9 Most Fan-Pleasing Moments In Television

Season five of The Walking Dead saw fan favourite, singer Beth Greene killed, shot in the head in a moment of sudden, random violence. The fan outcry was unprecedented for the show, which had made its name in sudden, random violence and the dramatic effects this violence would have upon the main cast.

Beth’s death was considered to be for shock value only, to give the mid-season finale a horrible ‘water cooler moment’ for people to discuss the next day. An online petition was circulated, citing the loss of the character to the show and describing the scene in particular as “disgusting and unsatisfying”. Series creator Robert Kirkman, meanwhile, responded to the surprising backlash by telling fans that he was working on a way to persuade the powers that be to bring Beth back, or to find closure for her character that would satisfy the audience.

Eventually, that closure came about. During the protracted death of Tyreese, another major character, Beth would appear as a hallucination along with several of his other dead friends, the children Lizzie and Mika and Bob Stookey. Initially appearing as corpses rather like the walkers themselves, the wounds sustained in death still with them, by the end Beth and the others have returned to a more peaceful countenance, and as Tyreese dies, she sings him to his rest.

The implication, however cheesy, was that Tyreese has come to terms with his losses and with his own impending demise, and is at peace: similarly, the audience is invited to believe that Beth, Bob and the children are also at peace, perhaps even gone to a better place.