With television being more ambitious and addictive than ever before, it’s hard to deny that we really are in the Golden Age of Television. However, there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of characters exiting shows in body bags.
In the 2015 to 2016 season alone around 242 characters were killed off. Some characters we were glad to see the end of, but the pain of some character deaths have stayed with us. Here are a handful of characters we were sad to see go in the 2015-’16 television season.
ABBIE MILLS (Sleepy Hollow)
No death was more jaw-dropping than the exit of the FOX drama’s female lead Abigail Mills (Nicole Beharie). We said goodbye to Miss Mills in the Season 3 finale after she sacrificed herself to Pandora (Shannyn Sossamon) leaving us to wonder just how Ichabod is going to fair without his badass co-star?
LAUREL LANCE (Arrow)
Laurel’s departure from the CW show came as a huge shock seeing as she was just becoming a fully developed Black Canary, earning her stripes as a vigilante and working through her drug addiction. We also can’t ignore the fact that the Black Canary is a major character in the Green Arrow Comics. While we still mourn, the show’s executive producer Marc Guggenheim was quick to remind fans that “We now live in a world and universe where there is resurrection, parallel earths, time travel and flashbacks… death does not mean goodbye on any of these shows.”
HENRY ALLEN (The Flash)
While we’re on the topic of time travel and parallel earths, another prominent CW death was Henry Allen (John Wesley Shipp). Nothing was more heart wrenching than watching Barry watch his father brutally murdered by the menacing Zoom (Teddy Sears) only to have his Earth-3 doppelganger appear moments later. Will Barry Allen ever catch a break? However, all hope is not lost! With Barry having gone back in time to *finally* save his mother, don’t rush to say sayonara to Henry Allen just yet as John Wesley Shipp is teasing his character’s return.
LINCOLN AND LEXA (The 100)
The 100 saw two big departures this television season that left fans furious.
Lexa was not a main character on the show, but judging from the way the audience responded to her as character, she may as well have been. Alycia Debnam-Carey’s character died taking a bullet meant for Clarke, on accident. The great Heda’s death was easily avoidable and not needed, and ultimately there to remind us that nobody’s safe from Death’s clutches. Yet, we’re left to suspect that Lexa, or whatever is left of her, may very well still exist in some form inside the City of Light.
Lincoln (Ricky Whittle) died not too soon after, executed by Pike while Octavia watched. The official reason for Ricky Whittle’s exit was behind-the-scenes tensions. But it’s not all doom and gloom, as we’ll next see Whittle on-screen in the American Gods miniseries.
LEONARD SNART (Legends of Tomorrow)
After Captain Cold’s long arc evolving from villain to antihero to hero, losing Snart came as a major blow. However, the fact that Wentworth Miller has signed a contract with WBTV to pop up as Leonard Snart on multiple Greg Berlanti-produced shows hints that he probably won’t stay gone for long.
WILL AND RILEY (Scream)
MTV’s adaptation of hit horror film franchise surpassed expectations, but it’s safe to say that no-one is safe in Lakewood.
Riley Marra (Brianne Tju) met her demise after being lured by the killer and had an emotional death on a rooftop. She managed to call her new love Noah and exchange some final words, declaring that she could see their stars (that they had previously seen while stargazing) in the sky.
Connor Weil’s Will Belmont had been a major player in the show. From his dodgy dealings with Jake to his will-they-won’t-they romance with Emma, no-one could have predicted the gruesome end that awaited him and the trauma that followed.
ROBIN HOOD (Once Upon A Time)
Will Regina ever get her happy ending? The Evil Queen’s one true love sacrificed himself on the ABC fantasy series by stepping in front of a crystal blast from Hades. While rumours of Sean Maguire’s troubles with the creative team and crew on set circulated a few months prior, Once Upon A Time‘s team promptly replied that was not the reason for Robin’s death. Whatever the reason, we’ll miss the nobler archer even despite the lack of green tights and pointy hats in his wardrobe.
ETHAN AND KATE (Wayward Pines)
The M. Night Shyamalan produced series was full of shocks, twists, and screams.
Pitched as a mini-series, it wasn’t too much of surprise that leading man Ethan Burke (Matt Dillon) would eventually meet his end. After all, he was always asking too many questions! Yet, it was the heroic manner in which Ethan died that made it memorable and a little bit heartbreaking. Ethan sacrificed his life by detonating bombs in the elevator shaft to stop the monstrous Abbies from getting to those he swore to protect.
After exceeding expectations, Wayward Pines saw itself being renewed for a second season which premiered with one hell of an unexpected death. We knew Carla Gugino’s Kate Hewson would be returning, but we were never sure for how long or in what capacity. Shortly after revisiting the place where paradise is home, we saw an unsettled Kate Hewson slit herself in the throat after expressing no desire to be a part of the world Megan and the First Generation are in favour of.
HODOR (Game of Thrones)
Alas, the TV death that broke our hearts the most was having to bid Kristain Nairn’s gentle giant farewell. Game of Thrones has a body count that’s probably through the roof so it was supposedly foolish to believe that Hodor would ever be safe.
After being touched by the Night’s King in his trippy dream, Bran led the White Walkers and the hordes of undead to the Three-Eyed Raven’s tree. Summer, Leaf and the Raven himself all fell while Meera hauled an unconscious Bran to safety. As they escaped, Meera called for Hodor to “hold the door” shut against the plethora of wights. And hold that door, he did! It’s safe to say we wept excessive amounts when he met his heroic demise.