Fans were certainly not expecting this one!

Warning: Spoilers for Sweet Magnolias season 4 ahead

Sweet Magnolias season 4 kicked off with an emotional start as best friends Maddie, Dana Sue and Helen were delivered some shocking news.

In the second episode, a big twist was dropped on audiences, as Maddie found out that her ex-husband Bill (Chris Klein) had died.

Her former mother and father-in-law delivered the news right after her wedding to Cal.

Bill was last seen at the end of season 3, when he and Kathy left Serenity together after Kathy’s brother Ronnie paid her to do so.

With Bill being such a pivotal part of the last three seasons, why kill him off now? Showrunner Sheryl J Anderson told Deadline that the decision was “purely story-driven”.

“He [Klein] was very gracious and understanding,” Anderson told the publication. “We were looking for an event where we could literally track the ripples through all of his friends and family and reset their journeys accordingly.”

She continued: “It obviously impacts his family, but we were also interested in that impact when you’re at the age that our ladies and their partners to be are, when that first person in your age group dies unexpectedly, decades and decades before they should, the questions about mortality and legacy and ‘Am I where I want to be? Am I with who I want to be with?’, really big existential questions that also filtered down into the younger characters, all the way to Katie and what Helen calls her doe-eyed optimism.”

Anderson explained that show bosses “knew it had to be significant” and they were keen not to “trivialise it”.

And Bill’s death will have a big impact on the rest of the characters and the town as the series goes on.

Anderson added: “Bill is so central to the original construct of this group that we knew everybody would have something to say and something to feel if you were suddenly gone.”