History HeelFaceDoorSlam / LiveActionTV

!!Warning: While not always a DeathTrope, can often involve that, so be wary of spoilers.

* The ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "Repentance" does this with a murderer on death row. After he's beaten by his prison guards, The Doctor injects him with some of Seven of Nine's nanoprobes to save his life -- and in doing so, inadvertently repairs a brain defect that turned him into a sociopath. After proving himself reformed by saving the life of one of the guards who had beaten him, he (at the urging of the ''Voyager'' crew) appeals his death sentence to the family of his victim, since the law gives them the right to choose his sentence. [[DownerEnding The appeal fails, and he is sent to his death.]]

* ''Series/TheWalkingDead'': During Rick and Shane's confrontation in the field, [[spoiler: Rick tries to convince Shane into putting down their guns and going back to being friends again. Rick used this opportunity to get close enough to kill Shane with his knife.]]
* On ''Series/TheWire'', while the heel/face lines are often very blurry to begin with, basically any time a character involved in organized crime decides to become an informant, they inevitably die. The most prominent example is probably Bodie Broadus, who spends the first three seasons of the show steadily rising the ranks of the Barksdale drug empire, only for that empire to crumble for good at the end of the third season, leaving him on his own as [[TheSociopath Marlo Stanfield's]] far more brutal and violent regime takes over. Bodie chafes at this change and by the end of the fourth season he's convinced to inform on Marlo and company. [[DyingMomentOfAwesome He's killed before he can ever actually go through with it]], [[LastStand although he goes out fighting until the end]].

** ''Series/KamenRiderGeats'': Win Hareruya/Kamen Rider PunkJack once worked under Girori to eliminate Ace by any means. After Girori displays his BadBoss traits, Win declares his opposition to Girori by #14, but unfortunately Girori put him under mind control in response. He's still not himself two episodes later as he explodes when trying to kill Ace. Subverted with his return in #35, and him fully intending to continue helping Ace in #36.

** ''Series/KamenRiderGeats'': At the end of the fifth story arc, Niramu realizes just how much of a BadBoss his employer Sueru is, and how much Sueru's willingness to lie and abuse his subordinates even goes against Niramu's own BlueAndOrangeMorality prizing realism. Since Niramu is one of the best fighters in the series and far too dangerous to let even think about turning face, Sueru has him shot and killed on the spot.

** ''Series/KamenRiderOOO'': Ankh had been on a series wide HeelFaceTurn as he grew closer to Eiji and Hina. This actually happened to him ''twice''. The first time was when he was absorbed by his EvilCounterpart. Soon, after he {{Face Heel Turn}}ed, he considered [[FaceHeelRevolvingDoor going back]], but then [[spoiler: Dr. Maki mortally wounds him. He dies after helping Eiji destroy him.]]
** ''Series/KamenRiderFourze'': Even though it was mentioned several times that the chances of a Zodiarts finding redemption is slim, the show manages to contradict that statement. So far, [[spoiler:Perseus, Musca, Aquarius and Taurus (the last two are high-level Horoscopes, even)]] have become good by the end of their arc...however, [[spoiler:only Musca]] was able to get out of it unscathed. [[spoiler:Libra brainwashes Perseus to fight Fourze, Aquarius gets LaserGuidedAmnesia, and Taurus is [[AndIMustScream sent to the Dark Nebula]] for trying to defy [[TheDragon Virgo]].]]

** Jonathan was the least evil of the Nerd Trio, and was not only willing to go to jail to pay for his crimes, but drag Andrew along with him. He only decided to flee to Mexico when Dark Willow attacked. He returned in Season 7 with vaguely benevolent intentions, but was killed by Andrew (who was under the influence of the [[BigBad First]] [[UltimateEvil Evil]]) before he could make contact with Buffy.

