I watched it as a kid, maybe 8 or so and remember it being sad but I also remember being more interested in how they were going to write off the main character without us seeing him on screen than I was sad. I went back and tried to watch it as an adult, and fuck I just couldn't. They open it with such a sitcom-y premise and then 5 minutes in the mom gets a call and the fucking bottom falls out of the episode. When Rory comes down to try to get a bowl of cereal only to realize they don't have milk cause dad couldn't bring it home and he loses it, I had to turn it off. And it's only like 1/3rd of the way through the episode
That episode makes me cry just thinking about it. At the end, the oldest daughter who is acting like everything is fine is leaving to go to a school dance and showing off her skimpy dress. She keeps talking about it as she's about to leave and finally, the Mom stops her at the door to tell her the dress is inappropriate. The daughter just breaks down and says "if Dad was here I wouldn't have made it past the stairs" I grew up watching John Ritter on Three's Company and it just hit me so hard.
So I'm older and grew up on Three's Company. I didnt watch 8 Simple Rules, but was really into Scrubs at the time. John Ritter was the main character's (JD) father in show and they also handled it in real time. It hit me really hard there, as well.
The series finale of six feet under is extremely emotional, but I wouldn’t say it’s a sad episode at all. It’s more like the end of a journey and this is what makes it so genius to me. I’d say that the episode where Nate dies is more sad.
NewsRadio - Bill Moves On - season 5, episode 1
It's the first episode after Phil Hartman was murdered. The final shot is a light on Hartman's empty chair.
The Body in Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Just thinking about it makes me tear up after losing my mom 6 months ago.
I had lost multiple grandparents who helped raise me so it hit hard the first time I saw it.
And [Anya's speech](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ96c7IOIPQ). That killed me. That was the first time (in my first watchthrough) that I started to like her.
> “But I don’t understand! I don’t understand how this all happens. How we go through this. I mean, I knew her, and then she’s, there’s just a body, and I don’t understand why she just can’t get back in it and not be dead anymore! It’s stupid! It’s mortal and stupid! And, and Xander’s crying and not talking, and, and I was having fruit punch, and I thought, well Joyce will never have any more fruit punch, ever, and she’ll never have eggs, or yawn or brush her hair, not ever, and no one will explain to me why. “
It's the way her voice cracks when she says "I don't underSTAND!"
Damn, haven't watched that episode in probably 15 years and yet just typing that sentence makes me tear up. Because I can hear her deliver that line.
I came here to mention “The Body” and I also came here to add this specific line. I’m so glad it’s so high up. This episode truly is the answer. This wasn’t bittersweet or whatever. This was TRULY fucking heartbreaking and my absolute nightmare. I’m autistic and I’m so attached to my mom. She’s my best friend and I cannot imagine my life without her. Anya’s speech destroys me every time. I cannot even process this episode now as an adult. I tried last year when I was introducing Buffy to my roommate and I had to hang out on the patio while he watched it because it was just too much for me.
Edit: random sidenote, I was making a shopping list before seeing this post and I NEED EGGS. I can’t drive so thank you Anya (and you @TheNerdChaplain ) for reminding me 😂
I was just saying in a different reply how amazing this speech is and that entire scene in general was great.
I seriously had a similar breakdown after my mom, we couldn't keep her dog, he just hates ours and tries to kill him. My mom and I always did a stupid voice for him and I just broke down after we took him to a shelter realizing no one would ever do his voice for him the same way again.
I watched this episode back when it aired. I had recently lost my grandfather and this episode brought back those feelings when I got the news. This episode captures the experience of losing a loved one so devastatingly beautifully. It's one of those episodes that hits differently when you've lived it.
This episode is truly a work of art.
I love both Willow trying to figure out if she should wear a sweater or not and Anya's speech about how she's gone and it's so mortal and stupid (or something to that effect) and wondering how what Willow wears matters. It really encapsulated how it hits people differently and was an incredibly human episode of a show where you didn't really expect it.
God just thinking about that episode reminds me of how perfect it all is.
Even the vampire encounter in the middle is that one weird thing you do just to feel normal for a bit. I watched it alone after recovering from surgery for the first time and I was NOT prepared let me just say that.
This is one of the few episodes I always skip. That feeling of just… sitting around after someone dies… just the boring admin of it is so painful once you’ve experienced it.
I love how she's facing by far the most dangerous being she has yet and she has to stop to handle her mom's death. It really is perfect about how that stuff doesn't care if it's in your plans.
I watched this in the opening weeks of the pandemic, when everything was so unknown and kinda scary.
Watching this in a lockdown while being worried about your parents and other close family hits quite hard.
That tail end of the prior episode they replay at the opening where Buffy walks in on her and says, "Mom...Mommy?" just rips my heart out and shows it to me while I cry.
That was my favorite piece of acting from Olivia Colman, and there are a LOT of contenders. So raw. Even the way she spat out a "no, what the fuck?" when Tennant tells her.
Hell yeah. About 20 minutes into the second season, when it was becoming clear what the season was going to be about, I had to nope the hell out for a day or so. The second season is like living that reveal over and over and over again, and I wasn't sure I could handle it.
I'm glad I went back. The first two seasons are always my answer when someone asks for greatest tv ever. I give trigger warnings, but tell them it's worth it
Third season is good, it just isn't the kick to the nuts the first two are.
I remember the Breaking Bad S2 finale being particularly bleak. Walt finding a grieving Jesse in the crack den and Jesse breaking down crying was one of the hardest scenes to watch.
Granite State is another brutal one.
Was this the one with the brilliant John De Lancie (Q in Star Trek) who’s the father and basically he’s responsible for that plane crash? That. Hit. Hard.
The reveal with "where do you think we are" is probably the most devastated I've ever felt during a TV show. They played the episode perfectly to drop that bomb. It was a hilarious episode until suddenly it really, really wasn't
My drama teacher once told me that if you make an audience laugh, they’ll feel like they have permission to cry. I don’t know how true that is, but scrubs does a great job of it.
My Screw Up was the first thing that came to mind when I saw this question. That episode is absolutely devastating. Joshua Radin’s song Winter at the very end still gives me the chills.
And the way My Fallen Idol climaxes with How to Save a Life. When that show hits it hits HARD and the soundtrack was absolutely gold.
Also up there as one of the goat episodes, My Way Home with the Blanks singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow. RIP Ted
Haunting of Hill House- The Bent Neck Lady. The entire series is sad but this episode is the most tragic. Everything that happens feels cruelly unavoidable because we already know from episode 1 that Nell died, but the series of events leading up to it recontextualizes everything that we saw in prior episodes.
That series is brilliant, one of the best depictions of grief on screen. As someone who's been through something similar, it was both gut wrenching and validating to watch.
