28 lesbians and bi women TV lost in 2016 – and how they were killed off

29 Dec 2016

I am a writer for Gay Star News

Lesbians and bisexual women live dangerous lives – especially if they’re on TV.

Producers and writers are famously keen to kill off lesbian characters, meaning their romances rarely meet a happy end. So much so it’s turned into an actual, recurring TV trope.

This year has been no exception and, in true 2016 style, has brought us some of the most dramatic, but also often useless, deaths of our favorite lesbian characters.

Sadly, there are too many to count, but here are 28 (fictional) women we lost this year:

1 Poussey Washington – Orange is the New Black

Cause of death: accidentally strangled by a correctional officers, who didn’t realize Poussey couldn’t breathe while being pinned down during a scuffle

2 Sara Harvey – Pretty Little Liars

Cause of death: found dead in a hotel bathtub

3 Julia – The Exorcist

Cause of death: car crash, just after she confessed having feelings for her friend

4 Mimi Whiteman – Empire

Cause of death: Poisoned by her wife, whom she was cheating on, because she wanted Mimi (who was diagnosed with cancer) to die quicker

5 Camilla Marks-Whiteman – Empire

Cause of death: Poisoned by her wife Mimi’s business partner after poisoning said wife

6 Nora – The Vampire Diaries

Cause of death: suicide, together with Mary Louise

7 Mary Louise – The Vampire Diaries

Cause of death: Together with Nora, she chose to destroy a magic sword to prevent Nora being trapped in it. They both knew they’d die, but chose death over having to be apart from each other.

8 Samantha ‘Root’ Groves – Person of Interest

Cause of death: saving a man from a sniper’s bullet. She lives on as the voice of an AI.

9 Denise – The Walking Dead

Cause of death: Shot in the eye with a crossbow bolt, mid-sentence

10 Lexa – The 100

Cause of death: shot in the stomach by a stray bullet, which was fired by Titus, who was often considered a father figure to her

11 Zora – The Shannara Chronicles

Cause of death: slit throat

12 Carla – Code Black

Cause of death: Leukemia, which she was diagnosed with while pregnant and dies of shortly after giving birth

13 Elizabeth/The Countess – American Horror Story

Cause of death: shot and beheaded

14 Bea Smith – Wentworth

Cause of death: Stabbed with a screwdriver – which she impaled herself on. It was a sacrifice, to frame former governor Joan ‘The Freak’ Ferguson so she would remain in prison.

15 Molly Ryan – Guilt

Cause of death: Bisexual Molly was killed by her roommate Grace’s boyfriend, who was blackmailed into it by Molly’s jealous girlfriend after she found out Molly had an affair with a man.

16 Roz Walters – Guilt

Cause of death: murdered by her dead fiancée’s roomate Grace, in retailiation for blackmailing Grace’s boyfriend into killing Molly.

17 Helen – Masters of Sex

Cause of death: Died in childbirth, because her blood wouldn’t clot. Her parents also denied Helen’s partner Betty all rights to the child.

18 Susan – Van Helsing

Cause of death: strangled by a psychopathic serial killer, who later became a vampire and dug into Susan’s grave to drink her blood

19 Gina – Shut Eye

Cause of death: murdered (off-screen)

20 Rose – Jane the Virgin

Cause of death: strangled by a crime lord – but she is later resurrected in a huge plot twist (which we won’t give away here)

21 Julie Mao – The Expanse

Cause of death: alien pathogen

22 Kira – The Magicians

Cause of death: Asks to be killed. Kira was kept alive in a vegetative state; she helps the spiritual growth of a white woman in another realm and then asks her to kill Kira in real life.

23 Pamela Clayborne – Saints & Sinners

Cause of death: Shot by an intruder, who was associated with a man Pamela’s husband accused her of having an affair with. (She did have an affair, but it was with a woman.)