If you were a regular fan of "The Chi," the South Side Chicago drama series that premiered in 2018, you were probably a little confused when lead character Brandon Johnson (Jason Mitchell) was suddenly written off the show. Season 2 ended with the character in a rough, complicated place, leaving fans to wonder in the break between seasons how he'll deal with all the chaos. The season 3 opener revealed that he wasn't going to make it at all. He dies off-screen between seasons — or, as "The Simpsons" fans might say, Brandon died en route to his home planet.

It's not unlike what happened in the sixth and final season of "House of Cards," where Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) was. revealed to have died off-screenthough audiences surely knew this wasn't the writers' plan for him back when they were wrapping up season 5. It's always uncomfortable when real-world circumstances disrupt the fictional world, and The Chi was no exception. If you want to know why Brandon died so suddenly, you'll first need to understand what happened to actor Jason Mitchell...

It's hard to know exactly which happened because so many people involved seem to have signed NDAs, or else just aren't that comfortable giving away too many details. The bottom line, however, is that Mitchell was allegedly responsible for a lot of sexual misconduct behind the scenes, especially towards co-star Tiffany Boone. Boone played Brandon's girlfriend, Jerrica, but asked to be written out of the show due to Mitchell's constant bullying. Show President Ayanna Floyd Davis talk about the situation in 2019:

“I discussed Tiffany's claims with the (human resources) department at the studio and set up HR presentations for the writers, cast and crew. the show's executive producer, who is very involved at the studio and network level... As showrunner, I did everything I could to deal with his behavior, speaking to the studio's HR department multiple times and having an actress she called HR herself, before I became the target of his rage and inappropriateness and had to report him to HR as well."

In May 2019, Johnson was officially fired from the series. Creator Lena Waithe shed some light on the decision in an interview with the Breakfast Club podcastexplaining how she heard about Mitchell's disturbing behavior after the first season, confronted him and tried to resolve the situation with him to no avail. "There was definitely a conversation where I called him and got really real," she explained. "It is necessary to respect every woman on set.

In the first two seasons, Brandon seemed to be on an upward journey: slowly but surely realizing his dreams of becoming a chef despite the constant obstacles of life on the South Side. He starts a food truck in "The Chi" Season 1 and quickly becomes one of the show's most likeable, moral characters, serving as a much-needed mentor to younger characters like Kevin (Alex Hibbert). However, as Season 2 progressed, he attracted the troubled attention of Otis "Dauda" Perry (Curtis Cook), a schemer who would soon somehow become the mayor of Chicago. It is gradually revealed that Duda is the worst, and by the end of season 2, Brandon has been arrested and Jerrica has dropped him. He ends the season seemingly deciding to talk to the police and flip Duda, but we never get to see that play out.

How will this be resolved if not for Mitchell's alleged behind-the-scenes misconduct that interrupted the storyline? Many fans think that Brandon would have redeemed himself in "The Chi" season 3, that he and the detective who arrested him (Alice Toussaint, played by Crystal Dickinson) would have teamed up to take down Duda. Maybe Brandon would get Jerrika back, stay out of jail, and finally make most of his restaurant dreams come true.

Fans also speculated that the Season 5 storyline with Emmett (Jacob Lattimore), where he works at a restaurant with Duda, would likely have gone to Brandon if the character hadn't been written out. Emmett in general, with his constant relationship drama and his dreams of bettering himself, seems like he's been given a lot of material in the later seasons that would otherwise have been given to Brandon.

Season 3 of "The Chi" opens with Brandon's mother, Laverne (Sonja Sohn) giving the eulogy at his funeral, lamenting his death and blaming Chicago's problems for taking him away from her. "I should never have raised them in a city that would rather see their likeness painted on a brick wall than see them graduate from college. . . . They were all I had, and this city took them from me." It's a continuation of the show's many critiques of the city's systemic issues, except this time it rings hollow because, well, we know it's not Chicago's fault for crying foul here; it's Jason Mitchell's.

The rest of season 3 hardly strays from Brandon's storyline. The once important character of Alice Toussaint is abruptly dropped, as is any mention of the feds taking down Duda. The show is strangely uninterested in explaining how and why Brandon died, though it finally does in a Season 4 storyline where Laverne returns to Chicago and shoots Duda. (He's alive, unfortunately, but at least we know for sure he's the one who killed Brandon.) The whole thing was just a mess. The early seasons were often compared to "The Wire" in its scope and stylebut by the third season, the show had destroyed any chance of ever being considered in the same league.

The general fan consensus is that the first two seasons were some of the best The Chi had to offer, and that things started to fall apart a bit after Brandon was written off the show. Fans have often wondered if recasting Brandon would have been a smarter choice, or if they could have found a way to end his arc a little more gracefully.

In addition to being fired from The Chi, in 2019 Jason Mitchell was fired from the production of the dramedy film "Desperados" and was dropped from his talent agency. Mitchell's firing from The Chi wasn't the total end of his career—he's starred in some little-known low-budget films in the years since—but it was definitely the end of him being a Hollywood hopeful. whose movies would receive rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival.

That same year, Mitchell denounced the allegations against him that led to his firing from The Chi. In one interview with the Breakfast Club podcasthe said, “I really hate to say this because I'm all for the Me Too movement... I have two beautiful daughters who I'd love to be in the business, so I'm all for the Me Too movement. But I think in this situation, Ayanna (Floyd Davis) tried to use it as a really, really ugly weapon."

In May 2020, he was arrested in Mississippi on multiple drug and weapons charges. Like a deadline reported at the time, 'Mitchell was charged with two counts of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute and two counts of possession of a weapon by a felon. , a Glock pistol and two kilograms of marijuana, as well as the drug ecstasy, records show."

Mitchell referred to that situation a 2023 interview a few years later. "I was on my way to New Orleans to see family ... and I just jumped in the wrong car with the wrong people," he said. "It wasn't what it was, you know what I mean?... All those charges have been dropped, completely dropped, I don't deal with it anymore, but it was just kind of unfortunate and embarrassing at the time." to handle."