Picspam - Anyone Can Die Trope
CHALLENGE 20 TROPES @ picspammy
Anyone Can Die - Television Edition
Spoilers for all seasons of: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, OZ, and Torchwood. This is a trope all about death, there will be death ... very inventive and graphic death, please be warned.
Anyone Can Die - Most of the time when you finally grasp who the main characters of the story are, you can expect that these characters will survive through the end of the story. That is not this trope. This is where no one is exempt from being killed, even if they are a main character.
I think this may be one of my all-time favorite tropes. Not because I like seeing characters die, but because it make the show feel real. If I'm watching a show where someone is a spy, or cop, or warrior people should DIE. If you are watching a show where the stakes are high and there are battles (supposedly to the death), some main characters shouldn't make it ... the odds just work that way. Otherwise there's no fear as an audience, if you always know the hero, or heroes, are safe why watch? You know good will always conquer evil and everyone will live happily ever after.
I have selected four shows that I feel use this trope very well. They are obviously not the only shows that do this, they aren't even the only shows I watch that use this trope but these are the ones I've decided to showcase.
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
I think this show really did a good job of keeping you on your toes. It may be fairly obvious by the end of the first few episodes those characters they wouldn't kill off permanently (Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles), but that doesn't mean that the remainder of the cast was safe. They also didn't go and kill everyone off for no reason. It was strategic and just often enough to remind you that this is a show about the battle between good and evil. I feel that the deaths I've highlighted below, as much as they may have hurt, all had a purpose.
I think Joss set a precedent with Jesse. Just because you're friendly with the core cast doesn't mean your safe, in fact it probably puts you more at jeopardy. This was a show I watch all the way through it's first running on the air, I also wasn't big on fandom back then so I really didn't read anything about the show or who was going to be in the main cast. I think it made this death all the more, not quite shocking, but moving (maybe) to me. This is Xander and Willow's best friend, since they were little ... And not even two episodes in and he's dead ... TWICE.
Jenny was an important death for me. This one was shocking, it hurt to see her killed. Even though she wasn't totally honest and on the up-and-up she was trying to help. Her death was emotional for the characters. It was really the first one (I think) that we see that really effects everyone, I know Jesse was sad but his death didn't effect the group as a whole. It's a death that kinda draws a line in the sand (Xander feeling that Giles is fully in the right to go after Angel and gang), it breaks Giles, it's the final straw that pushes Buffy to realize what she needs to do. Oh Ms. Calendar it sucks you got killed off so soon, but your death was important.
I sobbed through this episode. I am not ashamed to admit that. The Body is one of my top Buffy episodes ever and quite possibly one of my top episodes of TV ever. Because of Joyce's death Buffy needed to grow up and become an adult. I feel she was always stunted in the adult aspect of her life. Yes she does save the world and all that, but I really feel like she didn't actually grow up until this happens. She was forced to and though she falters and messes up She becomes an adult because of this event. I think the most emotional reaction to Joyce's death (besides Buffy's) is Anya's. That was such a great way for Joss to show the confusion and pointlessness of death ... maybe pointlessness is the wrong word ... I can't think of another one right now. But the reaction Anya has is so pure and real for her character, she just doesn't understand. I think it also shows some peoples unwillingness to talk about death, Anya almost reacts like a confused child ... the others are the adults that want her to be quite and stop asking questions, because death isn't something you talk about. Did I mention how heartbreaking this episode is?
Again, shocking! It's not about killing off a few characters every season, it's about hitting you right in the gut when you least expect it (and of one of the sweetest and nicest characters ever). It was perfect, they had just made up, everything was going so well, we love each other, the BAM! Shot through the heart. Now personally I wasn't a huge fan of the evil!Willow storyline, just didn't rub me the right way .... but this was totally the way to start it off. If there's one thing to turn someone bad, it's killing their lover right in front of them.
