Joss Whedon

Death in science-fiction and fantasy shows rarely sticks. In nearly every case, the character eventually gets resurrected, cloned, replaced by an alternate dimension replica, returned by the powers that be, or continue to haunt and entertain as ghostly versions of themselves.

On occasion, though, a character dies and stays dead, or at least mostly dead. Since we’re in the dead of winter, I thought it would warm the hearts to remember 10 of the most moving deaths that stuck in the past 10 years as we continue to celebrate the 10th anniversary of SyFy Portal.

Allen Doyle from "Angel." — Joss Whedon loves to kill off beloved characters, and I have to struggle hard not to make this entire list consist of Whedonverse characters. Still, Doyle deserves mention because just as we grew completely smitten with him, and as it seemed he finally won Cordelia’s heart, he gets all heroic and sacrifices himself to save his fellow benign demons and half-demons.

What made his death even more poignant was the eventual real life drug-overdose death of troubled actor Glenn Quinn. No magic was ever going to bring him back.

Winifred "Fred" Berkle from "Angel" — While actress Amy Acker remained on the show till the end, her character, Fred, the sweet brainy waif and love interest of many, died a sudden death just as she finally showed romantic interest in the ill-fated Wesley Wyndham-Price. We felt the intense grief of the show’s most tragic character as the life of the woman he loved slipped through his fingers and disappeared, with no hope of ever bringing her back. Of course, her body still remained as the long-winded, leather-clad, blue god Illyria.

Hoban "Wash" Washburn from "Firefly" and "Serenity" — Granted Wash died in the theatrical movie, "Serenity," but we all know they’re the same thing. I had the privilege of seeing screenings of "Serenity" before its general release date. As was the case of nearly everyone else in the theater the first time around, I was mesmerized by the movie, totally immersed in the story, and then it happened. Suddenly, and without warning, Wash was dead, impaled through the chest by a giant spear! I believe in the next 10 to 15 minutes of the film, I was in shock, and yet still while reeling from Wash’s death, within moments I found myself laughing — at Jayne, and then Kaylee — and feeling really guilty about it. Upon subsequent viewings of the movie, we learned we actually had warning that Wash would die, but I had forgotten than Joss loves to impale us in our collective chests, and then proceed to ripping our hearts out.

Joyce Summers from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" — "The Body," the episode about the death of Buffy’s mother, is possibly one of the finest episodes of television ever. From the moment Buffy discovers her mother’s dead body to the wishful thoughts and mundane-yet-special memories that pass through Buffy’s mind as she’s dealing with the reality of her mother’s death, we become Buffy. Everything she did, the sounds of life as normal going on in the background as her entire world has changed, the futile attempts to revive her mother, the starkness of the sunlight – all make us feel it is happening to us as well. I didn’t originally see this series in order or from the beginning, and while I liked it enough, I never took it seriously until I saw this episode. It was responsible for my becoming a fan of the entire body of Joss Whedon’s work.

Joyce did show up again in Season 7 as “The First,” but that doesn’t count as a revived character – as she was evil, out of character, and not a continued presence.

Tara Maclay from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" — For almost three seasons, she was a favorite Scooby, Willow’s girlfriend, the kindest, sweetest character in the stable of Buffy characters, and then suddenly, without warning, she was dead.

(...)