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TV Deaths We Never Saw Coming In 2019

Back in the '80s and '90s, long before the age of Peak TV when the medium's writers, directors, and actors elevated it to high art, television existed primarily as a familiar, consistent, low-key entertainment source. Laugh-track-laden sitcoms with jokes viewers could see coming from a mile away, bloodless cop shows where the good guys always won and the bad guys always lost — they were a comforting source of easily digestible amusements, and a nice way to while away a couple of hours before bed each night. Television isn't like that anymore. There are now hundreds of channels and a slew of streaming services, all of them competing for viewers and differentiating themselves with high-quality shows that are often uncompromising when it comes to storytelling. If it serves the story — and gets some social media attention in the process — shows are not afraid to kill off a main character from time to time. Here are some unthinkable TV character deaths on major shows in 2019... that totally happened.

Tara and Enid - The Walking Dead

Nine seasons in, The Walking Dead has created its own post-apocalyptic, zombie-ravaged world, but it still stays in the neighborhood of what's been laid out plot-wise in Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead comics. Audiences familiar with the print version might be expecting a comics-foretold monumental death in the show... but then end up being completely surprised when somebody else dies. For example, in Kirkman's comics, King Ezekiel and Rosita are murdered by the Whisperers, their severed heads gruesomely displayed on pikes. On the TV series, things go a bit differently.

All of the tenuously peaceful survivor communities were supposed to come together for a "Fair of New Beginnings," a show of strength, togetherness, and even fun. Meanwhile, each group agrees to send their toughest members to stage a pre-emptive attack on the terrifying Whisperers. Alexandria's contingent — Michonne, Carol, Daryl, and Yumiko — discovers Siddiq, bloodied and tied to a tree, who informs them of the Alpha's self-proclaimed territory border... clearly delineated with a series of heads on spikes. There are ten of them in all, including a number of side characters from various communities and beloved regular characters Enid (Katelyn Nacon), Tara (Alanna Masterson), and Henry (Matt Lintz).

Melisandre - Game of Thrones

The creepy but charismatic Melisandre (Carice Van Houten) brought a lot of the supernatural element to Game of Thrones over the years. The witch-like figure used a magic necklace to transform back and forth from an incredibly old crone — and used her powers to bring Jon Snow back from the dead. She's also been an agent of dark chaos setting the families and factions of Westeros against one another, like burning Shireen Baratheon at the stake and giving birth to a monster that killed Renly Baratheon. And yet, as Game of Thrones wound down, even the Red Woman got her redemption. As the undead warriors of the Night King approach, Melisandre gives the human army a chance, lighting the Dothraki's swords aflame. The night is dark and full of terrors for her until the end... which occurs when after her grand gesture, she walks off, takes off her necklace, turns old again, and perishes.

Jorah Mormont - Game of Thrones

Everyone should be so lucky to have a friend and coworker as unconditionally devoted and loyal as Jorah Mormont (Iain Glen) was to Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke). An exiled Ser and spy in service to Robert Baratheon sending back info on the whereabouts of the Targaryens, he switches sides to serve Dany and her cause, working as her second-in-command, guide to the world of politics and war, and chief protector. He protects her from an assassination attempt as well as death at the hands of the Sons of the Harpy and the Dothraki. Jorah is there by his leader's side and in her service in the Battle of Winterfell, taking one brutal hit after another until he can go on no more. He at least holds on long enough to see the Night King vanquished, dying before his true queen and breaking her heart in one of the show's most tender, human moments.

Theon - Game of Thrones

Theon Greyjoy (Alife Allen) has been at the center of some of Game of Thrones' most disturbing acts — enduring a few as well as causing some of his own. In the first episode of the show, he's more than willing to kill some direwolf puppies, setting him off on a journey that would also include betraying the Stark family to which he once pledged loyalty and murdering a couple of children (as Stark proxies). But then he lost his power, got captured, and Ramsay Bolton made his life a nightmare, castrating him, renaming him Reek, and forcing the guy to watch as he assaulted Sansa on the night of her wedding to Ramsay. The character lived a brutal life, but he found redemption in the end, dying a hero. After rescuing his sister Yara (Gemma Whelan), he reconnects with the Starks and offers to protect Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright) from the Night King — and in the end, he's a man of his word. When the Night King comes, Theon dies after charging him, sacrificing himself in the hope that Bran might live.