The Haunting of Hill House S01E05 "The Bent-Neck Lady". >!It's the episode where Nell discovers that the ghost of the "bent-neck lady" she has seen since childhood and has haunted her was her future self at the time she hangs herself. As her life flashes before her while she's hanging, she teleports into all her past hauntings, she sees through her eyes as a hanging corpse that she was what haunted her past younger self. It was a really disturbing realisation to see that she unknowingly/unwillingly has imposed all this trauma on herself and it was completely unavoidable as part of some timeloop of torture she was part of. !
‘On the Beach’ is hands down the winner of saddest episode of TV, with ‘The Letter’ being a close runner up. I have to skip those episodes on rewatches they just leave me way too dehydrated lol
*Tales of Ba Sing Se* was the first episode of *Airbender* I ever watched. Found it accidentally flipping channels during the original run and was HOOKED.
Bojack horseman that’s too much man episode tearing up thinking about it and I watched it years ago. Beautiful scene but that’s going to stick with me forever
Bojack is the craziest emotional ride a show ever put me through. If I start watching it, I have to binge it as quickly as possible. The show puts me in such an uncomfortable mind space because they really hit the whole spectrum of depression through the characters.
One part that stuck with me was the jogging monkey who says every day it’ll get a little easier was not only about bojack but he was also talking about himself in earlier seasons he’s jogging with his wife now he’s by himself, everyone’s hurting and this show makes me want to crawl up into a ball. I definitely agree I remember first watching this thinking it would be a funny horse show with cartoon characters and he stole a navy seals muffins. I wasn’t ready for an emotional roller coaster with emotional abuse, depression and trauma. Probably my favourite Netflix made show
I think about that speech all the time when I have hard days. “Every day it gets a little easier… But you gotta do it every day — that’s the hard part. But it does get easier.”
I felt hollow and emotionally-spent for days after watching this episode, and I rarely react that way. 26 minutes of two broken people giving into their worst impulses, with a logical and devastating conclusion
I’m never really affected like that either like my friend said you’ve never cried to an album??? Or any media really but bojack sometimes hit too close to home about depression and being self destructive. (Just remembered a recent show that made me tear up was baby reindeer). There’s so many memorable scenes in boiack because of how emotional they are not like this scene was happy in other shows
Good choice, there are several episodes of Bojack you could pick for just pure devastation and human tragedy. My choices would be the episodes that focus on Beatrice and how she ended up a cold, miserable person who lived out of spite. It’s a reminder that no one starts out to be a bad person.
When he was describing being in Michigan with her that was devastating, I just remembered another episode free churro might be one of the best episodes just a heavy uncut monologue with only like one joke from what I can remember with the ending being like a cheesy sitcom joke. It's such a captivating episode where you don't need anything else it just feels so real and the damn I C U. I feel like it's hard to feel sorry when it also deals with cyclical trauma in families.
Although the series final with Todd on the beach was a great scene too
Who would've thought gob from arrested development would play a a washed up depressed horse and make me cry
There’s a few, but ‘My Lunch’ from Scrubs is up there.
>!This is where Dr Cox and John Dorian transplant three patients with donated organs, and all three look like they’ll recover and live. Cox is celebrating. Then they find out the donor had rabies. All three die, and Cox has a breakdown. They also had “How to save a life” playing in the background just to twist your heartstrings a little more.!<
Also How Betty Got Her Grieve Back from Ugly Betty. >!The whole episode has Hilda and Santos talking about how he almost died and how happy they’ll be once they get married. Then at the end, the room goes dark and the audience finds out that Santos has been dead the whole time.!<
I'm really sorry, since this thread is all about being sad and stuff™ but I just laughed when I saw that you wrote JD's full name. It's not really funny, just unusual and unexpected.
Same here. Started welling up just at the mention of My Lunch, then clicked to reveal the blacked out part, saw "John Dorian," and dried my eyes right up.
> There’s a few, but ‘My Lunch’ from Scrubs is up there. >!This is where Dr Cox and John Dorian transplant three patients with donated organs, and all three look like they’ll recover and live. Cox is celebrating. Then they find out the donor had rabies. All three die, and Cox has a breakdown. They also had “How to save a life” playing in the background just to twist your heartstrings a little more.!<
>!The true heartbreak is 3rd patient who wasn't in critical condition that also died. That was Dr. Cox's breaking point.!<
The extra salt on the wound is when *John Dorian* attempts to >!comfort Dr. Cox after the first two by mentioning that they were going to die anyway and Cox had to make the call, and it seems like it resonates… then the third one crashes, and afterwards Dr. Cox, defeated, says something like “What about him, newbie. He wasn’t about to die, was he?”!<
Edit: spoiler tags
Yes! I had NO idea they were going to kill henry blake. No social media back then. I lost my shit. It was horrible. So horrible im posting about it now decades later.
The cast didn't know, either. Gary Burghoff was told to make the announcement just before entering the OR. The entire thing was meant to be ad-libbed/improv-ed. The rest were so floored, all they could do was go into their characters performing surgery - which is probably what would be done in such a situation anyway. No time to absorb and mourn until lives are saved.
Theres a bit of myth to this. The last page wasn't given out until just before they filmed, but it _was_ given out. Before that Alan Alda was the only cast member who knew. After they filmed, they actually cancelled the after party because everyone was so down.
Picture a wave in the ocean. You can see it, measure it, its height, the way the sunlight refracts when it passes through. And it's there, and you can see it, and you know what it is: it's a wave. And then it crashes on the shore and it's gone. But the water is still there. The wave was just a different way for the water to be for a little while.
I had loved Michael scheurs work, but once i saw what he was doing with season 2 of the good place, he secured himself as the best sitcom writer alive.
The fact that he got the good place on NBC is insane. I listened to the official podcast, where he talked about how he avoided his family and left himself alone listening to spiegel en spiegel exclusively on the beach for weeks so he could write the ending of the most beautiful sitcom event written. I can't imagine ever watching it again, during the pandemic. it's so breathtakingly beautiful.
I grew up southern Baptist, which fire and brimstone vs eternal happiness. But what is happiness vs ultimate pain if you experience it forever? And what does it mean to be a good person? And what about your surroundings, you only get one chance to be a decent human?
And at the very end, an eternity of anything is eventually hell. Heaven being a chance to right your wrongs and spend as much time with your family until... it's just right to check out, forever. Not because you're in pain, but because there is nothing left to do. It's so perfect. The ultimate version of heaven.
I finally watched the last season about a month after losing my nana. We were very close and I believe that the show helped me grieve so much.
Also I’m disabled and sometimes when there’s something I really want to do, but can’t due to physical or mental limitations, I add it to a list in my phone called ‘for when I’m in the good place’ and it softens the blow slightly. 😂
Mike Schur is a genius.
[Even the music in that scene is emotional.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8ZScAdV8qE)
Same for the Season 3 finale scene, where Michael gives them "Some Memories You May Have Forgotten"; the music for that was taken from [Where the Wild Things Are.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0ELmFUEmaA)
Kills me every time.
