Anyone Can Die/Live-Action TV

• Lost is notable for its death rate. Of the 14 original main characters, 9 are dead by the end of the show, leaving only 5 still living, and of the 35 characters ever given main cast billing, 21 end the show dead, leaving just 14 alive.
  • Furthermore, of the 72 survivors of the plane crash, only a measly 12 are known to be alive at the end. So much for "survivors!".
  • Lampshaded/foreshadowed in an episode when Daniel Faraday says exactly "Any one of us can die." At the end of the episode, he dies.
  • Word of God is that Jack was supposed to be killed by the Smoke Monster in the pilot episode to show that even the most important characters were not safe. Executive Meddling prevented this, however, as ABC believed viewers were more likely to feel betrayed. They ended up killing the pilot of the plane in his place.
• Spartacus: Blood and Sand offed a number of major characters over the course of the first season, which ended in an outright bloodbath.
  • Spartacus vengeance was even worse, the finale killed off no less than six major characters
• Deadwood kills Wild Bill Hickok early in the first season, establishing that anyone can die. Although his death is a matter of historical fact, he still fulfills the purpose of this trope.
  • And they make good on this promise when Ellsworth is killed.
• Harper's Island kills off at least 1 character every episode, with the phrase 'One by One' as it's tagline. Out of the 25 presented characters, only 4 live through the series.
• 24 established its Anyone Can Die cred early in the first season by killing off Spawn's Kim Bauer's innocent friend Janet York early in the first season, then in a big way by killing off Teri Bauer in the first season finale. By the end of season six, only Jack and Tony are still alive out of the Season 1 agents.
  • The show's early seasons arguably influenced many shows' use of the trope: see Lost or Prison Break, for example.
• Jenny Calendar, Tara Maclay, and Joyce Summers on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
  • In fact, Joss Whedon had hoped to start the series on this note by including Xander's doomed friend Jesse in the opening credits of the pilot. When financial considerations prevented that, he ensured that Amber Benson joined the opening credits for the episode that Tara died.
  • Not to mention Buffy herself twice, Spike, and Angel, though since they got better, the validity can be argued.
    • Spike's death and Buffy's second death were originally meant to be permanent. Buffy was brought back only when the show was renewed, and Spike returned to life on the next season of Angel.
  • Anya didn't fare as well, though this was the series finale.
  • Whedon even suggested, on two separate occasions, to kill off Xander - once in the Season Five finale (which was intended to conclude the series originally), and later at the hands of Caleb near the end of Season Seven in the episode "Dirty Girls" (which was reduced to him losing his eye) - the latter plan was really only abandoned when they realised there wouldn't be sufficient mourning time for the character in the final four episodes. In retrospect, it may not have been the best change, as it made for some rather painful Fridge Logic - not to mention a major Conflict Ball - when Buffy is kicked out of her own home by the Scoobies.
    • Also, it was originally intended for Dawn to sacrifice her life - and disappear forever - in the last moments of 'The Gift' before they decided that Buffy dying for her sister would be a more meaningful way to go.
• Angel. The show that killed one of three main characters in the ninth episode and then three of five main characters in the fifth season: Fred, Cordelia, and Wesley - one in the last episode. Not to mention said last episode ended with four main characters, one of whom (Charles Gunn) was quickly bleeding to death, charging into battle against a huge army of darkness, with the very strong impression that no one would survive. And that's not even getting into After The Fall...
  • Let's just put it this way: the life expectancy of a character in any show created by Joss Whedon is rather lower than the average...
    • To be fair, all of these characters on Buffy and Angel died at specific moments: Jenny dies after rekindling her romance with Giles, Joyce dies after beating her brain cancer (only for it to come back), Tara after getting back together with Willow, Doyle once Cordelia agreed to go out with him, Fred once she got together with Wesley, and the last time Cordelia is seen controlling her own body she's on the way to tell Angel she loves him. So these Joss Whedon deaths aren't a case of Anyone Can Die as much as Anyone Happy Can Die.
