Cliffhangers

What else would we talk about?

Really, though, I'm sure that the rest of the episode was all fine and dandy in its own right - I recall a hilarious scene with Moseby, some heartwarming moments with Thomas (of all people), and I believe a wee bairn came into the mix at some point. It's just that, when a story does something like this - abruptly killing off a main character (and a "main" main character, at that) - there's rarely much else people talk about.

The effect is only amplified when the character is killed off at the end of an episode, because that's what people come away from the watching thinking about. And when it's at the end of a season, well...

Essentially, there are two ways such a move can go: well, or poorly. There's no middle ground, because, with a twist like this, an indifferent reaction from the audience is just as bad as an angry one - potentially worse, even. At least anger implies some degree of investment. The best case scenario is that the audience is horrified and saddened (make 'em gasp and cry, and all that), and cannot wait until the next installment to see what happens. How will the remaining characters react? Is character X even really dead? Sometimes, after all, these characters return in the most unlikely of ways. Of course, ideally this also creates even more tension in the audience simply because, if such an important character can die so suddenly, then this means that other characters can be bumped off, too, at any given moment. Now, for my part, I don't expect anyone to start saying "Valar Morghulis" or "only death is real" any time soon - ie, I doubt character are going to start dying off in droves at random or the show's themes are going to become excessively morbid - but the show has shown this season that it is capable of killing off characters to create tension, for better or for worse. Since it's not "Supernatural," the odds of these characters coming back are not high - this means that the show's formula and the way characters interact with one another can and will change with these and any following deaths. Change, whether or not we like it, is exciting; if the show can make good use of the deaths, it will continue to draw a large audience for this reason. If not, then it may be boarding the train for cancellation town sooner than expected.