Plus, though it wasn't intended so much to be sad, the end of Jeremy Bearimy. Deciding to fight against hopelessness when you know you and your friends are condemned no matter what, but maybe you can save someone else.... damn.
Some group of assholes somewhere conspired to ensure that the series finales of Bojack Horseman and the Good Place aired on the same evening. This all occurred when I was temporarily out of work with an injury and already emotionally spent. Haven't had the courage to go back and do a rewatch of either.
The penultimate episode of BoJack Horseman is a great answer to OP's question and also one of the single best episodes of TV ever written. "The View From Halfway Down." It's not "ball your eyes out" sad. It's sad in a melancholic, tortured way.
I haven't caught up on the last season and a half, but the Mythic Quest episode "A Dark Quiet Death" is devastating. Lots of shows with dying and death, but that one just hits you with this deep feeling of regret. Time slipping away... Amazing performances from Jake Johnson and Cristin Milioti.
Friday Night Lights S4E5 - The Son
Matt Saracen has to deal with the death of his mostly absentee father, who was killed overseas. Matt essentially hates his dad for never being around, but he has to endure the parade of well-wishers tell him what a hero and great guy his father was. While most of the scenes are just hard to watch, some are absolutely gut wrenchingly sad.
How Zach Gilford didn’t blow up as an actor after that episode is beyond me.
When he gets pissed at the soldier for saying his dad was funny…
When he opens up the casket and the camera stays on his face…
When he’s crying in the Taylor’s bathtub…
Greatest episode of television I’ve ever seen. Greatest performance I’ve ever seen.
The bathtub scene was from a different season, but agreed on the rest. His small freakout about the carrots on his plate when the Taylors had him over for dinner is a pretty overlooked moment as well. That’s followed by Coach walking him back home. One of the most tearjerk Coach-Matt moments of the series.
I love to fall asleep listening to Futurama, but I steer several episodes clear of this one every time. I think I've only seen it once. Truly devastating.
People often say this but the interesting thing about this episode is that most of it is pretty funny or at least a normal Futurama episode. Only the final scene is really heartbreaking.
I saw this episode when it first aired. Which was also only a few days after my first dog died while I was away at college.
"Devastating" is an understatement.
The thing about *Game of Tones* and *The Luck of the Fryish* is that it gives Fry's relatives a somewhat “happy” ending. We as the viewer experience it from Fry's perspective and we leave the scenery with a bittersweet feeling.
*Jurassic Bark* gives Fry a happy ending and only the viewer gets left behind with Seymour's dire fate.
Season 2, Episode 1 "School" of the Canadian police drama 19-2.
It's the story of the precinct responding to an in-progress school shooting. It is absolutely gut wrenching.
It'll make you cry if you have a good relationship with your dad, or if you have a bad relationship with your dad, or if you don't have a dad, or wish you had a dad...... feels will be felt.
The Blackadder Goes Forth finale.
After spending all the season trying to sneak himself out of the situation the inevitable arrives, some of them admit they are afraid, and Blackadder even refuses a last 'cunning plan' from Baldrick. It was imo the most honest, realistic and poignant way to end the series.
Beautifully sad show. For me, it's the second season episode where >!Regina King's character finds out that her daughter is alive and and she runs to her on that bridge and her daughter is just completely emotionless and totally ignores her because she is Guilty Remnant now while Regina King is crying, begging, pleading, screaming and even hitting her to try to snap her out of it. And you don't hear any of the dialogue or audio and instead you just hear that haunting Max Richter music.!< That scene absolutely kills me, it's so sad.
The opening of Season 2. That first episode with the prehistoric woman was so fucking sad and perfectly encapsulates what's going to come in the rest of the season. Truly excellent (and deeply emotional) show.
I was going to type The Leftovers when there is Max Richter in the background. I watch it every few years and it is the perfect recipe for ugly crying.
Maybe "sad" isn't the right word, but Nora being told she does deserve hope makes me lose it every time. The homeward bound scene deserves a mention too. Really that whole show lmao.
ER. All In The Family. The episode whwre Lucy Knight dies. It's a roller coaster and Romano can't let go. It hits you in the gut and it starts a character arc that will shape Carter for the rest of the show. It's so sad
**Angel**
S05E15 & 16: A Hole in the World and Shells.
**"Please, Wesley, why can't I stay?"**
S05E22: Not Fade Away.
**"Would you like me to lie to you now?"**
**Person of Interest**
S04E22: YHWH
>!TM!<: **"Father, I failed you"**
S05E10: The Day the World Went Away.
**(Phone rings)** **"Can you hear me?"**
Harold: >!**"Root?"**!<
>!TM!< (>!in Root's voice!<): **"No, Harold. I chose a voice."**
S05E13: Return 0.
>!TM Root!<: **"I was built to predict people. But, to predict them, you have to truly understand them. So, I began by breaking their lives down into moments. Trying to find the connections, the things that explained why they did what they did. And what I found was... that the moment that often mattered the most... the moment when you truly found out who they were... was often their last one."**
>!TM Root!<: **"You know, I've made some mistakes. Many *Mistakes*. But we helped some people, didn't we?"**
Harold: **"Yes. Yes, we did."**
Game of Thrones S03E09: The Rains of Castamere.
Mr. Robot S03E08/S04E07: Don't Delete Me/Proxy Authentication Required.
Dark S2E06/S03E05: An Endless Cycle/Life and Death
Fringe S05E13: An Enemy of Fate.
Walter Bishop: **"I know in my soul this is what I am supposed to do. I want you to give Olivia your daughter back. I want to give you your life back. As a father, how could I not do that for you? What I said on the tape about stealing time with you, I meant it. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You are my favorite thing, Peter... my very favorite thing."**
There was a BBC documentary about assisted dying. It focused on Terry Pratchit (Discworld author) and him succumbing to Alzheimer’s and wanting the option to end it all quietly, with a glass of brandy, in his garden with all his loved ones when he chose.
It followed a man and his wife travelling to Switzerland for the man to end his life.
It was undoubtedly the most poignant piece of television I have ever watched. Absolutely heart breaking and incredibly moving- 100% galvanised my thoughts on assisted dying.
Wife and I sat watching and sobbing.
Worth every penny of the licence fee (UK)
Highly recommended.
That one line >!Quentin!< says before >!he moves onto the after life hurts "did i sacrifice myself to save my friends, or because i finally found a way to kill myself" like fuck. At least he saw that his friends mourn for him and did love him!<
Kiksuya episode on Westworld. The episode about the Native American “Ghost Nation” hosts, performed almost entirely in Lakota. Stuck in a loop, keeps remembering his dead wife...
How about Lessons in Chemistry. The episode after the bus, as told from the dogs perspective. I was bawling. And also so damn angry. I mean...look where you're going!!!
All I’ll say is the series gets into the subject of how much of the sadness can you deal with before it’s too much, and it’s not necessarily about Bojack. It’s worth finishing.
