The 25 Most Soul-Crushing TV Episodes Of All Time

If there's one thing we've learned as TV fans throughout the decades, it's that gut-wrenching situations often make for some great television.

It's not that we want our favorite TV characters to suffer; it's just that sometimes, their happiness isn't nearly as compelling. Watching some of our favorites on this list — like Veronica Mars' titular sleuth, Parenthood's Kristina Braverman and The Walking Dead's Carol Peletier — rise from the ashes of despair gives us plenty to root for and oftentimes provides heaps of inspiration and powerful moments.

But first: the sadness. For this list of soul-crushers, we scoured older gems like Six Feet Under, Party of Five and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, while also shedding additional tears for current shows such as Euphoria and Grey's Anatomy. From an addict's heartbreaking confession to an emotional intervention and one of the wildest (and harshest) American Horror Story scenes ever, this list features some of the best/worst moments from the annals of modern TV history.

A bit of housekeeping: We made a conscious effort NOT to bog this list down with too many of the usual and expected DEATH-RELATED gut punches. (Been there, done that, have the tombstones.) But that doesn't mean we excluded them outright — look no further than our This Is Us and Nashville entries for prime examples that shot straight to the top of our minds... and the bottom of our hearts. (If you're feeling particularly morbid or want to further grieve some lost favorites, be sure to check out TVLine's revisiting of the 100 Most Shocking TV Deaths Ever.)

Check out our full list below, but remember: We purposely aimed NOT to re-re-revisit too many of The Usual Deathly Suspects, instead allowing only a very select few. Did we forget a TV episode that you painfully but fondly recall? Hit the comments with your suggestions!

Carol saw Rick and their fellow survivors as family. So when a deadly strain of flu began taking out the residents of their prison fortress, she, in her words, "stepped up" — by putting down deathly-ill Karen and David to keep them from infecting others. Unfortunately, in so doing, she lost Rick's trust, to the point that he exiled her. "Rick, it's me," she said, wiping away tears. Her dear old friend was unmoved; us, wrecked.

The heartfelt Fox drama was known for waterworks and emotional confrontations, and the Salinger siblings' intervention for their alcoholic brother Bailey delivered both in spades. Of course, Bailey rejected his family's support and lashed out at them, even walking away from little sis Claudia when she gave him a tearful ultimatum: Either he gets help, or she never wants to see him again. By the end of the hour, our soul was bruised and raw from all the emotional blows. (Revisit the episode with star Scott Wolf.)

During an especially harrowing episode, before Sister Mary Eunice could be violently freed from the devil's hold, she turned the tables on sadistic Sister Jude, subjecting Briarcliff's newest patient to electroshock therapy so extreme, she didn't recognize Lana Banana afterwards. And that was hard as hell to watch. But what really destroyed us was the juxtaposition of Jude's Technicolor hallucination, a full-on song-and-dance performance of "The Name Game," and the devastating reality to which she was forced to return.

As William's cancer intensifies, he asks Randall to take him to Memphis so he can show his son his old stomping grounds. What follows is a gorgeous, gutting examination of the older man's life: his perceived failings, his triumphs and his abounding love for the son he felt he couldn't care for when they were both much younger. And then, at the end of the episode, when Randall places his hands on both sides of William's face to ease his fear of dying? Yeah, we're going to need a moment.

Sad and high on Christmas Eve, Rue spends a rainy evening in a diner with her 12-step-program sponsor, Ali. We're not sure what's more heartbreaking: The fact that Rue is using drugs even in her fantasy of a college life with Jules, or her confession that she doesn't think she's going to be alive much longer.

There are a plethora of devastating Supernatural episodes, but just thinking about the heartbreaking ending of "Heart" still destroys us, and for good reason: After discovering that Madison, the woman with whom he'd formed a connection, was a werewolf with an uncontrollable killing streak, Sam reluctantly agreed to kill her, tears streaming down his face as he looked at Dean. Add to that Dean's single man tear/flinch combo at the sound of the gunshot going off the other room, plus an emotionally powerful soundtrack ("Silent Lucidity" by Queensryche), and you've got the definition of soul-crushing. (Revisit the episode with stars Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles.)

