8 TV Heroes You Didn't Realise Probably Died Horrible Deaths

7. Vic Mackey - The Shield

The Shield ends with Vic Mackey confined to a desk. It's probably the worst ending imaginable for the character, and the one he most deserved: while he'd have preferred to have remained out in the field, or go out in a blaze of glory, he's instead confined to putting on a shirt and working in an office.

There's a sense of justice in that, because while he was the protagonist of The Shield and generally acted in a way he believed was justified, he also strayed into the path of anti-hero and occasionally into villain territory.

All of that adds up to Vic dying a brutal, painful death. He may be sentenced to desk, but he's not staying there, with his final moments in the series seeing him pick up a gun and walking out of the office, his destination and intentions both unknown. There's a hint in Sons of Anarchy that a truck driver called Milo (played by Michael Chiklis) is really Vic in disguise or undercover, but that's unlikely to ever be confirmed.

Wherever he went, though, it's a guarantee that he found trouble. He was never going to just live the quiet, unassuming life. He's a man with violent urges and who feels the need to take action. It may be immediately after he walked out of the office, it might've been years later, but everything in Vic's character suggests he'd die with a gun in his hand and a bullet in his body.