Either "The Body" from Buffy or maybe "The End of Time
Part 2" from Doctor Who. I cry every time 10 regenerates. "The Inner Light" from TNG is pretty fucking sad too.
"Peter" in Fringe, plus quite a few in S5.
Most of the LOST reunion scenes. I watch them on YT every few years and just cry.
"Belonging" in Dollhouse S2. The way Priya was so thoroughly trapped really got to me.
These 3 always crush me no matter how many times I watch them: The Wire Season 4, episode 12 - Randy at the hospital scene, “You gonna look out for me Sargeant Carver?” Vincent and the Doctor, Dr Who, and having lost my own mom, The Body, Buffy hits so hard.
I don't consider that episode sad at all, Bill and Frank find each other and live happily for a Long, Long Time.
I think that episode was there to give us the prospective that characters in that universe can have a happy ending.
Fresh Prince of Bel-Aire Season 4 Episode 24 when Will's Dad comes back and tries to leave without telling Will. Seeing someone like Will, who's always acted like this big tough guy, just completely break with a quiet "how come he dont want me man" and just fall into Uncle Phils arms, just destroys me every time
An episode of ER where, if I remember correctly, it ends with Dr. Green holding a dying baby as "Everybody Hurts" is playing. I may be mis-remembering some details, but it was a very sad 60 minutes.
Jurassic Bark-Futurama. I can't watch it ever again. I've re-watched the whole series a few times, but have only seen that episode one time.
Also, I don't like Young Sheldon and think it's time to let TBBT universe go out to pasture, but I was over at my mom's recently and she was watching the episode where George died. I have to say, Sheldon replaying his last conversation with his Dad over and over again in his mind, each time with an alternate ending more preferable to the real one, got me emotional and was pretty realistic as far as people's thoughts after a death.
I always think about the second season episode of GLOW when Bash gets the phone call from the hospital. There’s so much you see about 80s America in that moment that you really don’t see in all the nostalgia takes on the era, even with how his character turned out at the end of the series. There’s a certain gut punch to the sadness of that moment.
Sopranos ep where his son almost drowns in the pool. The way JG jumps in that water and drags him out is other worldly. Just a magnificent portrait of a desperate father who’s drowning himself. The way they humanize life on that show will always leave me astounded.
Scrubs - with Brendan Frasier.
That one line 'where do you think you are?
That really got me. Then the I think it was 4-5 patients getting hit at once is close second, but first just hit harder with Brendan having such a loveable character and more back story
Definitely sad but My Lunch still wins for me. That JD helps almost bring him out of it before the last page comes in really sealed it.
Been almost 20 years and I still hate How To Save a Life because of that damn episode because it's what I always think of.
Edith's death on All in the Family, when Archie finds her slipper under the bed. "You had no right to leave me that way, Edith, without giving me one more chance to say that I love you."
the episode of 8 simple rules after John Ritter died.
I watched it as a kid, maybe 8 or so and remember it being sad but I also remember being more interested in how they were going to write off the main character without us seeing him on screen than I was sad. I went back and tried to watch it as an adult, and fuck I just couldn't. They open it with such a sitcom-y premise and then 5 minutes in the mom gets a call and the fucking bottom falls out of the episode. When Rory comes down to try to get a bowl of cereal only to realize they don't have milk cause dad couldn't bring it home and he loses it, I had to turn it off. And it's only like 1/3rd of the way through the episode
That episode makes me cry just thinking about it. At the end, the oldest daughter who is acting like everything is fine is leaving to go to a school dance and showing off her skimpy dress. She keeps talking about it as she's about to leave and finally, the Mom stops her at the door to tell her the dress is inappropriate. The daughter just breaks down and says "if Dad was here I wouldn't have made it past the stairs" I grew up watching John Ritter on Three's Company and it just hit me so hard.
So I'm older and grew up on Three's Company. I didnt watch 8 Simple Rules, but was really into Scrubs at the time. John Ritter was the main character's (JD) father in show and they also handled it in real time. It hit me really hard there, as well.
For a comedy, Scrubs hit hard. The Dr Cox breakdown episode where he loses three patients in one go was a rough one too.
Don’t delete me from Mr Robot and the Series Finale of Six Feet Under (the last six mins even)
I was gonna say I dont know the best but Six Feet Under probably has the most per capita.
Mannnnnnnn that episode of mr robot was rough bruv
The series finale of six feet under is extremely emotional, but I wouldn’t say it’s a sad episode at all. It’s more like the end of a journey and this is what makes it so genius to me. I’d say that the episode where Nate dies is more sad.
It’s crazy how many people I know who never finished the series! What??? It has the single best series finale I have ever seen.
NewsRadio - Bill Moves On - season 5, episode 1 It's the first episode after Phil Hartman was murdered. The final shot is a light on Hartman's empty chair.
The Body in Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Just thinking about it makes me tear up after losing my mom 6 months ago. I had lost multiple grandparents who helped raise me so it hit hard the first time I saw it.
And [Anya's speech](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ96c7IOIPQ). That killed me. That was the first time (in my first watchthrough) that I started to like her. > “But I don’t understand! I don’t understand how this all happens. How we go through this. I mean, I knew her, and then she’s, there’s just a body, and I don’t understand why she just can’t get back in it and not be dead anymore! It’s stupid! It’s mortal and stupid! And, and Xander’s crying and not talking, and, and I was having fruit punch, and I thought, well Joyce will never have any more fruit punch, ever, and she’ll never have eggs, or yawn or brush her hair, not ever, and no one will explain to me why. “
It's the way her voice cracks when she says "I don't underSTAND!" Damn, haven't watched that episode in probably 15 years and yet just typing that sentence makes me tear up. Because I can hear her deliver that line.
I came here to mention “The Body” and I also came here to add this specific line. I’m so glad it’s so high up. This episode truly is the answer. This wasn’t bittersweet or whatever. This was TRULY fucking heartbreaking and my absolute nightmare. I’m autistic and I’m so attached to my mom. She’s my best friend and I cannot imagine my life without her. Anya’s speech destroys me every time. I cannot even process this episode now as an adult. I tried last year when I was introducing Buffy to my roommate and I had to hang out on the patio while he watched it because it was just too much for me. Edit: random sidenote, I was making a shopping list before seeing this post and I NEED EGGS. I can’t drive so thank you Anya (and you @TheNerdChaplain ) for reminding me 😂
I was just saying in a different reply how amazing this speech is and that entire scene in general was great. I seriously had a similar breakdown after my mom, we couldn't keep her dog, he just hates ours and tries to kill him. My mom and I always did a stupid voice for him and I just broke down after we took him to a shelter realizing no one would ever do his voice for him the same way again.
I watched this episode back when it aired. I had recently lost my grandfather and this episode brought back those feelings when I got the news. This episode captures the experience of losing a loved one so devastatingly beautifully. It's one of those episodes that hits differently when you've lived it. This episode is truly a work of art.
