25 TV Characters Who Deserved Better

Life isn't always fair, even on television — just ask these 25 beloved characters.

And we aren't just talking about the ones who met their untimely demise, though there are plenty of those on this list. From the only Melrose Place resident who didn't get a proper romance to a Friends barista whose last name will remain forever a mystery, these characters deserved better for all sorts of reasons.

We're also pouring one out for a pair of beaten-down Bonnies, a Mother of Dragons who became a Mad Queen seemingly overnight, and a certain member of the Winslow family whose sudden disappearance was neither explained nor addressed.

Spoiler Alert: Because we're looking back at characters from 25 popular TV shows, it should go without saying that major twists (including deaths) will be spoiled. Proceed with caution, and don't say we didn't warn you.

Read on for our list of 25 TV characters that deserved (so much) better, then drop a comment with any additions to our list. Which other small-screen characters do you think deserve justice?

In Season 4, Alison had finally pulled herself out of a depressive funk that started years earlier, when she lost Gabriel in a tragic drowning accident. She had just regained custody of Joanie and started a new career as a grief counselor. Unfortunately, that's how she met Army veteran Ben and began yet another toxic affair that culminated in her murder. Ben tossed Alison's body in the ocean — the same body of water that took her son away from her — and made it look like a drowning. The police deemed it a suicide, and her killer was never brought to justice. 

Cordelia came a loooong way from her mean girl days on Buffy. She acquired powers, became half-demon and was the heart of Angel Investigations, making the messy storylines that followed even more frustrating. She was possessed, seduced Connor (gross!) and gave birth to... whatever the heck Jasmine was. Once the real Cordy finally awoke from a coma, she was aimlessly offed. Cue the Viola Davis GIF.

Raj was a hopeless romantic whose social anxiety hindered his ability to speak to women for six of Big Bang's 12 seasons. His relationships with Lucy, Emily and Claire weren't long for this world, and a final-season engagement to Anu was called off at the very last minute. Sure, he managed to score Buffy the Vampire Slayer as his date to Sheldon and Amy's Nobel Prize ceremony, but the fact remains that he was the only member of the friend group who wasn't in a committed relationship when the series ended.

This poor kid was just an innocent pawn in Walter White's cruel game, getting poisoned and hospitalized just so Walt could manipulate Jesse into teaming up with him against Gus Fring. Brock survived, but his mom Andrea didn't — and Jesse's letter to him at the end of El Camino probably wasn't much comfort, either.

We understand why creator Kevin Williamson felt that Dawson & Co. needed to experience the loss of one of their own as they entered adulthood. But did it have to be Jen, one of the show's best characters and a new mother to a baby girl whom she was raising on her own? Ouch.

Honestly, it's hard to even think about James Tiberius Yorke without getting a little emotional. Whether fans realized it or not, the good-natured class clown was the heart and soul of the show — making it all the more tragic when he was senselessly murdered by a drunk partygoer from a rival school. (The fact that the actor who played J.T.'s killer is still working today is, frankly, unforgivable.)

Whether or not you ever warmed to Kellie Martin's by-the-book medical student is besides the point. Lucy was finally coming into her own as a doctor when she was fatally stabbed by schizophrenic patient Paul Sobriki. (Damn you, David Krumholtz!) We still get chills whenever we think of her lying in a pool of her own blood, as fellow stabbing victim Carter looked on in disbelief before blacking out.

Characters are suddenly written out of TV shows for all sorts of reasons, but poor Judy has become the poster child for those whose disappearances were neither explained nor addressed. Even worse, she didn't stick around long enough to join the family at Disney World.

For 10 seasons, this guy served up countless oversized cups of coffee to that cackling sextet of pals (who always dominated the orange couch, by the way) while he pined for the fair Rachel. And in return, he got to be the butt of their jokes — that is, when he wasn't being ignored. They never even learned his last name, for crying out loud! 

At least one Wiki page put it simplest: "Despite being a secondary character for over three years, her background is the least explored of all title characters." Indeed, it wasn't until midway through Season 4 that the skilled FBI agent (and portrayer Jasika Nicole) truly got much to do, when she encountered her alternate universe self, who lived with autism. Bittersweet twist: Walter called THAT Astrid by her right name!  

For most of the HBO series' run, Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, First of Her Name etc. etc. was an admirable bastion of female empowerment. But the last two seasons of the fantasy drama saw the Breaker of Chains took a sharp left turn into crazy-dragon-lady territory, turning into the type of ruthless, bloodthirsty despot she'd always loathed. Even her death didn't become her: She was tricked into a fatal stabbing by her former lover, then hauled off to The-Seven-knows-where by an indignant dragon.  

