‘Countdown’ Star Reacts to ‘Noble Death’

A major death happened in Wednesday’s episode of Countdown, and a star is speaking out about it.

After the third episode of the new Prime Video crime drama ended on a cliffhanger, this week’s episode immediately picked up where it left off, and it had a heartbreaking outcome.

While in pursuit of a suspect, Jonathan Togo’s Damon Drew was shot and later died in surgery. Even though viewers had only known him for the first three episodes, it was still heartbreaking, especially since it proved to the recently formed task force just how dangerous the people they’re hunting down are.

Togo admitted to TV Insider that creator Derek Haas told him it was only going to be four episodes, “and he explained that he wanted to have one of the members of the core team die pretty early on in the series so that he could communicate to the audience that the threats and danger that they were facing was real and to make it very immediate.”

As for Drew’s death, the CSI: Miami star thinks “he died a noble death in pursuit of trying to save millions of people. So in that way, I’m grateful for the way it was written. I think that what’s interesting about the way Derek writes it, and what was interesting about how Drew died, was it’s a scene that we’ve seen so many times.”

“It’s a cliche, the good guys showing up at the last second to save the hero, and rarely do we ever see the consequences of that,” Togo continued. “It upends the prevailing way we watch these shows. It just shows you that all these characters, despite their peccadillos and their own personal shortcomings at their core, are very selfless and are putting their lives on the line in service of this greater cause.”

Considering Drew’s death was just the tip of the iceberg and LA is still very much under threat on Countdown, there is no telling how these remaining episodes will go. The Prime show is still very early in its first season, but since it’s willing to kill off a recurring character just four episodes in, who knows what could happen next. New episodes of Countdown air on Wednesdays on Prime Video. The first four episodes are streaming now.