10 TV Characters Who Went Through Hell To Win (And Died Anyway)

This may be the most famous or infamous moment on this list, depending on your perspective, and it’s one that still holds a place in the annals of television history. Where many of the entries on here fell victim to melodramatic plot machinations which aimed for tragedy but fell flat upon execution (we see you, The Walking Dead and Hemlock Grove), and others aimed for dark comedy in their pointless demises (shout out to You and Breaking Bad), M*A*S*H had another, more poignant reason to kill off a character despite their heroic efforts.

For all of its warmth, the television adaptation of Robert Altman’s Korean War-set dramedy is an anti-war text, and one committed to highlighting the pointless brutality and inhumanity of conflict. It’s a metaphor rendered more pointed by the fact that the show aired as the Vietnam war drew to a close, and the criticisms the show makes of American imperialism abroad pretty transparently apply to both conflicts.

All of which serves to make this death all the more understandable, if no less devastating. After years of service, Lt. Blake is finally granted an honourable discharge, prompting him to say his goodbyes to Hawkeye, Radar, and the rest of the camp as he excitedly calls his wife and family at home. So Blake heads off, free at last… Until the episode’s iconic closing line reveals that he died when his plane was shot down over the sea of Japan.