TV shows have created some of the most memorable character demises in all of fiction: losses so iconic that we’re still reeling from their effects years after they left our screens. As the new year settles in, let’s take a moment to remember some of the most impactful deaths in TV history, the ones we’re still not completely over. Beware of spoilers!
20. Joel Miller (The Last of Us)
Perhaps one of the most divisive moments in the entirety of The Last of Us, Joel’s demise via golf club turned an already dark TV show into an even bleaker one—if that was even possible.
19. Gustavo Fring (Breaking Bad)
Breaking Bad blew fans away with Gustavo’s explosive death. The entire sequence leading up to the drug lord getting half of his face blown out is one of the tensest moments in the show. And that scene where he comes out of a room, face half torn off by an explosion, and just fixes his tie before dying? Now that is Breaking Bad at its best.
18. Zoe Barnes (House of Cards)
We all knew Frank Underwood was a seedy character, but no one could have prepared us for that Season 2 opening, where he kills Zoe Barnes by pushing her in front of a moving train.
17. Joyce Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
In a show full of supernatural threats and insidious monsters, Joyce Summers, Buffy’s mom, dies of realistic natural causes. It wasn’t a vampire or a werewolf who took her: it was a brain aneurysm, and maybe that’s the scariest part for a show like this.
16. Foggy Nelson (Daredevil: Born Again)
The death of Matt Murdock’s closest ally set the tone for Born Again, establishing the Disney+ show as a worthy successor to the original Netflix series. Not even the House of Mouse could mellow the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen.
15. Ruth Langmore (Ozark)
Everyone wanted Ruth to win at the end of Ozark. Sadly, this is a show about how, most of the time, nice guys do finish last. Ruth, like many other memorable characters in Ozark, dies in a way that feels hopelessly unfair.
14. Rita Morgan (Dexter)
When the Trinity Killer got to Rita, Dexter had to finally come to terms with the possibility that his two alter egos could merge into one—and that carried deadly consequences for the people he loved most. The scene with Rita dead in a bathtub full of blood is as shocking as it is haunting.
13. Matthew Crawley (Downton Abbey)
A rather sudden and unexpected death, Matthew perishes in a car crash shortly after visiting his wife and newborn son in a hospital. Fueled by Dan Stevens’ decision to leave Downton Abbey, this is a moment that still hits hard for fans on every rewatch.
12. Robin Ward (The Boys)
Robin’s hasty, unceremonious death sets the stage for The Boys’ senseless world of superhero cruelty. Shockingly vaporized, the sequence ends quickly, but its effects linger for the rest of the series.
11. Poussey Washington (Orange Is the New Black)
Accidentally suffocated during a prison protest by an untrained correctional officer, Poussey’s departure left a huge gap in the ensemble of Orange Is the New Black—doubly so when you consider how much it mirrors real-life cases of police brutality.
10. Jack Pearson (This Is Us)
The mystery of how Jack Pearson died was finally revealed in Season 2 of This Is Us. Jack died a hero, suffering a sudden “widowmaker” heart attack after saving his entire family (dog included) from a house fire.
9. Adriana La Cerva (The Sopranos)
For a show that thrives on its shocking mob hits, the death of Adriana felt completely surreal in its cruelty. The moment builds up for an entire season, culminating in one of the show’s cruelest executions.
8. Omar Little (The Wire)
Omar found out the hard way that there’s no honor in the streets. Shot by a kid who once idolized him in a corner store, this is one of those moments that highlights just how effective The Wire is at subverting expectations.
7. Glenn Rhee (The Walking Dead)
Bashed to death by Negan’s “Lucille,” Glenn suffered one of the most graphic deaths in The Walking Dead. His departure split fans down the middle, as it felt explicit and overly violent, even for a show that features flesh-eating corpses in virtually every scene.
6. Derek Shepherd (Grey’s Anatomy)
When Patrick Dempsey sought different acting opportunities after a decade on Grey’s Anatomy, showrunner Shonda Rhimes decided Derek would never divorce Meredith. Instead, he dies in a car accident after saving people—a fitting end for one half of the show’s emotional core.
5. Charlie Pace (Lost)
Drowned in the Looking Glass station, Charlie’s sacrifice in Lost is one of the series’s rare moments of unambiguous clarity. That last message, “Not Penny’s Boat,” still sends shivers down the spines of millions of Lost fans to this day.
4. Tony Soprano (The Sopranos)
The ambiguity surrounding Tony’s demise is precisely what makes it one of the most memorable non-deaths in TV history. Millions of viewers believed their televisions were malfunctioning when the screen faded to black during the series finale. The truth is that neither Tony nor the audience ever heard his death coming.
3. Walter White (Breaking Bad)
Everyone knew, from the start, Breaking Bad would end with Walter’s death. What no one could have expected was that it would happen due to a stray bullet from an intense shootout with a criminal gang, and that cancer would have nothing to do with it.
2. Ned Stark (Game of Thrones)
There’s no shortage of shocking deaths in Game of Thrones, but Ned Stark’s decapitation in Season 1 at least prepared us for the inescapable reality that, in this show, no one—not even main characters—is ever truly safe.
1. Finn Hudson (Glee)
This one still hits hard. After Cory Monteith’s real-life passing, the cast of Glee honored their fallen companion in the Season 5 premiere, The Quarterback. The episode never went into detail about Finn’s death, but it celebrated how integral his character was to the show, and also served as a beautiful eulogy for Monteith.