• Skins, they kill one of the main characters every 2 seasons. Usually, it happens at the end of the second season of each generation, like with Chris or Freddie. Season 6 killed one of the main characters the second episode. This is not counting other characters (parents, friends, enemies, strangers) that died or might have died. Kind of a high mortality rate for a series that only involves regular, healthy, teenagers, with no real violence, no super powers, no mystical creatures, etc...
• The X-Files was notorious for their Anyone Can Die attitude, given how important characters such as "X" and Mulder's father died in otherwise relatively unimportant episodes. Krycek and the Cigarette Smoking Man were also killed frequently, but it didn't take until they were eventually Killed Off for Real.
  • Not to mention Mulder himself, as well as the Lone Gunmen.
  • According to Chris Carter, killing off Deep Throat in the first season was meant to establish that everyone, except Mulder and Scully, is expendable. As mentioned above, eventually even Mulder was considered expendable.
• Oz is notorious for leveraging this psychological trope and it was a big part of the premise of Tour of Duty.
  • Oz is so committed to use of this trope that its official website includes an interactive death map showing all the characters, which ones were still alive at the last show, and where the rest of them died. Borders on Kill'Em All.
• An early example is Blakes Seven, which killed off approximately one major character per season, including the title character (Though he later turned out to be Not Quite Dead after all).
  • Of course, the title character ended up being Killed Off for Real in the same episode he returned in, and was as a matter of fact the only confirmed fatality in what was otherwise a Bolivian Army Ending.
• Babylon 5 tended to do this too—one watched each episode wondering who was going to "get it" this year, although in this case it was all part of the Myth Arc and less of a shock effect. One character was created and introduced specifically for the purpose of being later killed off in order to let the main characters know about the existence of the Big Bad.
  • Word of God, at least according to the DVD commentaries, is that Keffer (assuming that's who was meant in the previous entry) was added at the insistence of Warner Bros, and was killed off at the first opportunity because J. Michael Straczynski doesn't like that kind of character. The actor playing the part wasn't even told his character was dead until later.
  • And the first season episode "Believers" hammered it home: an alien child will die without surgery, but according to his parents' religious beliefs, cutting his chest cavity will cause his soul to disappear and leave him a soulless abomination. Dr. Franklin goes against their wishes and performs the operation. The parents then kill the 'soulless' child.
  • Babylon 5 seriously pushed the envelope in this way, by removing the commander of the station by the end of the first season and replacing him. He wasn't dead, and he was described as being alive on Minbar, but he wasn't active in the show very much. When he does show up for a big two-part episode later in the series, he does die in the technical sense of the term. That is to say, he's not alive after that, because he travels 1000 years into the past. From the moment he goes back in time he's just as dead in the show's continuity as anyone else who dies.
  • Not only do they kill off main characters, they do it with style. Bester, in one episode, implies not only that Talia Winters is dead, but that she was actually dissected for research, though it's just as likely he was trying to get a rise out of the others. Furthermore, Marcus Cole dies without telling Ivanova how he feels about her, really only dying because he doesn't know how to operate an alien healing machine properly. Then, of course, there's G'Kar and Londo killing each other in a flash-forward.
  • The character of Carolyn Sykes/Catherine Sakai/Anna Sheridan survives numerous rewrites, re-assignments of role, and even posession by the Machine, to be exploded by John Sheridan. With two nuclear weapons. And Mr. Morden, a few yards further from ground zero, survives.
• Helen on Spooks (killed off after 2 episodes). Furthermore, Spooks established that if you're going to invoke this trope, it's best to do it as nastily as you can, as this death was caused by getting her arm dunked into a deep-fryer, and then her face being pushed in, before she got shot, all on screen. This gave the show a lot of credibility in the trope despite, in fact, it being the only instance of it occurring for quite some time.
