[Shaun]

It happened in the episode that aired last night.

Spoiler:

Spoiler alert: Stop reading if you don’t want to know who died on ‘Family Guy!’

Fox warned us that Family Guy would be killing off a member of the Griffin family on the show’s Nov. 24 episode, but even with advanced notice, nothing could have prepared fans for the loss of such a crucial character. Seriously, not since the death of legendary newswoman Diane Simmons have we been this speechless while discussing Family Guy. So who died, and why? Read on for the tragic truth.

Yes, the Griffins’ beloved dog Brian (voiced by creator Seth MacFarlane) ended up being the character killed off this week’s episode. We learned that Brian had been hit by a car, and unfortunately, Stewie (also voiced by Seth) was unable to go back in time to stop it, as he’d just disassembled his time machine.

Oh, and Brian was “replaced” by a new dog named Vinny, which is also super-ridiculous.

“This was an idea that got pitched in the writers room and it sort of caught fire, and we thought it could be a fun way to shake things up,” executive producer Steve Callaghan tells E! Online. ”We started talking about what the next couple episodes could be and we got very excited about the way this change will affect the family dynamics and the characters.”

Steve explains that killing off a human member of the family would be “too traumatic,” so the writers settled on the dog. As for how Mila Kunis, Seth Green and the other stars reacted to the news, Steve says they were “surprised.” Also, they were “glad it wasn’t them.”