The Col. Blake Syndrome: TV Characters Killed Too Soon
“Lt Col. Henry Blake’s plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan. It spun in. There were no survivors.”
When Radar O’Reilly said these words on M*A*S*H, it was a tearful goodbye to a beloved TV character, and signaled the an irreversible change in the series. It wouldn’t matter if you were a fan or not of his replacement Col. Potter. Throughout the rest of the run of the series we were constantly wondering what would have happened, “if Col. Blake was still around.” Of course this isn’t the only time that television executives killed off a much needed character. It happens far too often, and we’re calling this “The Col. Blake Syndrome.” Here are some other victims.
1. Big Pussy Bonpensiero, The Sopranos
Big Pussy. He was a rat but we loved him anyway. When they whacked Big Pussy we knew nobody in the Sopranos was safe. Not even Tony. His early death in the series kept the tension level high for every character in every episode. He haunted Tony for the rest of the series. Even though we knew he was a rat, knew he broke the rules, knew he deserved to die we held out hope until the last possible moment that somehow he’d be saved. He wasn’t . The character was so popular that the actor, Vincent Pastore still gets called “Big Pussy” by fans to this day.
.
2. Omar Little, The Wire
On The Wire, Omar Little was a vicious, menacing, shotgun wielding stick-up man who adhered to a strict moral code. He was also undoubtedly the scariest gay man ever on television. In season 5, Omar was well on his way to extracting revenge on Marlo Stansfield’s crew. Instead of leading to a satisfying conclusion of that story line, Omar was shot in the head by a neighborhood kid in a convenience store. Oh yea. Um.. spoiler alert.
.
3. Ned Stark, Game of Thrones
While people who read the books the show was based on saw this coming, those who hadn’t had their minds blown. One you first read the books you didn’t see this coming. One of the great Oh Shit moments was when the main protagonist of the TV show you’ve invested hours into gets his head cut off right in front of his horrified daughter. This doesn’t happen! is what you’ll be yelling to yourself. The internet blew up when this happened, people not familiar with the original story lost their shit when Ned Stark was killed. The actor playing(Sean Bean) him was one of the few recognizable actors on the show at all, he was featured heavily in all the promos for it. You simply don’t kill off the good guy in the first season. Ned Stark was the only character on the show who wasn’t total scum with an ulterior motive, he was the one good man in town, and ultimately that is what did him in. His is probably a more realistic fate for a man who was in way over his head than some invincible killing machine riding into town on a white horse.
.
4. Mr. Eko, LOST
Mr. Eko came and went too fast. He was a character who had a great name and flashback episode as a young Nigerian protecting his brother from guerrillas and going on to become a warlord. In fact, Mr. Eko may be the only lovable warlord in television history. The mercenary posing as a priest, the tough guy with a heart of gold. He was a welcomed mystery on a show filled with sometimes too many questions. Mr. Eko left the series too early, but even in his death scene, he was just as mysterious. He went mano a mano with the smoke monster and left a message with Locke telling the survivors they’re next.
Mr. Eko meets his doom 3:30 in
.
5. Sergeant James Doakes, Dexter
Serial killer Dexter Morgan works at a police station but is able to fool everyone into thinking he’s a normal human being, everyone expect James Doakes. Doakes sees through Dexter’s facade the best moments are
when they are playing their cat and mouse game. In the second season, Doakes goes all out in his crusade to unearth Dexter’s darkness creating some incredibly tense television. He finally catches Dexter in the act of disposing a victim but winds up locked in a cage, and then ultimately blown to smithereens after a cabin explodes. It was far too early in the show to off the best foil Dexter could ever have.
.
6. Dr. Lawrence Kutner, House
Dr. Kutner was a happy and curious guy, so when he was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, it left a lot of people scratching their heads. Kal Penn, who played Kutner, accepted a job in the Obama
administration so the writers needed a way to have him leave the show. Suicide would have made sense if they had even hinted that he was slightly depressed. In fact, in a previous episode he states that he’s
exactly the sort of person who would not commit suicide! The death torments House because of its illogicality and he ends up learning a valuable lesson that sometimes people commit suicide for absolutely no reason at all.
.
7. Teri Bauer, 24
As we learned throughout 8 seasons, Jack Bauer is not the type of guy who normally has a good day. But this day has to be particularly bad for our hero. The world is totally fucked, but he was dealing with that. He figured, at the very least, he could trust his friend Nina in the CIA to drive his wife to a secure location, right? Wrong. Nina proved she was a traitor and shocking shot Teri Bauer in the stomach. Mind you, this was after Teri already volunteered her self to be raped instead of her daughter AND found out she was pregnant. Hey, when it’s not your day, it’s not your day…but you were still gone too soon.
.
24 – A TRIBUTE TO TERI by kdamani
.
8. Jimmy Darmody, Boardwalk Empire
True, we haven’t seen any episodes without him yet, since he was killed off in season finale shocker, but we’ve all come to think of this show as a two person lead. It already changes Nuckie because he is no longer just a crooked politician. He’s a gangster. A cold blooded killer. It may be too early to call it, but we think we’ve got another Col. Blake on our hands here. Tune in….
