TV Characters Who Cheated Death And Made Miraculous Recoveries

When a TV character suffers a "fatal" injury, the least they could do is have the decency to actually die.

Nowadays, though, thanks to magic wands, prayers to gods, sonic screwdrivers and writers needing an exciting cliffhanger or fake-out, a character sustaining a seemingly life-ending injury doesn't always mean the end.

Let's have a look at some of the more memorable times when a TV favourite stared death in the face, only to emerge the picture of health.

(Spoilers ahead.)

1. Beric Dondarrion – Game of Thrones

Impaled through the chest, knife in the belly, an axe in the side, and many more... this guy loves to (almost) die. But despite his numerous 'fatal' injuries, GoT's Beric (Richard Dormer) is saved each time by prayers from his pal, the red priest Thoros (Paul Kaye). That's handy.

2. Carl Grimes – The Walking Dead

Despite being shot in the stomach in the season two opener (and nearly dying), young Carl (Chandler Riggs) survived long enough to then be shot in the eye in the season 6 episode, 'No Way Out'.

Don't worry though, he survived that too. Somehow.

3. The entire crew – Red Dwarf

BBC Two's sci-fi sitcom came to an apparent 'end' with 1993's series 6 finale 'Out Of Time': after encountering a future version of Starbug and its crew, Lister, Cat, and Kryten are all killed by their future selves, and it's up to Rimmer to save them all.

The episode ends with the destruction of our Starbug – just as Rimmer blows up the time drive (in the present) that allowed their future selves to travel back in time. So the whole thing never happened. Got it?

Cut to 1997. The series 7 opener dances around the whole thing with chat about paradoxes and timelines erased. Kryten calls the explanation of what happened garbled and dull, and the show gets on with having fun.

4. Sherlock Holmes – Sherlock

Benedict Cumberbatch fans were sent into apoplexy when the detective jumped off the top of St. Bartholomew's Hospital.

After a wait of two years between the second and third series of Sherlock, we were served a variety of different explanations as to how he survived – none satisfactory, or definitive. Thankfully, though, no-one seems to really mind; we're all just pleased to have him still around.

5. Dr Nick Riviera – The Simpsons

Bye everybody!

Nice-but-dangerously-incompetent Dr Nick must have got a more skilled surgeon in for assistance, because at the end of 2007's The Simpsons Movie he was impaled by a huge shard of glass (from a dome that had once covered Springfield) and then appeared but two years later in the show itself – without explanation.

(See also Dr Marvin Monroe – introduced, killed off (we even see his grave!), then reappears with no explanation. "I've been very sick," he tells Marge. Wink wink.)

6. Darth Maul – Star Wars: The Clone Wars

If you've seen The Phantom Menace – and we know you have, so just admit it – you'll remember that bad boy Darth Maul (Ray Park) was chopped in half by Jedi hero Obi Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and fell to his demise, down a shaft somewhere on the planet of Naboo.

Except it seems that being chopped in half was a mere inconvenience for Maul. Animated spin-off The Clone Wars reintroduced the Sith Lord in a rather dark arc in season 3 which saw him equipped with cybernetic legs – and an even worse mood.

Fans were treated to his actual death – for reals, this time – in an episode of Star Wars Rebels earlier this year.

7 and 8. JR & Bobby Ewing – Dallas

One of TV's biggest events ever was 'Who shot JR?' This cliffhanger from 1980 saw millions of fans left wondering not only who shot Larry Hagman's ruthless oil tycoon, but also if he would actually survive...

He did.

Later, his brother Bobby was mowed down by an unrequited love and killed – though (in)famously the whole thing was later revealed to be just a bad dream.

At the end of the show's original run, 22 million people tuned in to witness JR's apparent suicide – though we never saw him pull the trigger, we did see Bobby look on in horror at the scene.

However, five years later in TV movie reunion Dallas: J.R. Returns, we discover that JR, in fact, shot a mirror. Question is, just why was Bobby so upset? Must've been his favourite mirror.