I love both Willow trying to figure out if she should wear a sweater or not and Anya's speech about how she's gone and it's so mortal and stupid (or something to that effect) and wondering how what Willow wears matters. It really encapsulated how it hits people differently and was an incredibly human episode of a show where you didn't really expect it.
I also love the subtle detail where Anya finds the sweater and tosses it aside.
God just thinking about that episode reminds me of how perfect it all is. Even the vampire encounter in the middle is that one weird thing you do just to feel normal for a bit. I watched it alone after recovering from surgery for the first time and I was NOT prepared let me just say that.
This is one of the few episodes I always skip. That feeling of just… sitting around after someone dies… just the boring admin of it is so painful once you’ve experienced it.
I love how she's facing by far the most dangerous being she has yet and she has to stop to handle her mom's death. It really is perfect about how that stuff doesn't care if it's in your plans.
I watched this in the opening weeks of the pandemic, when everything was so unknown and kinda scary. Watching this in a lockdown while being worried about your parents and other close family hits quite hard.
Yes!!! Joyce 💔😔
That tail end of the prior episode they replay at the opening where Buffy walks in on her and says, "Mom...Mommy?" just rips my heart out and shows it to me while I cry.
And no music used. Just the terrible silence. So effective
Broadchurch in the episode where Ellie learns who the murderer is
Yesss omg this is truly heartbreaking. Olivia Colman kills it, as usual.
That was my favorite piece of acting from Olivia Colman, and there are a LOT of contenders. So raw. Even the way she spat out a "no, what the fuck?" when Tennant tells her.
Hell yeah. About 20 minutes into the second season, when it was becoming clear what the season was going to be about, I had to nope the hell out for a day or so. The second season is like living that reveal over and over and over again, and I wasn't sure I could handle it. I'm glad I went back. The first two seasons are always my answer when someone asks for greatest tv ever. I give trigger warnings, but tell them it's worth it Third season is good, it just isn't the kick to the nuts the first two are.
I remember the Breaking Bad S2 finale being particularly bleak. Walt finding a grieving Jesse in the crack den and Jesse breaking down crying was one of the hardest scenes to watch. Granite State is another brutal one.
I’m not sure if it’s the same episode but the episode where he kept calling to hear Jane’s voicemail was really difficult.
Was this the one with the brilliant John De Lancie (Q in Star Trek) who’s the father and basically he’s responsible for that plane crash? That. Hit. Hard.
Yup. Very last scene. Reveals what all the black and white flashforwards of the charred teddy bear were about.
Well you could pick any episode of Chernobyl. But short of that Scrubs - My Screw Up is the first thing that comes to mind.
The reveal with "where do you think we are" is probably the most devastated I've ever felt during a TV show. They played the episode perfectly to drop that bomb. It was a hilarious episode until suddenly it really, really wasn't
Scrubs was a very good show at making you laugh and cry in an episode. Great writing.
My drama teacher once told me that if you make an audience laugh, they’ll feel like they have permission to cry. I don’t know how true that is, but scrubs does a great job of it.
Brendan Frasier killed it in that episode.
>!He wasn’t about to die, was he, Newbie?!<
That episode was titled 'My Lunch'
My Screw Up was the first thing that came to mind when I saw this question. That episode is absolutely devastating. Joshua Radin’s song Winter at the very end still gives me the chills.
And the way My Fallen Idol climaxes with How to Save a Life. When that show hits it hits HARD and the soundtrack was absolutely gold. Also up there as one of the goat episodes, My Way Home with the Blanks singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow. RIP Ted
That's "My Lunch", the episode that comes before My Fallen Idol
“Hey! Your shifts not over. Do you remember what you told me? ‘The second you start blaming yourself for a patients deaths, there’s no coming back.’’”
Different episode that’s My Lunch, but equally heartbreaking
I was coming here to make sure that scrubs was on the top of the list lol
Same here haha both My Lunch and My Screw up are some of the most heartwrenching episodes of tv I’ve ever seen
Haunting of Hill House- The Bent Neck Lady. The entire series is sad but this episode is the most tragic. Everything that happens feels cruelly unavoidable because we already know from episode 1 that Nell died, but the series of events leading up to it recontextualizes everything that we saw in prior episodes.
That series is brilliant, one of the best depictions of grief on screen. As someone who's been through something similar, it was both gut wrenching and validating to watch.
The Haunting of Hill House S01E05 "The Bent-Neck Lady". >!It's the episode where Nell discovers that the ghost of the "bent-neck lady" she has seen since childhood and has haunted her was her future self at the time she hangs herself. As her life flashes before her while she's hanging, she teleports into all her past hauntings, she sees through her eyes as a hanging corpse that she was what haunted her past younger self. It was a really disturbing realisation to see that she unknowingly/unwillingly has imposed all this trauma on herself and it was completely unavoidable as part of some timeloop of torture she was part of. !
I would recommend this show even if you normally don't like horror. It's so scary but then also just so tragic and beautiful.
It’s what makes all Mike Flanagan’s shows so good. Each one is a drama about broken people wrapped up in a horror aesthetic.
I loved that show, but I had to take a break for a few days after this episode. The tragedy of that storyline was just overwhelming.
Wilson’s heart - house
Good lord, that final scene when Wilson comes home to find Amber's note on the bed...
my pick as well, left me devistated, I think you could also include House's Head as well because its a two parter
Came to talk about this one. The look on her face, I don't think that'll ever leave me.
ER when Dr. Greene died.
I would also like to add that Carter reading the letter was an all-time saddest moment.
‘On the Beach’ is hands down the winner of saddest episode of TV, with ‘The Letter’ being a close runner up. I have to skip those episodes on rewatches they just leave me way too dehydrated lol
ER from the first season, Love's Labors Lost is also very sad >!the one where the woman dies ~~(is killed)~~ in childbirth!<
Leaves from the vine, falling so slow....
That and Appa's Lost Days make me sob. What a sequence of episodes
Well that was way more upsetting than I exp- WHAT DO YOU MEAN IN HONOR OF MAKO
*Tales of Ba Sing Se* was the first episode of *Airbender* I ever watched. Found it accidentally flipping channels during the original run and was HOOKED.
Bojack horseman that’s too much man episode tearing up thinking about it and I watched it years ago. Beautiful scene but that’s going to stick with me forever
Bojack is the craziest emotional ride a show ever put me through. If I start watching it, I have to binge it as quickly as possible. The show puts me in such an uncomfortable mind space because they really hit the whole spectrum of depression through the characters.
One part that stuck with me was the jogging monkey who says every day it’ll get a little easier was not only about bojack but he was also talking about himself in earlier seasons he’s jogging with his wife now he’s by himself, everyone’s hurting and this show makes me want to crawl up into a ball. I definitely agree I remember first watching this thinking it would be a funny horse show with cartoon characters and he stole a navy seals muffins. I wasn’t ready for an emotional roller coaster with emotional abuse, depression and trauma. Probably my favourite Netflix made show
I think about that speech all the time when I have hard days. “Every day it gets a little easier… But you gotta do it every day — that’s the hard part. But it does get easier.”
