[Editor’s Note: This list was originally published in February 2018. It has been updated to include new shows, including “The Last of Us.”]
Dwelling on death isn’t exactly healthy if you think about it the wrong way — except TV deaths, which leave special, agonizing scars. Losing a TV character you’ve spent years with hits hard, and can often change the course of the series moving forward. Someone like prickly “Succession” patriarch Logan Roy (Brian Cox) was integral not only to the narrative, but to how each and every other character relates to one another and to their core attributes and aspirations. “Succession” was simply not the same show without him. Other deaths devastate you by building up a character into someone you love — which is why so many fans struggled with the gruesome death of Pedro Pascal’s Joel in “The Last of Us.”
To process (or calcify) our feelings, IndieWire’s TV team collected the biggest TV deaths of the 21st century — deaths that were not only shocking and hurtful, but pivotal to the shows that delivered them. Eligible characters had to suffer a permanent death (also known as the Michael Cordero Clause), die within the series and not before it (the Boo from “Fleabag” Clause), and come as a surprise (not taunt audiences with years of tortuous buildup — the Jack Pearson Clause).
So let’s pour one out for those heartbreaking, harrowing, and mercifully fictional departed by revisiting their memories. This post is full of spoilers (including above), so read with caution if these major shows are “on your list.”
Steve Greene, Christian Blauvelt, Hanh Nguyen, Liz Shannon Miller, Erin Strecker, Michael Schneider, and Proma Khosla contributed to this list.
“1923”
Maybe we shouldn’t have been shocked that Julia Schlaepfer’s Alexandra would meet her end in the “1923” finale. Elsa (Isabel May), a similar “shooting star” character, died in the “1883” finale as well, though that death was telegraphed from the very opening scene of that show. With Alexandra, a British aristocrat separated from her husband Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar) aboard an ocean liner following his duel with her ex-fiance, survival had always been so singularly her aim that not being able to cheat death almost seemed impossible.
She’d survived lions, sharks, a capsized tugboat, a robbery in Grand Central Station, a sexual assault aboard a train… how could she finally succumb? But she did, because of her frostbite injuries suffered when the nice couple driving her across America ran out of gas in the middle of a blizzard. Somehow, their car ended up right next to the train tracks, bringing her husband Spencer back to Montana, and so we got one particularly euphoric reunion, at least. Only to have the gloves and stockings removed from limbs… to see her hands and feet blackened from the frostbite. It’s one of the grimmer and sadder images Taylor Sheridan has ever given us — and at that moment, only the most hopeful of us still thought she wasn’t doomed. —CB
“24”
Would “24” have been elevated to the annals of TV history without that final awful moment of Jack cradling the body of his dead wife Teri, after a very long “day” spent trying to save her? Perhaps, but the show’s ballsy choice to end in explicit tragedy rather than triumph spoke to the very immediate post-9/11 environment — and also set up Jack Bauer for so many seasons of crazy to come.
“Battlestar Galactica”
“Battlestar Galactica” featured no shortage of shocking deaths over the course of its four seasons, but the unexpected suicide of Dualla at Season 4’s midway point was a major blow, cementing the show’s descent into a nihilistic depression that made the last several episodes extremely heavy viewing.
More importantly, the death of Dualla during its initial airing led to arguably the most tragic/hilarious/painfully sad cut-to-commercial of all time, as the ad immediately following her suicide proved to be… badly timed, on both an audio and visual level. Fortunately, YouTube remembers:
“Boardwalk Empire”
Although Jimmy Darmody (Michael Pitt) didn’t gouge out his eyes, his wretched life and death were as Oedipal as they come. The former protege of Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi) had been locked in a power struggle with his father in spirit if not by blood for control of the Atlantic City booze trade during Prohibition. But after losing the love of his life, drunkenly sleeping with his own mother (such Greek tragedy!), and botching an assassination attempt on Nucky, the bloody writing was on the wall. Jimmy died from two bullets to the brain, courtesy of Nucky himself. Killing off the second-most important character on the show by the end of Season 2 was a bold and unexpected move, and cemented Nucky’s true potential as a gangster and the series’ ability to shift its dynamics at the height of its popularity.
