Starburns' death was actually spoiled by the trailer that came out before the show came back from hiatus. It wasn't blatantly obvious, but there was a brief clip of Pierce giving a speech, and you could see Starburns' hat and a star sitting on a podium next to him.
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http://i50.tinypic.com/23qx00.jpg
"First time I got punched in the face, I was like "oh no", then I was like "this is a story"."