One of the many changes that brought the golden age of TV was heartbreaking deaths. Before the 2000s, most characters would only die if the actor wanted to leave or asked for too much money, but in the last twenty years, killing beloved characters has become a way for shows to surprise their audiences and create new storylines. Here are the most heartbreaking character deaths in shows, ranked (spoilers from here on out):
10Opie - Sons of Anarchy
Opie (Ryan Hurst) was always a tragic character in a show full of them. In the first season, his wife got killed in a hit meant to kill him, and life only got tougher from there. He was Jax’s (Charlie Hunnam) best friend, and with Opie’s death, a big part of Jax’s soul also left, taking him on a darker path. ManySons of Anarchycharacters died, but nothing was ever the same after Opie. His last words “I got this” showed how he always put the club first, even if it wasn’t clear if it deserved saving.
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9Joyce Summers - Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Joyce Summers (Kristine Sutherland) was Buffy’s mother, and she died of a brain aneurysm. There was no magic or villains involved, just life, unexpected and hurtful. TheBuffy the Vampire Slayerepisode where she dies is one of the best TV episodes about grief ever, and one of the most emotionally tough ones in the whole show. Sarah Michelle Gellar’s acting is spectacular in the episode, and the reaction of the “Scooby Gang” is taken as realistically as it could be done. The hurt and grief they felt echoed for the rest of the show’s run, andthat’s still important, 25 years later.
8Dr. Mark Green - ER
Mark Green (Anthony Edwards) was the soul ofER, and his brain tumor was a big part of seasons seven and eight of the show. It looked like he was in remission, and everything was going to be ok. He was safe until he wasn’t. His last moments on the show, are telling his estranged daughter that he loves her, while “Over the Rainbow” (Kamakawiwo’ole’s version) plays. It was chilling and sad. His death was felt on the show, to the point that in its last episode ever (seven years after), the estranged daughter becomes one of the new doctors at the same ER. A great homage to an incredible character.
7Adriana La Cerva - The Sopranos
The moment Adriana (Drea de Matteo) thought her husband Christopher (Michael Imperioli) would choose her over his crime family, she was dead.The Sopranoshad many deaths, but Adriana’s murder was one of the most hurtful, as we had been with her from the beginning. She thought she was getting a new life, but the reality was, the only thing she got was a bullet.The Sopranoscould get dark, and this trip to the woods with Silvio (Steven Van Zandt) was the perfect example.
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6Derek Shepard - Grey’s Anatomy
Derek (Patrick Dempsey) was half of one of the greatest romances on TV in the 2010s. He and Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) had a roller coaster start, but by season 11, they were a committed couple with one adopted daughter. Then he helped some people in a car crash and got in one himself. The hospital where they took him couldn’t handle trauma accidents, and he saw all the mistakes they were making on him, without being able to say anything.Grey’s Anatomyhas killed many characters over the years (we believe it’s still killing them), but we would never have thought that Derek would be one of them. The death helped give the show a new life, and centered around Pompeo, as they’re still going and soon will start season 18.
5Hodor - Game of Thrones
There were many deaths inGame of Thrones,some memorable and surprising, but none were as heartbreaking as Hodor’s (Kristian Nairn). The character was a gentle giant, helping the Stark family, and he could only say one word: Hodor. In his demise, a full-circle moment if there ever was one, we discover why: as he’s holding the cave’s exit so Bran can escape, the Stark boy wargs into young Hodor and starts repeating “hold the door”, through repetition, pain, and fear as the sentence becomes Hodor, and, at that moment, we understand his whole life this was going to be his destiny.
4Sarah Lynn - BoJack Horseman
Sarah Lynn (Kristen Schaal) startedBoJack Horsemanas the clichéd child star, who was all drugs, parties, and sex. As the show went along, we found new sides to Sarah Lynn, and she even went to rehab and got sober. After losing an Oscar, BoJack (Will Arnett) goes on a drug bender and convinces Sarah Lynn to come along. They end in the planetarium, where she dies of an overdose. BoJack had many rock bottoms, but this one was the worst of all ina show that knew how to be depressingand went to the last consequences of it.
3Glenn Rhee - Walking Dead
The death of Glenn was the moment when many people stopped watchingThe Walking Dead.Steven Yeun’s character was the show’s heart, still being positive in the zombie apocalypse and having a beautiful, loving relationship with Maggie (Lauren Cohan). The way it was done didn’t help either; it was brutal, and some might even say it was torture porn. They wanted to show the cruelty of the new villain, Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), and he killed him with his bat, Lucille. That was the story in the comics, and for once, the show followed through. The only good thing that came from it was that Yeun started appearing in artistically great movies such asMinariorSorry to Bother You.Steven Yeun told Variety: “Leaving [the show] if I had any weird feelings about it, was mostly that I hadn’t taken the time for myself to understand who I was and maybe my voice and what I wanted to say,”
2Poussey Washington - Orange is the New Black
Poussey Washington (Samira Wiley) was a fan-favorite inOrange is the New Black.Her character was funny, sweet, smart, non-confrontational, and always looked on the bright side of life. That’s why her character’s death is so tragic. She’s part of a peaceful prisoner protest, when an overzealous, racist, guard suffocates her in a move that echoes the real-life deaths protested by Black Lives Matter. Poussey wasone of our favorite LBGTQ+TV characters of all time, and her death had immense consequences in the show as her end was the match that fired all the women prisoners to riot, one of the biggest plot points in the next season of the show.
1Wallace - The Wire
The Wirewas one of the best shows ever; probably the best. One of the reasons was that it had incredible characters, be it cops, drug lords, and everyone in between. Wallace (Michael B. Jordan) was a 15-year-old kid who was a pawn in the drug business. He was sweet and caring, and didn’t have the stomach for some of the worst parts of drug dealing. He tells Stringer Bell (Idris Elba) where to find Brandon (Omar’s boyfriend), and when Brandon is killed, Wallace can’t stomach the consequences of his actions. He wants out and becomes an informant; the biggest sin in the drug game.
Michael B. Jordan told the story in Jonathan Abrams’s bookAll the Pieces Matter: The Inside Story of The Wire: “I kind of knew it was coming. Especially when you get that knock on your trailer door from David Simon. I’ll never forget it. He said ‘I love you. The audience loves you. We’ve got to kill you. We’ve got to kill you off.’”. Jordan gave an incredible performance in Wallace’s last moments, which already showed he could become a movie star, and Wallace’s killing showed all of us how in the world of cops and drugs there are many victims and unintended consequences.
