8 TV Show Characters Who Likely Suffered Awful Fates (That You Didn't Realize)

The Tragic Endings of Grey Worm, River Song, and Jefferson

Occasionally, a television series will leave the fate of a character open-ended, but this doesn't mean that the ending that happens off-screen will be a happy one. Series finales will leave some character's arcs up to interpretation in the final moments of the show, to avoid angering fans who have strong opinions about the journey of the character. While this can sometimes be a clever plot device, it can also be a way to avoid accountability for the devastating end to the character's arc.

Game of Thrones

There are many reasons for a character to be written off a show, and many ways to carefully remove them while maintaining the integrity of the plot. Earlier in a series, a character might leave or die because the actor had other opportunities, or due to creative differences with the production team. Often, in the last season of a show, all bets are off as to who will remain standing by the season finale, and whose character development will remain unfinished.

The final season of Game of Thrones was the least popular of the series and received many complaints about how the battle for the Iron Throne was resolved. Although plenty of characters received a fate worse than death throughout the brutal series, many side characters fell to the wayside as the show came to a close, and one of them was Grey Worm. He was a faithful soldier and ally to Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) in her quest to return to Westeros. However, Grey Worm is subtly killed off in the Game of Thrones finale. He sails to Naath with his army, but Naath is known in the books to be lethal to visitors from the outside. This is a sad end to such a rich character and a sloppy mistake on the part of the creators. Grey Worm deserved a peaceful life after everything he went through, not accidentally sailing to his doom after the series wrapped.

Grey Worm fighting in King's Landing in Game of Thrones

River Song is known as one of the most fearsome characters on Doctor Who, but because of how her character was written, her arc ends before it even begins. When the show first introduces River, it is in her final meeting with the Doctor because they keep meeting out of order in their timelines. At the end of the episode, she dies, but her consciousness remains alive in a computer within a massive library. As the show reveals more about River in the following seasons, it's clear that this fate would be boring and unfulfilling for the time traveler. There's no doubt that River would have tried to escape a never-ending cycle of artificial life, or would have just preferred death. If the Doctor had known what he learned about River later in his life, he would have worked much harder to save her.

Alex Kingston as River Song in Doctor Who

Sebastian Stan went on to play many more high-profile roles after his stint as Jefferson aka The Mad Hatter on Once Upon A Time, but his story on the show never came to a satisfying close. Details of his past are scattered throughout the show, but the character never makes any meaningful appearances after season 2. He is reunited with his daughter, Grace after the curse is broken, but what happens to them after this is never made clear. Grace has different parents throughout the curse and Storybrooke experiences a lot of danger and violence as the show progresses. Whatever happened to Jefferson and Grace was probably not the happily ever after they were hoping for. Additionally, it's shown that in his past, Jefferson experienced a lot of misery and trauma that wouldn't leave him the most suited to taking care of a child.

Sebastian Stan as Jefferson in Once Upon A Time

Unresolved Endings of Mr. Turner, Trapper, and Tony Soprano

One of the most tragic arcs on Boy Meets World is what happens to Mr. Turner, and the lack of closure for both Shawn (Rider Strong) and the audience. Mr. Turner is a father figure to Shawn and brings a much-needed element of fun and modernity to the teachers and students at the school. However, all of this is ripped away when he gets into a motorcycle accident. After the accident, Mr. Turner is critically injured, and his life rests in the hands of his doctors. Although the series shows that he survived, he was pretty banged up and does not reappear after Shawn visits him in the hospital. Hopefully, he was able to go on to have a fulfilling life, but the uncertainty of this fate makes it easy to assume the worst.

Mr Turner in a hospital bed in Boy Meets World

Trapper and Hawkeye (Alan Alda) have one of the best relationships on M*A*S*H, and when Trapper leaves the show, it's devastating to Hawkeye. There was no goodbye between the two friends, and the rest of the characters on the show were left wondering what happened after he left their medical unit. On the show, he is reportedly discharged, but the world he returns to is different from the life he had in the war. After so many years working as an army doctor, the return to civilian life would not have been easy, and not getting closure with his best friend would have haunted him.

Trapper looking sad at Hawkeye in MASH

What happens to Tony Soprano in the final scene of the finale of The Sopranos is one of the biggest mysteries in television history. The show cuts to black with Tony on the wrong end of a gun, and while this doesn't mean for sure that Tony has met his end, there aren't many other ways to interpret it. Tony lived his life dangerously and witnessed him become more and more morally corrupt over the seasons. When a person lives their life this way and has caused so much pain and suffering for others, it's not hard to imagine that there's only one way they're going to meet their end.

A beaten-up Tony Soprano

The Uncertain Fates of Salvatore Romano and Monica Dawson

Salvatore is one of the more tragic figures in the Mad Men universe, and with so many tortured characters in the series, that's an impressive feat. He is a closeted gay man in the 1960s, and in an industry where womanizing and toxic masculinity are considered favorable traits. After the season 3 finale, many members of Sterling Cooper were not invited to the new agency, and Sal was one of them. Unlike other characters, it's never revealed what happened to him after this, but the world would not become more accepting for many years after his departure.

Sal Romano and the Bell Boy in a hotel in Mad Men

Heroes had a tough go as a series, with a promising first season and then being hit with the 2007/2008 writer's strike in season 2. One of the casualties of these hardships was Monica Dawson's character. She was first introduced as a human with the ability to mimic any physical ability that she witnessed happening. This intriguing power and her fun personality make for a great character, but she gets largely written off the show in season 2 after escaping a fire. Though it's reported that she went into hiding, Monica had so much left to do, and sneaking around for the rest of her life was not a fair end for the hero. She could have become a major character with her skills, but instead, she most likely lived out the rest of her life alone.

Monica Dawson smiling in Heroes