In real life, few of us would ever root for someone to die, but it's a completely different
story when we’re watching TV.
Knowing it's all just pretend allows us to feel pretty good when we watch the bad guys
get what's coming to them.
Here are some moments we cheered at the screen while seeing despicable characters bite the
dust.
As you'd expect, there are massive spoilers ahead.
Steve Newlin - True Blood
Steve Newlin may have been a vampire, but he acted like a weasel.
Initially part of an anti-vampire crusade, Newlin changes his tune after becoming a vampire
himself.
He pulls a number of dirty tricks over the show's first six seasons, but Newlin finally
gets his just desserts in the season six episode "Life Matters," roasting to death in the sun
while screaming his professions of love for fellow vampire Jason Stackhouse—all in front
of his adamantly anti-vampire ex-wife.
Fangs for nothing, Steve.
George Foyet - Criminal Minds
Criminal Minds plumbed into some pretty dark depths with the story of George Foyet, a.k.a.
the Boston Reaper.
This psycho cut a bloody swath of destruction for years, tormenting the cops on his trail,
until the case comes to a tragic conclusion in the show's fifth season.
During Criminal Minds' 100th episode, FBI agent Aaron "Hotch" Hotchner finally catches
Foyet—but only after he murders Hotch's wife.
In a blind rage, Hotch beats Foyet to death with his bare hands, leaving millions of stunned
viewers wishing they tuned into a rerun of Dharma and Greg instead.
Viserys Targaryen - Game of Thrones
If you've ever read George R.R.
Martin's bestselling series, you know there’s a lot going on, and it would take far too
much space to detail the royal intrigue leading up to Viserys Targaryen's death in Game of
Thrones.
Suffice it to say that aside from being the exiled son of an assassinated king, Viserys
is also a pretty magnificent jerk.
Even though it was still only the first season of the show when he drunkenly challenged his
only real ally, the horselord Khal Drogo, he'd already earned more than enough bad-guy
points to deserve death by molten metal crown, fit for a king-sized tool.
Of course, Viserys isn’t the only person in Game of Thrones with a death wish...
Joffrey Baratheon - Game of Thrones
In a way, it's hard to blame Joffrey Baratheon for being such a sniveling little creep.
After all, he was the product of inbreeding, and growing up in a royal court meant he was
constantly spoiled.
Still, that doesn't excuse his bloodthirsty rule as king, or his violence against women.
Committed to getting his own way at all costs, Joffrey proved a consistent irritant during
Game of Thrones' first four seasons, so it came as a delightful relief when he was poisoned
by his own grandmother-in-law at his wedding.
Of all the many, many deaths Game of Thrones has given viewers, Joffrey's extermination
has to be the most satisfying.
Robert Romano - ER
Unlike most of the characters on this list, ER's Robert Romano wasn't a killer, or even
a criminal—he was just the token smug doctor that every hospital show has to have.
It's to actor Paul McCrane's credit that Romano ended up being such a satisfying, love-to-hate-'em
thorn in the staff's side.
After being introduced in the show's fourth season, he manages to offend, alienate, and
insult just about every other character, all while adding to the top-rated show's consistently
riveting drama.
Romano goes out with a bang in Season 10, paying for his TV sins by being crushed under
a helicopter that falls off the hospital roof.
At that point, we were more worried about the helicopter.
Philip Blake - The Walking Dead
Like any good sociopath, The Walking Dead's Governor, Philip Blake, is enough of a smooth
talker to keep his true nature hidden from his friends and allies, for a short time at
least.
During the show's third and fourth seasons, Blake's bloodlust and thirst for power are
revealed in small increments.
By the time we figure out he's a murderous lunatic who keeps his own zombified daughter
restrained in his apartment, we're pretty much counting down the days until his death.
Even for The Walking Dead, the Governor's demise is pretty gruesome, but if viewers
ever wanted to see anyone get stabbed in the back, shot in the head, and left in a field
to be dismembered, it was ol’ One Eye.
Speaking of putting your eye out…
Gustavo Fring - Breaking Bad
If you start selling meth for a living, you're bound to run into some pretty unsavory characters.
Case in point: Gus Fring, the powerful, lethal dealer who starts tightening a noose around
Walter White’s neck almost immediately after he reaches out to him about distributing his
perfect product.
Throughout the show's third and fourth seasons, Gus and Walter fight each other for the upper
hand in their relationship, with enough twists, turns, and double-crosses for an entire series.
We felt a powerful rush of satisfaction when Walter finally got rid of Gus by booby-trapping
an enemy's wheelchair with a bomb that took off half of Gus’s face… and a small chunk
of a nursing home.
Real nice, Walt.
Arthur Mitchell - Dexter
John Lithgow went from playing 3rd Rock from the Sun's doofy sitcom dad to giving us the
creeps as Arthur Mitchell, the spine-tingling serial murderer known as the "Trinity Killer"
in the fourth season of Dexter.
Lithgow's soft-spoken demeanor made him the perfect choice to play a guy whose near-perfect
suburban existence masks a terrifying urge to kill.
This helped fill the entire season with a steadily mounting sense of dread that still
lingered even after Dexter manages to finally put an end to Mitchell's murderous ways.
In a sickening twist, the show undercut the viewer's relief over the Trinity Killer's
death by revealing that Dexter caught Mitchell too late to prevent him from committing his
last murder: Dexter's own wife, Rita.
Ralph Cifaretto - The Sopranos
A career criminal whose tendency toward violent outbursts was overlooked because of his ability
to get things done, Ralphie was a longtime burr in Tony's saddle.
If Sopranos fans hated Ralph after he murdered a stripper in the parking lot of the gang's
favorite club, they really couldn't stand him after he started a stable fire that killed
a horse he owned with Tony.
It was the last straw for Tony, who offed Ralphie with his own bare hands and disposed
of the body in pieces.
And as Viserys Targaryen taught us, you don't want to mess with a dude and his horses.
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