Of course, what the actor didn't expect when he gave notice of his intent to leave was for his character to find himself in the arms of his girlfriend's mother, Liza! But he's happy to be going out with a bang (yeah, pun intended). "It was pretty wild. They'd been building to it for a long time, and then it all kind of exploded in one week!" he says, adding that he's pretty sure the writers had already made the decision to take the pair in a romantic direction before news of his exit broke. "Because I was leaving, it kind of gave them reason to do it now! But it wasn't out of nowhere; it came out of each of our characters' mutual pain and what we were going through. It wasn't just a sudden thing that happened, but it was sudden in that it's just one of those things that happens that you can't explain and you can't stop. And it happened not because you're plotting to be a terrible person, but because you're in a vulnerable place and something just pops up.

"I had a great time doing all those scenes," Wittrock continues. "I really felt like I got to show a big range, like I got to really exercise and go through all the levels of shame, guilt, fear, excitement, all that stuff."

Moving On
Now that he's done filming at AMC, Wittrock has already begun taking his acting career in a different direction, both with auditions as well as digging even deeper into his theater company, The Mechanical Theatre Group. "I'm going to be auditioning for as many films as I can and also for pilot season, and I'm going to be directing with my theater group," he says of his future plans. "And on top of all that, it's possible I'll be playing Romeo this summer in Massachusetts."

But no matter what the future holds, the actor says he'll always remember AMC and the love that fans have given him. "I'd like to extend my gratitude and say thanks so much for putting up with Damon through everything he's done," he says. "I'm really going to miss everything!"

Look for Wittrock's final appearance on Friday, January 28.