The Most Surprising TV Deaths In 2017

Last year was full of surprising TV deaths, and 2017 has picked up right where 2016 left off. The year's far from over, too—fan favorites like Game of Thrones, Orphan Black, Orange is the New Black, Mr. Robot, Stranger Things, American Horror Story and Fargo could deliver a lot more surprising carnage and heartbreak. While we wait for more shocking fictional obituaries, here are the TV deaths that have thrown us for a loop in 2017 so far. Spoilers abound, of course, so if you're not totally caught up yet, read with caution. 

During Season 4 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Dr. Radcliffe spent more time escaping the pain of real life within the Framework he created. The "Self Control" episode finally gave fans a good look inside, when Daisy and Jemma went in to rescue the team members who'd been replaced with LMDs by Aida. After we caught a glimpse of everyone's Framework vision, things came to a head with Radcliffe—he'd been letting Aida take care of his business in the real world, and she learned that his intentions for the Framework might not be what she'd thought. He assured her that when he uploaded people's consciousnesses into the Framework, he set them free—so she slashed his wrists, forcing him to stay there. Will he come back? Maybe. But few fans saw this abrupt twist coming.

Perry Wright's death might not have been a huge surprise to the fans of HBO's Big Little Lies, but the circumstances definitely were. Viewers learned in the very first episode that the story was leading to a death, but didn't know who, or how. Perry was shown to be abusive from the get-go, so some were probably rooting for him to be the body at the end of the series, but it wasn't until the seventh and final episode that the truth was revealed—and in dramatic fashion, with Bonnie shoving Perry down a staircase while he was in the midst of a brutal assault on Celeste.

Peter Quinn endured a lot of life-threatening things on Homeland, including a stroke, getting gassed, and a struggle with alcoholism. Ultimately, however, he gave up his life for the country, putting himself in the line of fire to save President-elect Keane and get her to the White House. Rupert Friend, who earlier earned an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Quinn, is a favorite to win for his work here; as for the fans, they might have to learn to love a new assassin-turned-hero, if the show stays true to form.

In Season 4's "No Regrets," The Patriot and Coulson traveled into the Framework to look for a mole who'd been trying to bring information out of Hydra. During the mission, Coulson realized his students were being brainwashed by Hydra, and May showed up, juiced on some sort of super strength serum that made her strong enough to fight the Patriot. He won, but in the aftermath, a Quinjet fired on the building and the roof fell in. The Patriot saved a boy and held up the roof, allowing people to escape and sacrificing his own life in the bargain—kind of like Sloth in The Goonies, but without the happy resolution.

Prison Break: Resurrection revived Prison Break with much of the original cast intact—only to kill off one fan favorite in the fourth episode. Though Paul Kellerman was thought to be dead in Season 2, viewers later learned it was a cover-up; when the show returned via Resurrection, Kellerman (played by the versatile Paul Adelstein) was a changed man who'd hung up his gun and was living a righteous life. Unfortunately, you can't put your past behind you—a lesson driven home when Kellerman was killed by an assassin.

After Sam and Dean slipped through the portal back into reality in the Season 12 finale, Castiel followed—but Lucifer, from inside the portal, stabbed him with an angel blade, seemingly killing him. Even though Season 12 found the show occasionally at an apparent loss as far as what to do with Cas, he finally seemed to find a purpose in the care of Kelly's baby—and then he died. Or did he? Actor Jared Padalecki's comments at a fan convention hint that Cas is going to be around, and Misha Collins tweeted that the character "has a future." What that holds obviously remains to be seen.

Despite the fact that Hermie was a supporting player on HBO's Girls, the character made an impact. As Ray's blunt, grumpy boss at the coffee shop, Colin Quinn brought his characteristic snark and humor to the role, as well as some vulnerability that added some real emotion to his surprising death in Season 6's "Painful Evacuation." After a chatty coffee shop regular died suddenly, Ray was left questioning life, the universe and everything—then, to heap more existential angst onto the poor guy, he went to Hermie's house and found him dead. Ray spent the next episode, "Gummies," sorting through Ray's belongings and grieving.

Over the course of five seasons of Archer, Malcolm Merlyn—a.k.a. the Magician, a.k.a. head of the League of Assassins, a.k.a. the New Ra's al Ghul, a.k.a. Thea's real father—was alternately a force of pain and justice, and he was played with relish by Torchwood and Doctor Who fan favorite John Barrowman. His end came in the form of noble sacrifice. On the run from Adrian Chase on Lian Yu, Thea (Willa Holland) stepped on a landmine; Malcolm, who'd come to the island to protect his daughter, took her place on top of the mine, allowing her to run to safety. Left to confront Chase's minions, Malcolm took his foot off the landmine, wiping them out—and giving up his own life in the process.

To many viewers of the third season of FX's Midwestern crime anthology, it seemed like Nikki Swango (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) would be the last person standing when all was said and done. After all, the petty criminal pulled the strings from the beginning, orchestrating the plot to extort money from her parole officer fiancé's wealthy twin brother...and then always rolling with the punches and staying a step or two ahead of both the police and the bad guys when plans went awry. But even though the crafty Nikki survived countless brushes with death, she still somehow met an unceremonious end—shot by a police officer during a roadside standoff.

Olenna Tyrell (Diana Rigg), matriarch of the Tyrell clan, has been a ruthless and imposing player on HBO's Game of Thrones for years. The "Queen of Thorns" was behind one of the series' most notorious death scenes—she provided the poison that killed Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) on his wedding day to her granddaughter, Margaery (Natalie Dormer). But as the battle for power on Game of Thrones heats up, some contenders are going to be left out, and the Tyrell matriarch met her maker during the seventh season's third episode, "The Queen's Justice." 

