22 TV Characters Who Tragically Died In 2016

6. Norma Bates (Bates Motel)

Unless someone out there was somehow watching Bates Motel without knowing the plot of “Psycho,” everyone knew it had to happen eventually.

It finally came to pass in the penultimate episode of Season 4. Norman tries to peacefully end both his and Norma’s lives by carbon monoxide poisoning in a murder-suicide. Alex arrives in time to save Norman, but it’s too late for Norma.

The finale confirms that she’ll still appear in Season 5, but just in Norman’s head. There are subtle differences between imaginary and real-life Norma, and while we’ll take any Norma we can get, real-life Norma will be sorely missed.

7. Rhonda Lyon (Empire)

Rhonda and Andre went through quite a lot in the first two seasons of Empire, between Andre’s struggle with his bipolar disorder, the murder of Vernon and subsequent cover-up, and Rhonda losing their baby after Anika shoved her down the stairs.

That last one leads to a rooftop struggle between Rhona and pregnant Anika that ends with Rhona falling to her death in the Season 3 premiere.

While Anika and the rest of the Lyon family seem to move on pretty easily, Andre doesn’t quite know how to balance his medications without his wife, and she starts popping up in his mind, usually to tell him what to do.

Andre says goodbye to Rhonda for good in the Season 3 midseason finale, but it seems like her influence will still have a hold on him moving into the second half of the season.

8. Chris Manawa (Fear The Walking Dead)

Chris’s death in Fear The Walking Dead Season 2 is one of the show’s most brutal moments so far.

After trying to convince Chris to come with him, Travis leaves his son alone with the two young men they met, and Madison later tells him that he did the right thing.

When the two men see Travis again, they claim Chris died in a car crash, but it’s revealed that Chris really just badly broke his leg, and the two decided to fatally shoot him rather than try to help him.

It was a harsh ending for a character who had started to grow darker over the course of Season 2, and in turn, his death will most likely bring out darkness in Travis in Season 3.

9. Henry Allen (The Flash)

Just like how Barry was forced to watch the Reverse Flash murder his mom, he has to watch Zoom murder his father.

At the end of Season 2, Barry alters the timeline so that his mother isn’t murdered, which in turn means neither is his father, but he eventually realizes this was a bad idea (a really bad idea), and we lose Henry all over again, this time for good.

Well, kind of. Actor John Wesley Shipp still sometimes pops up as Jay Garrick, Henry’s doppelgänger and The Flash on another Earth, but it’s not quite the same as having Henry. Even though Shipp gets to stick around, we’ll still miss Henry and Barry’s sweet, and complicated, father-son relationship.

10. Richard Gilmore (Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life)

Sadly, Richard’s absence in Netflix’s Gilmore Girls revival was necessitated by actor Ed Hermann’s death. But explaining his absence any other way would have been disrespectful to both the character and the actor’s memory.

Richard still has a huge presence in the revival — sometimes literally, with that enormous portrait at his and Emily’s house. Much of Emily’s story revolves around her trying to figure out who she is without her husband, and his death weighs on the minds of Lorelai and Rory, too.

In a particularly touching moment, old footage from the original series is used to show Richard sitting at his desk as 32-year-old Rory walks in.

The entire storyline is a touching farewell to a beloved character and actor.

11. Wes Gibbins (How to Get Away With Murder)

The first half of How to Get Away With Murder Season 3 slowly revealed who wasn’t dead under a sheet, being taken away from Annalise’s burning house.

But one of the reveals was a bit of a trick, making you think Wes was at the police station as the fire was happening when in fact he was at the station hours before the fire, and he’s the one inside the house when some sort of explosion happens, and the house bursts into flames.

Wes’s death will undoubtedly be a huge blow to Annalise and the remaining members of the Keating 5, but fans will still have time to say goodbye, since he’ll likely appear in the second half of Season 3 in flashbacks showing what happened in the hours leading up to his death.

Next Page