The Night King - Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones wrapped up a number of character arcs in its eighth season the way Game of Thrones likes to do: with the character's grisly onscreen death. The Battle of Winterfell, which the series has long been leading headlong into, promised a spectacle of blood, gore, and major deaths. How could the various groups and families vie for the Iron Throne when they'd have to first fight off the Night King (Vladimír Furdík) and the massive army of the zombified dead under his psychic control? The pitiful humans seemed helpless to stop it all, but that's only if viewers forgot about one of the show's other slowly building plot arcs: the radicalization and training of Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) into the fiercest warrior Westeros has ever seen. And so it is with the pointy end of a dagger of Valyrian steel, held by Arya and plunged into the Night King's chest, that this supernaturally powerful villain is finally killed, instantly destroying the dead soldiers under his watch.

Tabitha - Gotham

While Gotham serves as a prequel series to the well-established events of the Batman movies and comics, the show became its own thing over five seasons. It deviated quite a bit from its source material, delivering the occasional surprise plot development that didn't match up with what's supposed to happen later. A year ago, Tabitha felt the brunt of Oswald Cobblepot, a.k.a. the Penguin, in his convoluted revenge plot over the death of his mother. Butch Gilzean, once dead and resurrected as the grotesque Solomon Grundy, struck up a tender relationship with Tabitha (Jessica Lucas), or rather Tigress, in the vernacular of the Batman "Rogues Gallery" of villains in which Gotham traffics. The Penguin killed Butch right in front of Tabitha, adding injury to insult by shooting her in the leg, swearing to finish her off someday. She survived into Gotham's final season to fulfill Oswald's prophecy. At the height of the "No Man's Land" plot arc, he stabs and kills poor Tabitha.

Mad Sweeney - American Gods

Based on Neil Gaiman's extremely imaginative novel, Showtime's American Gods operates on the conceit that all the gods anyone has ever believed in are real, and that they wander around the U.S. in human form, having been brought to the new world hundreds of years prior. Gods are seemingly unkillable, so it's surprising that American Gods can or would kill off a character. But the show did it, ending the run of Mad Sweeney (Pablo Schreiber), an ancient Irish king-turned-bird-turned-six-foot-tall-leprechaun. In the present day, the scrappy god worked as muscle for Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane), leader of the old gods. Early in the series, however, he lost his magical powers — super-strength and prosperity — when he lost his enchanted coin. His luck and good fortune come to an end, and Sweeney can't understand why his life is falling apart. Driven to madness, he turns on Mr. Wednesday's driver, a human named Shadow (Ricky Whittle), only for Shadow to stab him in the heart. 

Missandei - Game of Thrones

After the Battle of Winterfell, Game of Thrones' many factions have a foe perhaps even more fearsome than the Night King in their sights: Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), who will do whatever it takes to maintain her presence on the Iron Throne, up to and including murder. As Tyrion and Varys — along with Targaryen-affiliated Grey Worm (a former Unsullied soldier) and his companion Missandei (rescued from slavery by Daenerys) — sail a fleet to King's Landing in an attempt to negotiate Cersei's surrender, Cersei's guy Euron Greyjoy attacks the ships, forcing some members of Daenerys' contingent to swim for shore. Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel), one of Daenerys' most trusted advisors, is taken prisoner in the melee, which leads to some heated negotiations in King's Landing between these two groups. Nobody gets anywhere, and Cersei decides to put an end to it all. Unable to bring herself to kill off Tyrion, the brother she hates so very much, she instead opts to take out the hostage. After a final, defiant utterance of "Dracarys" (which is what Dany says when she wants her dragons to attack), Missandei dies, beheaded by the Mountain in one of the show's most brutal and horrifying death scenes (which is saying something).

Varys - Game of Thrones

The second-to-last episode of Game of Thrones begins with a livid Daenerys (Emilia Clarke). Not only is she enraged at Cersei Lannister's refusal to give up her rule, but she's also angry (and devastated) by the deaths of close advisors and allies Missandei and Jorah Mormont, and it's started to look like the oft-feared "Mad Queen" has arrived. Daenerys is especially displeased with the quiet, tenacious, power-manipulating Varys (Conleth Hill), as he's raised a possible roadblock on her path to ruling the Seven Kingdoms — Varys is the one who spread word that Jon Snow is actually Aegon Targaryen, Daenerys' nephew and, more importantly, a guy with a better throne claim than her own. Varys subsequently switches allegiances to Jon/Aegon, thereby opening himself up to a consequence he was warned of during a season seven episode: If he were to betray Daenerys, she'd "burn him alive." Well, a deal is a deal. She sends Grey Worm to retrieve Varys, and he stands before Daenerys and Drogon after a fraught farewell with Tyrion, the longtime friend who sold him out to Daenerys. With the Mother of Dragons' order of "Dracarys!" or "fire," Varys is burned alive.

