Jeffrey Tambor’s Maura Will Be Killed Off in ‘Transparent’s Series Finale

After months of near-silence, Transparent creator Jill Soloway has confirmed that Jeffrey Tambor‘s character, Maura, will be killed off in the Amazon comedy’s series finale. In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times, Soloway revealed that the musical finale will begin with Maura’s death and follow the Pfefferman family as they grieve through song. The revelation comes more than a year after Tambor was fired from Transparent due to sexual misconduct allegations — a decision that Soloway said forced producers to adapt to “a different way of looking at the family.”

According to Soloway, the final installment of Transparent, titled “The Transparent Musicale Finale” (with “musicale” rhyming with “finale”), will follow Shelley (Judith Light), Sarah (Amy Landecker), Josh (Jay Duplass), and Ali (Gaby Hoffmann) as they attempt to grapple with Maura’s death. “We were all in mourning in many ways, and we all had to process together,” Soloway told the LA Times about the Transparent team’s decision to kill off Tambor’s character. “It was important [for the show] to go through all those stages. The show has always been a reflection of who we were and we were mourning our own narrative.”

In November 2017, shortly after the rise of the #MeToo movement, Transparent star Trace Lysette and Tambor’s former assistant Van Barnes accused the actor of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior. Tambor denied the allegations (and continues to deny them), but in February 2018, he officially left the Amazon series. While they (Soloway is gender non-binary and prefers to use singular “they” pronouns) never addressed Tambor’s firing directly, Soloway alluded to the controversy in their interview with the LA Times, saying, “People say when they’re making musicals that there are moments when the characters have to sing because they can’t put something into words. I think it’s the same thing with what our show went through, we felt like we needed a different way of looking at the family. And we did it through song.”

In addition to revealing Maura’s fate, Soloway also divulged new details about the musical finale. The feature-length episode will bring back some familiar faces, including Kathryn Hahn (Rabbi Raquel), Cherry Jones, Melora Hardin, and Lysette. The Transparent writer, producer, and director described the episode as a “Jewish Christ Superstar or anxious ‘Godspell’ or ‘Ordinary People’ on ice,” as well as a “genderqueer Jewish fantasia.” They went on to say that Sarah and Shelley will share a particularly emotional number, “Your Boundary Is My Trigger,” that is sure to resonate with Transparent viewers. “It’s extreme,” Soloway said about the Light-Landecker number. “It hits the most extreme high notes. I feel like 67-year-old Jewish moms are going to be seen in a new way.”

“The Transparent Musicale Finale” does not have an official premiere date, but it’s scheduled to hit Amazon Prime Video in Fall 2019.

Watch Transparent on Amazon Prime Video