Archie Panjabi reacts to Kalinda and Alicia's final 'Good Wife' scene

When The Good Wife began, Kalinda Sharma and Alicia Florrick were strangers. But by the end of the show’s first season, they were best friends. Well, at least until Alicia found out about Kalinda’s past with her husband. Jump forward to season 5, and suddenly, fans hadn’t seen the two of them in a room together in quite some time. And by season 6, Kalinda was leaving the show altogether.

But in order to stay true to the friendship the characters built in season 1, the show made sure to get Kalinda and Alicia together for one final scene before Kalinda’s exit. It was a big deal… until it was later revealed that actresses Archie Panjabi and Julianna Margulies didn’t actually film that scene in the same room. Instead, their characters’ farewell was constructed using a split-screen.

At the premiere for her film San Andreas, Panjabi spoke about that final scene for the first time, telling E! News, “All I can say is this: the decision making process is not something I’m privy to.”

She then told People that she was surprised by the fan response to Kalinda’s exit. “It was such an easy decision for me [say goodbye to Kalinda] because I had made up my mind, but when I actually left, and I listened to the reaction of the fans, I felt like I betrayed them,” she said. “Just seeing the reaction was a little bit of a surprise. Not that I didn’t know that there was a lot of love for her, but just hearing the way that people spoke about her, I was getting stopped in the street and I felt terribly guilty.”

The one bit of good news she revealed? Panjabi kept a pair of Kalinda’s killer boots.

Read more over at People.