These two are together because they kinda represent the same thing for me. Ending the show with a bang (AKA death) and character growth and sacrifice. Anya finally gets what it is to be human, she wants to protect and fight for those she loves. Spike wants so badly to prove his love for Buffy and be a hero. They both go out so well. A series like this should end with characters we love dying and fighting the good fight, it's what this show is all about. Saving the world and the sacrifices those make that do it.
ANGEL
Since this was a spin-off of BtVS I've always felt that it had an automatic carryover of the precedent Joss set in Buffy. I personally don't think this show did "Anyone Can Die" as well as Buffy did, but it did okay.
Now I loved this character. He was there to guide Angel, he helped Cordelia to become more human and caring, he was awesome. For me this one death carried through the whole show, it's one of the main reason this show is an "Anyone Can Die" show to me. You kill off a character like Doyle in such a heroic way and it resonates. I also LOVE that they bring back the tape of Doyle doing the Angel Investigations commercial in the final season with Angel and Cordy talking about how things have changed (and not for the better).
See now the characters that Joss killed off on Angel were ones that I genuinely loved. Fred started out as this very strange slightly crazy person, and she developed and grew into the beautiful strong quirky loving woman. I feel the absolute worst thing about her death is that her soul actually burns up. She doesn't die and go to heaven, or get reincarnated, or even exist within the creature that takes over ... her soul is burned to oblivion never ever to be seen again. If that's not a brutal death I really don't know what is.
I make no point in hiding the fact that I really really HATE what Joss did to Cordelia in the later seasons of Angel. Took a character I loved and made her someone I wished they will kill off, they did the next best thing and put her in a coma ... I'm really glad they did that instead of killing her because her return in "You're Welcome" is fantastic. She is there to give Angel the much needed kick in the ass and perspective he needed. She got to go out on such a high note and that just makes me so happy. And she brings up Doyle, who as mentioned before I loved.
Wes falls under the same category as Spike and Anya, if you're gonna have a final battle in a show like this gotta kill off some of your characters. I love Illyria in this scene, because of Wesley she has somehow grown a conscience. Maybe not all of Fred was burned into oblivion after all. It's just such a touching scene.
OZ
I will say this here and now, I really don't know if any show does "Anyone Can Die" quite as well as OZ (my opinion). You just don't know who will die. It is a fact that no one is safe. Even the characters that are established as the "main cast" throughout the show can and do die. There are a couple lucky fucks that make it through, but seriously it's just a handful ... and this is an ensemble show, a HUGE ensemble. I LOVE it! It made watching the show that much more exciting. If someone was shanked, it doesn't matter who it was, you as a viewer truly questioned if they would die. If it was left as a cliffhanger and their life was in the balance, you mourned their death because you really didn't know if they would live or not. I've chosen a very small select of some of the characters that are killed during the course of OZ.
For a show about killers and rapists and robbers and really just not very friendly people, I liked Dino. He was an ass, sure, but there was just something inherently charismatic about him that drew me in. I watched this first episode thinking, "ok so there's a guy named Beecher who just got here, Vern who's a Nazi ass, a couple gang leaders, a Muslim leader name Said, the main character we've seen on screen and learned about Dino, and some Irish ass that's the reason Dino is locked up in the first place." So imagine my HUGE fuckin' surprise when Dino is KILLED (burned alive, I might add) at the end of the first episode. It was like getting punched in the gut, I liked this guy. He was one of the few characters I had decided I liked, then he's dead! What the fuck!
Speaking of gang leaders ... seriously just don't sign up for the job, you will die. I seriously can't think of one leader that lives through the show. It's a wonderful constant to have the leadership changing hands so much. Different characters have different dynamics together. Shakes things up, keeps things interesting.
