Image via AMC
We're deep into the Fall TV season now and some series have already hit their halfway mark. As November sweeps loom, big things are in store for your favorite network series while their cable counterparts look to keep things fresh, exciting and unpredictable at all times. One week the whole team might make it out unscathed, only for someone to end up as slow-roast barbecue for cannibals the next (which we totally, kind of, called).
Now that the landscape on each show has shifted ever so slightly, it's time to check back in and see who's probably safe and who's likely next on that RIP screen. Read on for round 2 of Fall TV Death Watch.
Carol Peletier (The Walking Dead)
Bob is already dead to us. Sure, as it stands, he's only missing one apparently very tasty leg, but this show isn't about to have another hobbled group member after only dispatching with Peg Leg Hershel a mere year ago. Looking forward, it sucks but given WD's track record, the one to start saying goodbyes to is Carol, unfortunately. The season premiere completed her transition into a full-fledged badass fan favorite, the kind of character whose death would elicit a strong reaction across the entire viewership. She'll undoubtedly die taking one for the team—maybe Beth? Either way, don't say we didn't warn you.
Will die by: Mid-season finale
Maggie Esmerelda (American Horror Story: Freak Show)
We originally figured the impossibly bratty Dandy would be the first to go, but—twist!—now he's in league with Twisty the killer clown as his de facto apprentice, which as Dandy would say, is more fun, anyway. Since then, Emma Roberts and Denis O'Hare made their Freak Show debut as a pair of grifters looking to get rich quick from selling the freaks—or their organs—to a science museum. Emma's character Maggie has gone undercover as a fortune teller, and she's already barely keeping it together. Sure, the troupe is facing immediate danger from Edward Mordrake and Twisty, but once they discover this betrayal and exploitation right in their own tight-knit community. Welp, the freaks, especially Jimmy, are likely to explode and there'll be no mercy for Maggie.
Will die by: Episode 6
David Rosen (Scandal)
Scandal's not the type of show to bump someone off every two weeks, but we're sticking to our guns on this one. There's no way this sleazeball makes it to mid-season. Right??
Will die by: The end of November, since sweeps are still a thing for Scandal, what with its ABC home and all.
Nero Padilla (Sons of Anarchy)
Juice is a sucker's bet at this point. Kurt Sutter has dragged dude's storyline out so relentlessly that now we wouldn't be surprised if he survived the whole bloody ordeal. But really, as the show continues to create reasons for him to stay alive, we're just too exhausted to care. The real guy to watch is Nero, thanks to that old crime story trope. As soon as the weary ex-con with a heart of gold starts openly plotting his exit strategy, you just know that he's never going to actually achieve his pipe dream. Throw in his unwavering attachment to Gemma, the most toxic person on the show and maybe all of television right now, and well, the jig's not quite up on Nero yet, but it's airborne.
Will die by: Episode 10
Peter Quinn (Homeland)
At the start of Homeland's fourth season, we pegged Quinn as an impending casualty because he's been openly expressing a desire to quit the game for some time now, with inner turmoil to match. In addition to that, now he very clearly has romantic feelings for Carrie. There's a chance the series could fall back a little and have Carrie enjoy a successful workplace romance, right? Nope. The narrative stars are lining up. Quinn's still on-track to die for his country. Or Carrie.
Will die by: Mid-season, still
Detective Lance (Arrow)
The writing's still on the wall for dude. His daughter's gone, his health is shitty, and Starling City is ruthless. The Lance family is definitely due to take another hit, sooner rather than later.
Will die by: November sweeps because, again, network.
NOT: Nucky Thompson (Boardwalk Empire)
We're taking a bold stand here. But, killing Nucky is just too obvious, right? Not that Boardwalk Empire is the type of show that values subverting audience expectations over giving a character and his story its natural conclusion, but it just seems too tidy, no?
Creator Terence Winter has gone out of his way to say that despite being loosely based off of Nucky Johnson, who did not receive a bullet from the bloodthirsty new mobster class, Nucky Thompson is not beholden to the same course of events. Maybe Nucky will die, but so many of the great antihero series have zig-zagged away from simply killing their morally complex protagonist in the final minutes. At the very least, we're betting Nucky won't die at the hands of real-life enemies Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky. Hopefully we're not dead wrong.
We'll find out in the series finale, this Sunday.