History ThanatosGambit / LiveActionTV

** Does Sheridan's death in "Z'Ha'dum" count? Goes there knowing he'll die because Kosh told him, apparently all because he wants to know if there's a chance that his wife isn't brainwashed completely by the Shadows (guess what... she is). Turns out, all he really wants to do is slam a bomb the size (and shape, and speed...) of the White Star into the Shadow Capital city to say "we might be the young races, but by hell we're going to fight you". It sums Sheridan up IMO that even in his death it's a massive fuck you to his enemies.
** There was also an episode where one of Londo's old friends challenges him to a duel and purposely loses so that Londo can protect and provide for his family.
*** This also serves a big "screw you" to the guy who put him in this position in the first place, Lord Refa, who wanted to see him and his entire family gone and take their possessions. Instead, now Londo can keep all of them around as part of his family, and also take their possessions with them. We never see Refa's reaction to this, but it's implied that Refa isn't pleased.
** The Starfire Wheel was originally a conspiracy between Delenn and Neroon to end the civil war. Delenn apparently intended to commit suicide herself to allow her political desires to be made. Neroon pushes her away and takes her place. It is not clear whether she was [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation intentionally goading him]] into this; she was never really that devious and likely did intend to kill herself. In any case she planned for her instructions to be followed.
*** Her gesture of giving instructions to Lennier indicates that she at least thought there was a good chance of her dying, or indeed that she ''intended'' to, as Lennier stated later.
*** Neroon apparently believed that she intended to step out of the circle and leave the war as a tie. Lennier replied that she was making her point clear to everyone.

* In the episode "Hitman" of ''Series/LawAndOrder'', a man hired a hit man to kill him and then pin the crime on his wife and her lover. However, when his friend (who had unwittingly helped him put his plan into effect) came under investigation, it was revealed the man had a contingency plan in place in order to clear his friend's name: He made a tape before his death and admitted that he had put the hit out on himself. Despite this, he still got his revenge in the end because his wife didn't receive his life insurance money since his death was ultimately ruled a suicide.
** And in ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'', a woman kills herself, but makes it resemble a series of murders that her husband has committed, thus causing an investigation into his acts.
** In "Hell", an episode of ''[[Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit SVU]]'' which focuses on two Ugandan refugees--one of them a former child soldier named Elijah--culminates in Elijah taking a church full of parishioners hostage because he doesn't want to be deported back to Uganda for what he did as a child soldier. He eventually agrees to surrender peacefully, but as he leaves the church sees a large group of reporters with cameras, and makes a mad dash towards them, causing an armed officer to shoot him. With his last moments, he tells that he ''wanted'' to be shot dead here, so that everyone would see the suffering of the other child soldiers in Uganda.
*** Another ''SVU'' example: the episode "Bully" features the death of a woman who, as it turned out, was the subject of some very serious bullying at the hands of her boss (said boss was a megabitch to all of her workers, but she was particularly abusive towards the victim). When videos leak out of this abuse, the CEO arranges a press conference, supposedly to explain her actions, but instead to tell off everyone before [[DrivenToSuicide shooting herself in the head on live television]]. As a final "screw you" to everyone, she [[PetHeir left all of her worldly possessions to her dog]].
*** A third one from ''SVU'': Serial rapist William Lewis escapes from prison, kills another cop, murders his nurse and kidnaps her youngest daughter. Using the girl [[IHaveYourWife as a hostage]], he forces Olivia to admit publicly that, contrary to her testimony at his trial, she attacked him while he was handcuffed. He then takes her prisoner again, but becomes turned off [[NoChallengeEqualsNoSatisfaction when she refused to resist him]], so he decides to force her into a game of Russian Roulette. He ends up fatally shooting himself as one last way of tormenting Benson, figuring she’ll be accused of his murder. However, at Benson's grand jury hearing, Lt. Declan Murphy claims (falsely) that there was no truth in her admission, that he ordered Benson to tell Lewis what he wanted to hear in order to lure him out of hiding, and then he tacks on a few words to remind the grand jury just what kind of a man William Lewis was and what kind of courage it took for Benson to confront him. This affects the grand jury and they refuse to indict Benson, causing Lewis' actions to be in vain.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In the BadFuture setting of [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E65TheObsoleteMan "The Obsolete Man"]], where the state has eliminated books and literature and proven - by their standards of proof - that God does not exist, a librarian is sentenced to death for the crime of being obsolete, because he was promoting literature and believing in God. However, via his LastRequest, he arranges for his execution to be publically televised in a way that shows the public that, as the closing narration claims, ''he'' was not obsolete. What truly was obsolete was the government, and indeed, ''any'' government that fails to recognize the dignity and rights of its people.

