Warning: Spoilers ahead for the season finale of How to Get Away With Murder, which aired on Feb. 26!
The first season of How to Get Away With Murder revolved around Annalise Keating (Viola Davis) and her team of associates and law students attempting to find out who murdered sorority girl Lila Stangard (Megan West). And in the Feb. 26 season finale, they finally did. But it looks like Season 2, which has not yet been officially ordered by ABC, could also be driven by the hunt for a killer since Rebecca Sutter (Katie Findlay) was murdered in the finale's closing moments.
Though it likely came as a shock to fans, 24-year-old Findlay has known the character's time on the show could end in death since the day she signed on. "I always sort of believed it could be a possibility because [creator] Pete [Nowalk], when I first came on the show, was really up-front with me about how he saw this girl and what her purpose would be," Findlay exclusively told BuzzFeed News in a recent phone interview. "I tried to keep it in the back of my head and remember that it could happen."
Despite the early warning, Findlay — and Nowalk — struggled with the harsh reality of actually axing Rebecca. "Pete called me a couple of days before the table read. He's the sweetest man in the world, and he was really sad," Findlay recalled. "He said, 'This is a really hard phone call for anybody to have to make, but we've turned it every which way and this is what needs to happen. I wanted to let you know before the table read. I wanted to give you some private time to process it because that would be awful to find out about a change this big in front of all your peers.' I really appreciated that because it was time I did need. So I had about a week to process and understand and figure it out and talk it out, and then we all started in on the episode."
No actor wants to be killed off a show they love, and Findlay was no exception. But after learning that Rebecca did not kill Lila, a crime she had been wrongly accused of all season long, the actor had one wish for how her character's death would be handled. "I said, 'If I'm going to go out, I better go out like fucking Mufasa because I was an angel," Findlay said of Rebecca. "It's a nice feeling knowing people were wrong," she added.
However, as How to Get Away With Murder proved throughout its flashback-heavy first season, just because a character is dead that doesn't mean they're off the show. "It's not written, so we don't know for sure, but our show does have a way of bringing people back and keeping people around," Findlay said of returning for Season 2. "Maybe we can see what kind of person she really was now that the shadow of Lila's death isn't hanging over her anymore."
Though it's unclear whether Rebecca, and Findlay, end up being a part of How to Get Away With Murder's Season 2, it's certain fans will spend the coming months mired in speculation over what really happened to Rebecca — and Findlay will be right there with them. "I'm still trying to figure out what the hell happened in the first place," said Findlay, who even ventured a guess as to who the new murderer is. "I'm sort of hoping it was Bonnie. I'm into Liza Weil. I think she's cool and I want her to be evil, which is actually a nice thing to say even if it doesn't sound like it."
And if she is asked to come back to the show to tell more of Rebecca's story, Findlay certainly wouldn't hesitate. "It was truly a life-changing experience for me," she said. "I made amazing friends, I had an incredible time, and it was such a special part of my life. Hopefully there's more, because the end of this season kind of proves that this show is a can of worms and the first season may have just been taking the lid off."