Last Grasp At Life/Playing With

Basic Trope: A dying character's last act is to desperately grasp out for something to save themselves.
 * Played Straight: Bob is sinking into a bubbling pit of quicksand, and the last thing to vanish is his outstretched hand.
 * Exaggerated: ???
 * Justified: There's a floating platform nearby, but Bob's fingers only graze it before he sinks out of reach.
 * Inverted: Futile Hand Reach: Alice screams a Big No and stretches out her hand to Bob from the shore, even though he's twenty feet away.
 * Subverted: Bob's right hand breaks the surface of the Shark Pool... and turns out to be a bloody disembodied stump floating in a red cloud.
 * Double Subverted: ..Then his left hand reaches up, grabbing hold of his lost one, and Bob gasps for breath, revealing the dead shark held in a chokehold under his mutilated right arm.
 * Deconstructed: Bob is told to hold still and lie on his back to stop himself sinking in the quicksand; unfortunately his movie-taught instinct is to thrash around wildly, which only drives him further downwards into the non-Newtonian Death Trap.
 * Reconstructed: Bob can see a strong vine hanging mere inches about him, and if he can just grab onto it he can pull himself out...
 * Parodied: Bob's hand sinks below the surface... and his left hand thrashes out to a Scare Chord. That one gradually sinks... and then the right one comes back up to an identical scare chord. Eventually even Alice gets bored and walks away.
 * Zig Zagged: Bob sinks hand-last, a few solitary bubbles reach the surface... and then with a burst of Heroic Resolve, it re-emerges... only to thrash around at nothing. Just before he seems about to go back under, Alice's hand grasps his and hauls him free.
 * Lampshaded: "What's he even reaching for? There's nothing there..."
 * Averted: Bob's head is the last part to vanish.
 * Enforced: The writers want to end the episode on a Not Quite Dead teaser, so have the submerged Bob's hand reemerge at the last moment.
 * Invoked: ???
 * Defied: Bob resolves to Face Death with Dignity, and crosses his arms.
 * Discussed: "Tenner says his hand pops out."
 * Conversed: ???

Back to Last Grasp At Life.