** "The Lumiat", an installment of the ''Missy'' audio series by Creator/BigFinish, double subverts this. As it turns out, [[spoiler:Missy cheated death thanks to a secret gadget, regenerating into a new incarnation who calls herself the Lumiat. Inheriting Missy's turn, the Lumiat strives to become a force for good like the Doctor only to run afoul of a younger Missy, who mortally wounds the Lumiat, believing that the change in morality will not stick. Sure enough, the Lumiat regenerates into who WordOfGod confirms is the "O"/"Spy" Master, the Thirteenth Doctor's ArchEnemy and one of the most unhinged and murderous Masters yet, taking the renegade Time Lord firmly back to square one.

** Believing he has caught a break from the universe deservedly shitting on him, Theon confesses and laments the wrongs he committed during the previous season, setting him up for possible redemption, only for the entire escape to be revealed as a sham and the torture to be intensified.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': [[spoiler: Missy, aka The Master]] has this happen in [[spoiler: "The Doctor Falls"]], at hand of, ironically, [[spoiler: his/her own past incarnation "Saxon", when she decided to stand with the Twelfth Doctor in his hopeless battle with an army of Cybermen, and complete a HeelFaceTurn she'd been working toward all season]]. Apparently [[spoiler: the old Master]] considered making a HeelFaceTurn a FateWorseThanDeath.
** "The Lumiat", an installment of the ''Missy'' audio series by Creator/BigFinish, double subverts this. As it turns out, [[spoiler:Missy cheated death thanks to a secret gadget, regenerating into a new incarnation who calls herself the Lumiat. Inheriting Missy's turn, the Lumiat strives to become a force for good like the Doctor only to run afoul of a younger Missy, who mortally wounds the Lumiat, believing that the change in morality will not stick. Sure enough, the Lumiat regenerates into who WordOfGod confirms is the "O"/"Spy" Master, the Thirteenth Doctor's ArchEnemy and one of the most unhinged and murderous Masters yet, taking the renegade Time Lord firmly back to square one.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
** Believing he has caught a break from the universe deservedly shitting on him, Theon confesses and laments the wrongs he committed during the previous season, setting him up for possible redemption, only for the entire escape to be revealed as a sham and the torture to be intensified.
** In the fourth season finale, Sandor does truly act to selflessly protect Arya, taking on a strong foe, believing she's tied to the Lannisters. This gets him badly wounded and abandoned by Arya.
* ''Series/GetSmart'': Two episodes ([[spoiler: "Hoo Done It"]] and [[spoiler: "Bronzefinger"]]) have multiple kooky but affable murdered guest characters be [=KAOS=] agents who were trying to defect.
* ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'':
** There was an early episode where Xena, after encountering some of her former warriors back from her days as a BloodKnight, convinces one of them that her commitment to reform is genuine. Later on in the episode, that guy sacrifices his life to save her. Fast forward to a different episode, where Xena is asked by Hades himself to go to the underworld, because evil has achieved a Karma Inversion: all the blessed people who used to play in the Elysium Fields have been sent to Tartarus, and all the evil folks condemned to Tartarus are partying in Elysium. When she gets there, she finds her dead friend, and realizes that if he's in Elysium ''now'', he must have been in Tartarus before. He confirms it, saying something like "One sacrifice wasn't enough to make up for a lifetime of evil." In the end however, he's allowed to stay in Elysium for good after helping save Hades.
** In a flashback to Xena's BloodKnight days, she and her lover Barius plan to wipe out the Centaur race. Barius has a crisis of conscience and sabotages their plans, for which he is forever hailed as a savior by the Centaurs, but is murdered by one of Xena's lieutenants.

