Warning: The following contains spoilers for Another Simple Favor.Paul Feig, who wrote and directed Another Simple Favor, breaks down the gruesome death of one major character. Taking place five years after the original movie, A Simple Favor, the sequel revolves around Emily (Blake Lively) inviting Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick) and her ex-husband, Sean (Henry Golding), to her wedding in Italy. However, things take a sudden turn after the reception, and Sean soon ends up ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Feig unveiled the thought process behind Sean’s death in Another Simple Favor. The director revealed that the idea of Sean being Charity’s first victim came up after Golding pushed back on Sean again being a pushover in the sequel and made a personal request for it to be “gruesome.” Feig also shared that the shower death had a true crime connection. Read his comments below:

In the first draft of the script, he showed up, but he was just getting pushed around a lot. And when I was talking to Henry, he was like, ‘I don’t know if I want to do that again.’ So, when we came up with the idea that he would be the first victim, he loved it.

It [Sean’s transformation] felt natural. His life has been destroyed by being with Emily and then getting wrapped up with Stephanie and getting played for the fool. It felt like a real natural progression.

Our writers wrote him pretty bitter and mean. And at first I was worried Henry wouldn’t want to play that. Then when I told him about it, he was like, ‘I want to be terrible.’ So, he really went for it. Henry added a lot of those lines that are really brutal. He was coming up with those and surprising me with them. He said, “All l I ask is that my death would be really gruesome and horrible.” And I said, “All right, man, I can accommodate that for you, sir.”

The man wants to go for it, and I am a maximalist. If somebody wants to go do something nutty, then I am all for it. I haven’t seen a good shower death in a movie in a while. And there was something fun of playing with like, “Oh, is it going to be like Psycho? Is he going to get stabbed?” When I had that scene all set and had him getting the hypodermic needle, [my producing partner Laura Fischer] was like, “They always say in these podcasts that they can’t trace it, if you inject somebody under their nail.” That’s where the whole thing of putting it in the front of his finger came from.

What This Means For Another Simple Favor

Henry Golding Had Everything To Do With Sean’s Fate

Sean’s memorable journey in Another Simple Journey largely has Golding to thank for. Opposed to what happened in A Simple Favor, which found Sean caught in the middle between Emily and Stephanie, the sequel explored Sean’s state of mind five years after Emily’s arrest. His life was turned upside down, and he was forced to be in Italy for Emily’s wedding, which intensified the character’s ultimate tragic fate.

In the same interview, Feig also stressed that Sean’s transformation into an alcoholic and bitter person was the only thing that stayed intact throughout the drafts. In addition to the request for Sean to be killed off in gruesome fashion, Golding was also responsible for many of his character’s lines in the film. Clearly, he liked the twist of Sean dying, likely because it gave Another Simple Favor a shocking moment that builds upon the first movie in a big way.

Our Take On Sean’s Death In Another Simple Favor

It’s Tragic And Very Important In Another Simple Favor

Charity, Emily and Hope’s supposedly ᴅᴇᴀᴅ triplet, turned out to be alive and was the one responsible for murdering Sean in the shower. Before that plot twist in Another Simple Favor, Sean’s death was the first and the very event that turned Emily into the primary suspect, because he recognized the killer before bleeding out and plunging face-first into the glᴀss. That wouldn’t have happened if Golding hadn’t pushed for the change.

Sean’s death raised the stakes and exposed the danger Charity posed. Not to mention, his death was probably the most tragic in both Simple Favor films and one of the most memorable. Following Sean, Dante became Charity’s next victim before she moved on to framing and attempting to murder Stephanie in Another Simple Favor. However, she likely wouldn’t have been deemed as big of a threat if she hadn’t taken out such a familiar character first.

Source: EW