TV deaths that broke us

We know it’s not real but beloved characters being killed off hits hard. Annabel Nugent lists 18 of the most memorable and traumatic times a fan favourite has met an untimely end

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“It’s just a show,” is the common response from someone seeing a person crying at the death of a fictional person on screen. But TV acolytes will know that it can be hard to rein in the emotions when your favourite character for the past seven years has just been killed off.

In the battle of TV versus cinema, the former has always packed more of a punch when it comes to impactful deaths – probably because we’ve come to know the character better over a longer period of time. And when someone who you’ve grown used to seeing day-in and day-out suddenly vanishes from your life forever, there are going to be some emotional ramifications.

Sometimes, in the saddest of circumstances, the demise of a character even marks the demise of the show itself, with creators and writers failing to keep us interested beyond their death blow. There are many ingredients that go into making a TV death as traumatic as intended: the character’s likeability, the circumstances of death, the impact their absence will have on the remaining characters, and, of course, shock value.

Here’s a selection of the 18 character deaths we’re still not over… (It goes without saying, but there are spoilers ahead – you have been warned!)

Joel Miller, The Last of Us

Anyone who played the video game obviously already knew that Pedro Pascal’s grizzled survivalist was doomed, but for the rest of us it landed like a brisk whack to the head. Season one of the hit HBO series took time and care to painstakingly build a genuinely touching father-daughter relationship between Joel and Ellie – and for what? All that for him to just die at the beginning of season two? In the season’s sensational second episode, Joel is tracked down by Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), who tortures and kills him to avenge her father. Going into season two, it would have been hard to imagine how