Sandor Clegane - Game of Thrones

Every major family in the Game of Thrones universe has a house sigil, sort of a crest bearing an object or spirit animal. The Clegane house sigil might as well be any graphic representation of carnage. The Clegane brothers — Sandor (Rory McCann) and Gregor (Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson)— are giant, powerful guys who survived brutal Westeros by throwing their size and fists around. Sandor (nicknamed "The Hound") once served as Joffrey's bodyguard before teaming up with Arya Stark on her grand adventure of revenge and redemption, eventually getting tossed over a cliff by Brienne of Tarth. Somehow surviving, he goes on to find redemption with Brother Ray and ultimately make his way to Winterfell for the battle against the Night King. In the show's penultimate episode, he finally makes his way to the showdown he's always craved with the Mountain — or rather his brother, Gregor. At the end of an absolutely gruesome fight (which fans long ago dubbed "Cleganebowl"), Sandor hurls them both through a crumbling castle wall and into the flames engulfing King's Landing — obtaining a measure of long-delayed vengeance by plunging them both into the fire the Mountain scarred the Hound with when they were both just boys.

Gregor Clegane - Game of Thrones

Gregor Clegane (Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson), aptly nicknamed the Mountain because he was as tall, seemingly impossible to destroy, and unforgiving as a large rock protrusion, long served Game of Thrones' Lannisters, notoriously and fearsomely carrying out their dirty work when the task at hand was violence and death. His shining moment on the HBO series came in season four, when he was picked to fight against Oberyn Martell, Tyrion Lannister's combatant by proxy in the Westeros legal action of "trial by combat." After seemingly falling in defeat to Martell, the Mountain rose, pressing his thumbs into Oberyn's eyes until his eyes, brain, and head all exploded in a gruesome cessation of life. The "gouge" might have been his signature move, but in the end, it didn't help him. During Daenerys' siege of King's Landing, the Mountain is in the midst of escorting Queen Cersei through the flaming wreckage when they're confronted by his younger brother Sandor, known as "The Hound." Long-standing sworn enemies, the two face off in a battle to the death. The Mountain shoves his giant fingers into his brother's eyes, but the Hound fights back long enough to pull a blade and stab the Mountain repeatedly — including putting his sword through his brother's head. Watching in bitterly amused disbelief as Gregor starts pulling the blade out, the Hound rises for one last attack — hurling both of them through a castle wall and into the flames.

Euron Greyjoy - Game of Thrones

If Game of Thrones is Shakespearean, then Euron Greyjoy (Pilou Asbæk) is the equivalent of the complicated and gleefully evil villains that pepper the Bard's plays. Euron was king of the Iron Islands and commander of the Iron Fleet, but ultimately wrapped around the finger of Cersei Lannister, both laying waste to her enemies and laying with her in her bedchambers upon her command. After past violent acts and more recent ones (he killed one of Daenerys's dragons and slaughtered members of the Golden Company because he cheated at a dice game), he was probably due for a comeuppance. During Daenerys's dragon-breath-powered siege on King's Landing, Greyjoy's fleet suffers devastating damage. Barely surviving, he jumps overboard and swims for shore, where he encounters Cersei's brother (and his romantic rival for her affections) Jaime Lannister. They duke it out in a brutal round of hand-to-hand combat that leaves Jaime with injuries that ought to kill him, but with Euron impaled on the end of his opponent's weapon. Still, he dies smiling, boasting with his dying breath, "I'm the man who killed Jaime Lannister."

Cersei Lannister - Game of Thrones

As the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones began, fate — or at the very least, Daenerys Targaryen — was coming for the head of Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey). Not only was she the current crowned ruler of the Seven Kingdoms, but she'd gotten to her seat on the Iron Throne through all kinds of nefarious and deadly acts. Not only did that make her an unpopular tyrant, but Daenerys and Jon Snow had better claims to the throne. Cersei was going to pay for what she did, but until that time came, she held firm to the power she'd long sought. 