The AMC drug drama's best episode — and a damn strong contender for the best episode of TV drama ever made — was a breathlessly paced whirlwind of tragedy that hit us with gut-punch after gut-punch. Hank was ruthlessly shot dead, Walt finally told Jesse he chose not to revive his dying girlfriend Jane, Skyler chased Walt away at knifepoint, but Walt still managed to kidnap his own baby daughter... it was dizzying (and a little sickening) to watch it all unfold, as Walt's meticulously built meth empire crumbled all at once in spectacular fashion.

Buffy certainly knew how to bring on the waterworks, and this time, it was Willow who was doomed to suffer. After Oz's werewolf affliction put Will in some hairy situations (including a near-deadly run-in with the villainous Veruca), Oz realized he didn't know how to separate himself from his wolf form. To protect his love, he packed his bags to skedaddle out of Sunnydale. When Willow asked through tears if he loved her, he responded: "My whole life, I've never loved anything else." And we were just as crushed as she was.

After a heinous car crash, country-music queen Rayna seems like she's getting better... until she suddenly, agonizingly isn't. Her friends and family gather at the hospital to say their goodbyes, and Rayna takes her last breath as Deacon and her girls sing the saddest a cappella version of "A Life That's Good" that you'll ever hear.

Were we to try to sum up our response to this brutal episode, we couldn't do better than its title. We were gutted right along with Jackson and April as they learned that Type II osteogenesis imperfecta was breaking their unborn baby's bones in the womb — and he could feel it. Even now, we can't type what happened after Samuel Norbert Avery so, so briefly entered the world without getting a lump in our throat the size of a basketball. "He squeezed my finger... " April told Jackson. "And then he let go." Kleenex, stat.

Kristina Braverman's entire cancer storyline in Season 4 was a tough pill to swallow. But if we had to narrow down her season-long struggle to just one gut-wrenching moment, it has to be her video message to her children, which she recorded just in case she lost her battle. "I may not always be with you the way that I want to be, but I will never leave your side. I'll always be with you, and I'm so lucky I got to be your mom." Absolutely devastating.

One of the Fresh Prince's most iconic episodes involves the return of Will's estranged father Lou, who suddenly takes an interest in his son's life after 14 years away. Despite Uncle Phil's concerns, Will allows himself to believe that things will be different this time — only for Lou to once again abandon him, making him feel like that sad little boy all over again. The episode ends on a note that's equal parts chilling and heartbreaking, with Uncle Phil embracing his sobbing nephew.

In the Season 2 finale, Veronica finally learned the true identity of her rapist — Beaver! As if that wasn't traumatic enough, the youngest Casablancas then detonated a bomb on a plane that V's dad Keith was supposed to be on. The look on Veronica's face says it all, and for an entire night, she thought her number one support system was murdered at the hands of a psychopath. Thankfully, this one had a silver lining with Keith turning up alive, but in those moments, we felt Veronica's pain deeply.

The birth of Frank and Alice's triplets should have been a joyous occasion — and it mostly was, thanks to a doctor with a deep appreciation for Arthur "The Fonz" Fonzarelli — but the subplot about Phoebe wanting to keep one of the babies, and ultimately having to part ways with all three, put a real damper on the episode. (We get choked up at the mere thought of "little high-fives.")

While Nate Fisher's death was pretty darn brutal, it was the series finale that really gave us something to cry about. Sure, all of the Fishers eventually met their demise at various points in time during that closing montage, but the fragility of their lives and subsequent deaths was a stark reminder of our own mortality, and that everything, everywhere ends. While the family's fictional fates were indeed sad, it was the series' ultimate message that remains a true combo punch to the gut.

Please forgive any typos, seeing as our eyes flooded with tears upon rewatching indelible scene after indelible scene from the apex of this landmark storyline. From Dr. Tony Jones forcing wife Bobbie to accept daughter B.J.'s death in a school bus accident, to Felicia Jones realizing that daughter Maxie's heart transplant came from her own cousin, this arc landed every emotional punch, in great part due to A-plus performances by Brad Maule, Jackie Zeman and Kristina Wagner. (Watch, and weep.)