Now this is a true rivalry. Vern continuously rapes, humiliates, and tortures Beecher throughout this show. Beecher in turn humiliates and tortures Vern. It really is a never ending horrible cycle. And their families pay the highest price. Beecher's wife Gen is the first victim, we never really do learn if she did commit suicide or if Vern really did hire someone to make it look that way. Then Beecher manipulates Vern and his son Andy, Vern ends up getting Andy the drugs he ODs on. In retaliation Vern gets his other son Hank to kidnaps Toby's kids, killing his son Gary. To which Beecher orders a hit on Hank. Then quite awhile later an Aryan trying to earn his place kills Beecher's father. The only one killed, that wasn't because of Vern or Beecher, was Hanks wife ... who died in a bus crash. Seriously, don't be a Beecher, or Schillinger.
Groves was a character we were introduced to in episode one. For me, personally, he was totally comic relief. He had some of the best lines season one and he's obliviousness to everything was kind of endearing. This was a death I really wish hadn't happened, just because I thought the character was so nifty ... but again, just goes to show anyone and everyone will die. Metzger on the other hand, I didn't like. Beecher kills him as payback for helping to break his arms and legs. Didn't quite see this coming because he was such a good bad guy, but like I said ... not sad about this death.
Like many characters that die in this show, Kenny's death was very unexpected and sudden. Kenny had been around since season one, hell he made it pretty far getting all the way to season four. He was picking on a French inmate who turned out to be kinda crazy, Adebisi get's French-y a gun and BAM, no more Kenny. Gotta say, this one I wasn't sad about ... Ever since Kenny picked on Rebadow, I kinda hated Kenny.
On the flip side, I really liked Adebisi. He was a much more horrible human being than Kenny, but man he would draw you in. This goes down as one of the most shocking deaths to me in all of OZ. He was a crazy good character, I was truly stunned that they would kill him off. He was able to walk this very fine line of being just about pure evil and then he'd hit you with something like, "sometimes it's good to be human," in response to Kenny's wanting to steal the money the inmates raised to send Rebadow's dying grandson to Disney World. I really do think this is the death that turned everything around, you might have been feeling a bit comfortable that the "main cast" was safe from being killed off, then Adebisi is killed and you know all bets are off.
This death was just about as shocking to me as Adebisi's. And I think it was just as shocking to the other characters on the show. I mean, Adebisi was a leader of a gang ... he was all about drugs and killing. Hill on the other hand kept to himself in a way. He was social and got along with everyone, but I really wouldn't say he necessarily had enemies (at least not in the way most of the other inmates did). As you can see in the pictures the other inmates are stunned at Hill's being stabbed. They may not have even liked him, but he really wasn't a threat to any of them and I always felt the other inmates had a respect for Hill that none of the other inmates really had. On top of all this (as to reasons why Hill's death was shocking) he narrates the freakin' show! The last shot of the episode (which was also the season finale) is the glass box with Hill's wheelchair and it's empty. You as a viewer don't even know if the character is coming back to narrate the freakin' show.
I think what was so shocking about Said's death wasn't that it happend, but how it happened. As a viewer I think we came to expect that he would be killed in a fight of some sort, or defending someone. Not killed by Joel Grey in the visitors room where Said thinks he's meeting a journalist. Now Schillinger's death was kinda poetic. We kept being pulled back and forth on if Keller was going to help Vern kill Toby or if he was going to help Toby kill Vern. I know I personally always felt he would help Toby (because in his own fucked up way he did love Toby, in his own VERY fucked up way), but in all honesty with this show (and it's proved this time and time again) you just never really know until it happens. Anywho Keller does help Toby (even though Toby didn't want to kill Schillinger) and his "prop" shank is real.
The single most heartbreaking death on OZ, and one of the most heartbreaking deaths in all of television. "A Day in the Death..." which is the episode we think Cyril will be executed is so well acted and so well done, it's just ... wow. There is a stay of execution in that episode, the whole "waiting for the phone to ring and it does at the last minute" thing ... now normally I would feel cheated by this, it's so overdone at times, but you don't feel cheated here because this is OZ ... stays of executions just don't happen in OZ, it's not that kind of show. So instead of feeling cheated I felt relief. Then two episodes later we're back and the O'Reily family has to go through the whole thing again and this time Cyril (even with the mind of a child) knows something's not quite right. I love the unity of the prisoners in the fact that the death penalty for Cyril is wrong and their own form of acknowledging and protesting it. I seriously can't watch these two scene without sobbing like a baby, I'm getting teary eyed just from looking at the pictures.