“BoJack Horseman”
The crown jewel in Netflix’s animation stable (sorry) has never shied away from the darker side of life, much less a life lived in Hollywoo. After establishing that it is a show that takes an honest look at mental illness and addiction and the general feeling of loneliness, the end of Season 3 brought one story of a child actress to a dark and unexpected close. Credit Kristen Schaal with tracking the progression of Sarah Lynn from adorable TV moppet to someone the industry failed and left behind. Her death wasn’t simply a ploy for pathos in an emotional minefield of a series. It was the show’s very real way of acknowledging the brutal steamroller of fame.
“Breaking Bad”
“Breaking Bad” was always defined by the danger that lurks around every corner. Even beloved characters could disappear in the blink of an eye, not to mention villains like The Cousins. Against all this, it was inevitable that the Walt/Gus showdown of Season 4 would end in only one winner. When an intricately laid wheelchair plot finally took down the chicken entrepreneur, it was the perfect example of the show’s bittersweet notions of victory. The best part is that for those three or four steps of Gus emerging from the nursing home room unscathed, there was the tiny thought that he might be able to survive even a bomb blast.
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”
The least-supernatural death of “Buffy” will always be its most memorable and heartbreaking, as creator Joss Whedon devoted an entire episode to the passing of Buffy’s mom Joyce (Kristin Sutherland). Season 5’s “The Body” featured some incredible acting work on the part of its ensemble (Emma Caulfield’s monologue about fruit punch will haunt us forever) and in years past has gotten a fraction of the attention it deserves for how it took on the truth of what happens immediately after a loved one passes away. In the days before “Game of Thrones,” when genre-focused shows were struggling for mainstream acceptance, “The Body” shouted for real acknowledgment beyond the basic.
“Barry”
There is a lot of death in “Barry,” a lot of it perpetrated by Barry himself (Bill Hader) — but arguably nothing with as high emotional stakes and dire consequences as the murder of Janice (Paula Newsome) in the Season 1 finale. Part of the skittish hook of “Barry” is how it compels the viewer to root for its antihero as well as the forces seeking to track him down and service justice. Janice is undeniably sharp and good at her job — too good, even — the kind of character who you not only want to see win but expect to because she knows exactly what she’s doing. Her unlikely romance with Gene (Henry Winkler) is genuinely amusing and winsome, made convincing by two actors giving it their all (a Cousineau technique if we ever saw one).
Season 1, Episode 8 “Know Your Truth” presents a reality that feels instantly too good to be true; in which Barry is now dating Sally (Sarah Goldberg) and they’re taking quaint couples trips with Gene and Janice, the stains of death and violence firmly in the rearview — or so it seems. A gaffe from Gene leads to Janice realizing that Barry is the killer she spent months pursuing, and as things escalate, as they often do on “Barry.” Janice’s death destroys Gene, and creates chaos for Barry through the remainder of the series. It wouldn’t be out of line to call this show “Janice” (as Gene probably would).
“Dexter”
“Dexter” was never an easy show to watch, but the sympathetic serial killer series got exponentially harder to take as the seasons went on. A breaking point for many fans came when Dexter’s (Michael C. Hall) innocent wife, Rita (Julie Benz) — who remained ignorant of her husband’s hidden hobby until the bitter end — was killed by Arthur Miller (John Lithgow), the Trinity Killer. Lithgow’s performance won him an Emmy, and Season 4 is arguably the last great season of “Dexter.” Rita deserved such quality, and her death was anything but cheap. (Miller wanted to show Dexter that his way of life would never last, especially with loved ones in harm’s way.) But what made Rita’s demise even more painful was that Dexter had already caught and killed Miller before he found his wife’s body in a blood-red bathtub. It had seemed like he’d won, making his ultimate loss — and ours — all the more heartbreaking.
“Downton Abbey”
Anglophiles were prepared for a certain amount of melodrama from Julian Fellowes’ series, which focused on the upper crust Crawleys and the lives of their servants downstairs. But on the heels of losing the beloved Lady Sybil (Jessica Brown Findlay) from pre-eclampsia after giving birth, anything more would just be cruel. Unfortunately, series star Dan Stevens decided not to re-up his contract, and the show was left scrambling after his character Matthew had finally, at long last after three seasons, won the hand of Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery). Their marital bliss and new status as parents was short-lived: After visiting his wife and newborn son at the hospital, Matthew perished in a car crash, his dead staring eyes killing the hope in viewers, many of whom jumped ship (or at least claimed to) after that. While the rest of the cast remained relatively intact, critics deemed that the show never fully recovered its storytelling momentum after that tragedy.
