10 TV Characters NOBODY Expected To Die
2. Tracy McConnell - How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother finally introduced the titular Mother, Tracy McConnell (Cristin Milioti), at the end of the sitcom's eighth season, and she appeared in every episode of the show's ninth and final season.
The mystery was over and Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) had seemingly gotten his happy ending - except that the writers had one cruel final gut-punch in store for fans.
The series finale, "Last Forever", reveals that Tracy dies of an unspecified illness in 2024, before we return to the show's 2030 framing device, where Ted's kids encourage him to seek out Robin (Cobie Smulders), who he clearly still has feelings for.
It's an ending that left most fans majorly sour due to the highly manipulative nature of Tracy's demise - that is, using her shock death as a device to push Ted back into the arms of Robin who, if we're honest, he was never that well-suited for anyway.
The Mother dying was such a bats**t crazy idea that most fans couldn't even begin to entertain it, making it all the more jaw-dropping - and infuriating - when the showrunners actually decided to do it.
The backlash was significant enough that an alternate ending was eventually released on the season's DVD, where Tracy survives and stays with Ted.