Melinda May (Ming-Na When)
The enigmatic Melinda May is a major mystery (almost as much of one as how Coulson is actually alive now) who is also one of the more intriguing characters thanks to the questions about her background and the awesome sauce that is Ming-Na Wen so part of me thinks she is pretty safe. Her safety also seems a lock when one considers that Joss Whedon loves himself a lady who kicks butt and Melinda is the only one of those amazing creatures on this show at the moment. Skye is currently at the start of her journey to become a BAMF and unless there is a time jump in the future we won’t be seeing her doing any fisticuffs anytime soon while Jemma Simmons is such a nerd that the thought of her fighting anyone is just ridiculous. May has also been shown to have a long history with Coulson which is yet another avenue the show can go down to flesh out not only Melinda May but Agent Coulson and his mysterious new lease on life too. Sooner or later Melinda is going to have to realize that the changes in Coulson are more than just a midlife crisis and from her suspicions we just might start to get some movement on the Coulson resurrection mystery. Plus i am almost 99.9% sure that May is involved in Skye’s origin story. So I think Melinda May is a safe bet to stick around for quite a while.
Odds: 20 to 1
Crustula 
I know he killed a lot of character and we can’t include them all, but I think Fred, Tara and Anya need to be on that list, too.
The only thing working against your “too much mystery” thing is Book. Killed with open mystery. Heck he even rubbed our faces in it. Then that’s a “final episode” (counting Serenity as such) thing, so if the show is cancelled then mystery (and even love interests) because a lot less safe.
A lot of characters [Book & Wash, Anya, Fred (and possibly Wesley), almost everyone in Dollhouse] are killed right at the end or leading up to it, so anything learnt from them only applies if the show is cancelled with enough notice to kill (note Firefly before the movie).
Jenny, I discount as evidence of anything because she was created to be killed. Tara & Doyle were to do with actors leaving the show (or being forced out).
That leaves Joyce and Cordelia, both written out for plot reasons (to force Buffy to grow up/they’d run out of Cordelia plot).
– Coulston: depends what his mystery is. If he’s an evil robot duplicate then his odds are down to 5:1. If he can’t be easily explained in a movie and the show is cancelled I think he is also doomed. But if the show is cancelled and you can throw a line in Avengers 2 or something to explain why he’s back (for the film audience) then he’s up at 50:1.
– Skye: As annoying as she is she’s the audience surrogate and they don’t usually get killed off unless the actor leaves in season 5 or something. Even Joss hasn’t done that (but should).
– Melinda May: Agreed. If Coulston is targeted for execution her stepping up as leader would be a nice play.
– Grant Ward: The will they/won’t they thing and play out safely for him for years. But if they get together the countdown will really start for him. He may not even survive the episode.
– Fitz/Simmons: A nice dynamic going there that will damage the show if one of them is killed. So if the series is ongoing they’re pretty safe. If it is cancelled then one of them is toast, The nerdy funny ones are favourite end game targets of Joss.
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All of the untapped potential there was with Shepherd Book still grinds my gears…damn you to hell, Fox executives!!!!!
My own preferences would lean towards Ward or Skye just because they are the two characters with the least potential to be interesting going forward and who I am having the hardest time warming up to.
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I say Ward, so far he is the least interesting and has no basis for the plot to carry on. Plus the characters now like him enough to cause emotional distress if he was killed š
I’d normally agree about the two science nerds being killed off but as this show has a major shortage of likable characters I doubt they’d get rid of the comic relief, because so far its the only thing that works (kind of) š
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That coldhearted bastard Whedon killed off Wash in Serenity…I wouldn’t put it past him to off anyone after that.
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I don’t think Whedon has anything to do with this series, might have helped with the pilot but I have seen no evidence of his hands on this project. That whilst very sad is a part of his final farewell to Firefly so it doesn’t really matter to where series was going because sadly there was no series after the film š¦
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You are right, sadly this show is pretty much all Jed Whedon and his wife which is probably why I am not liking it as much as I want to.
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Didn’t care at all about the mid season break and it was annoying because I was starting to like some of the characters and then blah blah end š¦
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