After ordering Euron to take out a ship that held her own brother, Tyrion, she took Daenerys' trusted friend Missandei hostage, forcing a negotiation. Talks fail, and she ordered the hostage executed, partially triggering Daenerys' evident descent into madness. In Thrones' penultimate episode, Cersei's troops surrender King's Landing, but that's not good enough for Daenerys, who has her dragon's fiery breath incinerate the city and many of the people in it. Ultimately alone in the city's collapse, Cersei seems trapped in her own crumbling castle — until Jaime appears at the last moment, scurrying her to a hidden exit in the bowels of the building. Alas, their escape is blocked by rubble; the ceiling comes down on both Lannisters, ending that family's reign for good.

Jaime Lannister - Game of Thrones

As the dashing knight in the Lannister family, Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) would've been brave and true... except for his assassination of King Aerys Targaryen and lifelong affair with his sister. In the first episode of Game of Thrones, Jaime showed his true nature, pushing young Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) out of a window when Bran witnessed Jaime and Cersei in the act. The reunion of pusher and pushed at the beginning of season eight was a pretty blatant signal that Jaime would have to own up to his actions, but for a brief period of time, it seemed he was on his way to redemption. He insisted he did what he did in the interest of his House, and Jon Snow and Sansa Stark let him live. He apologized to Bran, and, after the humans' triumphant win over the Night King's forces in the Battle of Winterfell, he celebrated with a romantic encounter with Brienne of Tarth.

But no matter how much viewers might have wanted to believe he'd changed, Jaime was always meant to be with Cersei... and he was meant to die when Daenerys Targaryen destroyed King's Landing with dragonfire. Immediately after barely surviving a fight to the death with Euron Greyjoy, Jaime finds Cersei, and they attempt to escape the carnage and destruction. Realizing they're doomed to die with Cersei's reign, they hold each other as they perish.

Mayor Adam West - Family Guy

Actor Adam West, best known for starring on the campy '60s TV version of Batman, died in June 2017. His other most famous role is probably voicing Mayor Adam West on Family Guy, a bizarre, unhinged version of himself who ran the town of Quahog, Rhode Island. Because animated series often have extremely long lead times, the series had to wait nearly two years to address what to do with the character of Adam West in the wake of the death of the real Adam West. 

Near the beginning of a May 2019 episode, Lois Griffin's sister, Carol, mentions that she's been sad since the death of the mayor, who also happens to be her husband. ("Uncle Adam is dead?" baby Stewie bluntly remarks. "How many people has this show killed?") That sets into motion the plot of the episode, in which Brian Griffin and Quagmire savagely run against one another to become the new mayor. West makes another appearance, albeit silently, as a ghost, saving Brian and Quagmire from the wreckage of a bus accident.

Selina Meyer - Veep

A savage, foul-mouthed, extremely cynical and brutally funny take on American politics, Veep put toxically narcissistic politician Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) through all sorts of personal and professional indignities — almost as many as she doled out to rivals and loyal staff members alike. 

The show's series finale sees Meyer finally return to the presidency, a position she'd once briefly held, through a series of machinations at her party's convention. Neither she nor Kemi Talbot (Toks Olagundoye) has the votes to secure the presidential nomination, with Jonah Ryan (Timothy Simons) and Buddy Calhoun (Matt Oberg) blocking plurality with their small contingents. Selina gets the nomination when she gets Jonah's support by making him her running mate, and getting Buddy on board by agreeing to get rid of same-sex marriage. While the latter permanently fractures her relationship with her gay daughter (Sarah Sutherland), her road to the White House is blocked only by a financial scandal at the Meyer Foundation... for which she frames her extremely loyal assistant Gary (Tony Hale), sending him to prison. 

The episode flashes forward to Selina in the Oval Office, and then to more than 20 years later, when Selina's press secretary turned CBS News reporter Mike McLintock (Matt Walsh) covers the ex-president's funeral. Veep saves one last indignity for its lead character — Mike interrupts and then ends his coverage of the presidential memorial to pursue the breaking news that beloved actor Tom Hanks has died.

Daenerys Targaryen - Game of Thrones

It sometimes seemed like the story of Game of Thrones was really the story of Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) — Mother of Dragons, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, and heir to the Iron Throne as the daughter of Aerys Targaryen. He was the king once, and then he went mad and plotted to burn King's Landing, only for Jamie Lannister (a member of his own guard) to kill him. Unfortunately, history repeated for the younger Targaryen.