Laid siege to by the Lannister army, the ever-dignified Lady Tyrell sits for one last bit of sparring with Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), who reveals he's brokered a merciful death for her over the wishes of his sister Cersei (Lena Headey). After drinking his proffered cup of wine laced with poison, Tyrell gets one last dig in against the Lannisters, revealing to Jaime that it was she who was responsible for the death of King Joffrey—firstborn product of the not-so-secret incestuous tryst between Jaime and Cersei.

TBS's strikingly original People of Earth mixes psychological drama with wacky sci-fi comedy. It's about a support group called StarCrossed that meets in a church basement so members can discuss their experiences being abducted by aliens.They're not crazy in the least—they really were visited by extraterrestrials, who are also characters in the show. It's an ensemble series, but the central character and audience surrogate character was Ozzie Graham, initially a reporter covering StarCrossed. That's why it was so shocking when Ozzie (Wyatt Cenac) was shot by one of the evil Reptilian aliens, who was trying to track down a different character.

In 2016, Kevin James returned to CBS, where he'd starred for nine seasons on The King of Queens, with a new sitcom called Kevin Can Wait. James plays Kevin, a just-retired police officer, and actress Erinn Hayes co-starred as his wife, Donna. The show did pretty well in the ratings but got a big attention boost with a guest-star run from James' The King of Queens co-star Leah Remini, playing his former partner. 

Their chemistry was undeniable, so much so that during the show's summer hiatus, producers decided to take the show in a new direction: Hayes' character wouldn't be returning, while Remini would join the cast, effectively turning Kevin Can Wait into The King of Queens 2.0. Donna's death was addressed on the second-season premiere of Kevin Can Wait. Set more than a year after the end of the first season, Kevin gets a postcard in the mail from his deceased wife's gym. "We haven't seen you, we miss you," he reads sadly. "You know what? So do I."

Starz's romantic-historical-fantasy series Outlander is based on Diana Gabaldon's books, which in turn are based on real events. Claire Randall (Caitriona Balfe) is a mid-20th-century English woman transported back in time to 18th century Scotland, where she meets and marries a dashing Scottish soldier named Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan). 

Season 3 picks up during the Battle of Culloden, an especially bloody 1746 fight in which English troops squashed Scotland's Jacobite power grab. The face of the villainous royal forces on Outlander has long been the brutal knight Jonathan "Black Jack" Randall (Tobias Menzies); despite his side's victory, he's the Outlander main character that dies. 

The third-season premiere shows Jamie about to die on the battlefield, recollecting what he thinks are his last few moments. Viewers see him come face-to-face with Black Jack...and deliver the death blow. Jamie is ultimately pulled to safety, protected underneath the corpse of Black Jack. After Black Jack's death, Menzies fans could console themselves with the knowledge that at least he'd be around in his other role on Outlander: Frank Randall, Black Jack's descendant and 20th-century husband to Claire Randall. For a little while, anyway—just two episodes after Black Jack's death, Frank died too, meeting his end in a car accident.

Mr. Robot revolves around unsteady and unclear alliances formed by characters whose actual intentions aren't always clear. (Which is to say nothing of the double-crossing and split personalities that complicate things further.) Among the most shrewd, clever, and calculating players in the ongoing saga to take down Evil Corp and/or manipulate the world's economy is Joanna Wellick (Stephanie Corneiliussen), the wife, co-conspirator, and puppet master of Tyrell Wellick (Martin Wallström), an Evil Corp corporate stooge gone into hiding for his role in the successful "5/9" hack. 

While it's not terribly shocking that someone doing the things Joanna did would pay the ultimate price, it's how she died that threw viewers for a loop. As part of her master plan, she seduced a bartender named Derek (Chris Conroy), convincing him to implicate an enemy in a murder. But then Derek went and fell in love with Joanna, who no longer needed him. Humiliated and lovelorn, the jilted Derek followed Joanna's chauffeured car, got it to stop, and gunned down both the driver and Joanna...while she was sitting next to her newborn son.

Only one major cast member didn't return for NBC's Will & Grace revival: Shelley Morrison, who portrayed Rosario Salazar, Karen's caustic, sarcastic, and long-suffering housekeeper. "Shelley has decided to retire," Will & Grace co-creator Max Mutchnick told reporters last summer. "We really wanted Shelley to be a part of this series, so we find ourselves having to figure that out moving forward." In the fifth episode of the season, the writers figured out what to do: they killed off Rosario, offscreen. It's explained that she fell ill, was admitted to a hospital, and died after surgical complications.

Death just seems to follow Kiefer Sutherland's TV characters. On 24, his character Jack Bauer witnessed an unrelenting series of deaths, including that of his wife. On Sutherland's latest show, Designated Survivor, fictional history repeated itself. 

Sutherland plays Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Thomas Kirkman, who ascends to the presidency after everyone else in the line of succession dies a fiery death. Like 24, Designated Survivor is full of political intrigue and high-stakes drama. Also like 24, the writers aren't afraid to kill off the lead character's spouse: Alex Kirkman (Natascha McElhone), an immigration lawyer turned reluctant First Lady, met her end in the midseason finale when a truck smashed into her Secret Service vehicle.

As executive producer Keith Eisner explained to The Wrap, the decision was at least partly driven by McElhone's decision to join the cast of Sean Penn's Hulu drama The First—but he also felt it opened up new storytelling avenues for Designated Survivor. "Fans will be really excited to see how the story develops and what it means for Tom Kirkman," he promised. "It's new ground for the show and new ground for a White House show to suggest potential legal difficulties that envelope the first family and the First Lady, and to see how the president and his family deal with that."