Warning: This article contains spoilers for Under the Bridge.

Under the Bridge star Archie Panjabi, who plays Suman Virk, explains why her character visits Warren Glowatski (Javon Walton) in prison during the show’s finale. The true crime drama follows the real-life case of Reena Virk (Vritika Gupta), a young girl in Saanich, British Columbia, who goes missing one night after attending a party. As the search for Reena gets underway, researcher Rebecca Godfrey (Riley Keough) and Officer Cam Bentland (Lily Gladstone) soon realize something sinister has occurred. However, the world is rattled by the young suspects the pair believe are linked to Reena’s case.

In an interview with the LA Times, Panjabi explained why Suman makes the shocking decision to meet with one of the prime suspects in her daughter’s case, Warren, in Under the Bridge. She described how difficult it was for her to shoot the scene and how she genuinely “could not control the pain” she felt. However, the moment was necessary, as Panjabi explained it brought the story full circle by having Suman step up and break the “cycles of violence” that played into Reena’s murder. Check out her statement below:

I still cannot comprehend what she did, what it must have taken her to forgive. Everything inside me, when I had to say those words, I could not control the pain and how hard it was to see the killer in front of me. He looked so helpless. But what he had taken away from her life, it was unbearable. I couldn’t care that it was melodramatic. It felt authentic. It felt very, very raw.

What happened to Reena was the result of larger systems at play, cycles of violence that actually began before she was even born. To me, the climax of the show really had to be someone coming up with the strength and the courage to shatter that cycle. Suman really felt like the appropriate person to step up in that way. Building the scene was largely about her forgiving him, actually, in advance of his testimony because, on some level, spiritually, emotionally, that felt true.

Suman Virk And Warren’s Moment Captures the Importance of Rebecca Godfrey’s Work

Under The Bridge Goes Deeper Into The Perpatrators’ Actions

The moment between Suman and Warren in prison in Under the Bridge is similar to what happened in real life. In the show, Suman visits Warren and offers forgiveness, which prompts him to finally confess what happened to Reena. The prison visit also happened in real life, but it occurred after Warren had already confessed. In both instances, though, Suman did something few could comprehend and forgave the young man who aided in the murder of her daughter. She acknowledged the efforts he made to reform after his sentencing and ultimately supported his release from prison on parole.

While her stunning act of forgiveness is often spoken of, Under the Bridge captured the true significance behind it. The series is based on the book of the same name Godfrey wrote examining the case. Before Godfrey’s book, many viewed the perpetrators in the case as monsters, given their youthful age and unthinkable actions. However, she dug deeper and ultimately pointed out how numerous factors influenced the case, including the trauma, neglect, and abuse some of the perpetrators experienced.

While not excusing what happened, Under the Bridge calls for reform by demonstrating how such tragedy may be avoided by fixing the system that failed children like Warren. As Panjabi’s statement confirms, the show isn’t merely entertainment for true crime aficionados, but genuinely seeks to highlight why Godfrey’s humanization of the perpetrators made her work so important. No moment in Under the Bridge highlights the message of Godfrey’s book more than the acknowledgment that there was a cycle of violence that played into Reena’s death and had the power to be broken by human compassion.

Source: LA Times