Wanted to show you a bit of the showrunner interview script which makes me so goddamn happy:
PizzaHorse:
Are there any characters that ended up taking a direction you didn’t initially anticipate?
Duane Capizzi:
GRAY.
I didn’t know we’d make him amnesiac when I wrote the Plot, that was something we came up with in our first week Writer Room.
And even then, when it became clear he’d be a key piece of the bigger puzzle, we didn’t know how exactly (mostly the Season 4 stuff).
We did get very deep with a version where 404 ended with his protective streak for Carmen kicking into high gear, and they would be fighting off Vile Guards back to back in perfect tandem. Then, having chosen Carmen over VILE, it was Carmen who actually orchestrates Gray going “off grid” so that VILE can never find him again. Funny, I know that is arguably the version of Gray’s arc that many fans might have preferred seeing. But in the tradition of spy thrillers and film noir, and for a lone wolf character like Carmen who is focused on her life mission and not romance, we stand behind where we went with him. We felt it was so much more compelling … and truly more emotional that he totally has a get out of jail free card when he sacrifices everything (including his life, potentially) to save Carmen when she needs him most!
I know I made some controversial comments about Gray “not being good enough for Carmen” and I’d like to clarify that I meant, until that final episode. What he did was so selfless and heroic. Is there hope for them in the future? Who knows?! But I do hope we get to explore that one day
I’m sure Gray is living off the grid somewhere now, inspired by Carmen’s selfless good and thinking of her from time to time.