In fiction, a karmic death isn't just one inflicted on a bad person, but one that mirrors that person's cruelty or worst acts in a way that provides a level of irony. Whether it is intentional on the part of a character or accidental, it can serve to provide a truly satisfying end to an awful villain or conversely, come across as forced.
Nonetheless, it is a popular staple of many types of storytelling. Often having many different villains that may only last a season at a time, TV shows can be particularly creative when it comes to devising cruel and karmic ways for their monsters to die.
8 Beta Is Killed By The Walkers He All But Worshipped (The Walking Dead)
In The Walking Dead's ninth and tenth seasons, the Whisperers are a faction of apocalyptic fanatics who move and work with the Walkers, using strange techniques to direct hordes of the undead against their foes. They prove one of the biggest threats to the barely-stable communities of Washington D.C., hating all civilization.
After Alpha's death, Beta becomes the leader of the Whisperers, sending their Walkers against the communities in vengeance. He inflicts devastation on them, killing a great many people. Ultimately, however, he dies after Daryl blinds him in the middle of a herd, leaving him to be torn apart by the Walkers he weaponized.
7 Oliver Queen Kills Damien Darhk In A Fitting Way (Arrow)
One of the more vicious acts Damien Darhk carries out during his tenure as a villain in Arrow's fourth season is murdering Laurel Lance after her father, Quentin, betrays him. Darhk kills her in a specific way, stabbing her through the chest with one of Oliver Queen's arrows.
In the season finale, Oliver engages Dahrk in a close-up fistfight. After beating him into submission, Oliver takes one of the arrows fired at him by Dahrk and, after some taunting, stabs him in the chest with it. It's meant to echo Laurel's death, with Oliver invoking her as the reason for Darhk's death.
6 Helen Cutter's Time-Meddling Kills Her (Primeval)
Season 3 of Primeval takes a step away from the mysteries of the time-bending Anomalies and the team's battling of threats to display a battle between the ARC team and Helen Cutter. Cutter, after spending years in an apocalyptic future, has decided to wipe out humanity to save the world, planning on traveling back in time to murder the earliest humans.
The ARC team pursue her but are ultimately separated in three different time periods, leaving only leader Danny Quinn to confront her. At the bottom of a cliff, Danny is too far to stop her. Instead, Helen is killed when a raptor, only present in the Cradle of Humanity because of her own time-traveling, attacks her and knocks her from the cliff.
5 Lydia Rodarte-Quayle Is Killed Coldly And Professionally (Breaking Bad)
In Breaking Bad, Lydia is a career criminal involved in the international drugs trade. She positions herself as an uneasy ally of Walter White in season 5, giving his Blue Sky crystal meth worldwide markets and helping him amass millions of dollars. Throughout, she proves herself to be cold and callous, often advocating for people's deaths to tie up 'loose ends'.
The final two episodes of Breaking Bad see Walter White on a rampage to dismantle his former drug empire, having been usurped by Lydia and by Jack Welker's Neo-Nazi gang. During a meeting with Lydia, Walt poisons her. Despite being no threat to him, he tells her that he did it for much of the same reason that she encouraged many deaths earlier in the season.
4 Douglas Is Killed For Trying To Use The Wild Hunt (Teen Wolf)
The first half of Teen Wolf's sixth season follows the Ubermensch Nazi werewolf Garrett Douglas attempting to weaponize the Wild Hunt of European myth. He seeks to subvert control of the race and treat it as his personal weapon. He makes great strides towards this goal, threatening to merge the real world with that of the Hunt.
In the mid-season finale, however, his plan is undone. With the merging of the worlds stopped, the Wild Hunt turn on Douglas. Aided by him already willingly completing part of the transformation, they are easily able to forcibly turn him into one of their numbers. Although he technically lives on, his personality and nature as Garrett Douglas are destroyed.
3 Holland Manners Is The Victim Of A Massacre That He Arranged (Angel)
Although Holland Manners is a less immediate villain in the early seasons of Angel, he is one of the more effective. His patient kind of villainy allows him to carry out grand plans and hurt Angel like few others can, culminating in him bringing Drusilla and Darla together once more to menace him.
Upon Darla being transformed into a vampire, Manners encourages her and Drusilla to go on a killing spree. When he hosts a party at the end of the episode, Darla and Drusilla arrive, having taken his advice to heart. Even more karmically, Angel arrives in his usual heroic fashion but chooses to let the slaughter go ahead in revenge for everything Manners has done.
2 Dexter Opens On The Karmic Death Of Mike Donovan (Dexter)
The concept of karmic deaths is a major recurring theme in Dexter, following a man who kills other murderers to sate his pathological need to butcher others. As such, Dexter chooses to go after the worst criminals and often kills them in ways that truly punish them.
In the very first episode, one of the first things shown is Dexter stalking and kidnapping pastor Mike Donovan, who is also a serial killer of young children. Before killing him, Dexter shows him the bodies of his victims, making sure that Donovan understands that he is working in a karmic capacity.
1 Ramsay Bolton's Dogs Are Vicious Because Of Him (Game Of Thrones)
Karmic deaths are common in Game Of Thrones, with one character even turning them into a major theme of her storyline. One that fans enjoy more than any other, however, is the death of Ramsay Bolton at the hands of Sansa Stark in season 6.
Before the Battle of the Bastards, Ramsay promises to feed the heroes to his dogs, who he has starved for a week and raised to be bloodthirsty. After he is defeated, Sansa sets his own dogs on him, pointing out that they are only tearing him apart because of the starvation. As such, he dies an agonizing death as Sansa leaves him to his fate.