Five months after dying to save the world in the season five finale, Buffy's Scooby Gang just couldn't live without her, so Willow conjured up a spell to bring Buffy back from hell. But the dark twist (which was revealed in the epic musical episode, "Once More With Feeling") was that Buffy was actually pulled from heaven, making her life a living hell. While some fans weren't too keen on a darker Buffy, we welcomed the change in our favorite Sunnydale Slayer.
Remember that time Vaughn got shot over 10 times? By a submachine gun? In his chest? And we saw him flatline in the hospital alongside his love Sydney (Jennifer Garner)? Well that was totally survivable in the world of JJ Abrams, who, after some serious fan outrage, decided to bring Vaughn back to life later on, explaining that Jack Bristow had given him a drug to slow down his heart rate so he would appear dead. Honestly, if flying monkeys riding unicorns had sucked out the bullets with silly straws, it would have been more plausible.
Obviously, we knew Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk would never kill off fan favorite Evan Peters in the premiere, of this we were sure. But having teen witches bring his lovable frat boy character Kyle back as a modern-day Frankenstein, whom fans quickly dubbed "FrankenKyle," was a stroke of pure genius and showed off Peters' acting chops like woah. Kudos!
OK, so it wasn't technically a resurrection, but Denny's reappearance as a ghost was a serious low point for the ABC series.
For the past four seasons PLL fans have been under the impression that Alison DiLaurentis, the bitchy queen-bee of Rosewood, was without a doubt, one-hundred percent dead. We even saw a body! But in a mind-blowing twist, fans discovered that our dearly departed was actually on the run from "A" this entire time. You definitely pulled on over on us PLL Gods, and for that we give you plenty of kudos.
After dying via Leviathans taking over his body, causing it to deteroriate, the fan favorite angel sidekick returned in season seven...except he was not Cas, but a healer named Emanuel, had no recollection of the Winchester brothers and a wife named Daphne. Of all the ways to bring Cas back, the path the CW series chose was pretty lame. (Fortunately, Castiel soon returned to his Cas-tastic ways.)
Oh, how young and naive we were back in season one of TVD. Before we came to expect mindblowing twists and turns on the reg, Alaric being staked by Damon and left to die was a heartbreaker. That is until he came back to life courtesy of the Gilbert family ring, which protects its wearer from death. (The ring has now saved Alaric, Jeremy and Matt multiple times.)
Running out of stories towards the end of your run? Why not just resurrect a character no one liked?! That seemed to be the thinking when GG's powers-that-be brought Chuck's father "back from the dead." In a truly eye roll-inducing twist, Bart actually faked his own death in season two, so he could hide out from an enemy we never even knew about. So why'd he return, you ask? To continue being the worst father ever, attempting to murder Chuck and breakup Rufus and Lily's marriage. Fret not, he eventually died for realz and not a single tear was shed.
Derek's Alpha werewolf uncle made a seamless transition from big bad to comedic relief when he came back from the dead (Thanks, Lydia!) in season two of the MTV hit. While we weren't sure how we felt about his reappearance initially, his snarky commentary proved to be one the show's secret weapons.
Both Xena and her trusty companion Gabrielle died on more than one occasion -- hey, Greek Gods walked among them! -- but the two both met their end together at the hands of Romans on the Ides of March. But even crucifixion couldn't keep them down, and after becoming archangels and battling demons, they were brought back to the mortal plane by their pal Eli to continue their battle for good.
Way to blow your one chance to rid yourself of your weakest character, OUAT! Peter Pan (aka the most badass 17-year-old we've ever seen!) tricked our naïve Henry into sacrificing his own heart in order to "save magic." It was really just a ploy to make Pan ever stronger, but did Henry listen to his family's warning? Nope! In the end Regina ended up getting her son's heart back and pushed it right back into Henry's annoying little body.
Distraught after watching his little brother die in the penultimate episode of season two, a desperate Dean makes a deal with the Crossroads Demon to bring Sam back from the dead. But it came at a major cost: Dean would only have one year to live. It was devastating, heartbreaking and compelling. And oh man, how epic was that hug the brothers shared when Sam came back to life? We had goosebumps for days.
Witches have always been TVD's weak spot, as they've acted as loopholes about a hundred times too many. And Bonnie, the show's resident spell-caster, became a plot device, brought in to fix (and mess up) our heroes' lives on a episodic basis, which is why we were truly baffled when the show not only kept her around as a ghost after killing her in season four (to bring back Jeremy), but then also chose to fully bring her back to the land of the living this season.
In a series full of twists, the season three finale's final beat of Elena waking up from the dead as a vampire may go down as the CW hit's boldest and bravest move. Especially considering fans, and Elena, had no idea that the leading lady had been fed vampire blood right before she died drowning, asking Stefan to save Matt instead of her. (Yes, we got chills just thinking about that scene again.)
Each and every episode features a resurrection—except they all come back as zombies! Not ideal. Considering the only way to stop a zombie is to blow their brains out, it's pretty damn devastating to watch our characters repeatedly kill their loved ones, even if they are mindless, blood-thirsty monsters.An the most devastating kill of all had to be Rick killing his BFF Shane, after the latter turned into a zombie. (Don't you hate it when that happens?)
How can we ever forget that Super Bowl episode, where J.J. Abrams blew the lid off of Alias—literally—by exploding SD6 to smithereens and killing off Sydney's BFF Francie? We were convinced the show was totally over, but joke was on us, because Merrin Dungey as what the fans lovingly called "The Francinator" (her assailant Allison was genetically modified to look just like her) was so much better than the silly little human who spent her time cooking up stuff in the kitchen. So much win.
"I need a cigarette." And you really need an explanation as to why Madison's resurrection (after being murdered by current Supreme Fiona for showing off too many witchy skills for her liking) will go down as one of our favorites? All hail, Madison Montgomery, queen of the bitchy one-liners (and the Supreme witch of our dreams)!
Congratulations, Fox! With a simple 22-minute cartoon you managed to create an unexpected and earth-shattering uproar from fans demanding that Brian be brought back to life. His return to Quahog two episodes later was heartfelt and desperately desired, so we've got to give you props for your Family Guy fake-out. And the nerve it took. 'Cause something tells us that not all fans may feel the same...