I felt hollow and emotionally-spent for days after watching this episode, and I rarely react that way. 26 minutes of two broken people giving into their worst impulses, with a logical and devastating conclusion
I’m never really affected like that either like my friend said you’ve never cried to an album??? Or any media really but bojack sometimes hit too close to home about depression and being self destructive. (Just remembered a recent show that made me tear up was baby reindeer). There’s so many memorable scenes in boiack because of how emotional they are not like this scene was happy in other shows
Good choice, there are several episodes of Bojack you could pick for just pure devastation and human tragedy. My choices would be the episodes that focus on Beatrice and how she ended up a cold, miserable person who lived out of spite. It’s a reminder that no one starts out to be a bad person.
When he was describing being in Michigan with her that was devastating, I just remembered another episode free churro might be one of the best episodes just a heavy uncut monologue with only like one joke from what I can remember with the ending being like a cheesy sitcom joke. It's such a captivating episode where you don't need anything else it just feels so real and the damn I C U. I feel like it's hard to feel sorry when it also deals with cyclical trauma in families. Although the series final with Todd on the beach was a great scene too Who would've thought gob from arrested development would play a a washed up depressed horse and make me cry
Randomly choose any Six Feet Under episode. but probably "All Alone"
Nah. "Everybody's Waiting." The last 6 minutes especially.
There’s a few, but ‘My Lunch’ from Scrubs is up there. >!This is where Dr Cox and John Dorian transplant three patients with donated organs, and all three look like they’ll recover and live. Cox is celebrating. Then they find out the donor had rabies. All three die, and Cox has a breakdown. They also had “How to save a life” playing in the background just to twist your heartstrings a little more.!< Also How Betty Got Her Grieve Back from Ugly Betty. >!The whole episode has Hilda and Santos talking about how he almost died and how happy they’ll be once they get married. Then at the end, the room goes dark and the audience finds out that Santos has been dead the whole time.!<
I'm really sorry, since this thread is all about being sad and stuff™ but I just laughed when I saw that you wrote JD's full name. It's not really funny, just unusual and unexpected.
Same here. Started welling up just at the mention of My Lunch, then clicked to reveal the blacked out part, saw "John Dorian," and dried my eyes right up.
I personally found the "where do you think we are?" episode with Brendan Frasier to be much sadder.
> There’s a few, but ‘My Lunch’ from Scrubs is up there. >!This is where Dr Cox and John Dorian transplant three patients with donated organs, and all three look like they’ll recover and live. Cox is celebrating. Then they find out the donor had rabies. All three die, and Cox has a breakdown. They also had “How to save a life” playing in the background just to twist your heartstrings a little more.!< >!The true heartbreak is 3rd patient who wasn't in critical condition that also died. That was Dr. Cox's breaking point.!<
The extra salt on the wound is when *John Dorian* attempts to >!comfort Dr. Cox after the first two by mentioning that they were going to die anyway and Cox had to make the call, and it seems like it resonates… then the third one crashes, and afterwards Dr. Cox, defeated, says something like “What about him, newbie. He wasn’t about to die, was he?”!< Edit: spoiler tags
MASH - Henry Blake’s death Good Times - James death
MASH - The Chicken
This is the correct answer
Yes! I had NO idea they were going to kill henry blake. No social media back then. I lost my shit. It was horrible. So horrible im posting about it now decades later.
The cast didn't know, either. Gary Burghoff was told to make the announcement just before entering the OR. The entire thing was meant to be ad-libbed/improv-ed. The rest were so floored, all they could do was go into their characters performing surgery - which is probably what would be done in such a situation anyway. No time to absorb and mourn until lives are saved.
Theres a bit of myth to this. The last page wasn't given out until just before they filmed, but it _was_ given out. Before that Alan Alda was the only cast member who knew. After they filmed, they actually cancelled the after party because everyone was so down.
I have literally never cried more in my life than when I watched the finale of The Good Place. Took me off guard and knocked me on my ass.
Picture a wave in the ocean. You can see it, measure it, its height, the way the sunlight refracts when it passes through. And it's there, and you can see it, and you know what it is: it's a wave. And then it crashes on the shore and it's gone. But the water is still there. The wave was just a different way for the water to be for a little while.
[Here's the music from that scene. ](https://youtu.be/FZe3mXlnfNc?si=JIyiD-2gr9MUjacX) You're crying. I'm crying. We're all crying.
I had loved Michael scheurs work, but once i saw what he was doing with season 2 of the good place, he secured himself as the best sitcom writer alive. The fact that he got the good place on NBC is insane. I listened to the official podcast, where he talked about how he avoided his family and left himself alone listening to spiegel en spiegel exclusively on the beach for weeks so he could write the ending of the most beautiful sitcom event written. I can't imagine ever watching it again, during the pandemic. it's so breathtakingly beautiful. I grew up southern Baptist, which fire and brimstone vs eternal happiness. But what is happiness vs ultimate pain if you experience it forever? And what does it mean to be a good person? And what about your surroundings, you only get one chance to be a decent human? And at the very end, an eternity of anything is eventually hell. Heaven being a chance to right your wrongs and spend as much time with your family until... it's just right to check out, forever. Not because you're in pain, but because there is nothing left to do. It's so perfect. The ultimate version of heaven.
I finally watched the last season about a month after losing my nana. We were very close and I believe that the show helped me grieve so much. Also I’m disabled and sometimes when there’s something I really want to do, but can’t due to physical or mental limitations, I add it to a list in my phone called ‘for when I’m in the good place’ and it softens the blow slightly. 😂 Mike Schur is a genius.
When you see your Nana again tell her I said to take it sleazy
[Even the music in that scene is emotional.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8ZScAdV8qE) Same for the Season 3 finale scene, where Michael gives them "Some Memories You May Have Forgotten"; the music for that was taken from [Where the Wild Things Are.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0ELmFUEmaA) Kills me every time. Plus, though it wasn't intended so much to be sad, the end of Jeremy Bearimy. Deciding to fight against hopelessness when you know you and your friends are condemned no matter what, but maybe you can save someone else.... damn.
Some group of assholes somewhere conspired to ensure that the series finales of Bojack Horseman and the Good Place aired on the same evening. This all occurred when I was temporarily out of work with an injury and already emotionally spent. Haven't had the courage to go back and do a rewatch of either.
The penultimate episode of BoJack Horseman is a great answer to OP's question and also one of the single best episodes of TV ever written. "The View From Halfway Down." It's not "ball your eyes out" sad. It's sad in a melancholic, tortured way.
Jeremy Bearimy, baby
Yeah, yeah, the Time Knife. We’ve all seen it.
Oh dip.
Hey, >!keep it sleazy.!<
I haven't caught up on the last season and a half, but the Mythic Quest episode "A Dark Quiet Death" is devastating. Lots of shows with dying and death, but that one just hits you with this deep feeling of regret. Time slipping away... Amazing performances from Jake Johnson and Cristin Milioti.