** This also serves a big "screw you" to the guy who put him in this position in the first place, Lord Refa, who wanted to see him and his entire family gone and, possibly, take their possessions. Now that Londo absorbs all of them into his family, he also takes their possessions. We never see Refa's reaction to this, but it's implied that Refa isn't pleased.

** In "Ashes and Dust," the investigation into an arsonist who likes to watch his victims burn to death leads to Abby, a man dying of leukemia who's disgusted and angered that the arsonist is using the group he founded to target victims. Abby ends up luring the arsonist to a building filled with highly flammable material. When the arsonist asks how Abby plans to escape, he says, "I don't," and lights the building up, killing them both.
** Another episode featured a dying judge who, since he had nothing left to lose, hired a hitman to take revenge on people who he felt had escaped justice. The last person on the hit list was the judge himself. It would stop him from dying a painful death of cancer and spending his last few months alive being tried, while still allowing him to face justice himself, ''and'' prevent him from providing evidence against the hitman.

* Nicely subverted on ''Series/{{CSI}}'' as legendary mobster Mickey Dunn (Roger Daltrey) has been long thought dead after a shootout with some underlings. Actually, Mickey survived in hiding with a bullet at his heart that could never be removed or it would kill him. Learning it was coming closer to his heart, Mickey pulls off a genius scheme involving multiple disguises to kill the guys who betrayed him. He even shows up ''on television'' and no one knows who he is. When Catherine eventually catches him, Mickey has a heart attack from the bullet and confesses to it all in the hospital, smugly believing the brilliant end to his life will make his legend even greater....
** At which point, Catherine shows the bullet and tells the stunned Mickey "mob doctors are mob doctors because they sucked in the first place." Thanks to a top-notch surgeon, Mickey will live another 30 years, all in jail for the multiple murders he's confessed to. Mickey at least tries to hold onto how he'll be revered by the guys inside as a legend only for Catherine to smugly say that most of the young gang-bangers have never even heard of Mickey. She walks out, leaving the stunned Mickey realizing that instead of going out with a bang, he'll end with a whimper.

* An episode of ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' featured a building's door woman found dead inside the building's water tower. Initially, all the evidence pointed towards a doctor living in the building who was having an affair with the woman. However it turns out he was framed by the ''victim'': the doctor negligently killed the woman's daughter by giving her CPR while under the influence of drugs so she decided to get revenge by getting the door woman job, initiating the affair and finally killing herself so that the doctor would be punished.

* Holtz from ''Series/{{Angel}}'' gave Angel a note to give to Angel's human son Connor, who Holtz stole as a baby and raised in a demon dimension. It explains that Angel and Connor should be together. He also tells Angel the same thing, seemingly having finally made peace with Angel for Connor's sake. Then he has his accomplice stab him twice in the neck so it looks like Angel (a vampire) killed Holtz out of spite. This pretty much destroyed the relationship between Angel and his son forever, especially given the vicious cycle that resulted.

