Thirty Days of TV: Day Thirty
Day 30 - Saddest character death.
And we conclude with a horrible dilemma of a question, given that the media I consume offers really a lot of death scenes, now that I think of it. However, let me specify in order to narrow the criteria: "saddest death" is absolutely not the same as "most shocking" or "most surprising". And of course, one viewer's sobfest is another viewers "hooray!" or "why hasn't X croaked it already?" Not to mention that there are some deaths which may be sad but also feel right, even necessary, i.e. no matter my fondness for the characters, I would have felt like the narrative was cheating or not giving them their due if they hadn't died. I never had a problem with the death of Laura Roslin, for example (just with her non-presence in the preceding episodes), on the contrary: dying in sight of, but not on the finally reached planet, with her last words being "so full of life" fitted a character whose mortality contributed to defining her from her first scene in the miniseries onwards (which was a death sentence - hearing her cancer diagnosis). (BTW this is also why I always maintained that the only two characters who ought never to be revealed as Cylons because it would destroy their story arcs were Roslin and Baltar; for both, though for different reasons, it was really important that the characters be both biologically and psychologically human.) Similarly, Nate Fisher facing mortality was set up from the get go in Six Feet Under, and his death in the last season was the only right conclusion for Nate. (In fact, here the miracle was that the death sequence managed to make me regain some sympathy which had been lost because Nate had been such an ass through most of s5.) As for Darla, she was my favourite character on Angel but I actually have it in writing somewhere (back then I was on a Jossverse discussion mailing list, remember those?) that I wanted her to end by her own hands back in s2, not least because Angel doing it would have been repetitive and so not what I wanted to see, I also didn't want, say, Cordelia to stake her, and given the strength of the connection established, nor would I have believed Darla never to visit Los Angeles again; nor would I have wanted her to make annual visits and slink off with a "curses, foiled again!". And I thought that unlike certain male members of the Aurelius clan who shall remain Spike and Angel, she'd actually go through with staking herself without making a big production out of it in the secret hope to be stopped. What I hadn't anticipated was the whole pregnancy thing, of course (which ended up giving me my second favourite AtS character), and the way it ensured her staking herself would not be out of despair or nihilism but to ensure her child would live. In conclusion: Darla's death scene was one that had some sadness for me in it - what with the favourite character thing - but also felt like it came at the right point and was well done.
My other criteria for "saddest death": I have to be emotionally very invested in the characters involved. For example, among the many, many deaths that happen in Lost, the one I'd give the "saddest death scene in Lost" award is probably Charlie's death by drowning complete with "not Penny's boat" message and preceding very touching "greatest hits" episode. However, while I liked Charlie, I didn't love him, and so this death did not affect me in the way that, say, Danielle Rousseau's and Alex' deaths did in s4, despite the fact neither of them were regulars, but whom I did love. It's not in any way an objective judgment or one dependent on writing, acting or directing of the scenes in question, but then "saddest" asks for an emotional judgment.
After trying my best to narrow it down, I came up with four scenes in close competition, which you'll find under the cut.