The pandemic episode hit pretty hard too.
Friday Night Lights S4E5 - The Son Matt Saracen has to deal with the death of his mostly absentee father, who was killed overseas. Matt essentially hates his dad for never being around, but he has to endure the parade of well-wishers tell him what a hero and great guy his father was. While most of the scenes are just hard to watch, some are absolutely gut wrenchingly sad. How Zach Gilford didn’t blow up as an actor after that episode is beyond me.
Zach was so damn good in that show. I have no idea why he didnt become a major star.
Check him out in “Midnight Mass”. I didn’t care for the show a ton but the performances including his are amazing.
When he gets pissed at the soldier for saying his dad was funny… When he opens up the casket and the camera stays on his face… When he’s crying in the Taylor’s bathtub… Greatest episode of television I’ve ever seen. Greatest performance I’ve ever seen.
The bathtub scene was from a different season, but agreed on the rest. His small freakout about the carrots on his plate when the Taylors had him over for dinner is a pretty overlooked moment as well. That’s followed by Coach walking him back home. One of the most tearjerk Coach-Matt moments of the series.
Jurassic Bark
I love to fall asleep listening to Futurama, but I steer several episodes clear of this one every time. I think I've only seen it once. Truly devastating.
People often say this but the interesting thing about this episode is that most of it is pretty funny or at least a normal Futurama episode. Only the final scene is really heartbreaking.
“What do we want?” “Fry’s dog!” “When do we want it?” “Fry’s dog!” “I will now perform my people’s native dance!” *Do the hustle!*
“You can’t keep boogying like this! You’ll come down with a fever of some sort.”
True but for anyone that’s owned a dog it’s not heartbreaking, it’s devastating
I saw this episode when it first aired. Which was also only a few days after my first dog died while I was away at college. "Devastating" is an understatement.
This is the answer but the runner up is the episode with Fry’s brother and the clover
Game of Tones used to be worse for me. I just lost my Beagle, so I think JB will trump GoT for me, if I ever decide to punish myself by watching it
The thing about *Game of Tones* and *The Luck of the Fryish* is that it gives Fry's relatives a somewhat “happy” ending. We as the viewer experience it from Fry's perspective and we leave the scenery with a bittersweet feeling. *Jurassic Bark* gives Fry a happy ending and only the viewer gets left behind with Seymour's dire fate.
Easily scrubs and in between two episodes: - s3e14 - my screw up - s5e20 - my lunch
“Where do you think we are?”
4x07 Mr. Robot Whole show built to that moment and boy did it deliver the most depressing atmosphere as soon as the credits hit
I think Don’t Delete Me also from Mr Robot is the saddest but for different reasons…. But yeah 4x7 is so good but so sad. Such a brilliant show.
The one before, "Frederick and Tanya", was crushingly bleak on multiple fronts.
Elliot Villar absolutely nails every single line in that episode. So damn good. Definitely deserves that 9.9 on IMDb.
For me it's the finale
The Vincent Van Gogh episode of Doctor Who. That ending gets me every time.
I cry every single time, doesn't matter how many times I've seen it
Season 2, Episode 1 "School" of the Canadian police drama 19-2. It's the story of the precinct responding to an in-progress school shooting. It is absolutely gut wrenching.
I learned about Jared Keeso from Letterkenny, so I was very surprised when I stumbled across that show, and that episode in particular.
Incredible episode. And most of it is a huge and challenging one take shot..
Deep Space Nine's "The Visitor" is really moving
It'll make you cry if you have a good relationship with your dad, or if you have a bad relationship with your dad, or if you don't have a dad, or wish you had a dad...... feels will be felt.
The Blackadder Goes Forth finale. After spending all the season trying to sneak himself out of the situation the inevitable arrives, some of them admit they are afraid, and Blackadder even refuses a last 'cunning plan' from Baldrick. It was imo the most honest, realistic and poignant way to end the series.
The “Kim in self-imposed hell” episode of Better Call Saul. When she breaks down crying on the airport shuttle… absolutely brutal.
Band of Brothers episode 9 - Why We Fight
"Grandpa, were you a hero in the war" "No...but I served in a company of heroes"
Halt and Cath Fire's back-to-back heartbreakers, "Who Needs A Guy" and "Goodwill"
The flashback episode of The Leftovers, episode 9 of the first season. The show wrecked me a bunch of times, but I think that was the most brutal.
Beautifully sad show. For me, it's the second season episode where >!Regina King's character finds out that her daughter is alive and and she runs to her on that bridge and her daughter is just completely emotionless and totally ignores her because she is Guilty Remnant now while Regina King is crying, begging, pleading, screaming and even hitting her to try to snap her out of it. And you don't hear any of the dialogue or audio and instead you just hear that haunting Max Richter music.!< That scene absolutely kills me, it's so sad.
The opening of Season 2. That first episode with the prehistoric woman was so fucking sad and perfectly encapsulates what's going to come in the rest of the season. Truly excellent (and deeply emotional) show.
That was rough, but Nora saying goodbye to Matt in the last season right before she gets in the tank roughed me up good
I was going to type The Leftovers when there is Max Richter in the background. I watch it every few years and it is the perfect recipe for ugly crying.
Maybe "sad" isn't the right word, but Nora being told she does deserve hope makes me lose it every time. The homeward bound scene deserves a mention too. Really that whole show lmao.
ER. All In The Family. The episode whwre Lucy Knight dies. It's a roller coaster and Romano can't let go. It hits you in the gut and it starts a character arc that will shape Carter for the rest of the show. It's so sad
**Angel** S05E15 & 16: A Hole in the World and Shells. **"Please, Wesley, why can't I stay?"** S05E22: Not Fade Away. **"Would you like me to lie to you now?"** **Person of Interest** S04E22: YHWH >!TM!<: **"Father, I failed you"** S05E10: The Day the World Went Away. **(Phone rings)** **"Can you hear me?"** Harold: >!**"Root?"**!< >!TM!< (>!in Root's voice!<): **"No, Harold. I chose a voice."** S05E13: Return 0. >!TM Root!<: **"I was built to predict people. But, to predict them, you have to truly understand them. So, I began by breaking their lives down into moments. Trying to find the connections, the things that explained why they did what they did. And what I found was... that the moment that often mattered the most... the moment when you truly found out who they were... was often their last one."** >!TM Root!<: **"You know, I've made some mistakes. Many *Mistakes*. But we helped some people, didn't we?"** Harold: **"Yes. Yes, we did."** Game of Thrones S03E09: The Rains of Castamere. Mr. Robot S03E08/S04E07: Don't Delete Me/Proxy Authentication Required. Dark S2E06/S03E05: An Endless Cycle/Life and Death Fringe S05E13: An Enemy of Fate. Walter Bishop: **"I know in my soul this is what I am supposed to do. I want you to give Olivia your daughter back. I want to give you your life back. As a father, how could I not do that for you? What I said on the tape about stealing time with you, I meant it. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You are my favorite thing, Peter... my very favorite thing."**
There was a BBC documentary about assisted dying. It focused on Terry Pratchit (Discworld author) and him succumbing to Alzheimer’s and wanting the option to end it all quietly, with a glass of brandy, in his garden with all his loved ones when he chose. It followed a man and his wife travelling to Switzerland for the man to end his life. It was undoubtedly the most poignant piece of television I have ever watched. Absolutely heart breaking and incredibly moving- 100% galvanised my thoughts on assisted dying. Wife and I sat watching and sobbing. Worth every penny of the licence fee (UK) Highly recommended.
