The actor, who plays town power broker Mike McLusky, says that the death helps to “forge a path for healing” moving forward.

Jeremy Renner talks [SPOILER’s] death in *Mayor of Kingstown *season 4 finale: ‘There was no other pathway’

The actor, who plays town power broker Mike McLusky, says that the death helps to "forge a path for healing" moving forward.

By Emlyn Travis

Emlyn Travis is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2022. Her work has previously appeared on MTV News, Teen Vogue, and *NME*.

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December 28, 2025 3:01 p.m. ET

Jeremy Renner as Mike McLusky in 'Mayor of Kingstown'. Credit:

Dennis P. Mong Jr./Paramount+

**Warning: This article contains spoilers for Mayor of Kingstown season 4 finale, "Belly of the Beast."**

For Jeremy Renner, no one could’ve killed Merle Callahan (Richard Brake) other than Kyle McLusky (Taylor Handley) in the *Mayor of Kingstown *season 4 finale. **

The actor, who headlines the Taylor Sheridan co-created series as town power broker Mike McLusky, tells ** that while his character had a fair share of reasons for wanting to kill Merle, it was ultimately more important to let his brother Kyle be the one to pull the trigger, given Merle murdered his wife Tracy (Nishi Munshi). **

“That’s one way to sort of… not really protect, but help forge a path for healing because of what [Merle] did,” Renner explains. "There was no other pathway."

Richard Brake as Merle Callahan.

Jeremy Parsons/Paramount+

After escaping Anchor Bay, Merle finds and kills Tracy before surrendering himself at the local police station. It’s there that Captain Walter (Rob Kirkland) gives Det. Ian Ferguson (Hugh Dillon) carte blanche to do with Merle as he sees fit, leading him to drive the escaped convict to a showdown with the McLuskys at the railroad tracks. **

It’s there that Kyle shoots Merle and, overcome with emotion, continues to fire at his dead body, prompting Mike to step in and take the weapon away from his younger brother before he could hurt himself or anyone else. The siblings make it only a few feet away from the grisly crime scene before Kyle completely breaks down and begins to sob in Mike’s arms.

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“The beautiful end of it all is at least they [Mike and Kyle] have each other,” Renner says of the poignant moment between the brothers. “That was something I really had to fight for [at] the end of this show. It was very, very, very important to at least give the audience that. Give them something good.” **

He continues, “The beautiful part for us is the release of that toxic character and then the two brothers falling into each other — and at least they have each other through it all. So that’s some kind of hope, right?"

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Mike spent the majority of *Mayor of Kingstown* season 4 trying his best to shield Kyle from harm while his brother was locked away in Anchor Bay. Despite his best efforts, he wasn’t able to protect Kyle from everything, with Tracy’s death putting his once-upstanding younger brother on a dark quest for vengeance against her killer.

Taylor Handley as Kyle McLusky and Jeremy Renner as Mike McLusky.

Dennis P. Mong Jr./Paramount+

As for how Kyle and Mike will move forward after such a tragic season? Well, we’ll have to keep our fingers crossed that *Mayor of Kingstown* gets greenlit for a fifth season to find out. Until then, we can at least take refuge in the knowledge that the McLuskys are together again.**

The *Mayor of Kingstown* season 4 finale is streaming now on Paramount+.

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