  • While not everybody dies, characters are far from entirely safe in the show. Major characters have been killed off with no warning, including all three main characters over the course of a single series. As of the end of season 6, only two season 1 characters remain employed at Thames House.
  • The short-lived Spin-Off, Spooks: Code 9, naturally had to play with this, killing off the team leader at the end of the first episode. Of course, this being Spooks, everybody was pretty much expecting it.
  • Series 7 went for the double, with Connie James being arrested for treason, and then getting blown up while saving London from a nuclear bomb.
• The father of the family in Six Feet Under was killed in the first scene of the first episode, though his "ghost" appears throughout the series conversing with the characters, manifesting their subconscious thoughts. Multiple main characters die throughout the course of the series, which itself deals constantly with death, using it as a magnifying glass for life. The most shocking example is the death of Nate Fisher, the lead character, a few episodes before the end of the series. He dies of a brain hemorrhage, and is given a private burial by the Fisher family. The series finale includes depictions of the deaths of every other main character.
• Earth: Final Conflict was infamous for taking this to ridiculous extremes. Only one character (a villain) is featured in all five seasons and most characters die or otherwise in some way get practically removed from the main cast within one and a half season of introduction.
  • In fact, one episode was completely devoted to an episode-long demise of a minor character which only featured in four episodes. Though the character was instrumental for the plot as she was one of the three parents of a character which lasted three whole seasons.
  • Given that the series by Season 5 became itself In Name Only, this could be an example of Tropes Are Not Good.
• Primeval is sometimes turning to Anyone Will Die, as at least one major character died each series, with Nick Cutter himself dying MID-SERIES in Series 3.
  • As of the end of Season 3 there are only three main characters left from S1. They must be nervously checking their contract for S4...
  • Series three is especially bad. In that one series alone, Nick is shot by Helen, causing Jenny to leave (even though she somes back for an episode in series 4), Cristine Johnson is killed by a future predator, Helen falls off a cliff, and Connor, Abby and Danny all get stuck in different time periods with almost no chance of surviving or ever getting back home. Even though the last three get back, that leaves only Lester back at the ARC from the very beginning.
    • Then in series 4 we find out that Sarah died.
• Beginning with its second season, Prison Break kicked its extreme Anyone Can Die atmosphere into overdrive, bordering on Kill'Em All with its penchant for killing off main characters with the zeal of a slasher film. There's at least a 2:1 ratio for make up kills and subverted deaths, and in one hell of an example of Your Princess Is in Another Castle, the series finale delivers in a big way with the most shocking death of all.
• On The Unit, they had a Tonight Someone Dies episode right out of nowhere. And no cop-out either. A real main character dies. And it's not even sweeps week.
• On The Wire, at least one major character dies in every season: Wallace in Season 1, D'Angelo Barksdale and Frank Sobotka in Season 2, Stringer Bell in Season 3, Bodie in Season 4, Proposition Joe and Omar Little in Season 5.
  • The last was a particularly powerful example of the trope, as Omar was built up as a larger-than-life, unstoppable force of nature throughout the series, only to be shot in the back of the head while buying a pack of cigarettes by a nobody kid...
  • Not to mention a host of secondary characters that can and will be killed off in droves.
• The very very very long running drama ER has featured deaths of multiple main characters. However, as the cast is forever large and rearrangable, with plots being recycled all over, this is perhaps not so difficult as for a show with a smaller established cast.
• Torchwood has a Dead Star Walking in its first episode. But that's just the start. Out of the show's five main characters, three of them are dead as of the end of Miracle Day. That's without getting into Jack's immortality. Even by Anyone Can Die standards, a sixty percent mortality rate among the protagonists is staggering.
  • In fact, Owen dies not once, but twice. Anyone can die... even if they're already dead.
  • In Torchwood: Miracle Day, Esther Drummond and Oswald Danes died at the end. Dr. Juarez was incinerated just as she seemed to be becoming part of the Torchwood team.
