One Blindspot Actor Was Killed Off The Show

Spoilers from The Blindspot finale are in this article. If you haven’t caught the episode yet, please feel free to check out one of our other excellent articles.

Blindspot finished off its first season run with a ton of huge reveals. Namely, we now know that Jane is not actually Taylor Shaw, despite everything that led us to believe that all season. While we were recovering from the startling nature of that shocker, Oscar was planning to wipe Jane’s memories again. She didn’t take too kindly to his plan. She ended up killing Oscar when he walked into her blade, only to get arrested by Weller and the FBI in the finale. Now, we’ve learned that Oscar is definitely dead, although the NBC drama did toy with the idea of bringing him back. Here's why showrunner Martin Gero says Oscar was killed off the show.

There was a 20% chance that we could have used him in Season 2, but as we started talking and had more concrete discussions about Season 2, we realized it didn’t make sense for him to continue in the early part of Season 2. We wanted to let him know as soon as possible so that he could do a pilot, and it just worked out amazingly well. NBC is crazy about him, we’re crazy about him.

Martin Gero's comments to TV Line indicate that the actor was really well-liked on the set. So much so that they tried to figure out a way to keep Oscar around, despite the fact that the series had planned to kill the character off at the end of Season 1. It didn't work out, but it did work out for actor François Arnaud, who actually booked another NBC pilot. That project was none other than Midnight, Texas, the Charlaine Harris book-turned-series which was picked up by NBC just a couple of weeks ago. Talk about getting your foot in the door with a network.

oscar

Fans who were intrigued by Oscar or were invested in the information he was able to give to Jane during the show's first season run will likely be a little bit disappointed by the death. Still, Gero and the rest of the writing team aren't interested in apologizing for killing off our favorite characters. It is a series that thrives on constant danger.

Well, we’re a show that likes killing people. [Laughs] The show has mortal jeopardy in it every week. Every week, they barely survive, and if you don’t kill people, those stakes diminish.

That constant danger will continue into Season 2. Blindspot has already been renewed by NBC, although the series will be switching nights next fall. We also already know a major part of where Season 2 is heading. To find out which shows got renewed and which got cancelled, you can check out our network rundown.

Jessica Rawden
Managing Editor

Jessica Rawden is Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. She’s been kicking out news stories since 2007 and joined the full-time staff in 2014. She oversees news content, hiring and training for the site, and her areas of expertise include theme parks, rom-coms, Hallmark (particularly Christmas movie season), reality TV, celebrity interviews and primetime. She loves a good animated movie. Jessica has a Masters in Library Science degree from Indiana University, and used to be found behind a reference desk most definitely not shushing people. She now uses those skills in researching and tracking down information in very different ways.