Now maybe while watching this show you really don't know how they're going to end the Beecher/Keller storyline without either killing one of them or having Beecher end up with life in prison ... even if they were to have Beecher serve life, they still hate and love each other. So point is, I think they had to kill off Keller. He said it himself, he couldn't live without Beecher there in OZ with him. Now my opinion on this seems to be disagreed with just about everywhere, but I really do feel that Keller was (in his own sick way) showing Beecher an act of kindness by killing himself. He knows he can't live without Beecher, he know he'll never let him go, he just can't ... it's not in his nature. So he does the one and only thing he can think of to give Beecher up, he kills himself. Maybe it's that I'm an optimist and a romantic at heart, but I really do think he said "Beechers Out" when he did his swan dive off the second floor and I do believe he was trying to do what was best for Beecher.
So Warden Glyn made it all the way to the final season ... he was SO close to making it out of this show alive. But alas, no ... he dies right near the end. And more on Keller and his crazy love for Beecher, he sent a "package" to the mailroom knowing the Aryans would open it, it's a jar of anthrax (or something of the sort). And that was meant to kill off the remainder of the Aryans wanting to kill Beecher. Of course it kills a couple COs as well and also makes them evacuate the prison ... but it's the thought that counts?
TORCHWOOD
With three deaths Torchwood accomplished the exact same thing OZ did with it's ninty-thousand deaths (granted Torchwood has a much smaller cast, where OZ's cast was HUGE). Now if I didn't already know who the main cast was, killing off Suzie in the first episode would have been a shocker. Always good to keep people on their toes. I feel Torchwood was also able to get around not killing off a major cast member until season two because Jack can't die. So we see the dangers of their work in a safe way, with Jack dying ... just to come back to life.
Owen gets killed off twice in this show. His is the first major character death we see (other than Jack). They waited to hit us with a major character death until we cared about the characters on the show. It hurt and meant more because of the fact that we had feelings for Owen. He was cocky and a bit of an insensitive jackass, but we still liked him. Didn't want him to be killed. Then Jack brings him back and he's undead. Sidenote: may I say how well done they did undead, bones didn't heal, neither did cuts. He couldn't eat or drink and if he did he had to stand on his head and have said food and drink come out via gravity ... very well done and different undead. Then just when Owen starts to be maybe coming to terms with being undead, he gets blown up in a nuclear explosion talking on the phone to Tosh who is ALSO DYING!
After going two seasons without killing off a character (Jack can't die and Owen is now undead) Torchwood hits us with a double whammy that tells us no one is safe by killing off two of the lead characters in one episode. Tosh dies a heroic death, but that doesn't make it any less painful.
Oh so you thought you were safe from losing a main character in Children of Earth because we just lost Tosh and Owen at then end of the last season, nope ... you were wrong. You thought that if anyone was going to die it would be Rhys or maybe even Gwen ... I mean, they would never think of killing of Jack's boyfriend ... my favorite character ... Ianto ... right? Well guess what, I was wrong. Gosh darn that was a damn good death though. And I respect and trust the creators of this show enough to understand why it had to be Ianto. There is no way Jack could have done what was needed to be done to save the world if Ianto was still alive. And on top of that it would be hypocritical of me to be mad about them killing Ianto off when I really do believe that "Anyone Can Die" is so important for this very reason. It rips your heart out to have certain characters killed off, Ianto was that character for me (as was Cyril from OZ). It hurts to see these characters die and that's what good TV is all about. Not just showing you what you want to see, but making you feel, making you think, making you question. That is why television is so fantastic, you become a part of this world that is created for you. You learn to love and hate these characters. You come to care about the things that happen to these characters. And I really do feel that within the correct type of show, the "Anyone Can Die" trope is a necessity for it to be good, realistic, and moving television.