• Anyone Can Die pretty much became the hook of The Sopranos, possibly the Trope Codifier for television. No one was safe, be it the lowest goon or Tony himself. Due to the fact that they were never informed well in advance, many of the actors explicitly expressed suspense and fear for their careers should the writers suddenly choose the sword to fall on their head. (Though in the case of Livia, it was the actress that died first.)
• The original concept behind Heroes was that, not only could anyone die, but by the end of the first season it was expected that a majority of the cast would die with the survivors Put on a Bus to make way for a new season 2 cast (the actors were told as much when they originally signed on). This changed due to the popularity of the original cast with fans, and many of the characters who appeared to die in the Season 1 finale would turn out to be Not Quite Dead. Nonetheless, they did manage to kill off two of the main characters, as well as most of the recurring supporting cast.
  • The deaths of Isaac, Alejandro, Peter (temporarily) and Kaito were certainly unexpected.
    • Newer characters get killed off while the older characters get Joker Immunity. We're looking at you, Sylar.
• Each series of Blackadder was set in a different era. The final episodes of each era were ones in which indeed, Anyone Can Die.
• Band of Brothers is pretty much a documentary with actors instead of "plain old television," but it's a case where reality beats the holy snot out of this one. Granted, it's war, and in war anyone can (and does) die, but it's still rather jarring to spend hours getting to know characters only to have them disintegrated by a direct hit from an artillery shell, have a leg blown entirely off while trying to help a squad mate, or finally find the Luger they've spent the entire series hoping to find, only to have it go off shortly after finally getting it and having the bullet hit the femoral artery and have the man bleed to death while being held by his buddies.
• Veronica Mars kills off Sheriff Lamb and Dean O'Dell quite unceremoniously.
• V, the original series, killed characters without warning, especially characters from the miniseries, to the point in which no character was safe. (Of course, one actor was brought back as his own twin...)
  • The new V doesn't have much in the way of this, until the second season finale, wherein they really make up for lost time. Three major characters you'd expect to have immunity (they seemed integral to arcs that weren't quite over, so not expendable yet even if their character types don't always make it to the Grand Finale) die sudden an unexpected deaths.
• Supernatural: Victims of the week are slaughtered with reckless abandon, almost no supporting character introduced survives for even a single season, and NO ONE is immune, though if you're important enough, you may come Back from the Dead. You may even die and come back a lot. Unless you're female.
  • Of all the characters that have appeared in the series, most have not lasted more than a season or two. Many of the more major characters come back briefly in some form or another, but aside from Sam and Dean, they all return to the land of the dead at some point. The writers also seem to not fear killing main characters for good as was shown in the episode, Death's Door when Bobby died.
• The Sarah Connor Chronicles. First off, minor characters, like Andy Goode, Charley Dixon's wife, Doctor Sherman, or Allison Young. Then, Riley is killed. Then, Jesse. Then, Charley himself. Then, Derek frakkin' Reese!.
• Grey's Anatomy. Both Izzie and George die in the season 5 finale. Who knows whether they'll return in season 6 due to contractual immortality.
  • Unless certain people changed their minds on the issue, Izzie recovers but George stays dead.
  • Not to mention Denny Duquette (who may or may not be a hallucination/angel)!
  • As of the Season 8 finale, Lexie Grey, in a plane crash
• The new Battlestar Galactica was notorious for this. Although some characters could come back if they were Cylons, most other characters had permanent deaths and it happened frequently. Even a Red Shirt death tended to matter, since background characters were recurring.
• Probably the ultimate example of this trope comes in Caprica, the prequel series to the new Battlestar Galactica. Galactica, of course, starred Admiral Bill Adama, son of Joseph Adama, so when Caprica introduced us to Joseph Adama and his young son William, certain assumptions of Contractual Immortality were made. Then the penultimate episode killed off William. Joseph names his next son after the dead one.
