The difference is that this time they killed off a character that people actually cared about, in a way that was unexpected and poignant.I haven't been watching lately, but I don't see how killing off a character constitutes a daring or surprising move for this show. Killing characters is their go-to move, their first recourse for drama. That's part of why I stopped watching -- because I got sick of seeing violence and shock value used as ends in themselves, and just because I felt they'd exhausted their bag of tricks and didn't have anything interesting to offer me anymore.