Torchwood:
Now, I think the second season of Torchwood is generally a big improvement over the first. One thing they both share, however, is dreadful season finales. Written by Chris Chibnall. (There is a reason why Chibnall's excellent episodes in the most recent broadcast season of Doctor Who provoked so many jokes about him having been kidnappend and replaced by an alien.) Exit Wounds is really a mess; the crucial storyline about Jack's long lost brother gone vengeful supervillain falls flat both for writing (look, if you want to imitate the Connor plot line from AtS, pray remember that Angel actually DID horrible things to Holtz - and, err, hundreds of other people - which caused Holtz' revenge of kidnapping and brainwashing Connor; by contrast, Jack not holding onto his little brother mid invasion was really an accident you can't blame Jack for) and acting (no Vincent Kartheiser he) reasons, Jack surviving a millennium buried and emerging not insane but immediately ready for action like a rubber ball really breaks any suspension of disbelief unless you either state he was subconscious the entire time or that he was elsewhere and had himself reburied an hour before old Torchwood finds him in order not to disturb the timeline). But. There is one part of Exit Wounds that really works, is superbly acted and pays off a longer build up emotionally. To wit: the deaths of Tosh and Owen. (With only Tosh knowing they're both dying; Owen is unaware of her state.) This could have gone wrong in many ways, say, by a last minute confession of love from Owen, which wouldn't have felt believable. As it was, I didn't feel the show was trying to convince me that Owen and Tosh could have made it work; maybe for a day or two, and then the fact that he was too prone to act out his issues by lashing out at people and her self esteem issues would have combined in a bad way. However, "we missed each other" kept it just at the right level, and Owen going from raging at his impending (second) death to quiet acceptance and trying to cheer Tosh up after her simple "you're breaking my heart" said more about that he did care for her (if not the same way she cared for him) than any declaration would have done. (And then the show even worked in an explanation for the presence of Tosh's actress in Aliens of London from the Nine era in New Who.) Cue me blinking tears away every damm time I watch the scene below:
Battlestar Galactica:
Alas, the relevant scene is not on YouTube (for copyright reasons, I presume). Felix Gaeta was one of the most tragic characters on the show, going from background and the occasional dialogue cameo in s1 to one of the key characters in s4. Now, on BSG, practically every character with lines both went through great traumas and did awful things (sometimes at the same time), but Gaeta, who keeps trying to do the right thing, trusts the wrong people, nearly gets executed by the very people he risked everything for because they mistake him for a traitor, loses his leg, and does end up executed (for something he's done for, this time, but still mostly due to the preceding choices by the man who has him killed) still takes some kind of tragedy award. Not least because, looking back, there is no point where you could say that, being who he was, Felix Gaeta could or should have acted differently. He had to report Roslin stealing the election once he discovered it. He admired and loved Baltar, so of course he became part of his administration. He couldn't stand by and do nothing during the Cylon Occupation, so of course he risked all to help the resistance, and being smart covered his tracks - which later nearly cost him his life because he couldn't prove he hadn't been a collaborator. He had no reason to believe Kara wasn't insane so of course he carried out Helo's orders to plot the course back to Galactica when they were in the Demetrius (which gets him shot in the leg and thus causes him to lose said leg). Adama (and Roslin) had handled the delicate matter of the alliance with the rebel Cylons so badly (by not handling it at all, in Roslin's case, and by just ordering it happen, in Adama's) that Gaeta's mutiny was, again, the only thing he could do.
The death scene itself is preceded by one of the best s4 scenes (and a good example of why on BSG it usually paid off that the writers were amendable to suggestions by the actors - with the exception of listening to Dean Stockwell about Cavil's death - ; this scene was asked for by James Callis and Alessandro Juliani, who played Baltar and Gaeta), the quiet conversation between Felix Gaeta and Gaius Baltar, which has all the history between them hanging there and also is the one note of grace in the grim tragedy that is the The Oath/Blood on the Scales two parter, and then comes the execution scene itself, with Gaeta, just before it happens and when Adama gives the order, noticing the phantom pain in his missing leg finally stopped. Definitely a contender for saddest death.
(BTW, if the fourth season hadn't revealed Ellen Tigh as a Cylon, and thus resurrected her, my BSG example could also have been from season 3, because the scene between the Tighs still kills me. (It's not online, either.) Again, there is all that history, plus they both did the only thing they could, with her having betrayed the resistance to save his life, and him killing her before the resistance can get their hands on her (with the additional kick in the stomach that he finds then out that if he'd waited, they'd have been rescued from New Caprica and there would have been a general amnesty); you have these two flawed people, whom we've both seen do awful things, being braver and more heartbreaking than anyone else at this point (well, other than poor Felix who elsewhere points a gun at Baltar and gets talked out of it because Gaius gets the why) on the planet when Ellen accepts the poison from him. The first time I saw it, I sobbed and sobbed. However, knowing Ellen's eventual fate gives Gaeta's death the adventage in the tragedy stakes.)
Deadwood:
Al Swearangen, owner of saloons, a brothel and other property in Deadwood is through most of season 1 a complete bastard guilty of any number of villainous deeds. Murder, blackmail, physical abuse,you name it, Al's done it. However, there is the occasional glimpse at other qualitlies, too. And none more surprising than something he does in the s1 finale. Yes, he kills someone there, too, but for a very different reason than his previous deeds. The Reverend Smith, whom the viewers have seen decline and fight desperately and in vain against the illness tormenting him throughout the season. It's one of the great Deadwood twists that the big emotional release scene of the s1 finale is this so oddly tender murder, or, if you like, mercy killing. Sad - because when all is said and done, the Reverend's decline and death was painful to witness and really not his fault - and yet also filled with compassion. There are a lot of deaths in Deadwood, and a lot of them memorable, some shocking, some sad, but this one touched me deepest.