• NCIS. Especially if you happen to be female. Title credits offer no protection.
  • Michael Weatherly joked that NCIS stood for "No Castmember Is Safe"
• The 2009 Revival of Melrose Place killed off Sydney Andrews mere minutes into its pilot episode.
• The BBC's Robin Hood killed off MAID MARIAN. She was followed by Allan-a-Dale, Guy of Gisborne, the Sheriffs of Nottingham (both of them) and finally Robin Hood himself.
• Sons of Anarchy. Not even being in the credits will protect you. Ask Half Sack.
• Played very, very cruelly in season 4 of Dexter. Poor Rita.
  • And Lundy.
• Chuck's third season seems to want to establish this early on: at the very beginning of the season the show breaks one of it's unwritten rules by having an enemy agent kill a recurring Buy More employee, Emmit.
  • You can also add Bryce Larkin (who died at the third season's end) and possibly Stephen Bartowski (who got killed in the season three finale). On the villains' side, Smug Snake CIA representative Decker bit the bullet half-way through the fifth season.
• The Vampire Diaries certainly seems to love this trope, seeing as how they've already killed off thirteen characters. And that's just the first season.
• The original 70s version of Survivors burned through quite a cast-roster in just three seasons' worth of episodes.
• The 1998 series Merlin has numerous deaths, both of heroic and villainous characters.
• Double Subverted in seventh season of Stargate SG-1. The show convinces us that it's not going to kill off O'Neill. They don't. They kill off Dr. Frasier instead.
• According to Word of God, Stargate Atlantis was purposely designed to be this way. Colonel Sumner is a Dead Star Walking in the first episode and they make a point of killing important recurring characters throughout the series (Grodin and Heightmeyer come to mind.) They finally ramped it up at the end of season 3 by killing Dr. Beckett. They then went even further by killing Dr. Weir a few episodes later, but she was Not Quite Dead. Technically neither was Beckett.
• Rescue Me. In the first five season finales someone of importance has gone to meet their Maker in the permanent way.
• In the Haven episode "As You Were", it's not the character introduced that episode who dies, but the secondary character Eleanor.
• St. Elsewhere has made it clear that anyone can die. Two of the most known examples on the show are Santa Claus in a Christmas Episode, and Mimsie, the kitten mascot of MTM Enterprises in the end credits of the Series Finale.
• Dead Set. Every single character is either dead or undead by the end of the series.
• The Walking Dead
• On Damages this is combined with Anybody Can Go To Jail thanks to Revolving Door Casting as the result of most of its supporting cast being made up of film actors. The first season alone has two Sacraficial Lions and by the end of the third season only two of the show's original cast members aren't dead or in prison. This is to say nothing of the high mortality rate of recurring characters. With the exception of Patty's son and ex husband it would seem that as soon as you sign a deal to guest star on the show chances are you'll be looking for work again once shooting is over.
• True Blood certainly exibits this trope, especially with the fourth season.
• Boardwalk Empire. At least one significant character dies in each of the final three episodes of the second season: first Angela Darmody, then The Commodore, and finally (and most shockingly) Jimmy Darmody. (A somewhat less important character, Boss Neary, also dies in the season finale.)
• Law and Order: Criminal Intent. Capt. Danny Ross is murdered in the season premiere while working undercover with the feds against an arms dealer.
• In The Straits, Harry Montebello starts off more-or-less as the main character. Then he dies. By that time, a fair few secondary characters have already been brutally killed off.
• The Game of Thrones Season 2 Trailer pretty much invokes this in-universe with Arya saying "Anyone can be killed".
  • The series follows the books it's based on very closely, and books tend to follow this trope more often than live-action series. This is shown prominently at the end of the first season, when the main character, the one given top billing (as well as being probably the most famous actor cast in the series,) got his head lopped off. Network Executives were apparently hesitant about killing off the main character of the series one season in, and understandably so. Then they saw the ratings. They were cool with it after that.

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