‘The Chosen’ writers reveal how Ramah scene could have been different

This story contains spoilers for Season 4 of The Chosen.
ORLANDO, Florida — Were there any alternative endings discussed for Ramah? That was a question posed for “The Chosen” writers Dallas Jenkins, Ryan Swanson and Tyler Thompson on Saturday afternoon at the Chosen Insiders Conference.
The death of Ramah devastated some fans. She was engaged to Thomas and her sudden death in Season 4 came as a surprise. Yasmine Al-Bustami, the actress who played Ramah, had told the Deseret News the scene was emotional.
She recalled watching it with her friend Paras Patel, who plays Matthew in the show.
“I just remember both of us were just holding each other during it and that was my reaction,” said Al-Bustami. “I didn’t realize how much I would really want a friend to be there and especially a friend who has become a friend because of the show.”
After the writers were asked the question, there was a short moment of an awkward silence. Swanson broke the silence by saying “the book is finished,” which elicited audience laughter.
“I was not torn actually,” said Jenkins. “We came up with the idea back in Season 1 as an opportunity to illustrate pain from the perspective of one of the actual followers.”
Pain is seen in the people with whom Jesus interacts and encounters, but the thought process here was what if the pain came from one of the disciples? Jenkins said since Ramah was an invented character without an ending in the book (i.e. she’s not in the Bible), they had the opportunity to explore some themes.
Swanson and Thompson said they were unsure of it as Season 4 approached. Jenkins said they did explore alternative endings.
One of the endings the group explored was what if Ramah was seriously wounded and then sent to her father? Jenkins said in that case, she would have been taken away from Jesus. He then asked if Swanson and Thompson could share more of their reasoning as to why they were skeptical of including the scene.
There were secondary concerns about how much they loved the audience and how much they love working with the actress who plays Ramah (Yasmine Al-Bustami is also involved with one of the newly announced projects). But Swanson said the primary concern was not wanting to distract from the central storyline of Jesus and his ministry.
“If the storyline is going to spike to such a degree when everybody’s attention goes to that, and we start to lose the thread of what’s happening for this spectacle, we were afraid that we could lose our way,” said Swanson.
The group discussed the idea and then thought it was a practical storyline.
“The people involved are Dallas, whose direction we trust, whose direction we know is thoughtful, neater, is artistic, is tasteful, demure, some might say,” said Swanson.
As for why the group of writers decided to stick with the plan of showing Ramah dying was for Thomas’ story, said Jenkins. “Because we really didn’t want to take away from this wrestling that we all have today — when Lazarus is raised from the dead, and you do have to wonder, why did Jesus raise some people out of the tomb and not others?”
This was an idea Jenkins said they wanted to explore.
Thomas, sometimes called “Doubting Thomas,” rather famously had some skepticism around Jesus’ Resurrection. Jenkins said they were thinking of that future scene when they made the decision.
Thomas does end up realizing death is conquered, he said. But he sees it in a more dramatic way than the others, and by making this decision, Jenkins said they will be able to say interesting things about conquering death through what they do.