** Jonathan was the least evil of the Nerd Trio, and was not only willing to go to jail to pay for his crimes, but drag Andrew along with him. He only decided to flee to Mexico when Dark Willow attacked. He returned in Season Seven with vaguely benevolent intentions, but was killed by Andrew (who was under the influence of the [[BigBad First]] [[UltimateEvil Evil]]) before he could make contact with Buffy.
** A ''literal'' Heel Face Door Slam happened to Spike. Originally a villain, he became a [[EnemyMine reluctant ally]] of the good guys in Season 4, and in Season 5, having fallen in love with Buffy, he tried acting more heroic in order to impress her. However, when Spike expresses his love by kidnapping Buffy and chaining her up in his crypt, she has Willow cast a spell that makes it impossible for Spike to enter Buffy's home. He's initially surprised, then emotionally devastated, when he runs into the invisible barrier surrounding her house and Buffy slams the door in his face. This is slowly subverted, but it takes a lot more heroic actions on his part - a refusal to tell [[BigBad Glory]] that Buffy's sister was the LivingMacGuffin she was looking for, under torture and at risk of death, earns him a measure of Buffy's forgiveness, but he's not able to truly throw off being a {{Heel}} until he's done a lot more good as well.

** Faith's initial turn to the dark side came when she performed an (unwitting) Heel Face Door Slam on a minor character - the Deputy Mayor, more a 'snivelling lackey' than an actual Heel, tried to bring information on [[BigBad the Mayor's]] masterplan to her and Buffy, but he surprised them mid-fight and Faith staked him on instinct. The downward spiral this sends her on ends with her becoming the Mayor's Dragon.

* In ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'', Shawn's absentee con-artist father, Chet, constantly bounces in and out of his life, staying long enough to get his son's hopes up about having his father back, before leaving him with a rotating collection of father figures like Mr. Feeny, Mr. Turner, and Alan. In his last return, Shawn finally stands up for himself in the face of Chet's shabby treatment. Chet suffers a heart attack shortly after, and he and Shawn begin to reconnect while he's in the hospital and Chet appears to resolve to stay and be a real father to Shawn... shortly before suffering a second heart attack and dying.
* On ''Series/TheWire'', while the heel/face lines are often very blurry to begin with, basically any time a character involved in organized crime decides to become an informant, they inevitably die. The most prominent example is probably Bodie Broadus, who spends the first three seasons of the show steadily rising the ranks of the Barksdale drug empire, only for that empire to crumble for good at the end of the third season, leaving him on his own as [[TheSociopath Marlo Stanfield's]] far more brutal and violent regime takes over. Bodie chafes at this change and by the end of the fourth season he's convinced to inform on Marlo and company. [[DyingMomentOfAwesome He's killed before he can ever actually go through with it]], [[LastStand although he goes out fighting until the end]].
* In an episode of ''Series/DesperateHousewives'', Orson's Ex-Wife Alma, who, up until then had been colluding with Orson's Mother to kill Bree, ends up falling off a roof and killing herself while trying to warn Danielle.
* Maury Parkman in season 3 of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' gets his neck snapped by Arthur Petrelli when he realizes Arthur's evilness and rebels to try to protect his son, Matt.
* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'':
** An interesting case in ''Series/PowerRangersLightspeedRescue''. Diabolico, after discovering how little his mistress Queen Bansheera cared for her minions, even destroying one of them in an attempt to get the Rangers, vowed to never serve her again. However, he was brainwashed and forced to fight the Rangers. Despite knowing that he wanted to change, the Rangers had no choice but to destroy him. However, in the finale, he gets another chance at HeelFaceTurn by returning as a spirit and helping the Rangers imprison Bansheera in the demon dimension forever. (It should be noted, however, that at no point did Diabolico indicate that he was actually turning ''good,'' he was just turning against the Queen. He himself put it that he'd come to hate the queen more than them.)
** Frax's fate in ''Series/PowerRangersTimeForce'' was even worse. He realizes the error of his FaceHeelTurn ways... just as he's being dragged off to have his humanity and memories wiped by Ransik. [[spoiler:That's two for Ransik, given that he's the one that made Frax what he had turned into in the first place.]]
* In ''Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger'', Sally has trouble deciding whether to return to Basco after what he put her through. Basco shows no remorse when arguing with the Gokaigers, and Sally ultimately chooses the Gokaigers. Basco's reaction? Without thinking twice, no remorse, and ''actually laughing'' while at it, he activates a bomb he planted earlier on Sally in case this were to happen. Cue his line "To get something, you have to give something up."