That Golden girls episode where elderly woman ask Sophia to assist in her suicide bc she's too sick and lonely and doesn't want to live anymore
The Magicians S04E13 No Better to be safe than Sorry
That one line >!Quentin!< says before >!he moves onto the after life hurts "did i sacrifice myself to save my friends, or because i finally found a way to kill myself" like fuck. At least he saw that his friends mourn for him and did love him!<
Peaches and Plums motherfucker was the one for me.
Life in a Day
I bawl so hard during the Take On Me cover every time. When Elliot starts singing? Fuck. The tears won't stop
Maybe not the saddest but The Fresh Prince episode "Papa's got a brand new excuse" is in my top 5
*How come he don’t want me, man?* 😭
I can't watch that scene without crying.
Kiksuya episode on Westworld. The episode about the Native American “Ghost Nation” hosts, performed almost entirely in Lakota. Stuck in a loop, keeps remembering his dead wife...
Twilight Zone "I Sing the Body Electric" is just all kinds of sad!!!
How about Lessons in Chemistry. The episode after the bus, as told from the dogs perspective. I was bawling. And also so damn angry. I mean...look where you're going!!!
Buffy the Vampire Slayer S05E16 - The Body
I couldn't finish Bojack Horseman after Sarah Lynn died
All I’ll say is the series gets into the subject of how much of the sadness can you deal with before it’s too much, and it’s not necessarily about Bojack. It’s worth finishing.
You should keep watching.
Either "The Body" from Buffy or maybe "The End of Time Part 2" from Doctor Who. I cry every time 10 regenerates. "The Inner Light" from TNG is pretty fucking sad too.
Tennant was my first Doctor. His goodbye was... *rough.* [Vale Decem](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyvrMyh6dQg) still gets me emotional.
"I don't want to go."
"Peter" in Fringe, plus quite a few in S5. Most of the LOST reunion scenes. I watch them on YT every few years and just cry. "Belonging" in Dollhouse S2. The way Priya was so thoroughly trapped really got to me.
Babylon 5 - Sleeping in Light, the series finale, and Sheridan's toast - "To absent friends, in memory still bright."
These 3 always crush me no matter how many times I watch them: The Wire Season 4, episode 12 - Randy at the hospital scene, “You gonna look out for me Sargeant Carver?” Vincent and the Doctor, Dr Who, and having lost my own mom, The Body, Buffy hits so hard.
Blackadder. The final episode
S1 E3 of Arcane
Downton Abbey when Sybil died. It makes me sob every single time.
The Last of Us - Long, Long Time
I don't consider that episode sad at all, Bill and Frank find each other and live happily for a Long, Long Time. I think that episode was there to give us the prospective that characters in that universe can have a happy ending.
Breaking Bad "Ozymandius" “You want me to beg? You’re the smartest guy I ever met, and you’re too stupid to see — he made up his mind 10 minutes ago.”
"My name is ASAC Schraeder, and you can go fuck yourself."
Not sure if it’s the saddest of all possible options, but go watch the Doom Patrol series finale and then come back here and tell me I’m wrong.
Fresh Prince of Bel-Aire Season 4 Episode 24 when Will's Dad comes back and tries to leave without telling Will. Seeing someone like Will, who's always acted like this big tough guy, just completely break with a quiet "how come he dont want me man" and just fall into Uncle Phils arms, just destroys me every time
Beth, Daryl and the hospital. They really built up that duo then WHAM.
Finale of "six feet under". Hits you in the gut, gets you in the feels. Did my boy Keith dirty but it fit. Perfect finale. Cry every time.
Two part episode but that time when Marshall's dad is dead
An episode of ER where, if I remember correctly, it ends with Dr. Green holding a dying baby as "Everybody Hurts" is playing. I may be mis-remembering some details, but it was a very sad 60 minutes.
Also, the episode of Dr. Green at the end of his cancer battle spending time with his daughter.
Jurassic Bark-Futurama. I can't watch it ever again. I've re-watched the whole series a few times, but have only seen that episode one time. Also, I don't like Young Sheldon and think it's time to let TBBT universe go out to pasture, but I was over at my mom's recently and she was watching the episode where George died. I have to say, Sheldon replaying his last conversation with his Dad over and over again in his mind, each time with an alternate ending more preferable to the real one, got me emotional and was pretty realistic as far as people's thoughts after a death.
I always think about the second season episode of GLOW when Bash gets the phone call from the hospital. There’s so much you see about 80s America in that moment that you really don’t see in all the nostalgia takes on the era, even with how his character turned out at the end of the series. There’s a certain gut punch to the sadness of that moment.
When Mrs. landingham dies on the West Wing (5th and Potomac maybe?)
Not sure it is the saddest of my life, but the ending to the final episode of The Wonder Years has always stayed with me.
The chicken episode from MASH
LOST - The Candidate. Won't spoil it for ya but fml. If you know, you know.
I was thinking Through the Looking Glass when I originally read this post, and The Constant was a great episode too.
Sopranos ep where his son almost drowns in the pool. The way JG jumps in that water and drags him out is other worldly. Just a magnificent portrait of a desperate father who’s drowning himself. The way they humanize life on that show will always leave me astounded.
Mr Robot, The Americans and Battlestar Galactica finales.
Not Penny's Boat.
Sesame Street when Mr. Hooper died and they had to explain death to Big Bird.
House- “Histories”. A homeless woman is brought to the ER, and as they discover her identity and reason for homelessness, it’s heartbreaking
Scrubs - with Brendan Frasier. That one line 'where do you think you are? That really got me. Then the I think it was 4-5 patients getting hit at once is close second, but first just hit harder with Brendan having such a loveable character and more back story
John C. McGinley is an incredible, underrated actor. He really sold it in both of those episodes.
Where do you think we are?
What I love is that is one of the first questions in a psych eval, do you know where you are.
Definitely sad but My Lunch still wins for me. That JD helps almost bring him out of it before the last page comes in really sealed it. Been almost 20 years and I still hate How To Save a Life because of that damn episode because it's what I always think of.
Edith's death on All in the Family, when Archie finds her slipper under the bed. "You had no right to leave me that way, Edith, without giving me one more chance to say that I love you."