12 Brilliant Ways TV Characters Were Brought Back From The Dead

12. Winnifred 'Fred' Burkle / Ilyria €“ Angel

Joss Whedon is known for subjecting us poor fans to one horrible death after another. It started with Jenny Calendar in Buffy The Vampire Slayer and continued with Joyce, Tara and Anya. The cast of Angel fared even worse; Doyle, Cordelia, Wesley and Fred all met their maker and Gunn looked to be on his way out by the time the final credits rolled. Worse of all was Serenity, the big screen outing for the Firefly crew. Double bluffing the audience by killing Shepherd Book, fans were traumatised when Wash found himself skewered on a giant Reaver spear. The phrase €˜I€™m a leaf on the wind€™ brings a tear to even the most hardened Whedonite. Fred's death cut almost as deeply in the fifth season of Angel. The sweetest, brightest, most innocent of all Angel's crew, she found herself dying in Wesley's arms, her soul burned out of existence as the goddess Illyria possessed her body. It was excruciating for everyone that knew her; despite looking like a blue-haired warrior she was still essentially Fred physically, even if their friend no longer existed. And yet, the show was cleverly able to resurrect poor Fred. Realising the importance of the person whose body she now inhabited, Ilyria was able to transform her guise into that of Winifred "Fred" Burkle, first to deal with the unfortunate appearance of Fred's parents, both unaware of their daughter's death and later to help poor Wesley ease his suffering as he dies of his wounds in the series finale. Joss Whedon's plans for an unaired season six would have been for Ilyria and Fred to be separated but as we didn't get that, fans can take comfort that they got to see Fred a couple more times after her horrific death.