* In ''Series/OnceUponATime'', every time Regina gets even ''close'' to redeeming herself the good guys shoot her down brutally, target her for a crime she hasn't committed, decide she's irredeemable, or threaten to [[BerserkButton take Henry]] [[MamaBear away from her]] permanently. There's generally a good reason why, or what ''seems'' like a good reason at the time, but at this point it's almost understandable that Regina seems to have given up her attempts to reform.
** The finale of season two begins to subvert this trope when, rather than having Regina perform a RedemptionEqualsDeath (which she even cites, wanting to [[DyingAsYourself die as Regina rather than being the Evil Queen]]) in order to save Storybrooke, Emma decides to TakeAThirdOption, saving the town without having Regina die (despite that this would get her out of their hair for good). This turns out to be the right choice, and she's finally on the - very, ''very'' slow and gradual - path of redemption.

* On ''Series/{{Lost}}'', we have [[spoiler:Charles Widmore]]. When he shows up claiming to have redeemed himself in season six, we aren't quite sure if he's legit or not. When we finally realize that he ''is'', he is [[spoiler:promptly shot and killed by Ben, though that's more because he didn't want Widmore to have a chance to save his daughter when Ben didn't get a chance to save his]].

* [[spoiler: Morgana]] in ''Series/Merlin2008'' has two. At the end of the second season she is unknowingly the source of an enchantment that has put everyone in Camelot to sleep. The only way to break the enchantment is to kill the source - so Merlin poisons her. Throughout that season she had been teetering between good and evil but this act of betrayal acts as a catalyst. So when she returns a year later, [[spoiler: her half sister Morgause]] has corrupted her completely. Then in a season 3 episode she discovers that she is [[spoiler: Uther's daughter]]. When he refuses to acknowledge her, it's a pretty definitive door slam.
* ''Series/Charmed1998'':
** This happens to Cole in the fourth season. He finds a wizard willing to take the Source's powers, thus freeing him from being possessed but Phoebe appears on the scene and kills the wizard before he can take the powers. Cole is killed in the next episode. Then when he returns in Series 5, having [[EscapedFromHell broken out of the Demonic Wasteland]], he's promptly declared evil by the sisters for his actions whilst being the Source, despite being [[DemonicPossession possessed]] at the time. [[ReformedButRejected This rejection]], coupled by Phoebe's repeated threats to kill him for even the slighest infractions, causes him eventually to [[AxCrazy lose his mind]] and [[ThenLetMeBeEvil turn evil again]]. He's then killed... again.
** Kira the Seer was a particularly tragic case as she was a demon who wanted to become human. Unfortunately, just before the ritual could be performed, she was destroyed by Zankou. Phoebe, the one she was closest to, took it the hardest.