“Game of Thrones”
It was the beheading heard ‘round Westeros and beyond. In its first season, the HBO fantasy series was still drawing in newcomers who didn’t know what to make of this vaguely Medieval world that was obsessed with an uncomfortable seat of power and an imminent cold snap. Fans of George R.R. Martin’s books waited with bloodthirsty glee for that fateful ninth episode when Ned Stark (Sean Bean), the series’ obvious hero and moral center, was cut down in his prime in front of his daughters’ horrified eyes. Good did not triumph over evil. Justice did not prevail. The bad guys didn’t just win, but ascended the throne and laughed about it. And the world fell in love with this cutthroat batshit-crazy show one episode before even meeting those damn dragons.
“The Good Wife”
Well, that’s one way to quit a job: When “Good Wife” star Josh Charles decided to leave the show in Season 5, he exited in a blaze of tragic gunfire that was technically one of the least violent primetime deaths in recent years, but also one that left us genuinely shaken to the core, in part because Charles and the producers had kept it so very much under wraps. Because it seemingly came out of nowhere — the way so many tragic deaths do in real life, but not on television — Will Gardner’s demise at the hands of a random gunman still echoes in the TV landscape; one which made any CBS procedural viewer wary about the fates of their favorites.
“Better Call Saul”
After the show’s final season was marked by tragedy and bloodshed, it’s easy to forget that early “Better Call Saul” was far more of an in-the-weeds legal drama, defined far more by the threat of danger than the certainty of death. Even as viewers did the math of which characters weren’t still hanging around Albuquerque during the Walter White era, there was enough document malfeasance and family strife to distract from the fact that some of the biggest “Better Call Saul” were marked in some metatextual way. Still, that didn’t make the death of Chuck McGill at the end of Season 3 any less of a gutting moment. Just a week before, the show had turned up the Kim-related anxiety to previously unreached heights after an episode-ending car accident. But being the misdirecting grief magicians that the “Saul” braintrust members are, subjecting Chuck to an ambiguous, fiery end made the show’s strongest statement that no one in this muddy legal territory was safe, whether from electrical signals or assassins.
“Grey’s Anatomy”
Sometimes, TV couples are just meant to be, and Shonda Rhimes’ long-lived medical series set up the grand love affair between Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) and Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), aka MerDer, from their first drunken hookup in the pilot. Despite all that they had been through, their relationship remained a staple on the show… until Dempsey decided to move on from Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital and race cars or something. Enter the tragedy porn. After a fakeout situation when he helps victims of a road accident, Derek’s car is hit by a semi-trailer truck as he pauses in the middle of the road to make a phone call. Because of his loss of speech, he can’t communicate at the hospital that he needs a CT scan, which would’ve detected his brain hemorrhage. He dies, killing the most signature relationship on the show, and proving that Rhimes truly knows “How to Get Away With MerDer.”
“Homeland”
Damian Lewis’ Brody was never supposed to last long on “Homeland.” In the original series, “Prisoners of War,” the character died at the end of the first season. So after surviving two finales, it was finally time for the loyalty-torn POW to face his end. Showrunner and co-creator Alex Gansa didn’t make it easy, though. Not only did the twist-heavy nature of the series demand an indisputable death — which translated to a public, lengthy hanging — but his offing was made doubly torturous when we found out Carrie (Claire Danes) was pregnant with his baby. Throw in the extra attachment formed from so much time spent with the series’ co-lead, and Brody’s death goes down as one of the all-time most difficult scenes to watch. [Author’s Note: This writer couldn’t even go back to re-watch the scene. It still hurts too much.]
“House of Cards”
The opening season of the Netflix version of “House of Cards” mirrored many of the story beats of its UK predecessor. One that didn’t happen in those first batch of episodes was the death of the intrepid reporter character, played by Kate Mara. Lulled into a false sense of security that maybe she might survive much longer stateside, both her and the audience ended up with the biggest of surprises when Zoe got tossed in front of a moving DC Metro car. For a show that definitely likes to take its time (remember that multi-episode arc about franchising BBQ restaurants?), this lightning-quick murder didn’t exactly come out of nowhere, but was still shocking nonetheless. Anyone having doubts about Frank Underwood being a complete monster had some pretty irrefutable proof at that point, and we were only 14 episodes in.
