12 Most Shocking TV Scenes Of 2025 (So Far)

We've watched a lot of TV over the years — like, way more than you think — but we still have the capacity to be shocked... and 2025 proved that over and over again.

This past year has served up some truly jaw-dropping and (we'll just say it) disgusting moments that we kind of wish we had never seen in the first place. We're talking graphically violent deaths, unfortunate bathroom encounters, disturbing hookups, surgeries that we had to watch through our fingers and more. (God bless cable and streaming, huh?)

As part of our annual Year in Review coverage, TVLine is looking back at the most shocking TV scenes of 2025 thus far, in terms of what made us cringe and look away the hardest. (As far as the year's most surprising TV plot twists go, we'll be covering those soon in another list.) Our rundown includes hits like "The Pitt," "Daredevil: Born Again," "The White Lotus" and other shows that we can't believe we found a way to forgive after subjecting us to scenes like these.

Read on — if you dare — to witness a dozen of the most shocking TV moments that 2025 had to offer. Once you made it through, hit the comments to tell us which TV scenes had you covering your eyes this year.

Of all the calamities to befall the Dutton family and their friends in the 1920s-set "Yellowstone" prequel, one of the most harrowing — and certainly the bloodiest — was when poor Zane underwent brain surgery in one of the ranch's upstairs bedrooms. The complicated medical procedure began with a very disheartening visual: Zane's head, strapped down, with Jake and Jack holding down the boards that would keep the patient steady. The doctor had never performed the procedure before. The only sedative available was chloroform. And the series didn't shy away from showing us the drill trepanning into Zane's skull to relieve the pressure. Could you blame Jack for dry heaving a couple of times? At least this gory story had a happy ending: The ranch hand not only survived but was able to stand and walk immediately afterward, galvanized to help the Duttons defend their land. — K.R.

FX's sci-fi spinoff gave us not only the iconic xenomorphs from the "Alien" film franchise but also a host of lethal new alien species, including bloodthirsty ticks and carnivorous plant pods. The one that had us squirming the most, though, was the eye midge: a tiny eyeball that skitters around on tentacle feet and plunges itself into a victim's eye socket, popping out their eyeball and taking control of their body. We glimpsed the eye midge's full potential in Episode 4, when it attacked a poor sheep in the lab and turned it into a malicious zombie with hyper intelligence and a serious death stare. That sheep went on to plot Tootles' murder and nearly got Joe, too, before his sister Wendy stepped in to save him. Sure, we were plenty scared of the xenomorphs... but the image of that dead-eyed sheep might haunt us even longer. — Dave Nemetz

We tuned into the final episode of HBO Max's "Sex and the City" continuation hoping to savor some vintage moments between Carrie and her pals and maybe enjoy a hint of romance, too. Instead, what we got was a gross-out moment for the ages, with a Gen Z-er named Epcot (don't ask) clogging Miranda's toilet during Thanksgiving dinner. The toilet ended up overflowing, and poor Miranda was forced to clean up the mess on her hands and knees. ("S–t happens," Carrie quipped.) Even worse, Miranda's girlfriend Joy came over to apologize for missing dinner, and they reconciled with a hug — while Miranda was still wearing dirty gloves and kneeling on the bathroom floor! Was this really what we were hoping to see from Carrie and company's final hour? It was an uncharacteristically foul note to end things on, but we suppose it was one way to flush this series for good. — D.N.

We didn't need any further proof that Wilson Fisk (aka the Kingpin) is one bad dude, but we got it anyway in Episode 9 of Disney+'s Marvel series, with Fisk literally taking the fate of Commissioner Gallo into his hands. "You were never really there for the rank-and-file, were you?" the raspy-voiced Fisk asked Gallo as they faced off in a secluded hideout. But Gallo was feeling invincible, firing right back at Fisk: "You never stop being Kingpin. You can't." Yeah, that wasn't the smartest idea: Fisk responded by elbowing Gallo in the throat before grabbing the sides of his head with his massive hands and squeezing, telling him, "We will keep this city safe." The force of Fisk's hands finally crushed Gallo's skull in gruesome fashion, with bloody chunks of bone giving way, killing Gallo instantly. Fisk then asked the shocked onlookers: "Any questions?" Nope, yeah, we're good. — D.N.

After 17 seasons of FXX's raunchy bar comedy, we've become numb to the wildly inappropriate antics of the Paddy's Pub gang. But even they can still surprise us, like they did in Episode 5 when the gang went to a sleazy dog track, where Dennis and Dee caught gambling fever and lost their shirts, reduced to doing humiliating stunts like eating dog food to recoup their losses. When they caught wind that Frank was negotiating a deal with rich Saudi investors to breed one of the dogs, Dennis decided to, um, handle it himself, manually stimulating the dog to produce the valuable genetic material so he could get a cut of the profits. Thankfully, we didn't see the actual act — even "Sunny" has to draw the line somewhere — but we did see everyone else's horrified reactions. And it was all for naught: Frank confessed that the whole Saudi thing was a lie, because he bet a friend he could get Dennis to, well, do that to a dog. Never bet against how low the Paddy's Pub gang will stoop, we guess. — D.N.

