‘It Kind of Shakes Everybody Into Reality’: ‘Transplant’ Star Ayisha Issa Talks Heartbreaking Death (Exclusive)

Major spoilers ahead for Season 4, Episode 8 of Transplant (“All I Have Is How I Feel”)

Thursday’s episode of Transplant ended on a heartbreaking cliffhanger, and Ayisha Issa spoke to PopCulture.com all about it and more.

In “All I Have Is How I Feel,” as Mags rejects her heart transplant, June reveals a life-changing decision.

Issa’s Dr. June Curtis shared the news that she was offered a job in Cleveland at a hospital with a bigger trauma OR. As she continues her hopeful journey to motherhood, it’s definitely a big change, but it’s certainly one that she deserves due to the amazing opportunity.

“June has worked so hard on herself as a professional, as a doctor, I think that part came fairly easy for her. Relatively easy for her,” Issa said. “And then she also puts on herself a lot as a person, as a woman. And she really dug deep and explored herself and what she wants for herself. And I think that as is the case for so many of us, what we think we want and what we invest so much of our time and effort into, what we put all of our eggs into, sometimes we get to a point where we start questioning that right at the moment where we’re getting everything we think that we wanted or that we have been working so hard for. And so that’s kind of what June ends up with.”

“She ends up in a situation where she’s caught between her heart and her head and her goals in this weird internal love triangle,” she continued. “Which I think is kinda cool. I do that sometimes. I’m the only person who kinda stays back and holds down the fort.”

Unfortunately, that was not the only surprise in the episode. After receiving an accidental secondary shock from a couple who glued themselves together, Mags was feeling some effects from it as her body continued to reject her new heart. Even though it seemed like she would be fine, that ended up not being the case, and Mags was rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night, where she ultimately died from complications of the transplant.

It was a surprise, to say the least, and even though Laurence Leboeuf’s character and fans knew that there were risks, she looked to be doing well. Even with just a few episodes left of the series, the surprises didn’t stop. Issa spoke about what it was like filming the remainder of the season and how it will affect everyone, saying that “from that point forward, we didn’t see Laurence at all on set.”

“We were no longer working with her. That part was really kind of real, if I remember correctly,” Issa continued, referring to the fact that filming wrapped around two years ago. “Mags leaves, and everyone’s heartbroken. I think it put a lot of things into perspective for June. I think that has a huge role to play with the decision she ends up making moving forward. And I think it ends up being the same thing for both Hamza [Haq] and Jim [Watson]’s characters as well as for everybody. It kind of shakes everybody into reality and has everyone thinking a little bit.”

As previously mentioned, filming for Transplant wrapped about two years ago, since the final season aired in Canada in late 2023 and early 2024. But learning a storyline like that can stick in the brain for a long time, and Issa admitted that Leboeuf actually told her, “and when she told me, she did the whole dangle the carrot thing for a bit. She was like, ‘Guess what?’ And I was like, ‘This, no this!’ I was trying to figure out what it was, and I actually don’t remember.”

“I think she actually told me, and I was like, ‘Shut up!’ And it’s weird because we knew that the show was ending anyways, but somehow that was really bothersome,” Issa continued. “Somehow, I just remember feeling like, ‘I don’t really like this. I don’t think that’s the point that this should’ve gone. Like, why are you doing it?’ But also, good on Joe [Kay, creator] for not just giving everybody what they want.”

With only two episodes left of Transplant, it’s unknown how the characters will move forward from this and how it will affect everyone. It’s possible that Mags’ death will play a part in June’s decision to move to Cleveland, but even so, it will greatly impact her. Issa looked back at June and Mags’ friendship, admitting she still remembers the very first scene she shot with Leboeuf “where we really dug into this kind of competitiveness, this professional competitive energy that we had in one of the emergency scenes, and really naturally, which we didn’t have off-screen, by the way.”

“Off-screen, we’ve always had a really strong connection to friendship,” Issa said. “But it was really nice, and it was a natural kind of progression. I think maybe because we genuinely like each other and value each other and appreciate each other for our differences, because they are different people. But it was like a natural kind of coming together and almost moving past each other a little bit.”

“Where Mags’ character takes on Mags’ characteristics, which she needed in order to be a more balanced person and to be more efficient and to have better boundaries or set up for herself, and these types of things,” she explained. “And then June learned so much from Mags when it comes to emotional intelligence and vulnerability, and learning that it’s okay to value those interpersonal connections and how to make room for them, and that they don’t have to take away from you.”

“You can be yourself and hold your own, and also hold space and be there for the people who are important to you,” she continued. “I think that’s what good friends do for each other. They were constantly pushing and challenging each other. They never seem to encourage each other in directions that weren’t progressive from what they needed. They were constantly there to call each other out. And I personally value those friendships in my real life in the same way. I value the friends who call me out on my BS, and couldn’t probably know what to do as well.”

It’s going to be hard watching the final episodes following Mags’ death, and there is no telling what will happen. Make sure to tune in to new episodes of Transplant on Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC, streaming the next day on Peacock.