* In ''Series/TwentyFour'', if you're a bad guy and you decide to switch sides for whatever reason, your odds of dying go way up.
** [[spoiler: Farhad Hassan]] is shot in the back in the episode after he decides to help CTU.
** [[spoiler:Dina Araz]] is given orders to execute Jack but refuses, which results in her getting executed.
** [[spoiler:Josef Bazhaev]] is shot SECONDS after agreeing to turn himself in.
** Terrorist mastermind [[spoiler:Hamri al-Assad]]. He decides to forsake terrorism and work with the US government to capture his former lieutenant. Six hours later, he's killed in an assassination attempt on the president. Made by disgruntled members of the US government no less, and then he gets blamed for it. Made worse by the fact that Jack was forced to kill [[spoiler:Curtis Manning to bring al-Assadin]], which means that that happened for nothing.
* The ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "Repentance" does this with a murderer on death row. After he's beaten by his prison guards, The Doctor injects him with some of Seven of Nine's nanoprobes to save his life--and in doing so, inadvertently repairs a brain defect that turned him into a sociopath. After proving himself reformed by saving the life of one of the guards who had beaten him, he (at the urging of the ''Voyager'' crew) appeals his death sentence to the family of his victim, since the law gives them the right to choose his sentence. [[DownerEnding The appeal fails, and he is sent to his death.]]
* Towards the middle of season 3 of ''Series/HaltAndCatchFire'', Cameron seems to have an epiphany about how self-destructive she's been, after her bratty behavior leaves her stranded in the middle of Texas for a week, and she starts making attempts to change, marrying Tom, returning to Los Angeles and trying to explain her behavior to Donna, and calling Diane to inform her that she will try to work with the two guys that she thinks Diane is forcing her to hire as a condition for her firm's investment. Unfortunately, during the conversation with Diane, Cameron learns that Diane was actually going to give her full discretion on hiring. Cameron realizes that Donna manipulated her, and takes this as a justification to turn back into a ControlFreak.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'':
** In season 7, Castiel realizes what he's become under the influence of the Purgatory souls (and that they will tear him apart) and willingly gives them up and apologizes for what he's done. The others seem to accept this, but before Castiel can do anything else to redeem himself, he's killed by the Leviathan. [[spoiler: This being ''Supernatural'', [[SubvertedTrope he shows up again later in the season, amnesiac but completely fine.]] He does then have to do a bit of work to be fully forgiven by his friends, though.]]
** In season 12, the British Men of Letters come to America to " clean up" after the American hunters who have a policy of not killing monsters who aren't harming anyone. After being shown repeated situations in which the moral choice is to let the monster live, Mick Davies is won over to the side of the American hunters, so when the order is given to exterminate all American hunters for failure to meet the British Men of Letters standard, Mick defies the order and gives a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech making the audience think he's about to break off and join Team Free Will. However, his defiant speech is met with a BoomHeadshot.
* Mindy St. Claire from ''Series/TheGoodPlace'' was, by her own admission, a horrible person while alive. A stereotypical '80s AmoralAttorney who would screw over anyone, only looked out for herself and did as much cocaine as she possibly could. One night she did a ''lot'' of coke and had [[HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs an epiphany]] about how she could fix all of the world's problems. The next day, after sobering up, she withdrew all of the money from her bank accounts and was about to go out and put her plan into action...which is when she fell onto subway tracks and was immediately electrocuted. After her death Mindy's sister found out what she was planning and used the money to follow through and set up the world's largest relief organisation.
* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' has a weird inversion towards the end of Season 3 where this happens to TheHero. [[TheHero Crichton]] agrees to help [[BigBad Scorpius]] create wormhole technology to secretly sabotage his wormhole project from the inside, but Scorpius manages to convince him that, as evil as Scorpius himself is, the Scarrans are even worse. Crichton is about to help Scorpius right up until Scorpius reveals he will attack Earth if Crichton tries to cross him, causing Crichton to decide to destroy the project after all.

* ''Series/{{Condor}}'': Reuel Abbott starts feeling increasingly bad about what he's done in the CIA over the years, trying to blow the lid in Season 2. [[spoiler:He's killed by Joubert before he can tell Congress.]]
* ''Series/UltramanTriggerNewGenerationTiga'': [[spoiler:Darrgon attempts to defect from his group after seeing them slowly fall apart and get divided. But before he can do so, Carmeara brainwashes him into a mindless berserker. While he temporarily fights it off so as to not harm Yuna he eventually realizes he'll fully succumb to the darkness and requests to be killed by GUTS Select, with Akito (who had just grown to see Darrgon as a friend) doing the deed.]]

* ''Series/{{Condor}}'': Reuel Abbott starts feeling increasingly bad about what he's done in the CIA over the years, trying to blow the lid in Season 2. [[spoiler:He's killed by Joubert before he can tell Congress.]]

* Happens to the Smoking Man, of all people, at the end of the ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "[[Recap/TheXFilesS04E07MusingsOfACigaretteSmokingMan Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man]]". He's so thrilled that a story he's written is finally going to be published after years of failure as an author that he's prepared to completely give up his position with the Consortium, even writing a resignation letter. He also seems to seriously consider quitting smoking. However, when the publication doesn't work out, he gives up on changing anything.