The 7 Most Shocking Deaths In Our Favorite TV Shows

There are two kinds of deaths on television.

There’s the tear-jerking demise of characters who have long held a special place in our hearts, causing us all to inconsolably cry for days on end. And then there’s the far more surprising deaths of long-standing TV characters, with their sudden departure from the series less upsetting than they are genuinely shocking in their respective presentation.

While we no doubt have an emotional reaction to these characters’ deaths, the nature of their passing tends to elicit a far more jarring response from most viewers. From disastrous car accidents to off-screen plane crashes, here are seven stunning TV deaths that literally took our breath away. Warning: Spoilers ahead!

Marissa Cooper (The O.C.)

A death as heartrending as it is jaw dropping, just about everything seemed to be going right for Marissa Cooper at the end of The O.C.’s third season. Having exited her toxic relationship with Kevin and gotten back together with Ryan, Marissa appeared ready to start her life anew by joining her father for a year-long vacation in Greece. Hours before she could board the plane, however, viewers watched helplessly as Kevin rammed Marissa and Ryan off the highway, sending them careening into a roadside ditch. Fatally injured and knowing there was nothing anyone could do to help her, Marissa chose to spend her final moments staring into Ryan’s eyes, fading away peacefully in her lover’s arms. Twenty years later and it still hurts so much to see.

John Locke (Lost)

Between Sun, Jin, and Charlie’s gutwrenching drownings, Lost certainly came packed to the brim with emotional death sequences. At the same tome, the series also occasionally presented characters’ deaths in a more straightforward manner. After escaping the Island and making it back into the outside world, Locke found himself at the mercy of Ben halfway through Season 5. Unfortunately, John’s recurring frenemy had other plans for the Others’ new leader, strangling Locke to death moments after convincing him to avoid taking his own life. While audiences knew Locke’s fate by the very end of Season 4, something about seeing the Island’s chief protector actually murdered hit us far harder than we ever imagined possible.

Matthew Crawley (Downton Abbey)

In theory, watching a character as beloved as Matthew Crawley die in a tragic car accident is traumatizing in and of itself. But added to his gruesome demise is the fact that he got into a car accident literally hours after his child’s birth. Just as in real life, however, life-altering joys often come mixed with heartbreaking tragedies, with the birth of Matthew’s son counterbalancing his own unexpected death in Downton Abbey’s third season. Talk about a whirlwind of emotions … 

Howard Hamlin (Better Call Saul)

Remember when Better Call Saul started and we all just assumed Howard Hamlin was the smug, condescending lawyer preventing Jimmy from reaching his full potential? Ah, such simpler times. Trying to right the wrongs of his past after acting as a thorn in Jimmy’s side throughout Better Call Saul’s earlier seasons, Howard’s path of redemption ultimately led to some fatal consequences for the Albuquerque-based attorney. To make matters worse, Jimmy, Kim, and Mike continued to dishonor the man’s memory by fabricating details about his death, making Howard appear as an unstable, substance-abusing ticking time bomb waiting to go off. In a series marked by tragedies, Howard’s death and posthumous fall from grace continues to linger on as one of Jimmy and Kim’s darkest crimes.

Mark Greene (ER)

To say that Mark’s death in ER took us by surprise would be a massive understatement. The closest thing the series had to a main character in its first eight seasons, Mark won over our hearts and minds with his genial attitude, realistically complex personal relationships, and his dedication to patients’ well-being. After nearly a decade of working in Cook County General Hospital, Mark’s tenure on ER started to slowly wind down with his terminal cancer diagnosis in Season 7. Navigating the intricacies of his illness, Mark’s final days in ER marks one of the most gut-wrenching story arcs in the show’s narrative, catching us severely off-guard even as we await the end of Mark’s journey within the series.

Colonel Henry Blake (M*A*S*H)

M*A*S*H had a way of lulling you into a false sense of security with its irreverent humor only to launch a furious punch to the gut just as your smile began to fade. Nowhere can this unique storytelling characteristic be more readily found than in Colonel Henry Blake’s departure from the series at the end of M*A*S*H’s third season. Homeward bound after his service in Korea has officially concluded, viewers later learn from a tearful Radar that Henry’s plane was shot down on its return journey to the States. In a series made up of egregiously upsetting moments, Henry’s death served as a bitter reminder that, in spite of Hawkeye’s immature antics or the occasional debauchery within the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, not every person was safe from the unforgiving costs of war.

Oberyn Martell (Game of Thrones)

Imagine taking the time to introduce an entirely new, supremely entertaining character that audiences instantly connected with the moment they appeared on-screen. Then imagine writing that character off the series with an abrupt, stomach-churning death mere episodes after their debut. Such is the shocking fate that befell Pedro Pascals’ breakout Game of Thrones character, Prince Oberyn Martell. Though he instantly seemed like a character destined for greatness in GoT, Oberyn’s time on the show came to a crashing halt amidst his vendetta-fueled duel against The Mountain. As Ser Gregor grappled Oberyn to the ground, viewers watched as their hopes for Oberyn literally collapsed in on itself – not wholly unlike the prince’s skull under The Mountain’s hulking hands.