The deaths of beloved TV characters can shock viewers like nothing else.
They might feel sudden, but they've often been planned years in advance.
So we're here to examine those characters who were doomed from episode one.
Premiering on Starz in 2014, the crime drama Power follows nightclub
owner and drug kingpin James "Ghost" St. Patrick. He's a family man and entrepreneur
who poses as a pillar of the community on the strength of his rags-to-riches façade.
Secretly, his best friend is his partner in literal crime, and the first season sees him
embark upon an extramarital affair with his middle school sweetheart.
Ghost is brought to life by actor Omari Hardwick, who entices viewers with his sharp suits,
menacing focus, and chiseled good looks. Ghost's secret life of crime is destined to catch up to
him in the end, though. In the final season, he's shot dead by his son Tariq. As it turns out, Power
creator Courtney A. Kemp always planned to have Ghost die. As she wrote in the Los Angeles Times,
"The series is about consequences for their actions. The characters always
cause their own deaths, one way or another."
Sons of Anarchy premiered on FX in 2008, hooking fans with its killer characters
and gruesome scenes of gun violence and gang battles, and lead character Jax Teller quickly
became beloved by fans. As the prodigal son who's set to take charge of the California motorcycle
crew his father once led, he must manage his overbearing mother, life as a new father,
and his own torn emotions over the one who got away. Over the course of seven seasons,
he works to transform the trajectory of his crew so that violence and criminal activity
are no longer at the forefront of their lives. During this time, he and his loved ones endure
plenty of terrifying struggles. In the end, he sacrifices himself for the well-being of the crew.
This sounds like a lot for writers to put a character through, but in a 2014 interview
with E!, executive producer Paris Barclay made it clear that this was always the plan for Jax.
As he put it,
"I knew that he wasn't going to end up at a carnival buying snow cones for his sons
and that was the last shot. I always knew this was going to end badly."
"What happens at the end of the day?"
"The bad guys lose."
In 2018, the Sons of Anarchy legacy continued with the premiere of the spinoff Mayans M.C.,
which centers on a tight-knit motorcycle crew in Mexico.
It remains to be seen if the lead actor on that show will also experience a shocking demise.
Michael K. Williams is a phenomenal actor who often portrays conflicted individuals
who tend to overshadow the protagonists. From Chalky White on Boardwalk Empire
to Montrose Freeman on Lovecraft Country, he seamlessly transforms into dark and enigmatic
characters that audiences grow to love. On the HBO series The Wire, he played Omar Little, a
stick-up guy who robs drug dealers and keeps them on their toes. The Baltimore-set crime drama has
been hailed as a classic and frequently cited as one of the greatest shows in television history.
Omar stands out as an especially great part of the series, thanks to the strategic way he runs
the streets, his well-rounded moral compass, and his unique status as a gay man. TV viewers
in the early 2000s had truly never before seen a queer character like Omar on a gritty crime show.
In the final season, Omar is killed in a convenience store by a young drug dealer.
In 2008, Williams shared his feelings about his character's death with MTV News,
as he revealed that he'd always known it was going to happen. As he put it,
"It took me for a loop. I was also saddened. Not that he was dying, 'cause when I got the job,
they told me season one Omar was only going to be around for seven episodes. 'After that,
expect a bullet.' It still hurt. Five years, you lock with this dude, you know the dude real well."
He added,
"The people of Baltimore, I got to know the streets, how they walk, how they eat,
how they dress. I soaked all of that up. I feel like I lost one of my best friends."
"A man got to have a code."
In House of Cards' first season, newspaper journalist Zoe Barnes is the key to Frank
Underwood's demise. Underwood holds many secrets. Some have the power to destroy his growing
political career, while others could destroy his calculated marriage. Zoe is also seduced
by the criminal congressman. As she learns more about him, she shares her intel with her boss,
but she also grows fearful as Frank begins to stalk and antagonize her. He ultimately follows
her into a subway station and pushes her onto the tracks. Her death is swift, cold, and shocking.
House of Cards executive producer David Fincher usually employs a dark visual style to his films,
so perhaps it's no surprise that his foray into TV followed suit. Nevertheless, fans were blown
away by the sinister scene. When series creator Beau Willimon spoke with The Hollywood Reporter
in 2014, he revealed that Zoe's death had been planned from the beginning. As he explained,
"We told Kate Mara from the get-go.
I always knew that Zoe was going to meet her maker in the first episode of season two."
He later added,
"She is so wonderful that as we got closer to doing it,
we reconsidered for a second, then we stuck to our guts."
Amazon's The Boys explores an alternate universe in which people with extraordinary gifts are
labeled "Supes," and attract the attention of conglomerates. The powerful corporation Vought
International has created a team of celebrity Supes called the Seven, who fight crime and
work to save humanity. But this work is actually a façade. When the cameras and capes are off,
many members of the Seven lead challenging lives, and are even dangers to humanity.
