
While not the deadliest network (that dubious honor falls to CBS), the lesbian/bi characters killed on the CW this season (5 out of 12 total*) had arguably the most impact on the fan community.
The CW features not one but two shows that have managed to kill off all of the queer women ever introduced: The Vampire Diaries and Supernatural. We have dubbed this “The Julie Plec” phenomenon, reserved for shows and writers so unaware of the “bury your gays” trope that they manage kill 100% of the characters they introduce.
The CW is also home to the show that offered us a textbook definition of “lesbian death trope”, after “the most insidious use of queerbaiting in a generation”. In killing Lexa, The 100 not only killed off one of the few positive lesbian representations on TV, but also left us with a bisexual lead whose sexuality will likely be forgotten, falling into an unfortunate trope of her own.
Although Arrow and Jane the Virgin averted the bury your gays trope after both Sara and Rose were resurrected (or in Rose’s case, revealed alive in disguise), we are still left with a lesbian character who never existed in the first place (Susanna, classified as dead for lack of a better category) and on Legends of Tomorrow, Sara has no regular/recurring love interest.
We looked at the 14 primetime scripted TV shows that aired on The CW between June 1, 2015, and May 31, 2016. To qualify, a character had to appear in more than 1 episode.
*Although Freya Mikaelson (The Originals) appeared in the 2015-2016 season, she was only revealed bisexual in the 2016-2017 season. Alex Danvers (Supergirl) also came out as a lesbian in the 2016-2017 season, and Supergirl aired on CBS before moving to The CW.
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