Shortland Street always tries to go out with a bang for their Christmas cliffhangers - and this year was no exception.
While fans saw Nicole indulge in an affair and TK unleash his inner murderer, the big moment came when Ali, Lucy and her father Glen were driven off the road by Detective Cochrane.
The surprise villain then doused the car in petrol and set it on fire. While Ali managed to pull Lucy free, there was no time to save Glen, who began to burn to death before the car exploded.
It was a surprising end to the episode, though it is something actor William Wallace has gotten used to - very few of his characters ever make it out alive.
"I've been shot two or three times, stabbed, drowned, I've been killed by giant spiders in King Kong, and now I've been blown up. Two heart attacks, one underwater - so I've actually drowned twice.
It has been an interesting road for Wallace. He arrived on the show earlier this year as Lucy's estranged, alcoholic father and an ex-lover of Rachel McKenna. His obsession with her saw him poison her and push her down the dark path that eventually led to her departure.
It has become common for the actors behind Shorty's villains to get abused in public, but Wallace was warned by the publicity team and as such has not had a bad time.
"No one's physical or verbally abused me, which is good [though] people definitely don't like Glen and on social media they rip into him.
William Wallace as Glen Rickman. Photo/Supplied
"I was down in Hamilton a couple of weeks ago and I was walking around a shopping centre. You get the weird looks, which I'm used to, but some teenagers started following and then that start other people realising 'ah, that is that guy' and it starts to form a crowd.
"Shortland Street fans are very passionate and loyal, very different to the Step Dave fans - they are a bit more mellow.
Despite the dark things his character did at the start, Wallace hopes that fans had warmed to him by the end.
"During the second half of my time there, Glen was trying to be the man that Lucy wanted. All that third time he just wanted to not go to jail, not lose his daughter and not lose his life. It's quite tragic, almost heroic - well, as heroic as Glen can get."
Wallace had an inkling when he returned for a second round of filming that his time would be coming to an end, and was given four weeks warning he was getting killed off.
Filming his death scene was as heated an experience in real life as it was on screen.
"It's a very safe environment. But the flame bars, they're positioned outside the windows of the car and they build them as close as they can get in a safe distance, but when they're on - they're hot.
"It was one of the few times I've ever shot at night and I just didn't need to worry about being cold. There's not a lot of acting required when dealing with those temperatures."
Glen faces his final moments as the car he's trapped in is set on fire. Photo/Supplied
It's the third time Wallace has been on Shorty, and his previous characters have had equally difficult times. His first appearance had his character try to jump off a roof, while his second appearance saw his character suffer a brain injury that required surgery.
"Don't go anywhere near that hospital! Things get worse for me every time I go there!"
Despite all the hatred and the hell Glen went through, Wallace is pleased with how the character turned out.
"For me, he got his redemption, that's what I really wanted for him. If he was going to die, I wanted it to mean something. It was a fun character arc to go on.
And have all those gruesome deaths gotten to him at all?
"They're great, I've got to tick off so much of the fun actor stuff you dream of when you're a teenager."
