The Mayor of Kingstown Season 3 finale unpacked Detective Ian Ferguson's (Hugh Dillon) rash decision to kill one of his supposed allies, Charlie (Kenny Johnson).
Charlie Pickings is a mentally unstable serial killer who accidentally killed SWAT Team Member Ben Morrisey after trying to intimidate him to change his statement regarding Robert Sawyer's murder spree in the prison riot.
This is due to Ian temporarily releasing him from prison to do his bidding.
Charlie returns in Season 3, Episode 3, as Ian visits him in prison to catch up on him and ensure that he's not spilling details about their alliance.
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What Happened to Charlie in Mayor of Kingstown Season 3 Episode 9?
Mayor of Kingstown Season 3, Episode 9 sees Ian and Stevie (Derek Webster) take Charlie out of prison again to look for dead bodies.
It is not a literal walk in the park for Ian, though, since Charlie keeps reminding him about the "man on the porch" (Morrisey), whom he killed at Ian's request in Season 2.
Charlie's consistent mention of the man does not sit well with Ian because it risks his career and reputation.
The final blow comes when Charlie once again asks about Morrisey while inside the car, essentially spooking Ian, which leads him to shoot him in the head.
Making matters worse, Ian says that Charlie tried to attack him, and he did what he needed to do for self-defense.
The fact that Ian did not hesitate to kill Charlie shows that he has evolved into a cold-blooded killer who does not hesitate to murder to protect his reputation. As unhinged and mentally unstable Charlie is, his death means that any evil act in Kingstown will have repercussions.
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Charlie's Death & Impact on Ian's Character Arc Explained
Charlie is the latest victim to the show's death toll in terms of protecting what Robert did in Season 2. It remains to be seen who else will be added, but it's a safe assumption that there will be more.
Speaking with Variety, Mayor of Kingstown co-creator and Ian actor Hugh Dillon reflected on his character's major decision to kill Charlie, noting that "the setup was two years coming:"
"It’s a thing! There’s no doubt about it. I have a friend of mine who is a prison guard, and sometimes you take [a prisoner] out to look for stuff and sometimes you bond with them. I will say that to get Kenny Johnson to work on this show it’s, again, one of those things I am just so grateful to be a part of that — and then to have that twist. It wasn’t 'Oh, we’re going to do this' — the setup was two years coming, and that’s what Taylor taught me."
Dillon also offered high praise to the episode's director, Christoph Schrewe, for helping "shape that [confrontation] scene cinematically:"
"These are movies, they’re films. Let them breathe, let them play out. They don’t have to be tied up in one episode. Christoph Schrewe, our director, is so dialed in, and he really helped shape that scene cinematically."
What Ian did to Charlie essentially mirrors Robert's actions of killing prisoners during the game-changing prison riot, making them both monsters in the eyes of the viewers.
Ian's actions also cemented the fact that corruption within the Kingstown Police Department (KPD) is rampant, and it is up to outside forces (such as Assistant District Attorney Evelyn) to stop it.
Thankfully, Mayor of Kingstown's Season 3 finale revealed that Evelyn (Necar Zadegan) is set to do a deep-dive investigation as to why Charlie is dead and how convenient it is that Ian took him out of prison for a dentist appointment during the same day as Morrisey's death.
Evelyn's dedication to unearthing the corruption within the KPD is expected to be one of the core storylines for a potential Season 4 of the hit series. All roads will lead to a head-on collision with her former flame-turned-potential enemy, Mike McLusky.
All episodes of Mayor of Kingstown Season 3 are streaming on Paramount+.
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