“When I read the script, it wasn’t that long after Luigi Mangione shot the United Healthcare CEO,” he added. “I was like, [creator] Julian Fellowes is clairvoyant. It redoubled my sense that there’s a way that this show, however subtly, however quietly, is really in dialog with our current moment, simply by virtue of there being structural similarities between the two eras.

Spector continued, “Both of these time periods have massive wealth and massive inequality. Both of them are characterized by industrial titans who are kind of swinging the state around by its tail. The consequences of that can be violence.”

Find out Russell’s fate when The Gilded Age season finale airs Sunday, Aug. 10, at 9 p.m. on HBO.

Int he meantime, keep reading to see other TV stars’ shocking exits from their hit shows.