“How I Met Your Mother”
“How I Met Your Mother” began telegraphing the fate of the titular mother as early as Season 8, but even after the series finale confirmed that a woman named Tracy (Cristin Milioti) was the mother of Ted’s (Josh Radnor) children and theoretical love of his life, it was clear something more was in the works. As we discovered in the series finale, these nine years of Ted monologuing had been, really, about him asking for an answer this whole time: Should he try to pursue his still-living love interest Robin (Cobie Smulders), despite all the time and distance between them?
The storyline was a controversial one, which many saw as a betrayal but others embraced as a long-determined conclusion to the series. The hardest part was how well Milioti and Radnor connected on screen, creating a dynamic in their limited scenes together that made us truly believe in their love, and truly mourn for Tracy.
“The Last of Us”
Even if viewers hadn’t played “The Last of Us” video game series, the fate of Pedro Pascal’s beloved Joel Miller in “Through the Valley” didn’t come as a particularly major surprise. Season 2 opened, after all, with Kaitlyn Dever’s Abby swearing revenge upon the hero for his gruesome murder of the Fireflies to save his surrogate daughter Elie (Bella Ramsey), and by the time Joel saved Abby from an infected horde and escorted her back to her hideout, the bloody torture that ensued seemed inevitable. Also, the game has been out for five years, and anyone who has vaguely been on the internet during that span probably saw the widespread discussion of the controversial plot point.
Did the knowledge of what was to come sap the heartbreaking scene of its power? Apparently not, as many fans were left devastated by Joel’s fate, mercilessly beaten by Abby before getting his neck impaled by a broken golf club. Part of why the death worked in the translation between mediums is the work Pascal did over the past season to endear the audience to Joel, a broken man who bends his morals to protect the young woman he’s grown to care for as his own daughter. But most of what makes it immediately upsetting is Ramsey’s terrific performance as Elie, left begging for her surrogate father’s life as he’s taken from her in front of her own eyes. Even if Joel’s death might not have been surprising, it barely mattered; “The Last of Us” shows that as long as you care about the characters, any death can hit you deep. —WC
“Lost”
By the end of Season 3, “Lost” had not only become a network TV juggernaut, it had already established that none of its characters were ever completely safe from the true dangers of this mysterious island: Shannon, Boone, and Mr. Eko all faced down death and did not survive. So Charlie drowning in an underwater station accident wasn’t without precedent. But there was a certain kind of loss in seeing a character with something new to live for depart from the story the way he does, choosing his final moments to be an act of sacrificial heroism. “Through the Looking Glass” is a two-parter for the ages, and one that earns its farewell moment better than 99 percent of other shows that load up their season finales with a tearful goodbye.
“Mad Men”
“Mad Men” didn’t attain TV supremacy by shielding its characters from consequences. Don Draper coming back home to an empty house, Peggy dealing with losing a child, even Duck bidding farewell to Chauncey the Irish setter were all personal moments of dealing with the aftermath of the unexpected. But when beloved partner Lane Pryce hangs himself in the season 5 episode “Commissions and Fees,” it represented an even greater sense of communal sadness and a necessity to rationalize the inexplicable. Watching all of these people grieve for something they both did and didn’t understand solidified the idea that the show was far more than just the foibles of a couple ad execs at the beginning of the ‘60s. Lane’s death opened up the show to a greater sense of loss, melancholy, and inability to cope with a changing world.
“The O.C.”
Praise be to Josh Schwartz, Marissa Cooper died before “The O.C.” ended. Mischa Barton’s troubled and problematic teen heartthrob had plenty of opportunities for a tragic ending over the first three seasons: There was her drug-fueled collapse in Tijuana; or when she chose to believe a kid she met in therapy over her own boyfriend and ended up held hostage in a hotel room; and, of course, there was her first night out with Ryan, when she passed out from overconsumption on the sidewalk of her parents’ house — an event meant to be seen as regular, given her friends’ blasé response.
The examples are only limited by the episode count, so thankfully, that count ended in the Season 3 finale: Volchok (Cam Gigandet) — not the hero we deserved, but the hero we needed — drove Ryan (Ben McKenzie) off the road, killing his passenger in the wreck. Marissa needed to GTFO of the O.C. and “The O.C.” far sooner, given how redundant her stories became and how horribly she treated our protagonist, but seeing her axed before the final episode was shocking in the best possible way. Bless you, Mr. Schwartz.