The Wire:
In the last but one episode of the first season, the show delivers the first and by a long shot (no pun intended) not the last of its devastating tragedies in the form of two sixteen years old boys shooting their friend of the same age. They're all working for the local drug lord (who is engaged in a clean up operation, hence this particular death), we've gotten to know all of them through the season, and the one getting shot, Wallace, who took care of the younger kids and sometimes dreamed of going back to school, who is so unfamiliar with life outside the inner cities that he doesn't recognize the sound of crickets when he hears them, who has been haunted by the murders that have already taken place, more than most. Wallace's death isn't played as a surprise or shock - from the moment he showed up again in Baltimore, the audience could see it coming, and now it's almost a full episode later - but it's still devastatingly sad. Even more so once you've watched the entire show, because then you also know what becomes of Wallace's killer, Bodie. They're both trapped by the horrible system they're in, and whether you play by the rules and obey orders, as Bodie does, or try to break them by talking to the police, as Wallace did, you end up as a betrayed corpse. Wallace's desperation, his pleas to his friends, the way everyone involved is so incredibly young and the way this death still resonates four seasons later makes it, despite the stern competition above, in the end for me the saddest death of them all:
Day 01 - A show that should never have been canceled
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching
Day 03 - Your favorite new show (aired this TV season)
Day 04 - Your favorite show ever
Day 05 - A show you hate
Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 08 - A show everyone should watch
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving
Day 11 - A show that disappointed you
Day 12 - An episode you've watched more than 5 times
Day 13 - Favorite childhood show
Day 14 - Favorite male character
Day 15 - Favorite female character
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show
Day 17 - Favorite mini series
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence
Day 19 - Best TV show cast
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite ship
Day 22 - Favorite series finale
Day 23 - Most annoying character
Day 24 - Best quote
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale
Day 27 - Best pilot episode
Day 28 - First TV show obsession
Day 29 - Current TV show obsession
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/878983.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
And we conclude with a horrible dilemma of a question, given that the media I consume offers really a lot of death scenes, now that I think of it. However, let me specify in order to narrow the criteria: "saddest death" is absolutely not the same as "most shocking" or "most surprising". And of course, one viewer's sobfest is another viewers "hooray!" or "why hasn't X croaked it already?" Not to mention that there are some deaths which may be sad but also feel right, even necessary, i.e. no matter my fondness for the characters, I would have felt like the narrative was cheating or not giving them their due if they hadn't died. I never had a problem with the death of Laura Roslin, for example (just with her non-presence in the preceding episodes), on the contrary: dying in sight of, but not on the finally reached planet, with her last words being "so full of life" fitted a character whose mortality contributed to defining her from her first scene in the miniseries onwards (which was a death sentence - hearing her cancer diagnosis). (BTW this is also why I always maintained that the only two characters who ought never to be revealed as Cylons because it would destroy their story arcs were Roslin and Baltar; for both, though for different reasons, it was really important that the characters be both biologically and psychologically human.) Similarly, Nate Fisher facing mortality was set up from the get go in Six Feet Under, and his death in the last season was the only right conclusion for Nate. (In fact, here the miracle was that the death sequence managed to make me regain some sympathy which had been lost because Nate had been such an ass through most of s5.) As for Darla, she was my favourite character on Angel but I actually have it in writing somewhere (back then I was on a Jossverse discussion mailing list, remember those?) that I wanted her to end by her own hands back in s2, not least because Angel doing it would have been repetitive and so not what I wanted to see, I also didn't want, say, Cordelia to stake her, and given the strength of the connection established, nor would I have believed Darla never to visit Los Angeles again; nor would I have wanted her to make annual visits and slink off with a "curses, foiled again!". And I thought that unlike certain male members of the Aurelius clan who shall remain Spike and Angel, she'd actually go through with staking herself without making a big production out of it in the secret hope to be stopped. What I hadn't anticipated was the whole pregnancy thing, of course (which ended up giving me my second favourite AtS character), and the way it ensured her staking herself would not be out of despair or nihilism but to ensure her child would live. In conclusion: Darla's death scene was one that had some sadness for me in it - what with the favourite character thing - but also felt like it came at the right point and was well done.