Partially from her relentless quest to fulfill her birthright and take back power, and partly from the war deaths of allies Missandei, Jorah Mormont, and one of her last surviving dragons, Daenerys became the "Mad Queen." Despite Queen Cersei Lannister's surrender, Daenerys used the fire breath of Drogon to destroy King's Landing, brutally killing countless innocents. That also led to the loss of support from her lover, Jon Snow (who she'd learned was really her nephew), and ally Tyrion Lannister. 

After all Daenerys went through in Game of Thrones to take her place on the Iron Throne — notably surviving numerous assassination attempts — she came so close to a happy ending. But after her dip into murderous tyranny, that simply wouldn't be possible. And so, to prevent Daenerys from "liberating" any more people the way she'd liberated King's Landing, Jon Snow stabbed her to death. (And for good measure, Drogon, her last surviving dragon, destroyed the Iron Throne; if Mama can't have it, then nobody can.) 

Dorothy Walker - Jessica Jones

Netflix's Jessica Jones is based on a Marvel Comics title about a young woman with extraordinary strength who works as a private detective. That may sound bright and fun, but Jessica Jones is a dark and unsettling show, focusing less on the superhero action and more on adult women coming to terms with the toxic and catastrophic influences from when they were younger. In the first season, Jessica (Krysten Ritter) had to confront Killgrave (David Tennant), an evil, mind-warping supervillain who kept her mentally captive and forced her to do violent and horrible things. 

Season three finds Jessica and her closest ally, Trish Walker (Rachael Taylor), in a reckoning with Dorothy Walker (Rebecca De Mornay), Jessica's adoptive mother and Trish's biological one, a brutal, controlling, and abusive stage mother who forced Trish into a life as a child actress. While both Jessica and Trish harbored a lot of unresolved issues against Dorothy Walker, in the end she died at the hands of dangerous serial killer Gregory Sallinger, a.k.a. Foolkiller (Jeremy Bobb), who tortured and violently murdered her because she was the mother of Jessica and Trish.

Pennsatucky - Orange is the New Black

When Orange is the New Black debuted on Netflix way back in 2013, it was a comedy about Piper Chapman, a privileged woman (Taylor Schilling) who finds herself in a minimum security prison after a long-ago drug deal surfaces. The series evolved into a stark drama that sympathetically delved into the reasons why its ensemble of women wound up imprisoned, and nobody is more representative of that tone shift than Tiffany Doggett, a.k.a. "Pennsatucky" (Taryn Manning), a woman of contradictions — she's a loud and wacky comic character, but also a violence-prone and deeply religious person brought up amidst poverty and drugs. 

Orange argues that she is a product of her tough environment, and depicts her struggle to improve her life and slay her demons. At the end of the seventh and final season of the series, Pennsatucky takes a big step forward into her future by taking a GED test. The consistently self-loathing character then convinces herself she failed the exam, and dives back into drugs to cope. Tragically, she overdoses, and fellow inmate Taystee (Danielle Brooks) finds her body. Later on, in a brutally ironic twist, viewers learn that Pennsatucky did pass her GED test.

Angela - Mr. Robot

As the vast worldwide financial and computer hacking conspiracies unfolded over the first three seasons of USA's paranoid tech thriller Mr. Robot, Angela Moss (Portia Doubleday) found herself enmeshed with nearly every major player. She stayed close with childhood friends Elliot (Rami Malek) and Darlene Alderson, bonding over the tragedy of losing a parent to cancer caused by a chemical leak perpetuated by E Corp. Raised by her adopted father, her real dad is Phillip Price (Michael Cristofer), the cruel and calculating CEO of that very company, which in the present is conspiring with the hacking/terrorist contingent Dark Army to boost the company's e-currency. 

Angela slowly descends into panic and madness, seeking revenge against E Corp for how they killed her mother, as well as to expose the Dark Army's actions. By the beginning of Mr. Robot season four, Price has pulled Angela closer into his rarefied circle, but keeping his business interests and his own fears of the Dark Army first and foremost, he's forced to help silence her. On the grounds of her father's palatial estate, Dark Army agents shoot Angela in the back of the head.

Fred Andrews - Riverdale

While character deaths are fairly routine on Riverdale, the CW's teen noir murder-mystery series set in the Archie Comics universe, the death of Fred Andrews is easily the saddest and most shocking in the show's history, as it had to happen due to the death of the actor who played the character. Beloved TV veteran Luke Perry died unexpectedly of a stroke in March 2019 at age 52. The third season of Riverdale was about done filming at the time, so producers opted to wait for the fourth season premiere to give both Fred and Perry a proper tribute. 

