Okay so David Shore himself said he’d “rather not go into it” when asked if there was a specific reason that it was Melendez who had to die. Nick said he only found out about his death six episodes beforehand, and in those six episodes we were given no Melendez-centric ones, no backstory on his character, and zero reminiscing on his three years on the show. We were barely given that in his final episode, it was too crowded with the 4 other plots. Did they call his family? Jessica? Did Morgan and Andrews get to say goodbye to him? Why wasn’t there more weight given to his and Freddie’s final scene together? Why is it that after all of the miraculous saves on this show for complete strangers, including an improvised underwater leg amputation in the same episode, they kill off an original lead from septic shock?
Shore has always been clear that he didn’t want to keep having near-misses with main character deaths on the show because then there would be no stakes. Which is fair. What is not fair is killing off a well-written and loved lead played by a devoted and incredible actor just to prove that you can. Just because you subvert expectations for shock value does not make it good writing. After all that buildup for him and Claire, everything him and Lim went through and the battle of the Limlendez and Melendaire ships, killing off Melendez right when things start to escalate between him and Claire makes no sense. Especially when Claire has gone through enough pain and loss this season alone. And him dying at this point in the story, when we still know next to nothing about his family or pre-series past, makes no sense.
Shore also stated how the plan for the finale since the start of the season was always for Shaun and Lea to get together. And after all of the horrible things they said to each other in the past few episodes one would think it would take a lot for them to end up together. Such as, one of them almost dying? And in David Shore’s mind, Shaun’s near-miss was just one too many. So another lead had to die in the episode. And who was the most convenient choice at the moment for the writers? Melendez.
So in the end, there is no greater reason for Melendez’s death, this was not some well thought out and well built up plan on the writers part. They probably just decided to kill him while writing the finale so that Shaun and Lea could end up together which, by the way, a huge part of the audience didn’t even care about after that clusterfuck of events leading up to it. Melendez deserved better, Lim deserves better, and Claire deserves better.
The amount of disrespect for the characters, the cast, and the fans is unfathomable. This was an enormous mistake and I hope they realize that.
janainaart
kaledo-art
prguitarman
titsay
jacobvanloon
areudirty
turnnoffyourmind