* ''Series/{{Forever|2014}}'': In "The Last Death of Henry Morgan" both immortals engage in this. TheOlderImmortal Adam has a theory that the weapon which originally killed an immortal is the only thing that can kill them permanently, in his case a Roman ''pugio'' dagger. Henry knows that Adam has tortured people to death in the quest to recover his ''pugio'', so when Jo takes possession of it, Henry is justified fearing what Adam will do to her to get it. Henry steals the dagger and arranges to meet Adam in an abandoned subway tunnel. It quickly becomes clear that Adam expects Henry to try to kill him with the ''pugio'', possibly Adam's intention all along, both to die and to turn Henry into a killer. Instead, Henry tosses the dagger to Adam's feet and walks away. Adam, furious, goads Henry, then when that fails, pulls out the flintlock which was used in ''Henry's'' first death and shoots Henry with it. Henry, dying, beckons Adam closer to hear his last words — at which point he uses a syringe to inject air into Adam's brainstem, causing him to rapidly develop [[AndIMustScream Locked-In Syndrome]], leaving Adam no longer a threat to anyone. Henry didn't know if the gun would kill him permanently, but the fact that Abe was waiting for Henry to resurrect in the river but was acutely anxious about whether he ''would'' indicates Henry knew Adam would shoot him with his flintlock and was at least worried it would stick. Henry found it worth the risk to be able to neutralize Adam.

** "On The Line" opens with Samantha Wabash [[StartsWithASuicide killing herself]] and making it look like a man named Lucas Bundsch killed her. Bundsch had previously been accused of murdering Samantha's sister but the charges didn't stick. Sherlock immediately works out that the "suicide" was faked and tells the police who release Bundsch from questioning. After speaking to Bundsch at the station Sherlock realizes that Samantha was absolutely right and that her sister was not Bundsch's only victim. He spends the rest of the episode trying to prove the man is a SerialKiller.

** And of course, Mollari's [[ProphecyTwist death]]: Mollari's actions are being controlled by the Drakh parasite, so he first temporarily disables the parasite by getting wasted, frees Sheridan and Delenn and then asks G'Kar to kill him before the parasite wakes up and ruins the plan. All so Vir Cotto, the TokenGoodTeammate of the Centauri, can succeed him, free the Centauri from Drakh control and lead them into a brighter future.

** And of course, Mollari's [[ProphecyTwist death]]: Mollari's actions are being controlled by the Drakh parasite, so he first temporarily disables the parasite by getting wasted, frees Sheridan and Delenn and then asks G'Kar to kill him before the parasite wakes up and ruins the plan.

* In an episode of ''Series/JonathanCreek'' a wealthy businessman named Andre Masson is about to be exposed for fraud and decides to commit suicide. But in order to die with a smile on his face, he arranges his suicide to look like he's been murdered by one of his associates, Craig Downey (who is also screwing Masson's wife). Masson rigs up his computer to record the sounds of a break-in, a struggle, himself pleading for his life and a gun-shot. He breaks into Downey's flat, plants this CD in his CD rack, and takes one of Downey's contacts with him. He also leaves several diary entries on his computer, claiming that Downey has threatened to kill him. Still with me? Okay, Masson arranges for a meeting, and whilst all his associates (including Downey) are locked outside his office, Masson goes through with the suicide, staging it with ''the exact same sounds'' that are already on the pre-recorded CD. After hearing the commotion, concluding in a gun-shot, his colleagues run around the side of the office to find Masson dead. Masson's plan is that the police will not only find Downey's death threats on Masson's computer, but also his contact lens near the body. They will therefore search Downey's flat and find the CD, leading them to the conclusion that Downey killed Masson earlier in the day, recorded it, and then set the computer to play back the sounds of the murder whilst he's outside the office with the others, giving himself the perfect alibi. Does this sound too far-fetched? [[RefugeInAudacity It's supposed to be.]] As Jonathan points out: "No jury alive will believe it's a set-up!". It all would have worked perfectly, if it weren't for Downey [[SpannerInTheWorks being burgled and the CD being stolen]]. Said CD ends up in in a market stall, where it is purchased by an elderly woman; that evening, it plays just as she begins to fall asleep, leading to her believing that she had dreamed of Masson's 'murder' before it had even happened.