On Sunday night’s new episode of Animal Kingdom season 5 the decision was made to kill off Angela. This then brings us to the next question: Why? Given that the writers had a big name in Emily Deschanel in the role, of course you’d want to have her around as long as possible.
In the end, though, it seems like there are multiple reasons why the show chose to do what it did — both creatively and also in terms of Emily’s own schedule.
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Speaking in a new interview with TVLine following Sunday’s episode, showrunner Daniele Nathanson detailed why the writers did what they did, and also how it ties into the current state of Pope as a character:
Ultimately, we wanted to keep tying everything back to Smurf. And Emily Deschanel is a great actress, but she was never intended to pick up that Smurf energy. No matter how many pies Angela baked, it wasn’t going to happen. [Laughs] And the only person Angela really connected with was Pope. So after Smurf died, that loss had to come to the fore. The story had to be about his relationship with his mother, even though she’s dead. So it was a one-season arc. Plus, Emily Deschanel is a very successful actress. She had things to do.
The irony in all of this is fairly simple. Back when Deschanel first came aboard the series, our thinking then was that this was a one-season arc. This is similar to what Animal Kingdom did the last time they had a prominent guest star in Denis Leary. That thought changed somewhat when Angela wasn’t killed at the end of last season; it honestly felt like there was more story to tell here. In the end, though, clearly the writers have other plans and we’ll see some of that explored over time.
Related – Check out more insight on Animal Kingdom and what lies ahead
Do you think that Animal Kingdom season 5 made the right choice with Angela?
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