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Soap opera suicides


danfling

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Storm (B&B) was the best one I seen thus far. I would love to see a another character commit suicide and see how it impacts their love ones, and/or someone struggling with depression that attempt suicide but lives with the after effects of that for years to come.

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On Degrassi High the character of Claude Tanner shot himself in the bathroom of the school in which the character Snake found him. Years later on the reboot the character of Snake who was now principal of the school told the character of Maya whose boyfriend killed himself that he found Claude when he was a student here. 

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Soap operas are turgid by nature...but, underneath the sturm and drang, they're also supposed to offer viewers some hope.  Having characters commit suicide seems to run counter to the idea.

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Denise Cavanaugh plotted to commit suicide and frame her husband Miles for murder on EON. Viewers thought she did it, though it was Miles' sister April who ended up going to prison for killing her. As you'd expect from Henry Slesar, of course, there was a twist. 

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Jill on KNOTS LANDING killed herself accidentally (?) after locking herself in the trunk of Gary’s car and asphyxiating. She was trying to frame Gary for kidnapping. I always felt she knew she’d die and it was a suicide. 
 

Itonically after she tried to kill Val by forcing Val at gunpoint to commit suicide by overriding on pills. Val lived though. 

Reva and Holly on GL both attempted suicide by jumping off the same bridge, although Holly never made it to the river. Reva lived. So did Holly. 
 

Kim Zimmer told me personally in a 1986 interview that Reva’s suicide attempt was way out of character. 

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On Another World, when Emily Benson was in custody for the murders of various people associated with a black market baby adoption ring, Carl Hutchins made sure that she was provided with a sharp implement she could use in a suicide attempt. The suicide attempt failed but while she was recovering in the hospital he had her killed by poison. Emily's motives for the murders seemed to cover both the idea that she was not altogether emotionally stable but also that she was working for Carl somehow, so the suicide attempt seemed more organized crime-y than mental health related.

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I've always felt that way, too.  As Mack reasoned, when Jill realized she'd lost Gary for good, and to Val, she was determined to make them both pay for destroying her life, even if it meant killing herself in the process.

But, you know, it's hard to know for sure what Jill's true intentions were, since (IIRC) the entire explanation of her death was based on Mack's supposition to the D.A.  I mean, for all anyone knows, Jill might have been forced into Gary's trunk, or she might have had an accomplice helping her stage the kidnapping.  We never saw it actually happen.  We can only go by how Mack laid it all out to the attorneys.

I'd have to agree.  As over-emotional and dramatic as Reva could be at times, even she wouldn't have gone THAT far.  But, at least it was produced well (IMO).

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Andy Dixon (ATWT) was briefly paired up with school friend Kathy Evans, who had a drinking problem and got him into drinking as well. I don't remember all the details, but Kathy got depressed and overdosed and almost killed herself. That episode coincided with Kim's "Patterns" TV talk show that discussed this social problem and ended with a PSA. 

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Yes. He was in the hospital with a terminal illness and could barely move. He had spoken of suicide before. He got a drug dealer to bring him what he needed. Jill discovered the pills and threw them in the trash can in Ken's room. When he died, they thought Jill had mercy-killed him until they discovered a letter written by Ken in Little John's notebook, saying that he had managed to retrieve the pills and had taken them.

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Has anyone mentioned Mike Marshall on Another World?  His suicide was by shooting himself deliberately after he'd been cheated out of his fortune.  In the lead-up to AW's spin-off, Texas in 1980, Mike's suicide took place on an episode of Another World, but all the characters in his orbit lived in Houston and became characters on Texas.  Mike was never in Bay City and none of the Bay City characters had ever met him.  After Mike's death, the remaining Marshalls became one of the core families on Texas.   

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I guess Ann Howard's fate on Peyton Place was up in the air - there are some things pointing that she was pushed by Lee Webber and some things indicating that she might've jumped herself off the cliff. Like a lot of things on Peyton Place it was never 100% confirmed either way.

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