Utopia Season 1: Why killing off [SPOILER] was a big mistake

Utopia Season 1 was a fun, thrilling ride, but there is one big thing we wish that the Amazon Prime series had done differently.

Utopia Season 1 has received some mixed reviews from fans and critics. I recently finished watching the entire season, and while I did enjoy it, I can also acknowledge that it had some serious faults. I’m disappointed by how creator/writer Gillian Flynn wrote some of the characters, especially because she is one of my favorite authors.

Spoiler Warning: Do not keep reading if you want to avoid spoilers for Utopia Season 1.

Among Utopia‘s most significant issues was the lack of truth in some of the characterizations and portrayals. I honestly believe that Flynn could have solved a few problems by not killing Jessica Rothe’s character Sam at the end of Episode 2.

In an interview with Variety, Flynn explained that she wanted to kill Sam because it would shock people. The blue-eyed blond girl usually survives until the end of the horror story. She’s often the final girl. That’s fair, but if Flynn wanted to do that, she should have at least waited until the end of the season, and she should not have made Jessica Hyde her killer.

Utopia Season 1: Killing Sam caused an unfortunate domino effect.

Sam is a crusader for good and devoted to Dystopia/Utopia more than anyone else in the group, maybe even more than Wilson, our resident doomsday prepper.

She’s fierce, stubborn, argumentative, and a natural-born leader. Jessica kills Sam because she doesn’t think the group can function with “two leaders.” It’s a shallow reason.

Jessica’s entire purpose is to track down her father and find Utopia so she can get the clues needed to hunt down Mr. Rabbit. Why would she kill the person in her group that could have been her most valuable asset? It doesn’t make sense.

As for the idea of Jessica killing Sam to create shock and prove this show was going to be “bold” and do the unexpected — there was no need. We already saw Arby and Rod massacre multiple people, including the first two characters we met — Olivia and Ethan. Sam’s death was unnecessary overkill that turned the story in the wrong direction.

Flynn is usually exceptional at writing unlikable, complicated female antagonists and characters — Amy Dunne, Libby Day, Camille Preaker, etc. — but it’s not easy to root for Jessica. That’s a problem because we’re supposed to root for her. The arc words of Utopia and the series is “Stay alive Jessica Hyde!”

But in Episode 2, Jessica ruthlessly and senselessly slaughters Sam. Worse, Jessica never really stops being cold-blooded. She gets very few moments of depth and growth throughout the season. But that wouldn’t have been so amplified had she not murdered Sam so early.

Utopia – Courtesy of Amazon Studios / Prime Video / Elizabeth Morris /

Utopia Season 1: Sam’s death makes the other characters seem stupid.

The other big issue with Sam’s death is its impact on the other main characters: Becky, Ian, and Wilson. They’re shocked when Sam dies, but then they get over it way too fast. Her dead body is left on the floor for hours. Eventually, Wilson and Becky give her a half-a**ed eulogy and dump her body outside for her dad to find. That’s it!

They’re supposed to have known this girl for over a year, and yet they bounce back from her murder spectacularly fast. They’re all more willing to stick with Jessica and the Utopia conspiracy despite seeing what she’s just done! It’s just not believable. This could easily have been avoided by NOT killing Sam. Utopia did not have enough time for these characters to grieve and digest Sam’s death in a way that makes sense!

A similar problem happened later in Season 1 when Wilson found out Harvest massacred his family, and Ian learned his parents were in critical condition. They freak out for a few minutes — maybe a few hours in the show’s universe, then suddenly Wilson is happy to team up with Kevin Christie. Ian’s family is barely mentioned again before the season ends. And as of Flynn’s Variety interview, she doesn’t know if Wilson will have an ulterior motive or genuinely be willing to team up with Christie. If he is ready to betray his friends and family after one conversation, well, it really changes the perception of his character.

We get it. Harvest is evil. But you can’t introduce monumental, life-changing elements like that and then not give your characters breathing room to understand and grapple with the weight of it. Either the writer needs to make room in the show to have a believable and purposeful arc or don’t write it in. I mentioned in one of my recaps that Arby and Rod killing Wilson’s family didn’t seem particularly necessary, and if it was, then Wilson’s discovery just flat-out needed to be written better.

Jessica Rothe as Samantha in Utopia – Courtesy of Elizabeth Morris / Amazon Studios /

Utopia Season 1: Sam was a character with tons of potential.

Sam did not exist in the U.K. version of the series. She was added to the American version specifically to die. Rothe is a talented actress, and Sam could have added another dimension to the series that wasn’t present in the original. I would have loved to see Sam and Jessica go head-to-head. Would they get along? Would they fight each other every step of the way?

That dynamic would have been compelling and exciting to watch. Maybe Jessica could have had an internal battle as to whether she should kill Sam. She drives her insane — but she’s too useful to die. By the end, perhaps Jessica would have developed a grudging respect for Sam. Then, if Flynn wanted Sam to die, she could have written it into the final two episodes.

Maybe Sam could have sacrificed herself for the cause. Letting the audience — and characters — get to know her better would have made her death more impactful, disrupted the “final girl” trope and given our characters more time to grieve.

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Did you like Utopia Season 1? How did you feel about Sam’s death? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Utopia Season 1 is now available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

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