12 TV Characters Who Deserved to Die

House of Cards killed off Frank Underwood because of the off-screen accusations against Kevin Spacey, which the actor has denied.

But you know who’s definitely guilty? That would be President Underwood, who killed the two most likable people on the show — Zoe and Peter (Kate Mara and Corey Stoll) in the very first season of House of Cards and never looked back.

The show’s final season even revealed that Frank plotted to kill his partner-in-crime, Claire (Robin Wright). He’s irredeemable and the perfect embodiment of TV characters who deserved to die.

The Trinity Killer, aka Arthur Mitchell, posed as a family man to hide a despicable, murderous cruel streak that ends only when Dexter (Michael C. Hall) finally put him down.

But Dexter was too late: He arrived home to find that Trinity’s final murder was of Rita (Julie Benz), who — besides being completely innocent and good — was Dexter’s last shot at happiness and a normal life.

The Trinity Killer certainly deserved to die, but also went out as one of the best TV villains ever, played to perfection by Lithgow. He was a dark pleasure to watch, but we’re glad he’s dead.

Ramsay Bolton was arguably the person who most deserved to die on a show loaded with TV characters who deserved to die. Iwan Rheon did such an excellent job of making us hate him that we wonder if he has trouble getting nice-guy roles.

Ramsay was a psychopathic sadist who loves torturing adversaries, often in repugnant sexual ways, and wasn’t even loyal to his own dad.

He finally got his due when Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) turned his own hunting dogs on him — and they turn out to be about as loyal as he is. Good work, dogs.

The Governor so belongs on this list of TV characters who deserve to die that our only complaint about his death is that it took so long.

Besides beheading Hershel Greene, who never wanted to hurt anyone, the Governor (David Morrissey) dispensed brutal discipline on the people of his own town, Woodbury.

He died by Michonne’s blade and Lilly’s gun, and we were happy to see him go.

We liked and sometimes even loved Walter White, masterfully played by Bryan Cranston — we rooted for him through all kinds of evil deeds, much longer than we should have, because Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan did such a great job of making him sympathetic in the show’s pilot episode. Who wouldn’t root for a teacher with a special-needs kid, a baby on the way, and a cancer diagnosis?

But by the end of Breaking Bad, we think even Walt knew he deserved to die. Besides killing many rivals, he got rich of the suffering of countless people caught in the misery of addiction, and nearly killed one kid while failing to prevent the death of another.

At least he went out like a boss, by killing more enemies, freeing Jesse, making sure his family was set for life, and getting some fun revenge on his friends-turned-betrayers Elliott and Gretchen. He died peacefully bleeding from injuries suffered in an attack that he himself orchestrated.

Jesse Plemons’ immense likability made Todd initially seem OK. But then he went and shot the boy witness with a tarantula. There was no coming back from that, so Todd just kept getting worse, even keeping Jesse in a cage like the boy did his arachnid pet.

By the end of the show, he had the most solid sociopath bona fides of anyone on Breaking Bad, which is really saying something. We were glad when Jesse (Aaron Paul) killed him.

Breaking Bad, along with Friday Night Lights, proved Plemons is one of Hollywood’s best actors — and is especially good when playing seemingly harmless guys with secrets.

Ralph Cifaretto was a good earner and a terrible guy: The Sopranos creep stood out on a show filled with TV characters who deserved to die.

Ralph passed the point of no return when he murdered his lovable dancer girlfriend, Tracee (Ariel Kiley, with Ralph, above) — when she was pregnant, no less.

It often saddened us to see Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) give in to his rage and take someone out. But we delighted in watching him him Ralph with his bare hands, just like killed Tracee.

We could make a whole list of Sopranos characters who deserved to die, and maybe someday we will, but for now we’re keeping it to three.

Christophuh was petty, murderous, and once killing a dog by sitting on it, but he lost us completely when he had his chance to run off with Adriana (Drea de Matteo) and instead went along with the decision to have her murdered for talking to the feds.

Chrissy’s unreliability made it impossible for Tony not to whack him, and after what he allowed with Adriana, we were fine with that. He once said he would follow Tony to hell, but we think he was wrong about the order.

What goes around comes around. Tony Soprano killed or orchestrated the killings of more people than we can count, sometimes for good reasons, and often for bad. He knew what he was getting into.

If you’re reading this and saying, “Wait! Tony didn’t die at Holsten’s!,” well, we respectfully disagree. Sopranos creator David Chase basically spelled it out in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, 15 years after the Sopranos finale.

We sympathized with Barry at many times throughout the four seasons of Barry — he was a veteran dealing with PTSD, led astray by his role models, who really wanted to go straight.

But ultimately killed so many people — many of whom didn’t deserve it — that there was almost no way the show could have ended except with his death. Barry is a comedy, sure, but also tragic in every sense.

In general, we don’t think young people should face the same penalities as adults for their crimes. But we’ll make an exception for Joffrey, perhaps the most despicable of all these TV characters who deserved to die.

In his brief reign he ordered the execution of the benevolent Ned Stark, abused his betrothed, Sansa, humiliated members of his own family, and killed countless people, often for the sake of his own amusement.

We were happy to see him die and happy that Margaery (Natalie Dormer) didn’t have to spend her life with him Kudos to her aunt Lady Olenna Tyrell (Diana Rigg) for orchestrating his well-deserved assassination.

It hurts to say this, because Daenerys was one of our favorite characters for most of Games of Thrones. But by the end, she was just another on this list of TV characters who deserved to die.

One of the central ideas of Game of Thrones is that absolute power corrupts absolutely, and no one illustrated that more than the Mother of Dragons, who went from breaking chains to going waaaaaaay overboard in her dragon-riding, flame-breathing quest for conquest.

She’s the person we’re saddest about including on this list of TV characters who deserved to die.

Perhaps we can lighten the mood by recommending the 13 Funniest Comedies We’ve Ever Seen? Or perhaps this list of the 13 Strangest Movies We’ve Ever Seen?

And please let us know if there are any TV characters who deserved to die who we forgot.