So while yes, there are show and story reasons that A and E have come up with to justify killing one member of this little unit, in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t make sense and I think audience members are going to be turned off.
I dunno. I mean, obviously if someone’s fave character gets killed off, that’s gonna be a major annoyance for that viewer, and all the characters on the hit list have very passionate followings, so no matter what happens, there’s gonna be a chunk of the fandom that’s majorly annoyed.
But with all the fake out deaths, I can see why they might feel the need for an ACTUAL death. Archie didn’t really die, Neal didn’t really die, Blue didn’t really die, Phillip didn’t really die, we can include S1 Henry in that as well. We know Rumple didn’t really die, and actually we can include the whole town of SB itself on this list, because it almost “died” in the S2 finale, but they saved it, and it’s gonna be brought back again in S3B, too. Cora and Pan died but they both had it coming. It’s about time they hit us with another Graham situation. They’ve hit us with the fake out death so many times, how are we supposed to take it seriously or be emotionally affected when someone “dies” now? If you think about it, people “dying” on this show has almost reached a laughable level. An actual death, a real dead means dead situation, would snap us back into line, and show us that the stakes ARE actually really high, that characters we love CAN be killed, we can’t live in that false sense of security, they really do mean serious business, no more pussy footing around without having the guts to comprehensively axe a character for real.
So, much as I hate that one of our core characters is gonna die, I do think it’s a calculated move from a storytelling standpoint, designed to shake things up and raise the stakes.