Anyone Can Die - Television Edition
Spoilers for all seasons of: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, OZ, and Torchwood. This is a trope all about death, there will be death ... very inventive and graphic death, please be warned.
Anyone Can Die - Most of the time when you finally grasp who the main characters of the story are, you can expect that these characters will survive through the end of the story. That is not this trope. This is where no one is exempt from being killed, even if they are a main character.
I think this may be one of my all-time favorite tropes. Not because I like seeing characters die, but because it make the show feel real. If I'm watching a show where someone is a spy, or cop, or warrior people should DIE. If you are watching a show where the stakes are high and there are battles (supposedly to the death), some main characters shouldn't make it ... the odds just work that way. Otherwise there's no fear as an audience, if you always know the hero, or heroes, are safe why watch? You know good will always conquer evil and everyone will live happily ever after.
I have selected four shows that I feel use this trope very well. They are obviously not the only shows that do this, they aren't even the only shows I watch that use this trope but these are the ones I've decided to showcase.
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
I think this show really did a good job of keeping you on your toes. It may be fairly obvious by the end of the first few episodes those characters they wouldn't kill off permanently (Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles), but that doesn't mean that the remainder of the cast was safe. They also didn't go and kill everyone off for no reason. It was strategic and just often enough to remind you that this is a show about the battle between good and evil. I feel that the deaths I've highlighted below, as much as they may have hurt, all had a purpose.
I think Joss set a precedent with Jesse. Just because you're friendly with the core cast doesn't mean your safe, in fact it probably puts you more at jeopardy. This was a show I watch all the way through it's first running on the air, I also wasn't big on fandom back then so I really didn't read anything about the show or who was going to be in the main cast. I think it made this death all the more, not quite shocking, but moving (maybe) to me. This is Xander and Willow's best friend, since they were little ... And not even two episodes in and he's dead ... TWICE.
Jenny was an important death for me. This one was shocking, it hurt to see her killed. Even though she wasn't totally honest and on the up-and-up she was trying to help. Her death was emotional for the characters. It was really the first one (I think) that we see that really effects everyone, I know Jesse was sad but his death didn't effect the group as a whole. It's a death that kinda draws a line in the sand (Xander feeling that Giles is fully in the right to go after Angel and gang), it breaks Giles, it's the final straw that pushes Buffy to realize what she needs to do. Oh Ms. Calendar it sucks you got killed off so soon, but your death was important.
I sobbed through this episode. I am not ashamed to admit that. The Body is one of my top Buffy episodes ever and quite possibly one of my top episodes of TV ever. Because of Joyce's death Buffy needed to grow up and become an adult. I feel she was always stunted in the adult aspect of her life. Yes she does save the world and all that, but I really feel like she didn't actually grow up until this happens. She was forced to and though she falters and messes up She becomes an adult because of this event. I think the most emotional reaction to Joyce's death (besides Buffy's) is Anya's. That was such a great way for Joss to show the confusion and pointlessness of death ... maybe pointlessness is the wrong word ... I can't think of another one right now. But the reaction Anya has is so pure and real for her character, she just doesn't understand. I think it also shows some peoples unwillingness to talk about death, Anya almost reacts like a confused child ... the others are the adults that want her to be quite and stop asking questions, because death isn't something you talk about. Did I mention how heartbreaking this episode is?
Again, shocking! It's not about killing off a few characters every season, it's about hitting you right in the gut when you least expect it (and of one of the sweetest and nicest characters ever). It was perfect, they had just made up, everything was going so well, we love each other, the BAM! Shot through the heart. Now personally I wasn't a huge fan of the evil!Willow storyline, just didn't rub me the right way .... but this was totally the way to start it off. If there's one thing to turn someone bad, it's killing their lover right in front of them.