My other criteria for "saddest death": I have to be emotionally very invested in the characters involved. For example, among the many, many deaths that happen in Lost, the one I'd give the "saddest death scene in Lost" award is probably Charlie's death by drowning complete with "not Penny's boat" message and preceding very touching "greatest hits" episode. However, while I liked Charlie, I didn't love him, and so this death did not affect me in the way that, say, Danielle Rousseau's and Alex' deaths did in s4, despite the fact neither of them were regulars, but whom I did love. It's not in any way an objective judgment or one dependent on writing, acting or directing of the scenes in question, but then "saddest" asks for an emotional judgment.
After trying my best to narrow it down, I came up with four scenes in close competition, which you'll find under the cut.
Torchwood:
Now, I think the second season of Torchwood is generally a big improvement over the first. One thing they both share, however, is dreadful season finales. Written by Chris Chibnall. (There is a reason why Chibnall's excellent episodes in the most recent broadcast season of Doctor Who provoked so many jokes about him having been kidnappend and replaced by an alien.) Exit Wounds is really a mess; the crucial storyline about Jack's long lost brother gone vengeful supervillain falls flat both for writing (look, if you want to imitate the Connor plot line from AtS, pray remember that Angel actually DID horrible things to Holtz - and, err, hundreds of other people - which caused Holtz' revenge of kidnapping and brainwashing Connor; by contrast, Jack not holding onto his little brother mid invasion was really an accident you can't blame Jack for) and acting (no Vincent Kartheiser he) reasons, Jack surviving a millennium buried and emerging not insane but immediately ready for action like a rubber ball really breaks any suspension of disbelief unless you either state he was subconscious the entire time or that he was elsewhere and had himself reburied an hour before old Torchwood finds him in order not to disturb the timeline). But. There is one part of Exit Wounds that really works, is superbly acted and pays off a longer build up emotionally. To wit: the deaths of Tosh and Owen. (With only Tosh knowing they're both dying; Owen is unaware of her state.) This could have gone wrong in many ways, say, by a last minute confession of love from Owen, which wouldn't have felt believable. As it was, I didn't feel the show was trying to convince me that Owen and Tosh could have made it work; maybe for a day or two, and then the fact that he was too prone to act out his issues by lashing out at people and her self esteem issues would have combined in a bad way. However, "we missed each other" kept it just at the right level, and Owen going from raging at his impending (second) death to quiet acceptance and trying to cheer Tosh up after her simple "you're breaking my heart" said more about that he did care for her (if not the same way she cared for him) than any declaration would have done. (And then the show even worked in an explanation for the presence of Tosh's actress in Aliens of London from the Nine era in New Who.) Cue me blinking tears away every damm time I watch the scene below:
Click to viewBattlestar Galactica:
Alas, the relevant scene is not on YouTube (for copyright reasons, I presume). Felix Gaeta was one of the most tragic characters on the show, going from background and the occasional dialogue cameo in s1 to one of the key characters in s4. Now, on BSG, practically every character with lines both went through great traumas and did awful things (sometimes at the same time), but Gaeta, who keeps trying to do the right thing, trusts the wrong people, nearly gets executed by the very people he risked everything for because they mistake him for a traitor, loses his leg, and does end up executed (for something he's done for, this time, but still mostly due to the preceding choices by the man who has him killed) still takes some kind of tragedy award. Not least because, looking back, there is no point where you could say that, being who he was, Felix Gaeta could or should have acted differently. He had to report Roslin stealing the election once he discovered it. He admired and loved Baltar, so of course he became part of his administration. He couldn't stand by and do nothing during the Cylon Occupation, so of course he risked all to help the resistance, and being smart covered his tracks - which later nearly cost him his life because he couldn't prove he hadn't been a collaborator. He had no reason to believe Kara wasn't insane so of course he carried out Helo's orders to plot the course back to Galactica when they were in the Demetrius (which gets him shot in the leg and thus causes him to lose said leg). Adama (and Roslin) had handled the delicate matter of the alliance with the rebel Cylons so badly (by not handling it at all, in Roslin's case, and by just ordering it happen, in Adama's) that Gaeta's mutiny was, again, the only thing he could do.
