The Simpsons has abruptly killed a veteran Springfield character, and said the death will not be reversed.

The series' latest episode, Sashes to Sashes, sees elderly Springfield resident Alice Glick collapse at the church organ she was often seen playing.

Glick has made dozens of minor appearances within The Simpsons over the years, beginning in the show's second season which aired back in 1991. Alas, after 34 years, the organist has played her last — and according to the show's co-executive producer Tim Long, the death is final.

"In a sense, Alice the organist will live forever, through the beautiful music she made," Long told EW, in a report that states the development was permanent. "But in another, more important sense, yep, she's dead as a doornail."

The death comes just months after The Simpsons aired the high-profile demise of Marge Simpson (albeit in an episode set in the future), something which kickstarted a war of words over what exactly in the series is now treated as canon.

As fans pointed to instances where characters have been killed off for good (including Maude Flanders, Edna Krabappel and Larry the barfly), the series' co-showrunner Matt Selman railed against the idea that The Simpsons had a set canon.

"It's a f***ing paradox," Selman told EW previously. "People suck it up anyway. Our show is still very popular in both America and internationally. I am not worried about messing with the timeline."

In the case of organist Alice Glick, the matter is not helped by the fact that she had been seen dying previously — back in 2011 episode Replaceable You, where she was killed by a robot pet and is later seen in heaven. The fan-run Simpsons wiki now considers that episode non-canonical, with the reason being that Glick appears in numerous episodes afterwards.

Now in its 37th season, the show has also just added a fresh member to the Simpsons family clan. In the same episode, Marge reveals her previously-secret aunt Beatrice Bouvier, played by Carrie Coon.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social