Black Rabbit showrunners explain why they killed tragic character midway through in 'harrowing an...

Zach Baylin and Kate Susman break down the shocking death in a revealing interview with EW. Black Rabbit showrunners explain why they killed tragic character mi

Zach Baylin and Kate Susman break down the shocking death in a revealing interview with EW.

Black Rabbit showrunners explain why they killed tragic character midway through in 'harrowing and uncomfortable' death

Zach Baylin and Kate Susman break down the shocking death in a revealing interview with EW.

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September 19, 2025 4:00 p.m. ET

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Jude Law and Abbey Lee in 'Black Rabbit'. Credit:

- Zach Baylin and Kate Susman reveal why they had to kill Abbey Lee's Anna midway through the season.

- "We find it harrowing and uncomfortable as well," Baylin explains.

- Susman adds that Anna's death "is the tragedy around which the pieces break away."

***Warning: This post contains major spoilers for *Black Rabbit*.***

Don't let its title fool you; Netflix's new crime thriller *Black Rabbit* is anything but warm, fluffy, and cute.

Viewers learn that in brutally devastating fashion midway through episode 4, "No More F---Ups," which includes the first of several tragic deaths when Anna (Abbey Lee) meets a grim end just as she was offered a temporary reprieve from a spate of emotional turmoil.

While her surprising death drives the knife in deeper regarding the show's commentary on harsh realities for women carrying trauma from sexual assault, co-showrunners and writers Zach Baylin and Kate Susman tell ** her death was necessary to advance the story for Jake (Jude Law), a restaurant-owning high-roller whose past demons come to a head upon the surprise return of his troubled brother, Vince (Jason Bateman). All while Anna becomes entangled in their ever-stifling web.

Abbey Lee speaks to Amaka Okafor in 'Black Rabbit'.

After revealing to Jake's head chef, Roxie (Amaka Okafor), that she believes she was drugged and sexually assaulted by Jules (John Ales) when she still worked at the establishment, Anna comes under scrutiny.

Concurrently, Jake is also pulled into Vince's financial woes, including the latter's ongoing tension with a criminal ringleader, Joe (*CODA* Oscar winner Troy Kotsur), who seeks repayment for a massive debt Vince can't settle.

Amid collecting fingers (no, Vince's phalanges don't make it through the season entirely intact), Joe's cronies, Junior (Forrest Weber) and Babbitt (Chris Coy), also target Anna when they learn that there's a reporter covering shady dealings at Jake's restaurant. If the restaurant goes down, they can't get paid (Jake, after all, is a backup piggybank for Vince's lack of funds).

Upon stalking their way to Anna's apartment to make sure she doesn't talk, Junior and Babbit force their way into her home, just as she's preparing to leave the country with a substantial hush-money payment from one of Jules' hired hands (Morgan Spector). The resulting struggle leads to Anna accidentally falling backward and hitting her head on the bathtub, dying instantly as she lays on the bathroom floor.

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"We find it harrowing and uncomfortable as well…. Anna only has four or five scenes in the whole series, but has this incredible impact," admits Baylin, with Susman adding that "she's felt through the whole thing" — particularly after her death motivates a massive shift later on.

"I think a lot of inspiration for the show came from stories of not just restaurants, but ambitious, high-octane work environments where the ambition and ideas of success, the 'anything goes' attitude curdled into some terrible behavior with real victims," Baylin explains. "It was important to us to show that what happened to Anna wasn't frivolous. It's heavy stuff, it impacts Jake, Vince, and everyone at the restaurant."

One of those people is Roxie, whose laser-focused commitment to culinary excellence takes a backseat to unpacking things she might've overlooked in pursuit of greatness

"Roxie turned a blind eye. Not that she was *complicit*, but the tragedy of Anna's death and what that means for Roxie is snapping out of what she's willfully ignored or chosen not to see" regarding Anna's prior assault," Susman explains. "It presents her with a point from which she can no longer return. Her life can never be the same without Anna. We made those stakes clear for Roxie."

This, as she suggests, leads to Roxie evolving from committed cog in Jake's machine to a force of change, as she eventually approaches restaurant co-financier Wes (Sope Dirisu) in a plot to overthrow Jake's leadership as she processes that Jake failed to protect Anna and pursue punishment for Jules.

Jude Law and Jason Bateman in 'Black Rabbit'.

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Baylin and Susman emphasize that Anna's death sets an important plot point in motion, and her manner of death needed to match the tragedy of her overarching circumstances.

"Junior and Babbitt, they're very frightening, but they're frightening because they're so incapable. They're constantly tripping over each other, and that felt natural to who they were as enforcers, of how that might go down," says Baylin. "We had an amazing writer, Carlos Rios, who wrote episode 6. When Jake gives Anna's eulogy, he says how tragic it is that someone's life gets extinguished so cruelly and randomly. There's a lot of falsehood in what he's talking about. That resonated. There are a lot of lives in New York, and you don't know what happens to everyone."

But we, the audience, do. Still, there's an emotional payoff — as much as there can be — in the series' final moments, when it's revealed that Roxie has moved on to a new venture upon establishing a new eatery, free from Jake's watch.

"If you look at the name of the restaurant that Roxie opens in the end, it's called Anna's," Susman points out. "Screen time wise, we don't see Anna that much, but hers is the tragedy around which the pieces break away."

*Black Rabbit* is now streaming on Netflix.

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Source: "AOL TV"

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