From Jon Snow to Buffy: TV Characters Who Couldn’t Stay Dead | television

On TV, you never die. When a beloved character on your favorite show is killed off, you can be forgiven for having some skepticism. Who says they won’t be miraculously revived in the future?

BBC hit The Night Manager brought back arms trade foe Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie) midway through the series to confront his old nemesis, MI6 agent Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston). This action duly increased the gears, tempting Sunday’s finale approach. Will Roper be eliminated for good this time?

Meanwhile, fans of Belfast’s BAFTA Blue Lights-winning police drama have been preoccupied with news this week that fan favorite Constable Gerry Cliffe (Richard Dormer) – who was tragically shot dead during the first series – will make a surprise return for the upcoming fourth round. We’re assuming it’ll be in flashback, exploring his mysterious past on Special Branch, but we’ll find out for sure when it airs this fall.

Yes, coming back from the grave has become a TV trope. We’ve picked out the 10 best Lazarus moments on TV. Beware: plot spoilers abound…

10 Jon Snow (Game of Thrones, 2011-2019)

“They stabbed me. Ole put a knife through my heart. I shouldn’t be here.” Westeros heads went into mourning when Jon Snow (Kit Harington) died in the Season 5 finale, after being stabbed by rebel brothers of the Night’s Watch and left bleeding in the snow. Fortunately for the Bastard of the North, the Red Priestess Melisandre (Carice van Houten) was able to revive him two episodes into season six. This mystery was never satisfactorily explained and was considered by some to be the beginning of a decline in the show’s quality. Maybe it would be better if the fur-shouldered favorite stayed dead.

9 Dan Conner (Roseanne/The Conners, 1988-2025)

Goodman is alive! It was retroactively revealed that patriarch Dan (John Goodman) died of a heart attack in Season 8 of the blue-collar comedy. The lovable goofball seen throughout Season 9 appears to have been a figment of his grieving wife’s imagination. Fortunately, the 2017 revival negated his death. When Dan resurfaced, he made a meta joke about Roseanne about killing him (“I’m asleep! Why does everyone always think I’m dead?”) and lived to star in the spin-off film The Conners – by which time Roseanne was dead and he was a widower. confused? So are we.

8 Nathan Young (Misfits, 2009-2013)

Howard Offerman’s streetwise sci-fi outing was an underrated gem, following a crew of young criminals who gain supernatural powers after being exposed to an electrical storm. Among its standout stars was Robert Sheehan as the rebel Nathan, who has become increasingly salty to the point where he doesn’t seem to have any great power. That is, until he fell from the roof of the community center and was impaled on the railing, before waking up in a coffin and realizing he was immortal. After being extracted by his comrades, he becomes so annoyingly arrogant (“I knew it!”) that they soon wish they hadn’t.

7 Rory Williams (Doctor Who, 2010-2012)

Not only was he the most wonderful companion to the TARDIS – Amy Pond’s (Karen Gillan) more adorable fiancé, often a gooseberry to her flamboyant fling with the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) – but Arthur Darvill’s bumbling sidekick developed into an unlikely hero. He was shot dead by a Silurian but revived by the Autons as a Roman centurion to lure the Doctor to the legendary future prison, Pandorica. Rory regained his own timeline, eventually marrying Amy, and having a daughter (who became River Song – Go With It), before the pair were sent back in time by the Weeping Angels and lived happily ever after. How’s that for the Timey-Wimey character arc?

6 Kenny McCormick (South Park, 1997-present)

This became the first line in Colorado comedy: “Oh my God, they killed Kenny.” The mute eighth-grader in the orange jacket suffered a horrific death in every episode of the first five seasons — including having his head bitten off by Ozzy Osbourne — before returning the following week to face the same fate. It totaled nearly 100 revivals until the joke became old for creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. They have since explained that Kenny is cursed, meaning he was killed but never died and no one can remember.

5 Richard Roper (The Night Manager, 2016-2026)

“When you kill a dragon, always check its breathing.” So warns Richard Onslow Roper (“My friends call me Dickie but you’re not one of them”), played by Hugh Laurie with polite menace, in the long-awaited sequel to director John le Carré’s elegant spy thriller. Hotel owner-turned-ghost Jonathan Payne was convinced that his war-mongering enemy – also known as the “Worst Man in the World” – had been executed by Syrians. He even helped identify his body. He considered Don Roper’s ability to bribe, lie, kill, and rise from the ashes of chaos. The rematch is underway.

4 Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 1997-2003)

Buffster has come back from the dead not once but three times. Our teenage heroine, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, is bitten by a vampire (an occupational hazard), lands in the hospital, and, most importantly, sacrifices herself to save her little sister Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg). It was supposed to be the last permanently but when the show was renewed for two more seasons, showrunner Joss Whedon was forced to bring it back. Sunnydale’s resident witch Willow (Alyson Hannigan) cast a resurrection spell, forgetting that it meant Buffy would have to claw her way out of her grave. Buffy complained that she had been “snatched from heaven” but her return attracted one of the show’s largest audiences ever. If the end of the world comes, whistle for it.

3 Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock, 2010-2017)

In the season 2 finale The Fall of Reichenbach, Benedict Cumberbatch’s cheeky detective throws himself from the roof of Barts Hospital, his signature Belstaff coat blows in the breeze, and he is scraped off the pavement by paramedics. Don’t worry, campervans. He tricked his arch-nemesis Moriarty by faking his death using a strategically placed airbag, a body double, several accomplices, and a squash ball to stop his pulse. Allegedly. Dr. Watson (Martin Freeman) wasn’t happy to see his friend alive and well after two years, punching him in the nose for making him sad.

2 Dirty Den (EastEnders, 1985-2005)

“Hello, princess.” With this two-word greeting, the most surprising soap resurrection was complete. Pub owner Dodgy Den Watts (Leslie Grantham) is shot by a hitman in 1989 and falls into the Walford Canal. It turns out it wasn’t brown bread but he survived and made his escape to Spain. His important return was watched by 16 million viewers. His shit was murdered for real two years later, bludgeoned with a bust of Queen Vic and buried under a beer cellar.

1 Bobby Ewing (Dallas, 1978-91)

The original. Notorious. The best and the worst at the same time. In the most ridiculed series in television history, the death of Texas oil baron Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) was described as “just a dream” when he reappeared in the bathroom an entire season later as if nothing had happened. Viewers of the shoulder-to-shoulder super-soap were left heartbroken when JR’s villainous much nicer younger brother was hit by a car and died in hospital. However, the tragedy – and the entire ninth series – has been recast as a bad dream for his wife, Pam, (Victoria Principal). The implausible plot was kept so secret that even the actors didn’t know about it until it aired. Maybe it’s wise. They were unable to keep their faces straight.