The death scene itself is preceded by one of the best s4 scenes (and a good example of why on BSG it usually paid off that the writers were amendable to suggestions by the actors - with the exception of listening to Dean Stockwell about Cavil's death - ; this scene was asked for by James Callis and Alessandro Juliani, who played Baltar and Gaeta), the quiet conversation between Felix Gaeta and Gaius Baltar, which has all the history between them hanging there and also is the one note of grace in the grim tragedy that is the The Oath/Blood on the Scales two parter, and then comes the execution scene itself, with Gaeta, just before it happens and when Adama gives the order, noticing the phantom pain in his missing leg finally stopped. Definitely a contender for saddest death.
(BTW, if the fourth season hadn't revealed Ellen Tigh as a Cylon, and thus resurrected her, my BSG example could also have been from season 3, because the scene between the Tighs still kills me. (It's not online, either.) Again, there is all that history, plus they both did the only thing they could, with her having betrayed the resistance to save his life, and him killing her before the resistance can get their hands on her (with the additional kick in the stomach that he finds then out that if he'd waited, they'd have been rescued from New Caprica and there would have been a general amnesty); you have these two flawed people, whom we've both seen do awful things, being braver and more heartbreaking than anyone else at this point (well, other than poor Felix who elsewhere points a gun at Baltar and gets talked out of it because Gaius gets the why) on the planet when Ellen accepts the poison from him. The first time I saw it, I sobbed and sobbed. However, knowing Ellen's eventual fate gives Gaeta's death the adventage in the tragedy stakes.)
Deadwood:
Al Swearangen, owner of saloons, a brothel and other property in Deadwood is through most of season 1 a complete bastard guilty of any number of villainous deeds. Murder, blackmail, physical abuse,you name it, Al's done it. However, there is the occasional glimpse at other qualitlies, too. And none more surprising than something he does in the s1 finale. Yes, he kills someone there, too, but for a very different reason than his previous deeds. The Reverend Smith, whom the viewers have seen decline and fight desperately and in vain against the illness tormenting him throughout the season. It's one of the great Deadwood twists that the big emotional release scene of the s1 finale is this so oddly tender murder, or, if you like, mercy killing. Sad - because when all is said and done, the Reverend's decline and death was painful to witness and really not his fault - and yet also filled with compassion. There are a lot of deaths in Deadwood, and a lot of them memorable, some shocking, some sad, but this one touched me deepest.
The Wire:
In the last but one episode of the first season, the show delivers the first and by a long shot (no pun intended) not the last of its devastating tragedies in the form of two sixteen years old boys shooting their friend of the same age. They're all working for the local drug lord (who is engaged in a clean up operation, hence this particular death), we've gotten to know all of them through the season, and the one getting shot, Wallace, who took care of the younger kids and sometimes dreamed of going back to school, who is so unfamiliar with life outside the inner cities that he doesn't recognize the sound of crickets when he hears them, who has been haunted by the murders that have already taken place, more than most. Wallace's death isn't played as a surprise or shock - from the moment he showed up again in Baltimore, the audience could see it coming, and now it's almost a full episode later - but it's still devastatingly sad. Even more so once you've watched the entire show, because then you also know what becomes of Wallace's killer, Bodie. They're both trapped by the horrible system they're in, and whether you play by the rules and obey orders, as Bodie does, or try to break them by talking to the police, as Wallace did, you end up as a betrayed corpse. Wallace's desperation, his pleas to his friends, the way everyone involved is so incredibly young and the way this death still resonates four seasons later makes it, despite the stern competition above, in the end for me the saddest death of them all:
Day 01 - A show that should never have been canceled
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching
Day 03 - Your favorite new show (aired this TV season)
Day 04 - Your favorite show ever
Day 05 - A show you hate
Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 08 - A show everyone should watch
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving
Day 11 - A show that disappointed you
Day 12 - An episode you've watched more than 5 times
Day 13 - Favorite childhood show
Day 14 - Favorite male character
Day 15 - Favorite female character
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show
Day 17 - Favorite mini series
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence
Day 19 - Best TV show cast
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite ship
Day 22 - Favorite series finale
Day 23 - Most annoying character
Day 24 - Best quote
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale
Day 27 - Best pilot episode
Day 28 - First TV show obsession
Day 29 - Current TV show obsession
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/878983.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.