Photo: Lionsgate
There’s something oddly satisfying about someone coming back from the dead in movies and on television (and so many different ways to choose from at that!). Perhaps it’s the fact that something of this magnitude simply cannot happen in real life, but when a character returns after you thought for sure you’d just witnessed their metaphorical goose get cooked, it can bring you great joy (well, as long as said character isn’t named Michael Myers).
We spent the latter half of 2017 focusing on the tropes that we see all the time in mainstream TV and film that bug the ever-loving crap out of us due to their lack of imagination or (in most cases) overuse. However, in the spirit of it being a new year, and one that surely could use a nudge in the right direction, we’ve decided to instead focus on the positives. Therefore, we present to you some great examples of a trope respectably done with the best examples of fan-favorite characters revealing they are, in fact, alive and well. Sure, this is short lived in a few cases, but that sounds like negative talk to us.
WARNING: Major spoilers for series as current as 2017 from here on down.
First-Rate Tropes: Fan-Favorite Character Returns After Fake-Out Death
Don’t you feel better already?
Positivity can only be stretched so thin: Second-Rate Tropes: The Musical Episode
Character Returns After Fake-Out Death
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Lee Russell, "Vice Principals"
Photo: HBO Enterprises / Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Once you finally realize that Lee Russell for sure was not the shooter of Neal Gamby, a mystery that had kept your interest all of Season 2, it's too late. Lee himself is then unceremoniously shot dead. Right in the head. Or was he? The build-up to his apparent demise is as tense as the reveal that he actually survived is a delight.
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Tony Almeida, "24"
Photo: 20th Century Fox Television Distribution
When it comes to the real time drama 24, you're either with Jack Bauer or you're dead. But then sometimes you're with him, but then you die anyways. Until you come back two seasons later as a bad gu-- no wait, he's still goo-- OH NO, he's bad. But for the right reasons? Considering the show will probably never have a concrete conclusion after the failed revamp 24: Legacy, we'll likely die before we get answers. But it still feels wonderful to know Tony is still out there ...somewhere.
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Marty, "Cabin In The Woods"
Photo: Lionsgate
If you've never seen this film, then SPOILER ALERT, you should. Oh, and also, everyone dies at the end. But that doesn't make lovable stoner and surprise hero Marty's perceived fate and subsequent revival the first time around any less gratifying.
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Glenn, "The Walking Dead"
Photo: AMC
Many fans saw this as a total cop out/hokey publicity stunt, with some even equating it to the beginning of the show's decline into whatever you want to call it now. But to others, it was simply a gut-punch of a way to lose one of their favorite characters on the series, only by some miracle for him to have survived. And if he hadn't been murdered a season later, it would have stayed a lot more satisfying. Stupid Daryl.
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The Flash, "Justice League Unlimited"
Photo: Warner Bros. Television Distribution
This sequence was arguably the most powerful of any scenes the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited series had to offer (and that's saying quite a bit). But please, don't take our word for it. We could watch it about 100 more times and still not get sick of it.
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Gandalf, "The Lord Of The Rings" trilogy
Photo: New Line Cinema
"Darkness took me. But it was not the end. I've been sent back until my task is done."
And with that, Gandalf returned and everyone was happy. The end ...a good four to five hours of movies later. Also, prequels.
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Will Byers, "Stranger Things"
Photo: Netflix
When the body of Will Byers is discovered in the lake roughly midway through Season One, it really kills the momentum of everything the show has going for it. But then by the flickering of some Christmas lights, faith is restored and we know that bloated corpse was a decoy. OK, so you probably still didn't piece all that together until a little later when his mom rips the stuffing out of the thing, but you get what we meant.