A severely overworked Dr. Greene mistakes preeclampsia for a bladder infection, resulting in an emergency C-section and death for the mom. The look on Mark's face when he realizes the patient has died is just brutal. Even more heartbreaking is when he breaks the tragic news to the patient's husband (played by a then-unknown Bradley Whitford), who is cradling his newborn in the nursery at the time. Suffice it to say, we cried along with Mark on the "L" ride home.

There was a lot of sadness trapped inside the walls of Litchfield Penitentiary, but the story that left us reeling most was Maritza's. After being released from prison in Season 7, the feisty former con artist was scooped up by ICE in a nightclub raid. Since she didn't have her ID at the time, she landed in a detention center, hopeful of finding her estranged mom and proof of her citizenship. Things took a pitch-black turn when we learned her mother had been lying to her, and that Maritza was actually born in Colombia. In a truly heartbreaking turn of events, she was deported back to South America, never to be seen again.

FX's acid-tongued comedy tackled the tricky subject of chronic depression better than any TV show, comedy or drama, and this pivotal episode — where Gretchen's depression bloomed in full — captured the heartbreaking reality of living with an invisible disease that robs you of all hope and joy. Gretchen got drunk, melted down, insulted everyone close to her and eventually revealed her depression to Jimmy, and though they put on a brave face, the episode provided no easy answers... because some problems can't be solved in a half-hour.

We rarely saw Matt Saracen's father on the NBC football drama, but it was still shattering to watch Matt process his complicated grief after his dad was killed in combat overseas. The normally placid Matt flew into an uncharacteristic rage — Zach Gilford was incredible here, by the way — and then finally broke down in sobs as the Taylor family did their best to comfort him. He hated his dad, he claimed, but he'll clearly miss him, too, and we felt as helpless as the Taylors watching him endure such unbearable pain.

The sci-fi drama's two-hour finale (aka the Walter Bishop Goodbye Tour) rocked our worlds, including the alternate one. Even though September had forewarned us of Walter's unavoidable sacrifice, not one fewer tear was shed as a result, as he remarked on Astrid's "beautiful name" or tearfully embraced son Peter as "my favorite thing... my very favorite thing."

Few shows have ever had to carry on after their beloved star died in real life. Alas, that was the hand 8 Simple Rules was dealt following John Ritter's tragic passing in the fall of 2003, just three episodes into production on Season 2 of the ABC comedy. What followed was a truly heartbreaking hour of television, which began with Cate receiving the call that Paul had died suddenly of a heart attack at the grocery store, and ended with Cate and her children cuddling up in bed as they read Paul's last column.

We're still not over this devastating hour which finds the Degrassi kids trying to make sense of their emotions in the wake of JT York's shocking and random death. JT's loss is felt throughout as those closest to him, like his best friend Toby, struggled with overwhelming grief while tasked with cleaning out his locker. The episode delivered its biggest emotional gut-punch when Liberty, who had been unable to cry throughout the hour, finally broke down during JT's memorial after learning that he was on his way to tell her he still loved her right before he died. No matter how many times you've seen it, this episode never fails at bringing on the waterworks.

It's no surprise that Olivia Colman was named TVLine's Performer of the Week for her work in this episode, which saw Ellie confronted with the news that her own husband was responsible for the death of 11-year-old Danny Latimer. The pain was visceral. She collapsed to the ground and threw up in her own hands. Life would never be the same again.

While Wesley's death in the series finale was a jolt to the Buffy-verse, it was Illyria's bedside manner that absolutely wrecked us. After Wesley was mortally wounded while facing off with a member of the Circle, the pure-bred demon comforted Wesley in his last moments by taking on the form of his former flame, Fred, who tragically died when Illyria took ahold. It wasn't just about Wesley's end, but the culmination of his depressing journey. It was our realization that he had never and would never experience true happiness that totally slayed us.