Harry Hamlin's character on AMC's Anne Rice series has always had a bit of a daddy complex, but he took that to new, disgusting heights in Season 2 when he cut off his own hand with a machete and fed it to his father for dinner. The sight of Cortland hacking through his own flesh and bone was disturbing enough, but that sad little face he made while presenting his dish to Julien (Ted Levine) was somehow equally unnerving. And don't get us started on having to watch Julien eat his son's severed flesh, bite by bite, with a fork and knife. We don't care that it all happened on a spiritual plane — it felt plenty real to us! Also, remind us to never RSVP "yes" to Thanksgiving dinner with the Mayfairs. — Andy Swift

We know, we know: The whole point of Ryan Murphy's latest serial-killer series is that violence-as-entertainment doesn't work without a hungry audience — so who's the real monster? We also know that the latest installment of the Netflix anthology worked hard to convey the idea of Ed Gein as an abused, simple, mentally ill man susceptible to and inspired by humanity's worst tendencies. And we're highly aware that the new season of "Monster" had many visuals we'd like never to see again: the Nazi sequence, for instance, or Ed's happy homemaking while wearing someone else's skin. All that said: Ed's Episode 5 necrophiliac interaction with Eleanor Adams' corpse was a special kind of disturbing. Was it worse when she was clearly a pile of rotting flesh, or when she suddenly came to life (in his imagination) and urged him on? Discuss. Or, on second thought, don't. — Kimberly Roots

For most of its inaugural run, the "Outlander" prequel lulled us into a sense of safety on Ellen MacKenzie's behalf: Though women of the 1700s did not have much agency, the redhead's quick wits and strategic mind allowed a bit of liberty within her male-dominated family — that is, until her fiancé's clan decided that a purity test was in order. With no say in the matter, Ellen was stripped to her nightgown and forced to stand in a cold room full of judgmental men who conducted an invasive, humiliating and highly public examination designed to see if she was still a virgin. The most chilling aspect of the entire scene was the way men who claimed to love Ellen (her brothers and betrothed Malcom among them) did nothing to halt the proceedings, even when she cried angry tears at the indignity of it all. — K.R.

Prime Video's fantastic college comedy was a refreshing look at the harsh realities of life as a lowly undergrad, with series creator Benito Skinner starring as Benny, a freshman who hides his identity as a gay man from his classmates. It got a little too real, though, in Episode 4 when Benny's friend Carmen (played by Wally Baram) chowed down on a plate of creamy fettuccine alfredo to fit in with her new girlfriends... even though she's terribly lactose intolerant. Yep, that decision didn't end well for Carmen, who had to sprint for the bathroom before disaster struck. Benny wasn't much better off after downing live fish and many beers while being hazed by a secret society, and the two pals ended up in adjoining stalls, both praying that their bodily functions would end at some point. At least Benny was there to help Carmen out of her romper. Now that's friendship. — D.N.

There were plenty of moments during the freshman run of HBO Max's medical drama when we had to wince and look away. (We're not cut out for life in the ER.) But one in particular stood out: In Episode 10, a teen baseball player named Everett came in after taking a line drive right to the eye. No big deal, right? Well, the swelling was especially nasty, and they needed to act fast to save his vision. So Dr. Robby assigned McKay to perform an emergency lateral canthotomy, slicing around the patient's eye to drain the excess blood and relieve the pressure. The procedure worked like a charm, and Everett's eye was saved... but our eyes may never recover after having witnessed that. Fair warning: If you're one of those people who has a phobia about anything touching your eye? Go ahead and fast-forward through this scene during your binge watch. — D.N.

God bless HBO for funding comedian Nathan Fielder's wild flights of fancy, as he embarks on a social experiment where he helps people rehearse for big moments in their lives by setting up an exact simulation of that moment on a soundstage so they can practice enough times to get it right. This past season, Fielder took that term "flight of fancy" quite literally, helping airline pilots learn to communicate better to prevent plane crashes. This led to Fielder examining the famous Sully Sullenberger incident and how he managed to land his plane unharmed. So naturally, Fielder went back to the beginning, reliving every aspect of Sully's life — including his childhood, with Fielder dressed up as a baby Sully and nursing at the teat of a gigantic puppet version of Sully's mother. "What you're about to witness is going to seem weird," Fielder warned us leading up to the scene... and yet we still weren't prepared for what we saw. — D.N.

HBO's luxury vacation dramedy has served up some wild twists across all three seasons — we still have "These gays, they're trying to murder me!" ringing in our ears — but creator Mike White went to a whole new level in Season 3 with brothers Saxon and Lochlan. Saxon was constantly pushing his little brother to lose his virginity during their Thailand vacation, and they ended up on a wild night out with Chelsea and party girl Chloe. How wild? Well, a late-night drinking session led to Chloe suggesting a kiss between the two brothers, and the next morning, Saxon was horrified to remember that he was pleasuring himself while Lochlan and Chloe had sex in the next bed... and that Lochlan reached over to, um, lend him a hand. Lochlan later chalked up the encounter to the fact that he's a "pleaser," and Saxon just didn't want to talk about it at all. Sorry to bring it up again, Saxon. — D.N.