“Sons of Anarchy”
Gemma had it coming — well, really, everyone had it coming on “Sons of Anarchy.” But Gemma really had to die after what she did at the end of Season 6. In a shocker, the character — played with a calm viciousness by Katey Sagal — killed her daughter-in-law, Tara (Maggie Siff), in the mistaken belief that Tara had gone to the feds and ratted out her son, Jax (Charlie Hunnam). It was the culmination of a power struggle between mother and wife over the ultimate control of Jax. In Season 7, a guilt-ridden Gemma fed Jax lies to blame the murder on others, but the truth was eventually going to come out. In the penultimate episode of the series, Jax learned what Gemma had done and shot her, execution-style.
“The Sopranos”
There was plenty of death on “The Sopranos,” but the most heartbreaking one is easy to choose: Adriana La Cerva (Drea de Matteo), who dies at the hands of Silvio (Steven Van Zandt) in Season 5. Adriana perhaps signed her death warrant when she began cooperating with the FBI. But her big mistake is making a deal with the feds to go into witness protection with her fiancee, Christopher (Michael Imperioli). Believing that her love and loyalty would win out, she confesses the truth to him and begs him to join her — but Christopher nearly chokes her to death. Later, when Tony Soprano calls her and says Christopher has attempted suicide and that Silvio will take her to the hospital, viewers then see Adriana in a car, alone, escaping. That may have been the cruelest moment of all, as it was just a dream: Nope, she took the ride with Silvio, even though she knew it was the end.
“Succession”
Never trust an HBO wedding. “Succession” said goodbye to patriarch and media titan Logan Roy (Brian Cox) in the third episode of the final season of the hit drama, in an instant classic episode that gave every character in the sprawling ensemble a chance to shine. From the kids’ respective shock and breakdown on the doomed Connor Wedding Boat to the team in the air attempting to revive an unconscious Logan (David Rasche one-liners for the win), it was a shining example of the kind of artistic genius that can happen when every single person both in front of and behind the camera brings their A-game.
“The Walking Dead”
It was the longest wait for “The Walking Dead” fans. At the end of Season 6, Negan had our heroes lined up and was ready to kill at least one of them in a twisted revenge. Who would get their brains bashed in by barbwire bat Lucille? Turns out it wasn’t just one: Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) were both given the most brutal death imaginable. Glenn, as one of the last remaining original characters from the show, was particularly heartbreaking — especially since the love of his life, Maggie, was pregnant with their child. Glenn was a fan favorite, a good soul who had grown a great deal in the zombie apocalypse, from pizza delivery guy to hero and heartthrob. The violence and heartbreak from the death of Glenn impacted fans — some of whom dropped the show — and set the series on a whole new trajectory of “all-out war” in Season 8. While most of the show’s major characters have died via walker bites, it turns out humans are the most vicious creatures of all.
“The West Wing”
“The West Wing” had killed characters before, but never so unexpectedly, and never with such impact. Losing the President’s erstwhile secretary Mrs. Landingham to a random accident gave the end of Season 2 a new level of tragedy, and also gave writer Aaron Sorkin the fodder necessary for one of the all-time-great season finales — “give me numbers” is a line that still makes us cry. Bless you, Mrs. Landingham, for reminding the President and the audience what really matters in the madness of the political circus, while also showcasing how a small-scale death can have seismic impact.
“The Wire”
Long before Michael B. Jordan wowed audiences in “Creed,” and even before he impressed Coach Taylor in “Friday Night Lights,” the future Oscar winner (yup, we’re calling it) embodied the innocence lost in the streets of West Baltimore. Not only did his young hustler by the name of Wallace initially escape the drug trade by turning police witness, but he was drawn back to his friends and family when the cops forgot about him. Wallace was a kid looking for a place in this world, and everywhere he turned, right or wrong, there were tragic consequences; none more so than when Stringer (Idris Elba) put a hit on the young boy, and two of his friends had to pull the trigger. Rightly, D’Angelo (Larry Gilliard Jr.) never came to terms with it, and his words forever ring in viewers’ ears: “Where’s Wallace, String? Where’s Wallace?”