These two are together because they kinda represent the same thing for me. Ending the show with a bang (AKA death) and character growth and sacrifice. Anya finally gets what it is to be human, she wants to protect and fight for those she loves. Spike wants so badly to prove his love for Buffy and be a hero. They both go out so well. A series like this should end with characters we love dying and fighting the good fight, it's what this show is all about. Saving the world and the sacrifices those make that do it.
ANGEL
Since this was a spin-off of BtVS I've always felt that it had an automatic carryover of the precedent Joss set in Buffy. I personally don't think this show did "Anyone Can Die" as well as Buffy did, but it did okay.
Now I loved this character. He was there to guide Angel, he helped Cordelia to become more human and caring, he was awesome. For me this one death carried through the whole show, it's one of the main reason this show is an "Anyone Can Die" show to me. You kill off a character like Doyle in such a heroic way and it resonates. I also LOVE that they bring back the tape of Doyle doing the Angel Investigations commercial in the final season with Angel and Cordy talking about how things have changed (and not for the better).
See now the characters that Joss killed off on Angel were ones that I genuinely loved. Fred started out as this very strange slightly crazy person, and she developed and grew into the beautiful strong quirky loving woman. I feel the absolute worst thing about her death is that her soul actually burns up. She doesn't die and go to heaven, or get reincarnated, or even exist within the creature that takes over ... her soul is burned to oblivion never ever to be seen again. If that's not a brutal death I really don't know what is.
I make no point in hiding the fact that I really really HATE what Joss did to Cordelia in the later seasons of Angel. Took a character I loved and made her someone I wished they will kill off, they did the next best thing and put her in a coma ... I'm really glad they did that instead of killing her because her return in "You're Welcome" is fantastic. She is there to give Angel the much needed kick in the ass and perspective he needed. She got to go out on such a high note and that just makes me so happy. And she brings up Doyle, who as mentioned before I loved.
Wes falls under the same category as Spike and Anya, if you're gonna have a final battle in a show like this gotta kill off some of your characters. I love Illyria in this scene, because of Wesley she has somehow grown a conscience. Maybe not all of Fred was burned into oblivion after all. It's just such a touching scene.
OZ
I will say this here and now, I really don't know if any show does "Anyone Can Die" quite as well as OZ (my opinion). You just don't know who will die. It is a fact that no one is safe. Even the characters that are established as the "main cast" throughout the show can and do die. There are a couple lucky fucks that make it through, but seriously it's just a handful ... and this is an ensemble show, a HUGE ensemble. I LOVE it! It made watching the show that much more exciting. If someone was shanked, it doesn't matter who it was, you as a viewer truly questioned if they would die. If it was left as a cliffhanger and their life was in the balance, you mourned their death because you really didn't know if they would live or not. I've chosen a very small select of some of the characters that are killed during the course of OZ.
For a show about killers and rapists and robbers and really just not very friendly people, I liked Dino. He was an ass, sure, but there was just something inherently charismatic about him that drew me in. I watched this first episode thinking, "ok so there's a guy named Beecher who just got here, Vern who's a Nazi ass, a couple gang leaders, a Muslim leader name Said, the main character we've seen on screen and learned about Dino, and some Irish ass that's the reason Dino is locked up in the first place." So imagine my HUGE fuckin' surprise when Dino is KILLED (burned alive, I might add) at the end of the first episode. It was like getting punched in the gut, I liked this guy. He was one of the few characters I had decided I liked, then he's dead! What the fuck!
Speaking of gang leaders ... seriously just don't sign up for the job, you will die. I seriously can't think of one leader that lives through the show. It's a wonderful constant to have the leadership changing hands so much. Different characters have different dynamics together. Shakes things up, keeps things interesting.
Now this is a true rivalry. Vern continuously rapes, humiliates, and tortures Beecher throughout this show. Beecher in turn humiliates and tortures Vern. It really is a never ending horrible cycle. And their families pay the highest price. Beecher's wife Gen is the first victim, we never really do learn if she did commit suicide or if Vern really did hire someone to make it look that way. Then Beecher manipulates Vern and his son Andy, Vern ends up getting Andy the drugs he ODs on. In retaliation Vern gets his other son Hank to kidnaps Toby's kids, killing his son Gary. To which Beecher orders a hit on Hank. Then quite awhile later an Aryan trying to earn his place kills Beecher's father. The only one killed, that wasn't because of Vern or Beecher, was Hanks wife ... who died in a bus crash. Seriously, don't be a Beecher, or Schillinger.