Poor Lane lost her virginity on the beach, making for such an awful, uncomfortable first time that she thought everyone was lying about how good sex is. To top it off, she got pregnant (with twins!) as soon as she returned from her honeymoon and was saddled with the worst-looking fake pregnancy belly ever. It all kind of felt like a punishment, and Lane definitely never did anything to deserve it.  

Long before Green Screen-gate marred Archie Panjabi's Season 6 swan song, the actress' Emmy-winning role as TV's coolest private eye began dying a slow, painful death. The narrative gymnastics the CBS drama had to perform in order to (allegedly) keep Panjabi and her onscreen BFF Julianna Margulies from appearing in scenes together pushed Kalinda to the periphery, stranding the once-mighty character in a sea of lost potential.  

Ted's wait for The One was worth it: Tracy was beautiful, funny and, most importantly, she got Ted. Sadly, she later died, paving the way for Ted to reunite with ex-girlfriend Robin and making Tracy feel like a stepping stone on the way to The One That Almost Got Away. 

On a show where every character had enough emotional baggage to fill a freight train, Bonnie was perhaps the most damaged of all. Sexual abuse, an ill-fated pregnancy, a sweet love interest who died at her hand — you name it, Bonnie probably experienced it. Then, in the ABC drama's final season, Bonnie seemed to find real, enduring love with Frank... only for the relationship to abruptly crumble when she told him the truth about his parents, followed by Bonnie's death via gunshot wound in the series finale. After a life filled with trauma, Bonnie deserved a stable relationship and fulfilling law career; in the end, she got nothing.

When Jane's fiancé returned from the dead, it gave Jane/Michael 'shippers hope. But alas, they only got their hearts broken again, because not only did Michael have no memories of Jane, but even after he regained them, he still lost Jane to Rafael. Again. 

The Fox soap's token gay series regular wasn't treated like a Melrose Place character at all. Over the course of his 1992-97 run, he was desexualized and sainted, allowed to play only social-issues stories while everyone else backstabbed and bed-hopped. Heck, even his one kiss was edited out!

Poor Neal. Not only was he saddled with a most unflattering backstory in which, at August/Pinocchio's behest, he let a teenage Emma take the lone rap for a robbery (and thus wind up behind bars, pregnant!), but when he years later resurfaced in Emma's life he barely got a fair shake. That in turn deprived viewers of what could have been a gripping love triangle between him, Emma and Hook, before he gave his life to save his Dark One dad.

True Tree Hill fanatics can look at this screenshot and know exactly what's happening just out of frame. The antithesis of his evil brother, Keith was an angel on this earth, one whose final act of heroism involved talking down a school shooter and saving his nephew's life. (Speaking of his nephew, Keith is the one who got Lucas onto the basketball team in the first place, thus setting the entire show into motion.) But instead of getting to live a long, happy life, Keith was gunned down by his own brother in retaliation for something he didn't even do. Dan was even rewarded with a long redemption arc, which he totally didn't deserve — but that's for another list.

The Black Lives Matter movement — and more specifically, the unjust death of Eric Garner — inspired the horrific demise of this beloved Litchfield inmate, who was pinned down by an untrained prison guard and inadvertently asphyxiated. It's all the more heartbreaking when you recall that Poussey was locked up for six years for possessing just half an ounce of weed.

Doofus? Sure. Dork? Absolutely. Shlemiel AND shlimazel? Often. But Larry's heart was always in the right place, so he deserved to get his due from Leslie & Co. a lot sooner than he did.

That legal eagle who spent all of Season 1 exhausting every possible resource (and thus put herself in harm/The Company's way) in the name of proving her incarcerated ex, Lincoln, innocent of murdering the Vice President's brother? She lasted just one episode into the second season, before getting unceremoniously whacked with a bullet to her noggin.

She should've gotten a medal of valor for putting up with fickle boyfriend/fiancé George Costanza for as long as she did. Instead, she got a pink slip from her cush job at NBC and, after licking too many cheap-ass wedding-invitation envelopes, a toe tag. Harsh.

Has any television character in history had more nose bleeds than Bonnie Sheila Bennett? Kat Graham's character was constantly pushing her powers beyond their limits in order to save her friends and family, usually at her own expense. Lest you think we're exaggerating, this poor woman died three times during the show's eight-season run, and lost even more family members. And while most of her friends received relatively happy endings — either by finding love, starting a family or simply discovering a new purpose — she was left to mourn her dead boyfriend and wander the earth by her lonesome.

All this science-minded FBI agent ever did was pine for Agent Scully and kick butt at his job. (Remember how he was the one who figured out that her chip was more than it seemed?) And what did he get in return? A fatal bullet in the chest after buying Scully a drink on her birthday — and she later admitted she didn't even know his first name!