For whatever reason, victims of poison always seem to have some big speech to give while the poison kicks in. The poor sucker will stumble around, lose his train of thought, start sweating heavily, sway a little--maybe take a few slugs from the (poisoned!) water bottle. The crowd, without fail, will suddenly become blurry and indistinct. A common variant has the victim simply having a heart attack, fainting, or falling ill without poison. Compare to Killed Mid-Sentence, Almost-Dead Guy. Rule of Drama - collapsing in public is a pretty spectacular way to go.