There’s something heartbreaking about watching a once-heroic character sink into evil. Whether it’s as silly as a sitcom character becoming a heel or as serious as a detective turning out to be a corrupt cop, these villainous arcs really stick with viewers.
Sam Winchester (Supernatural)
Trying to summarize the plot of Supernatural is an exercise in futility, but, in broad strokes, brothers Sam and Dean Winchester battle demons for a living. Sam takes a villainous turn in the third season after gaining some magical powers. He further descends into darkness in the fourth season, before eventually repenting—but not before opening a portal to summon Lucifer to Earth. Yes, Supernatural is a wild show.
Will Graham (Hannibal)
The Hannibal TV series took some interesting liberties with the characters from the original Silence of the Lambs. Rather than having Will transform into the heroic FBI agent of the original film, the series has him slowly fall into a romantic relationship with the notorious murderer—and even sees the investigator becoming a killer himself.
Willow (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Willow’s gradual transformation from meek computer nerd into full-blown evil witch is one of the longest arcs on Buffy. Throughout the fifth season, we see her gradually becoming too reliant on her magic, and, in the sixth season, she becomes the full-blown main villain! It’s tragic stuff.
Trish Walker, AKA Hellcat (Jessica Jones)
Jessica’s best friend and closest confidante, Trish Walker, becomes jealous of the protagonist’s superpowers throughout the first season. In the second season, Trish undergoes dangerous experiments to grant herself comparable powers. Tragically, in the third season, she goes on a rampage after the death of her mother, forcing Jessica to confront her and end her crime spree.
Rick Grimes (The Walking Dead)
Across The Walking Dead’s long run, protagonist Rick Grimes goes from being an upstanding hero to a relentless monster. The brutality of the survivors he encounters sours him on the world around him, and, after his son Carl is killed, he embraces the same ruthless attitude that his enemies held before.
Daenerys Targaryen (Game of Thrones)
Sorry, everyone, we’ve got to talk about GoT Season 8 again. Dany flipping out and torching the residents of King’s Landing surprised everyone… except for people who knew their Targaryen history. Sadly, centuries of inbreeding have rendered the Targaryen bloodline unstable, and many scions of that golden lineage became tyrants due to their inherited madness.
Andy (The Office)
Andy’s introduction in the third season of The Office presented him as a goofy but ultimately likeable man. However, as his arc went on, it turned out that he was quite selfish and abusive toward Erin throughout the ninth season of the show.
Lex Luthor (Smallville)
This one came as no surprise, but Lex Luthor ended up being a bad guy on Smallville after spending six seasons in a moral gray zone. The show had fun toying with audiences’ expectations, given everyone’s familiarity with the characters, so having Lex start as Clark Kent’s buddy added a unique lingering sense of dread to the show’s atmosphere.
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Jax Teller (Sons of Anarchy)
Jax, the protagonist of Sons of Anarchy, starts the show as a morally upstanding but very conflicted man. He wants revenge against his stepfather for murdering his dad, but he also wants to steer his motorcycle club away from its criminal activity. By the final season, Jax’s desire for revenge consumes him and he becomes just as bad as the villains he once stood against.
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Walter White (Breaking Bad)
Breaking Bad is about metamorphosis, the way that things change in chemical reactions. Some of these reactions are literal, and others are metaphorical—like protagonist Walter’s descent from a high school chemistry teacher into a deranged drug kingpin. His slow unraveling is a parable that warns viewers against the siren song of easy money and a life of crime.
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