Fred Andrews was a kind, supportive dad to Archie (K.J. Apa), a teen who has been through a lot of tragic events on Riverdale, but none as terrible as this. While on a camping trip with the Riverdale gang, Archie receives a call letting him know that his father died. He passed away due to an accident incurred while he was acting in a characteristically generous way: he'd pulled over to help a stranded driver (Shannen Doherty, Perry's Beverly Hills 90210 love interest) and was struck and killed in a hit-and-run when he pushed that motorist in need of help out of the way.

Alexei - Stranger Things

Stranger Things is famously set in the '80s, and the third season of the sci-fi hit explores the era's Cold War sentiments, unveiling a secret evil Soviet Union program underneath Hawkins trying to get a world-connecting portal underway. But Stranger Things can operate from a place of hindsight, diverting from actual '80s entertainments to depict Russians as people and not anonymously evil caricatures. That's the whole point of the character of Dr. Alexei (Alec Utgoff), a guy forced by his mean Russian overseers to toil on their secret project. Once he emerges into Hawkins, Alexei fully embraces American culture, particularly the Fun Fair and cherry Slurpees. 

Assisted by Sheriff Hopper, Joyce, and Russian translator Murray Bauman, the sweet Dr. Alexei aims to close that Society portal, but alas, he is doomed. A Russian hitman named Grigori catches up with him and kills him when Murray lets his guard down for just a moment.

Billy Hargrove - Stranger Things

From almost the very beginning of Stranger Things 3, the future didn't look so bright for hunky Hawkins lifeguard Billy Hargrove (Dacre Montgomery). The embodiment of '80s cool, with his mullet and rad red Camaro, started off the season as the lecherous king of the city pool, strutting around and soaking up the attention from the local ladies, going so far as to plan a motel tryst with Mrs. Wheeler (Carla Buono). 

En route to their out-of-the-way hook-up spot, Billy crashes his car, finds it covered in some weird slime, and gets himself sucked into the old steel mill, where Stranger Things 3 big-bad the Mind Flayer takes over part of Billy's entire being, turning him into a violent, Mind Flayer-serving slave, drugging and depositing multiple victims for the monster. In the season finale, Billy tries to kill Eleven, but she manages to remind him of his mother's love. That allows his true humanity to break through, and he uses that shred of kindness and autonomy to confront the monster, which violently kills Billy so that the Stranger Things kiddies may live to see a season four.

Lex Luthor - Supergirl

It's shocking that Supergirl would kill off Lex Luthor for a number of reasons. First of all, he's portrayed by Jon Cryer, returning to the world of Superman more than three decades after he played Lex Luthor's nephew Lenny in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. He's also the most famous villain in all of the Superman mythos, and probably in all of superhero fiction. Where does Supergirl even go from there? Well, in his final moments of life — he's shot by his sister Lena (Katie McGrath) — Lex reveals that Kara Danvers and Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) are one and the same. 

That's a bit of a cliffhanger ending, a salacious end to a season-long arc for the evil industrialist, politician, and super-villain. All he really wanted to do was kill Superman (and Lois Lane) in his weakened state during a visit to the Kryptonian remnant of Argo City, and along the way proved very difficult for Supergirl to vanquish. He framed her for an attack on the White House, harvested energy from alien prisoners, and used Supergirl to create an evil clone named Red Daughter (also Melissa Benoist). Lex Luthor is, or rather was, just not a good dude.

Logan - Veronica Mars

Logan Echolls (as portrayed by Jason Dohring) was a part of every iteration of Veronica Mars. When the franchise began on the UPN in 2004, he was a smug and cruel rich kid mourning the death of his girlfriend, Lilly Kane, whose murder was the central mystery of the show's first season. But Logan worked on himself, he evolved, and by the time of the 2014 Veronica Mars movie, he and Veronica (Kristen Bell) looked to be headed for a happily ever after together as a couple. 

At the start of Hulu's 2019 Veronica Mars miniseries, Logan is on a furlough from the Marines, and utilized the time off to ask Veronica to finally marry him, once and for all. She didn't want any of that, and they drop the topic while they both participate in solving the mystery of who's exploding deadly bombs around Neptune, California. P.I. Veronica gets her man, and then she gets her man — she and Logan wed near the end of the final episode. But the rogue bomber has apparently left one more explosive undetonated... in Veronica's car. It goes off when Logan happens to be sitting in it, killing him instantly and breaking the hearts of both Veronica Mars and fans of Veronica Mars.