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A major character is seemingly killed, leaving the story permanently. However, the dramatic tension falls flat because we know these kind of events are very seldom permanent because we would have already heard that the actor has quit or been fired. Even if a character does somehow die, it is very unlikely that they are Killed Off For Real, and are probably Not Quite Dead.
Guest stars and minor characters introduced in the last couple episodes, on the other hand, are very mortal. Not to mention anyone wearing a Red Shirt...
See also: Like You Would Really Do It, Joker Immunity and Contractual Boss Immunity. Contrast Anyone Can Die.
Examples:
Live Action TV
- The season finale of The X Files where Mulder supposedly killed himself; since David Duchovny was signed for another season and a movie, it was pretty obvious that he wasn't actually dead.
- A bait-and-switch subversion: Spooks (AKA Spooks) introduced Lisa Faulkner as a regular, but her character Helen was brutally and unceremoniously killed off in the second episode, a move aimed to illustrate straight away that this was in fact going to be a series where Anyone Can Die.
- On the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, Commander Adama is shot by a Cylon sleeper agent at the end of the first season, and spends the next four episodes in critical condition before making a surprise return at the end of the fourth episode. There is never any question that Adama won't survive, even when he has to have emergency surgery to restart his heart.
- Kara Thrace does this as well, but due to the specific nature of her death, which is enshrouded with plenty of mysticism, it was quite obvious that she would return from the dead soon enough (Or would she?). However, this created a very tense atmosphere for several episodes, when the fans weren't absolutely sure that the character wasn't Not So Invincible After All.
- Laura Roslin is probably the worst example. While she does eventually die, the otherwise-good episode Revelations resorts to the kind of science-fiction Techno Babble miracle-cure it was intended to avert to keep her alive.
- At the finale of Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 2 Angel is run through with a sword and sucked through a portal into hell. However, David Boreanaz stays on as a regular character in Season 3, even appearing in the title sequence. They try to Mind Screw the audience by having him appear in dream sequences but theres never any doubt that he'll be back from hell soon. And sure enough...
- Hell, this is even used with Buffy herself, when she sacrifices herself in place of Dawn, then is brought back by a spell.
- And when Angel leaves Sunnydale for his own Angel spinoff, he comes across a group of lawyers who quite literally have immortality written into their contracts with the demonic Senior Partners.
- The same sort of literal contractual immortality pun shows up in Phantom of the Paradise.
- Star Trek The Next Generation: It was obvious that Data wasn't dead in The Most Toys. Seeing the shuttle explode, however... was still pretty convincing.
- As was that time when they found his head buried in a cavern under San Francisco, having apparently been there for five centuries. Which was creepy as hell, to boot.
- Technically, since that was the end of the season, he could have died and the actor just not contracted for next season, which makes it more plausible. Related: It seems obvious now that Picard would survive The Best of Both Worlds, but Stewart's return for season 4 was not confirmed at that point and the producers feared he would leave; if he hadn't returned, he really would have died in the second half.
- The same in an episode where Picard was supposedly killed in a meaningless bar fight. Much to the dismay of his crew.
- Heroes has had a couple neat subversions: Niki Sanders was Killed Off For Real, with the actress staying on the show thanks to the reveal that she was one of three clones. One of the clones was killed a year later, thanks to the promise that there's another Ali Larter out there. Also, Nathan Petrelli was really killed and had his place taken by an amnesiac, permanently transformed Sylar.
- Actually, Traci Strauss is still alive. Thats shown at the end of the episode where she supposedly died and she's been back this season.
- Lampshaded in Alias by Jennifer Garner. After the first season finale left Sydney's handler needing an injection of adrenalin to survive, she gave in interview in which she mocked the cliffhanger, saying that Michael Vartan had a 5-year contract, so his character wasn't going anywhere . Ironically, the character really was temporarily killed off in the fifth season.
- Lucy's death in the TV show ER counts as an inversion. This troper remember reading an issue of a tv guide-esque magazine that came out the week Be Still My Heart aired in which it revealed that Kellie Martin had asked to be written out of the show. Needless to say, the only true surprise in the cliffhanger of the episode was that the producers actually had her die instead of just writing her off.
- Inverted with Doctor Who where the Nth Doctor regeneration arrangement means that the leads can have contracts shorter than the series but then when we know that the current actors contract is up, we know that at the end of the next season the Doctor is going to regenerate into something new. David Tennant's departure was arranged a couple of years before it occurred such that more time was spent before it happened on focusing on the new actor.
Anime
Web Original
- Parodied by the Adventure Quest character Zorbak in his articles in the spin-off Ezine. He's constantly talking about the contract being the only thing that keeps him around.
Western Animation
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