The Season 3 premiere of Bull aired last night on CBS at 10 p.m. EST. While the premiere had a bit of a perplexing introduction and anti-climatic start, it did pick up steam and ultimately left viewers in tears.
Warning: The rest of the article contains Season 3 spoilers.
As fans who follow the news related to the CBS series know, Annabelle Attanasio character Cable McCrory was slowly being phased out during Season 2. Moreover, Annabelle decided to take on a directing opportunity and the schedule clashed too much for her to return for Season 3 of the series. So, the writers were forced to write her character out of the show. The question was – how would they do it?
The introduction of the Season 3 premiere featured a bunch of cars driving off a bridge into the water. A lot of viewers who were familiar with the show just assumed Dr. Bull’s next case would have something to do with the bridge. After all, it is pretty typical for the show to start out with an introduction telling a story of a case Jason and his team would later defend. When Dr. Bull’s next case took a different direction, fans couldn’t help but wonder what was significant about the bridge scene in the introduction.
After spending the bulk of the episode searching for Cable, who had mysteriously dropped off the face of the earth, it was revealed that the beloved hacker was one of the victims who happened to be on the bridge at the time of the collapse. Danny (played by Jaime Lee Kirchner) was actively looking for clues in Cable’s apartment when she received a phone call from her mother breaking news to her.
Showrunner Glenn Gordon Caron caught up with Entertainment Tonight to explain the decision to kill of Annabelle’s character. For starters, Caron wanted to make it very clear that killing Cable and writing the character out of the show was never the writer’s decision. When Attanasio approached the writers and producers about an opportunity she couldn’t pass up, they had no choice but to write her out of the show.
#Bull Boss: Cable’s Shocking Exit Marks ‘The *Beginning* of a Mystery,’ Not the Ending https://t.co/Yo1jBwXDzF
— TVLine.com (@TVLine) September 25, 2018
Glenn also explained that killing off Cable was the only option the writers had if they wanted fans of the show to continue to trust them.
“The only way to explain the character not appearing for that period of time is to have her die. Remember, three months have gone by in Bull’s life and none of the other characters know where Cable is. I don’t think there was another choice. You can’t have everybody show up one day and say, “Oh, she decided to move to Tucson!” That seems kind of unrealistic. She wouldn’t have said goodbye to Bull? She wouldn’t have sought him out somehow? She wouldn’t have sent an email?”
Glenn continued to explain that – based on the Cable viewers of the show came to know – she wasn’t the type of character to leave without saying goodbye. Cable and Bull had a special relationship and there is no way she would have left him without an explanation for her departure.
He added, “People don’t just disappear.”
According to Caron, Bull is a reality-based series revolving on life and death scenarios. Not explaining Cable’s departure in a realistic manner could have done a lot of damage to the bond viewers have with the show.
Just in case you needed a reminder, Cable will not be a part of the #Bull team this season https://t.co/nswHE7tWaU
— Matt Roast (@HeyMattRoast) September 25, 2018
Glenn did tease that there was a bigger mystery and story to tell revolving around Cable’s death that would be unveiled over the next few episodes.
Tune in to CBS next Monday night at 10 p.m. EST for Episode 2 of Season 3.