‘The Golden Girls’: An Eerie Coincidence Exists in a Season 4 Episode
The Golden Girls was a show with a lot of quirks, plotholes, and odd moments. The TV show wasn’t often eerie, though. Decades after the finale episode aired, fans of The Golden Girls have noticed that a season 4 episode of the show seemed to predict the order in which the actor who played everyone’s favorite Miami ladies would pass away. The coincidence is a little chilling.
‘The Golden Girls’ tackled some tough issues
While The Golden Girls is largely seen as a comedy, the series did tackle some pretty serious issues. In fact, it was one of the first television shows to address the problems that the aging population face, including dwindling incomes, health scares, the rising cost of care, and inadequate care facilities.
In the 1989 episode, “Sophia’s Choice,” Sophia Petrillo breaks her friend, Lillian, out of a senior facility that is subpar. While the four roommates work around the clock to take care of her and find her a better living situation, they are forced to face their own age and mortalities. A scene toward the end of the episode turned out to be truly prophetic.
In a foreshadowing moment, Rose Nylund questioned what happens when there is only one roommate left
While the entire season 4 episode hit fans hard, years after it aired, a question posed by Rose Nylund turned out to be eerily prophetic. Once Rose finds a care home that she thinks will work for Lillian, she comes home to tell the rest of the girls. The moment is a sweet one, with Blanche offering to give up her bonus to fund Lillian’s care for the next couple of years. The roommates all agree that they promise to take care of each other no matter what.
The heartwarming moment is interrupted when Rose realizes that someone would be the last roommate left. She questioned her pals about what they would do when there was only one of them left. Sophia cut the tension by letting her know that she planned to outlive them all and that she would be fine on her own. Sophia’s prediction did not come true, at least not in real life. Betty White, the actor who played Rose, is the last living cast member.
The cast of ‘The Golden Girls’ is sitting in an incredibly coincidental seating arrangement
The episode is not eerie simply because White’s character is the one that questions what happens when there is just a single roommate left. The cast of the show is sitting in an incredibly chilling order. Estelle Getty, the actor who played Sophia, is seated in the living room chair. The chair is closest to the front door. Bea Arthur, the actor who portrayed Dorothy Zbornak, is sitting on the couch next to Rue McClanahan, who took on the role of Blanche Devereaux. White is the last cast member sitting on the couch. The seating arrangement is ordered in the same order that the cast died.
Getty, who played the oldest character, was actually a year younger than the actor who played her daughter. Her death was the first one the main cast suffered, though. Getty died in 2008 from complications of dementia. The following year, Arthur died of lung cancer. McClanahan died in 2010 from a brain hemorrhage. As White approaches her 100th birthday, she is the last living member of the main cast.