Groves was a character we were introduced to in episode one. For me, personally, he was totally comic relief. He had some of the best lines season one and he's obliviousness to everything was kind of endearing. This was a death I really wish hadn't happened, just because I thought the character was so nifty ... but again, just goes to show anyone and everyone will die. Metzger on the other hand, I didn't like. Beecher kills him as payback for helping to break his arms and legs. Didn't quite see this coming because he was such a good bad guy, but like I said ... not sad about this death.
Like many characters that die in this show, Kenny's death was very unexpected and sudden. Kenny had been around since season one, hell he made it pretty far getting all the way to season four. He was picking on a French inmate who turned out to be kinda crazy, Adebisi get's French-y a gun and BAM, no more Kenny. Gotta say, this one I wasn't sad about ... Ever since Kenny picked on Rebadow, I kinda hated Kenny.
On the flip side, I really liked Adebisi. He was a much more horrible human being than Kenny, but man he would draw you in. This goes down as one of the most shocking deaths to me in all of OZ. He was a crazy good character, I was truly stunned that they would kill him off. He was able to walk this very fine line of being just about pure evil and then he'd hit you with something like, "sometimes it's good to be human," in response to Kenny's wanting to steal the money the inmates raised to send Rebadow's dying grandson to Disney World. I really do think this is the death that turned everything around, you might have been feeling a bit comfortable that the "main cast" was safe from being killed off, then Adebisi is killed and you know all bets are off.
This death was just about as shocking to me as Adebisi's. And I think it was just as shocking to the other characters on the show. I mean, Adebisi was a leader of a gang ... he was all about drugs and killing. Hill on the other hand kept to himself in a way. He was social and got along with everyone, but I really wouldn't say he necessarily had enemies (at least not in the way most of the other inmates did). As you can see in the pictures the other inmates are stunned at Hill's being stabbed. They may not have even liked him, but he really wasn't a threat to any of them and I always felt the other inmates had a respect for Hill that none of the other inmates really had. On top of all this (as to reasons why Hill's death was shocking) he narrates the freakin' show! The last shot of the episode (which was also the season finale) is the glass box with Hill's wheelchair and it's empty. You as a viewer don't even know if the character is coming back to narrate the freakin' show.
I think what was so shocking about Said's death wasn't that it happend, but how it happened. As a viewer I think we came to expect that he would be killed in a fight of some sort, or defending someone. Not killed by Joel Grey in the visitors room where Said thinks he's meeting a journalist. Now Schillinger's death was kinda poetic. We kept being pulled back and forth on if Keller was going to help Vern kill Toby or if he was going to help Toby kill Vern. I know I personally always felt he would help Toby (because in his own fucked up way he did love Toby, in his own VERY fucked up way), but in all honesty with this show (and it's proved this time and time again) you just never really know until it happens. Anywho Keller does help Toby (even though Toby didn't want to kill Schillinger) and his "prop" shank is real.
The single most heartbreaking death on OZ, and one of the most heartbreaking deaths in all of television. "A Day in the Death..." which is the episode we think Cyril will be executed is so well acted and so well done, it's just ... wow. There is a stay of execution in that episode, the whole "waiting for the phone to ring and it does at the last minute" thing ... now normally I would feel cheated by this, it's so overdone at times, but you don't feel cheated here because this is OZ ... stays of executions just don't happen in OZ, it's not that kind of show. So instead of feeling cheated I felt relief. Then two episodes later we're back and the O'Reily family has to go through the whole thing again and this time Cyril (even with the mind of a child) knows something's not quite right. I love the unity of the prisoners in the fact that the death penalty for Cyril is wrong and their own form of acknowledging and protesting it. I seriously can't watch these two scene without sobbing like a baby, I'm getting teary eyed just from looking at the pictures.
