Because art typically imitates life, most TV series tend to feature character deaths in the final episode of a storyline, season, or even the entire series. On rare occasions, however, TV shows spring a surprise by working adeath into their very first episodes. Such a move not only catches viewers off guard but sets the tone for subsequent episodes.
Particularlyshocking TV show character deathshave us thinking that more violence or tragedy could be just around the corner, keeping us in suspense until the next major event of the show. What’s more, there’s nothing more dramatic than amain character being killed surprisingly earlyinto a series run, as it goes completely against the conventional rules of storytelling.
Certain shows have gone the extra mile in that respect, unleashing their first fatality on unsuspecting audiences from the very beginning of their run. Whether because of the character chosen to be sacrificed, the manner of the death, or simply how early it happens in the story, first episodeTV deaths can be the hardest for us to get over.
10Tim Kono
Only Murders In The Building
As its title suggests,Only Murders in the Buildingis a show all about death. Following in the long-established tradition of murder mystery series,its series premiere was always bound to feature a murder, too. Yet, these expectations didn’t make the sudden appearance of Tim Kono’s perforated skull lying in a pool of blood any less shocking.
We’d just been introduced to the character, alive and well in the elevator of his apartment building, when there was no indication he was about to meet such a sticky end.Only Murders in the Buildingis one of the funniest dark comedy crime shows around, but it also knows how to pack a deadly punch right from the start.
9Eleanor Shellstrop
The Good Place
Technically, Eleanor Shellstropdied immediately before the start of her TV show,The Good Place. But it was only in the first scene of the series that she realized she was dead, as it flipped the script on comedies concerning the life and times of their protagonists.
Effectively killing your main character in the very first scene is quite a feat of bravery.
Yes, the whole point ofThe Good Placeis that it’s set in the afterlife. But effectively killing your main character in the very first scene is still quite a feat of bravery. From the moment that Ted Danson’s Michael announced, “You, Eleanor Shellstrop, are dead,”we knewThe Good Placewas no ordinary comedy series.
8Lee Dutton
Yellowstone
In some respects,Yellowstonewas the neo-Western genre’s answer toThe Sopranos, and in true mob family tradition, John Dutton’s eldest son, Lee, was primed to take over his father’s business. It was utterly unthinkable, then, thatLee Dutton’s deathshould come in the very first episode of the series.
TheYellowstoneseries premiere culminated in a showdown between the Dutton ranchers and local Native American tribespeople over rights to land and cattle. Just when the ranchers appeared to have come out on top, confusion caused by Lee’s brother, Kayce, caused him to hang back in a moment of hesitation that proved fatal, andchanged the course of the show.
7Lawrence Dobson
Firefly
Firefly’s first episode actually featured several deaths, of which Lawrence Dobson’s was the last. But this fatality was the most unforgettable in an action-packed series premiere. The undercover agent wasdispatched with almost casual indifference byFirefly’s central antihero Mal Reynolds, who shot Lawrence as soon as he entered a scene fraught with tension.
The shooting happened so quickly after Mal entered the hostage situation involving Lawrence, River, and Simon that it was impossible to predict. It ended up being one of the standout moments inFirefly’s lamentably short stint as the best sci-fi showon television.
6Gary Troup
Lost
Given that it centered on a plane crash,Lost’s first episode fitted the title “Pilot”better than pretty much any other pilot in TV history. The episode included multiple death scenes, but the most memorable and harrowing was the killing of Gary Troup, a bit-part character whose only contribution to the series was the explosive manner in which he met his fate.
After his death,Lost’s other characters discovered that Gary Troup was a novelist when they found the manuscript for a novel entitledBad Twin.
Gary made the unfortunate mistake of stopping next to the jet engine ofLost’s downed planewhile it was still running, as another survivor of the crash called for his help in the opening minutes of the series. Without warning, he was sucked into the engine, which duly exploded.
No one knew who Gary Troup was when he died, but it didn’t matter. The image of his death was instantly seared into our minds.
5Little Girl Walker
The Walking Dead
Another character of no significance while she was alive, whose death became one of her show’s most iconic moments, is “Little Girl Walker” in the pilot episode ofThe Walking Dead. Later identified by the name Summer in the franchise’s Facebook game, she was unnamed and completely unknown whenshe appeared in the opening scene of the TV series.
When Summer turned around, revealing to Rick Grimes the grotesque facial wounds of a zombie, we were immediately hooked on the visceral horror that the show became renowned for inducing. She was one ofThe Walking Dead’s few child zombies, and the first person of any kind — among both living humans and walkers — to be killed in the series.
4Will
Game Of Thrones
Game of Thronesseason 1 has a long list of character deaths, but it’s Will’s execution by the sword of Ned Stark in the season’s first episode that set the tone for the entire series. The show built up suspense in anticipation of the beheading.
Unlike most depictions of a beheading,Game of Thronesdidn’t spare us the sickening sight of Will’s head leaving his body.
But it was the act itself that gave us a taste of the brutality to come.Stark was ostensibly an honorable hero, but this scene portrayed him as a ruthless killerwho took no prisoners, even among his own soldiers. Unlike most depictions of a beheading, it didn’t spare us the sickening sight of Will’s head leaving his body, either.
3Nathaniel Fisher Sr.
Six Feet Under
Six Feet Under’s show title gave us a clue that we could expect death to play a major part in its story, right from the beginning. Yet, there wasno way we could have foreseen Richard Jenkins’ protagonist Nathaniel Fisher Sr. going as soon as he did, or the manner in which he went.
As the patriarch ofSix Feet Under’sFisher family, Nathaniel Sr. was being introduced to us as the show’s figurehead, who’d likely play a bigger role than anyone else in the show’s narrative arc. That is, until the hearse he was driving was hit by a bus, just after he’d got off the phone to his wife.
This tragedy was overflowing with cruel ironies, the least of which was Nathaniel driving a car made to transport the dead when he died. He was reaching for another cigarette just seconds after his wife had told him smoking was going to kill him. She was right, but not at all in the way she expected.
2Emilio Koyama
Breaking Bad
Walter White ended up killing a lot of people inBreaking Bad, but Emilio Koyama was his first — and arguably most shocking victim. Walt was still a meek and mild-mannered chemistry teacher in the show’s pilot, and had only just decided to break bad and start cooking crystal meth when he first encountered Emilio and his fellow drug dealer Krazy-8.
His knowledge of chemistry allowed him to poison the pair of them with phosphine gas in his camper van before they even knew what was happening.We just had no idea he was capable of such a horrifying act, and he probably didn’t either.
Emilio’s death was the first moment in the show when the stakes were raisedto this extent. It came as a surprise to us all, but from that moment on, Walter White had to go all in. He was about to build his own meth empire.
1Player 324
Squid Game
People who don’t know at least something aboutSquid Game’s deadly premise must be in the minority of global streaming audiences, but when the show first arrived on Netflix, most of us came into it blind. Thefirst game inSquid Gameseemed like child’s play, even after we’d seen protagonist Seong Gi-hun get slapped about by a game recruiter.
Squid Gamecould never surpass the sense of jawdropping horror we felt when we first realized players were getting killed.
In the first episode of the series, hundreds of participants were asked to play “Red Light, Green Light”, a game they knew from the school playground as children. Evenwhen Player 324 went down following a loud bang, his friend thought he was joking. The moment he coughed up blood sent chills down our spines.
No TV show in history had ever done afirst episode deathquite like this one. It was to be the first killing of many in that specific scene, and hundreds during the course of the series. ButSquid Gamecould never surpass the sense of jaw-dropping horror we felt when we first realized players were getting killed.
