Will Finding Carter's Max Live or Die? Alex Saxon Teases the Fallout From That Shocking Gunshot

After getting shot by Carter's boyfriend Crash, Max is clinging to life on MTV's hit drama. Will he survive?

By Sydney Bucksbaum Sep 09, 2014 6:27 PMTags
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Crash (Caleb Ruminer), you are dead to us.

We don't care how cute you are on Finding Carter. You shot Max (Alex Saxon), and that's just unforgiveable.

At the end of last week's shocking episode, Carter (Kathryn Prescott) was all set to run away with her boyfriend Crash, but wanted to say goodbye to her BFF Max one last time so he could get a message to her "mom"/kidnapper Lori (Milena Govich) before she disappeared. But Crash got impatient, interrupted her conversation with Max and held him up at gunpoint, demanding all the money in the cash register of the convenience store that Max works at so he and Carter would be set to start their lives somewhere else.

And the previously adorably dumb Crash tried to reassure Carter the safety of the gun was on by pulling the trigger when the gun was pointed at Max, and the gun went off. And Max went down.

Yeah, we're still not over that chilling final scene of the episode where Max was clinging to life in the hospital, and all of Carter's family was anxiously waiting to find out his fate from the doctors working to save him. We couldn't wait until tonight's episode to find out if the sweet, lovable and all-around amazing Max will live or die, so we got Saxon on the line to talk about the fallout from that shocking gunshot.

Saxon revealed to us that we won't have to wait too long to find out Max's fate. "We're going to pick up right away," Saxon says. "We left on a big cliffhanger so we don't know what's happening with Max or how the rest of the family dynamics are going to continue. There's a lot that's going to happen and a lot that we need to wrap up in the last couple of episodes."

But as much as we tried to get any kind of hint from Saxon on whether or not Max will survive his surgery, he wasn't spilling any secrets. "I can't really tell you anything concretely other than I was on the same ride that you guys were with knowing and finding out what's going to happen," Saxon teases.

While he couldn't give away the resolution to last week's huge cliffhanger, he was able to tell us how Max's situation will affect those around him, specifically Carter and Taylor (Anna Jacoby-Heron). "This is really going to put another huge strain on Taylor and Carter's relationship," Saxon says. "They were thrown into the mix together at the beginning of the series when Carter went to live with her real family and Taylor's been dealing with her estranged twin sister all of a sudden being a part of their family and affecting their lives all over again, but they were finally starting to get to a good place together. But then Carter's boyfriend shot Taylor's boyfriend, so we'll see how that plays out."

Sam Urdank/MTV

Saxon reveals that Carter and Taylor won't the only ones struggling to cope with what's going on with Max, since the crouton-making redhead has become a part of Carter's family.

"The great thing about Max is he has such great, really unique and wonderful relationships with each family member," Saxon says. "He and Grant (Zac Pullam) have a strong, brotherly-like bond and Max getting mortally wounded like that will shake up Grant. And of course it's going to play into Carter's relationship with her mom and how she's going to handle Crash now. And also where is Crash? There's a lot of things we need to figure out."

According to Saxon, Max getting shot is going to have major ramifications for the rest of the season. "There's been a lot of chaos and a lot of drama in the dynamics with the family as well as the friend group so far but this is such a jarring moment that everyone is going to stop and re-evaluate," he says. "It gives everyone pause and they have to figure out how they're going to move forward from such a traumatic event. I'm looking forward to seeing how all of that plays out."

As for filming the scene where Crash shoots Max, Saxon had one word to describe it: intense.

"That is definitely the word for it," Saxon says with a laugh. "We shot it at night and everybody knew that was coming. We had other scenes to shoot first that were vital but we were all just waiting for the actual gunplay to come in. Otherwise, I'd be lying if I didn't say it was fun on a certain level as an actor to get to play that physical stuff and work with the special effects guys and work with the stunt team to make sure everything looked right and that everyone was safe while we were shooting it. My memories of it are that it was very intense but there was a calmness and a confidence throughout."

The first time Saxon watched the scene play out onscreen, it was twice as difficult to watch because he was watching it with someone very close to him. "I was struck by how gripping that sequence was, certainly, when the gunshot happens, because I was actually doing ADR back in Kansas City and my dad had come with me," Saxon says. "To see him shaken up by it, even though we obviously know that it's acting and it's the show, it was still hard for him to watch. We told my mom and my sister what was coming and they opted, probably wisely, not to see it. It's eerie."

Unlike the rest of us who found out Max's life would be in danger as soon as the gun went off, Saxon had a heads up in advance that his character might not make it to the end of the season. "I had a sit-down with Terri [Minsky], the executive producer, and she laid it out that there was some turbulence ahead for Max," Saxon says. "I guess I found out early on, but I didn't really know details, just that it was an eventuality. And honestly, it was a little heartbreaking. I felt like I had gotten in with such a great group of people there and we were having a wonderful time shooting this series out in Atlanta together. So to know that that could be put in jeopardy was a little heart-breaking at the time, but I had a job to do. So I kept showing up and having a good time while I could have it."

We're crossing our fingers that you get to keep on showing up and having a good time, Saxon. Max can't die! (If we keep saying that over and over again, it has to come true, right?)

Finding Carter airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on MTV.