Now maybe while watching this show you really don't know how they're going to end the Beecher/Keller storyline without either killing one of them or having Beecher end up with life in prison ... even if they were to have Beecher serve life, they still hate and love each other. So point is, I think they had to kill off Keller. He said it himself, he couldn't live without Beecher there in OZ with him. Now my opinion on this seems to be disagreed with just about everywhere, but I really do feel that Keller was (in his own sick way) showing Beecher an act of kindness by killing himself. He knows he can't live without Beecher, he know he'll never let him go, he just can't ... it's not in his nature. So he does the one and only thing he can think of to give Beecher up, he kills himself. Maybe it's that I'm an optimist and a romantic at heart, but I really do think he said "Beechers Out" when he did his swan dive off the second floor and I do believe he was trying to do what was best for Beecher.
So Warden Glyn made it all the way to the final season ... he was SO close to making it out of this show alive. But alas, no ... he dies right near the end. And more on Keller and his crazy love for Beecher, he sent a "package" to the mailroom knowing the Aryans would open it, it's a jar of anthrax (or something of the sort). And that was meant to kill off the remainder of the Aryans wanting to kill Beecher. Of course it kills a couple COs as well and also makes them evacuate the prison ... but it's the thought that counts?
TORCHWOOD
With three deaths Torchwood accomplished the exact same thing OZ did with it's ninty-thousand deaths (granted Torchwood has a much smaller cast, where OZ's cast was HUGE). Now if I didn't already know who the main cast was, killing off Suzie in the first episode would have been a shocker. Always good to keep people on their toes. I feel Torchwood was also able to get around not killing off a major cast member until season two because Jack can't die. So we see the dangers of their work in a safe way, with Jack dying ... just to come back to life.
Owen gets killed off twice in this show. His is the first major character death we see (other than Jack). They waited to hit us with a major character death until we cared about the characters on the show. It hurt and meant more because of the fact that we had feelings for Owen. He was cocky and a bit of an insensitive jackass, but we still liked him. Didn't want him to be killed. Then Jack brings him back and he's undead. Sidenote: may I say how well done they did undead, bones didn't heal, neither did cuts. He couldn't eat or drink and if he did he had to stand on his head and have said food and drink come out via gravity ... very well done and different undead. Then just when Owen starts to be maybe coming to terms with being undead, he gets blown up in a nuclear explosion talking on the phone to Tosh who is ALSO DYING!
After going two seasons without killing off a character (Jack can't die and Owen is now undead) Torchwood hits us with a double whammy that tells us no one is safe by killing off two of the lead characters in one episode. Tosh dies a heroic death, but that doesn't make it any less painful.
Oh so you thought you were safe from losing a main character in Children of Earth because we just lost Tosh and Owen at then end of the last season, nope ... you were wrong. You thought that if anyone was going to die it would be Rhys or maybe even Gwen ... I mean, they would never think of killing of Jack's boyfriend ... my favorite character ... Ianto ... right? Well guess what, I was wrong. Gosh darn that was a damn good death though. And I respect and trust the creators of this show enough to understand why it had to be Ianto. There is no way Jack could have done what was needed to be done to save the world if Ianto was still alive. And on top of that it would be hypocritical of me to be mad about them killing Ianto off when I really do believe that "Anyone Can Die" is so important for this very reason. It rips your heart out to have certain characters killed off, Ianto was that character for me (as was Cyril from OZ). It hurts to see these characters die and that's what good TV is all about. Not just showing you what you want to see, but making you feel, making you think, making you question. That is why television is so fantastic, you become a part of this world that is created for you. You learn to love and hate these characters. You come to care about the things that happen to these characters. And I really do feel that within the correct type of show, the "Anyone Can Die" trope is a necessity for it to be good, realistic, and moving television.