It's hard to believe that the story of our beloved 13 episode Harper's Island is complete. To all of you who watched, supported, and shared your enthusiasm for the show with us... THANK YOU. Huge thanks. It means a lot. We've been pitching, developing, prepping, casting, shooting, editing, fixing, promoting, etc for over a year, and to hear so many of you express your gratitude has been fulfilling. Since this is my final blog, I decided to randomly list some thoughts and answer some of the viewer questions, not only from the final two episodes, but also from the whole season. I hope this helps. And again, THANK YOU for watching....

It's the start of Episode 9, and this crew is exhausted. I don't blame them. We've been working crazy hours, dealing with bad weather, and to make matters worst, in order to meet our budgetary requirements, we've started shooting the last few episodes in seven days, as opposed to the standard eight days. The cast has been extraordinary. Those that are still around are thrilled to be here, and their energy and excitement is helping to motivate the crew. As you can see in the last two episodes, we're going through a stretch of night shooting. You can't shoot a horror show without night work, and it helps that it starts getting dark in Vancouver by 4 PM.

Episode 8 was one our toughest yet. This was the episode in which the Vancouver weather started turning ugly on us. The local crew warned me that around mid to late October things would start getting dark, cold, and wet. And sure enough, it did (watch the last ten minutes of Episode 8). I recall there being a period of ten straight days in which I didn't see the sun. Not good for an assassin raised and trained in sunny Southern California. To make matters worst, the Los Angeles based actors and I were not prepared for such a drastic turn in the climate, and our lack of winter wardrobe became the joke on set. Thankfully, our Costume Designer, Jenni Gullet, was there to save the day. Gloves, hand warmers to put in the gloves, down jackets, rain jacket to put over the down jacket, scarves, hats, hats that cover your ears, boots, socks, thicker socks that go over those socks, etc. What used to take five minutes to dress every morning now turned into a 45-minute event. But I'm an assassin. It's what I do. And nothing was going to stop me from getting the job done, even with 80 pounds of clothing on my back.

Before this blog turns into an "I Hate Vancouver Weather" essay, let me just say that Episode 8 rocked!! Murder in the jail cell, folks trying to leave the island, girls running around with guns, the Sheriff almost getting his leg hacked off, poor Richard being brought back as a dead corpse harpooned to a tree, cabin fire, the discovery of Wakefield's journal, JD bludgeoned to death, and Henry Dunn draped in his brother's blood. AWE-SOME. Our assignment for this week was to write off JD Dunn, played by Dean Chekvala. Not a very easy assignment, because this kid, Dean, was absolutely adored by the cast and crew. He would show up to set with random gifts for people (i.e. flying monkeys, pins, books, etc) and would greet everyone with hugs and a smile. Are you kidding me? Hasn't he read the Hollywood Actor's Handbook? You're not supposed to do that kind of stuff. And now his behavior was infecting the rest of the cast. They were all filled with love and support for one another. I needed to put a stop to this ASAP. I had my talk with Dean. He hugged me. Of course he did. Then he told me that he saw his death coming, so he had a gift for me. Great. The cast decided to throw Dean a "going away party." No one talked to me that night, except for Dean. The city of Vancouver was planning a parade in Dean's honor, but it rained that day (shocking), so they postponed it. Ironically, due to unforeseen circumstances, we had to fly Dean back to Vancouver on two other occasions for re-shoots, pick up scenes, and publicity junkets after his death. On each of Dean's last nights, the cast would throw him yet another "going away party." To date, Dean has attended three going away parties in his honor, a Harper's Island record. But that's only a small taste of the kind of man Dean Chekvala represents.

Here's the thing about flashback episodes. They're awesome to write, but horrible to produce. So you can imagine the look on the faces of our department heads when they read the first few pages of Episode 7. Pure terror. Their terror quickly turned into panic. Panic then quickly transformed itself into 1,000 questions. What are we going to do with everyone's hair to make them look younger? Wardrobe? What kind of cars will we need? What did the island look like seven years ago? Lots of issues to resolve, but first things first, I had to find Chris Gauthier (who plays Malcolm) and explain to him that we were going to have to chop him up and throw his body parts into a furnace. As you guys know, the Assassin Rule has always been to speak with the actors about their demise before the script comes out for that particular episode. However, Chris Gauthier's shooting schedule was not cooperating with me, which meant that I wasn't going to be able to see him before the scripts were handed out. So, for the first time all season, I had to do something I had not done before. I had to kill someone over the phone. Not my area of expertise. Awkward. I tried to make it as painless as possible. "Hey Chris, it's Karim. How are you? [Pause] Great, umm, are you sitting down?" Worst line in Assassin history. ARE YOU SITTING DOWN?? I told you this wasn't my area of expertise. He laughed. I explained to him how we were planning on killing off Malcolm. He loved it. Until I told him that we'd have to make a cast of his head, like we did for Cousin Ben, the Reverend and Uncle Marty. The laughing stopped.

As promised in last week's blog, Episode 5 was going to be big. The characters have witnessed their first murder, the body of one our victims, Reverend Fain, was discovered, and the possibility of Wakefield still being alive is beginning to resonate amongst some of the locals and wedding guests. The remaining episodes have a definite shift in both pace and tone, and as the killing spree becomes deadlier and gorier, our characters now find themselves in survival mode.

I know what you're thinking. Being an assassin has to be the greatest job ever. Sit on set all day (in a chair with your name on it), eat anything and everything from the craft service table (that's always stocked), hang out in your own trailer (with heat)... all while watching other people lift heavy equipment in the snow and rain. Easy living, right? Not always.

Two days ago I was walking into Modern Video in Burbank to do some last minute fixes on Episodes 12 & 13. The friendly female receptionist at the front desk stopped me, and we proceeded to have the following conversation:

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Receptionist: I just want to tell you that I'm a big fan of your show. I'm hooked.
Me: Oh, great. Thank you. That's very sweet. Keep watching, these episodes only get better.
Receptionist: I loved last week's episode, chopping off the Reverend's head like that. Very cool.
Me: Thank you. (getting in self promotion mode) You know, I write a blog every week discussing how we kill off each character. Have you read it?
Receptionist: No.
Me: (hating self promotion) Oh.... well... you should.
Receptionist: I hope you guys don't kill off Hunter. He's my favorite character on the show. He's so hot. I've been following Victor Webster's career since he was on Mutant X. He's a big reason why I watch your show. I just love him. Please tell me he's in all 13 episodes. Please don't kill him off. I'd be so bummed.
Me: [awkward silence] So......let me tell you some more about my blog...

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