Take for example, Lamplighter, a former member of the Seven played by Shawn Ashmore who has the
ability to set things ablaze. He's mentioned quite a bit in season one, though he doesn't
actually appear until season two. The truth about his complex allegiances is eventually revealed,
and then he sets himself on fire. After the episode aired, Ashmore told TV Line,
"It was such a bold choice. The way that I look at death scenes is if you’re gonna go
out on a show or on a film, it better be good, and it better be impactful."
When Lost premiered on ABC in 2004, it seemed fairly straightforward, as a group of plane
crash survivors came together to figure out life on a deserted island. But over the course of
its six-season run, it became clear over and over again that it was anything but simple.
There are supernatural elements to the island, and every survivor has a complicated past that
led them there. Ana Lucia Cortez, for one, was on the plane's tail section
and emerged as a leader in season two. She puts her LAPD skills to use on the island, but she
also gains a lot of enemies in doing so. She's eventually killed by fellow survivor Michael.
In a 2006 interview with TV Guide, Lost showrunners Damon Lindelof
and Carlton Cuse discussed details about Ana Lucia's arc. As they developed the character
and put the casting word out, they heard from Michelle Rodriguez's agent that she
was interested in the role, but only for one season. As Lindelof recalled,
"She wanted to do one kick-ass arc, as she described it,
and we basically started to wrap our brains around her energy and say,
'Yeah, we'll bring you on the show and then we'll kill you off at the end of the year.'"
"I can't do this anymore."
When Tara Knowles pops up on Sons of Anarchy in Charming, California, Jax Teller is stunned. They
loved each other in high school, but Tara left to focus on her studies. She comes back as a doctor,
finding Jax in pretty bad shape, with a drug-addicted girlfriend and a new
baby. Despite their hiccups and hurdles, the sweethearts manage to stick it out, as they
get married and have a son of their own. But Tara is always at odds with Jax's overbearing mother,
Gemma. For her part, Gemma is wary of Tara's true intentions, while also desiring to
maintain her position as the most important woman in her son's life. She ends up killing
Tara while acting on false information. Jax is devastated and never recovers from the pain.
Katey Sagal, who played Gemma and is married to show creator Kurt Sutter, had hoped that
he would change his mind about Tara's death. But Sutter stood firm, having decided that
Jax needed the major emotional shift that this provided as the series approached its ending.
Over the course of Lost's six seasons, viewers discover that Jack Shephard is more than the
self-appointed leader of the survivors. He's also been connected to them for years. Through
flashbacks, these links are revealed, as are the shameful mistakes of his past that led
him to Oceanic Flight 815. He grapples with his estranged relationship with his father,
his love for Kate, and his animosity for Sawyer, who challenges Jack's leadership.
Early versions of Lost actually killed Jack in the pilot and made Kate the group's leader. As
critic Alan Sepinwall wrote in his book The Revolution Was Televised,
"In the vein of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho [...] they planned to pull the rug out from under the
audience by killing Jack midway through the first episode, forcing Kate to take charge."
Of course, Jack instead lives and gets off the island, only to return with other survivors
who made it home. The big mystery of the show ends up being whether the survivors are dead,
existing in an alternate universe, or experiencing some kind of strange shared dream.
And ultimately, Jack does end up biting the bullet, just much later than originally planned.
The FX drama Pose is loud, proud, and unapologetic. Set in New York beginning
in the late 80s, it follows the lives of gay and transgender people who participate in the city's
underground ballroom scene, brought to life by a cast that consists of multiple trans actors.
In 2019, co-creator Ryan Murphy and producer Janet Mock talked with Deadline about the
decision to have fan favorite Candy Ferocity killed in the second season.
Played by Angelica Ross, Candy is a member of the House of Ferocity who's often mocked
by ballroom announcer Pray Tell. But she's true to her name as a ferocious force to be reckoned with,
and her death is deeply felt in the community. Mock told Deadline,
"Our hardest thing was which character [to kill]. So once we figured out which
character [...] we kind of plotted the whole first half of the season around losing Candy
and really showing what that would look like."
The decision was necessary to the story as they had built it, but Mock and Murphy also felt it
was important to shed light on the violence that trans women were facing then and still face today.
"We will never again get the opportunity to
tell her what she meant to us, to thank her for what she gave us."
On the British period drama Downton Abbey, Lady Sybil Crawley, as played by Jessica Brown-Findlay,
is the youngest daughter of Robert and Cora Crawley, the Earl and Countess of Grantham.
Along with her very different sisters, she maneuvers through high society and the complicated
social pressures that come with her position. She makes great efforts to set herself apart,
intermingling with classes deemed lesser than her own. She even falls in love with an Irish
driver named Tom, spurning the turned-up noses of her aristocratic family. The
couple are able to welcome a daughter, but Sybil tragically dies from childbirth complications.
Worried about being stuck on a never-ending series, Brown-Findlay set her terms well before
the show began. As Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes told Vanity Fair in 2015,
"Jessica had said she was going to leave right from the beginning.
She said, 'I'm doing three years, then I'm leaving.' So that was all worked out."
"Is there anything we should do, Mr. Carson?"
"Carry on, Daisy, as we all must."
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