RJ Decker ended season 1 with a shocking death – despite the show not being renewed for more episodes yet.
On the Tuesday, April 28, episode of Emi (Jaina Lee OrtizFather, Victor (David Zayas), was killed after being imprisoned. A shocking twist closed out the first season while teasing what RJ (Scott Speedman) may face a second season.
“Victor was built to continue in the ninth and final episode, just as it looked – I don't know when we settled on it. It was probably the middle of our season when it felt right,” said creator Robert Doherty. TV Insider. “It felt like a good punctuation mark at the end of our arcs in the first season.”
Doherty hoped the death would “open up” the show to “other big things.”
“I will face negative thoughts after playing David Zayas, who is just a great person and actor,” he continued. “He was so much fun to watch and interact with. In my book, he's television royalty. Well, in the end we had to say goodbye to Victor, but we'll miss David.”
Although Doherty did not reveal who killed Victor, he commented on the fallout, adding, “I think the people close to him will have to find themselves under a magnifying glass. I think Emi in our last article was part of the crime of bringing him down. If you look at that from another perspective, it might look like she was against him, and maybe this was something. It's possible that Emi believed in what was going on.”
He continued: “Also, as we said at the end, Victor agreed to be a shadow politician, which I hear is a very rare thing. But he admitted to Emi that he maintains relationships with a lot of people on paper that he shouldn't, but decided that it's very beneficial. It makes Fort Lauderdale a safe city and Florida a safe city where we elect those people. digging for sure who was Victor sleeping with, and could they put him in the house?
Scott Speedman moves from Grey's Anatomy's Seattle to RJ Decker's South Florida – but where was his show filmed? Based on Carl Hiaasen's novel Double Whammy, RJ Decker centers on a disillusioned newspaper photographer and ex-renegade who “starts over as a private investigator in the colorful-if-crime-ridden world of South Florida, fighting […]
Doherty noted that the screen execution “should change things.”
“I think that's a good thing for us as writers. It's good that you prepare your way to that kind of surprise and that kind of tragedy. It will disturb the relationship between Emi and RJ, not only because each of them can, will know, and should be considered as suspects, but Emi will bear some responsibility,” he elaborated. “He did not see any of this, but the truth is that he tipped him off to be arrested, and his arrest made him vulnerable to another person, who will be exposed.”
Season 2 will also follow Emi's reaction. “As smart as Emi is, there's one thing he didn't see coming, and he'll have to choose his own path there,” he explained. “And I think that's going to make it difficult to be with RJ, at least in the short term. Not because I blame him, but because it's hard to look at RJ and not be reminded of the path that ultimately led to his father being shot in his own home.”
RJ Decker is streaming now on Hulu.
