1. Poussey Washington – Orange is the New Black
Just as things were going well for her — a possible job with Judy King, planning a future with Soso — Poussey is unintentionally strangled to death by C.O. Bailey. Although extremely devastating, her powerful death reflects the reality of law enforcement and the malpractice within it. While we will always love and miss Poussey, we can’t wait to see what’s in store for Litchfield after her death.
2. Ned Stark – Game of Thrones
While there are many, many horribly gut-wrenching deaths in this show, let’s throw it back to one of the O.G. deaths. What made this extra sad was how Sansa and Arya had to watch. And in this moment GoT fans realized nobody was safe.
3. The Red Wedding – Game of Thrones
Speaking of Game of Thrones, let’s not forget one of the most brutal scenes of the entire series. Pretty sure we all still get goosebumps when we remember this dark time.
4. Derek Shepherd (aka McDreamy) – Grey’s Anatomy
*Chasing Cars plays in the background*
A death we will most likely never ever EVER recover from, especially because he DIDN’T EVEN HAVE TO DIE! And when Meredith had to pull the plug…WHY SHONDA, WHY???
5. Basically everyone – Grey’s Anatomy
If you thought McDreamy was bad (it definitely was), just remember we should’ve known better than to think he was safe, considering all of the other shocking and sad deaths throughout this show, among them being George, Denny, Lexie, McSteamy and many many others.
6. Zoe Barnes – House of Cards
Although Zoe wasn’t necessarily a “fan favorite,” we were still pretty shocked when Frank shoved her onto the train tracks as the train approached fullspeed. Brutal, unexpected and admittedly pretty sad.
7. Beth Greene – The Walking Dead
Despite death being a common theme in this show, Beth’s death was extremely sad, quite unexpected and easily avoidable.
8. Several other The Walking Dead deaths
Death is obviously very prevalent in the world of The Walking Dead, but it still hurts every time a beloved character is shot or stabbed or devoured by walkers (or gets “Lucilled,” but we don’t have to worry about that just yet, thankfully).
9. Allison Argent – Teen Wolf
The Teen Wolf fandom was pretty divided on whether they shipped Allison and Scott or not. Regardless, I think we can all agree her death took us by surprise, and whether we liked her or not, it was still pretty sad.
10. Finn Collins – The 100
Even though he was a fan fave and we all loved him, we somewhat knew he had to die considering what he had done, but having Clarke be the one to do it? HEARTBREAKING.
11. Charlie Pace – Lost
Another extremely sad death that we knew in our heart of hearts had to happen. Even though his death was easily avoidable, it was what he wanted, and he did the right thing.
12. Rita Morgan – Dexter
Whether you loved her or hated her, I think we can all agree this was a very, very, very sad scene. Imagine being Dexter, feeling on top of the world, then walking inside to find your dead wife and crying baby sitting in her blood.
13. Will Gardner – The Good Wife
Let’s be honest: None of us saw this one coming. Some of us (most of us) were probably very confused and shocked and sad when this happened, but looking back on it now, I think we can all say that it needed to happen for the sake of Alicia and the show.
14. Lane Pryce – Mad Men
While this guy’s death was arguably foreseeable throughout the season, we wanted to believe it would all turn out okay for him, and it still was a suckerpunch to the heart seeing his lifeless body hanging in his office.
15. Robin Hood – Once Upon A Time
All anyone could think during this scene: poor Regina (and Roland of course). This seemed to have come out of nowhere and seemed completely unnecessary, but it definitely left us wondering what was in store for Regina (and whether we would see the return of The Evil Queen).