10 TV Shows Where The Villain Kills The Hero
7. Buffy The Vampire Slayer
There's no denying that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a supernatural TV show where fantasy nonsense can resurrect any "dead" character at will, but it was still hugely surprising to see Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) die at the primary villain's hand at the end of the very first season.
In the season one finale "Prophecy Girl," Buffy faces off against The Master (Mark Metcalf), the ancient vampire antagonist who catches Buffy off-guard and drinks her blood, before discarding her unconscious body in a pool of water, leaving her to drown.
Her corpse is soon enough discovered by Angel (David Boreanaz) and Xander (Nicholas Brendon), who confirm that she's 100% dead - she's got no pulse and isn't breathing.
It falls to Xander, then, to revive her with CPR, which brings her back to the land of the living.
Now granted, Buffy's only dead for all of about two minutes, but it's still pretty rare for the hero to get so thoroughly overpowered - killed, even - by the villain like this, even if Buffy certainly gets her revenge before episode's end.
Buffy of course dies a little more decisively in the season five finale "The Gift," where she sacrifices herself to save her sister Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg), though even then her demise only lasts until the start of the next season.