‘The Good Wife’s’ Josh Charles talks plot twists with Letterman

We’ll tell you right now, if you haven’t caught up with “The Good Wife,” especially the episode that aired Sunday night, then stop reading now. This post is all about the big plot twist from that episode.

OK, now that the requisite disclaimer is out of the way, let’s quote David Letterman to guest Josh Charles on Monday night’s “Late Show”: “What the hell happened?”

As shellshocked “Good Wife” viewers, or anyone who’s spent time on social media in the last 48 hours, knows, on Sunday night Charles’ character was suddenly killed by a stray bullet fired in a courtroom. Suddenly, one of the most popular and well-liked characters from the show was gone. While that kind of shock is par for the course in cable dramas such as “Game of Thrones” and “The Walking Dead,” it doesn’t often happen on CBS dramas, where the safe and familiar rule the day.

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Charles appeared the next night on Letterman’s show to discuss the twist, but mostly to console his distraught fans.

“I just want to say to all the fans, I really appreciate all your comments,” he said. “Everything’s going to be OK. I’ll call your mom later.”

Charles told Letterman that his character’s death had been in the cards for a year, ever since the actor decided not to renew his contract. And while he says he had to get killed on his show in order to land a guest spot on Letterman, he’s also received some lovely feedback from unusual places as well.

“Today when I went downstairs I saw by our mailbox, our neighbors across the street, who I don’t even know, had left my wife and I a really beautiful note saying that we feel like a family member has died. We know this is just a TV show, and all that. But I have to say, I was touched by it.”

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