WARNING: This article contains spoilers about the August 13 episode of Animal Kingdom. Read at your own risk!

For years, Smurf has been the head of the Cody family, even when the boys didn’t want her to be. (Even when she was behind bars.) But when Animal Kingdom‘s fourth season saw Smurf get the news that she had cancer, things took a turn. And in Tuesday’s penultimate episode, Smurf took matters into her own hands: starting a gunfight that was supposed to end her life. But when Pope saved her, she asked him to finish the job, handing him a gun and threatening to shoot him if he didn’t kill her. In the end, it was J who pulled the trigger and killed the Cody family matriarch, played by Ellen Barkin.