The fun of "True Blood" was sucked out of the show Sunday night as HBO's vampire drama killed Terry Bellefleur, one of the few humans left in Bon Temps.
"Somebody had to go, and Terry seemed to carry a lot of sympathy," Todd Lowe, who played the Iraq War veteran, told TODAY.com.
The character had been plagued by PTSD from his time at war. Adding to the trouble was his murder of his sergeant late last season. But on Sunday, Terry's wife, Arlene, finally found a way to ease her husband's pain: A vampire friend came by and glamoured Terry into forgetting the war and all of the terrible things that had happened.
"I had one and a half scenes of being happy, and then bam! The gunshot happens," Lowe said. "I thought it was a pretty impressive way to go out. I was very happy with it."
Though the death was sudden and tragic, "I think it was the right time for him to go," the actor admitted. "I think having it come kind of more unexpected in the middle of the season gave it more impact. ... (Terry's story) kind of played out. ... They weren't going to develop anything new for him to do."
Lowe said that filming the emotional scene was difficult for reasons beyond the obvious.
"It was tough. I had an injury. I had injured my rotator cuff and I couldn't really move my right arm too well," Lowe explained. "So I was in actual physical pain while having to do all this emotional pain. So I think it kind of helped."
Despite all that, Lowe admitted that it was his co-star, Carrie Preston, who did the heavy lifting in the scene. "I know that Carrie's tears were falling onto my face. I felt them," he said. "I just had to sit there. She's the one who really had to take the emotional thing. I'm just dying!"
Speaking of Preston's character, Arlene, Lowe hinted that she would be taken care of in the wake of her husband's death. "I do give that safety deposit key to Lafayette," he reminded. "We can guess what might be in the safety deposit box. It's pretty accurate. There's not going to be anything like a supernatural space pellet or something!"
Though Terry is dead, Lowe said this isn't the last fans will see of the kind-hearted man. This is, after all, a show filled with supernaturals, and previous characters who've been killed have returned in one way or another.
"You might see him in some flashbacks toward the end of the season," Lowe hinted.