13 Most Heartbreaking Television Deaths Of 2015

2015 was a year full of laughs, love, and happiness on TV for us all, but there was no getting around the inevitable curse that plagues every binge-watcher: the death of a favourite character. Of course, this article does contain SPOILERS.

13. Noah (The Walking Dead)

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Though Noah had his bad moments, (I mean, technically Beth died because of him, whether he caused her death or not), his painful death was still tortuous to watch, as well as agonizingly avoidable if not for the selfish actions of fellow survivor Nicholas. Being torn apart by walkers is possibly one of the worst ways to go, and he was still just a kid who missed his family.

12. Hope Shlottman (Jessica Jones)

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Hope was tortured by Kilgrave from the first episode of Jessica Jones, and her imprisonment didn't make things any easier. Forced to kill her parents, discovering she was pregnant with her captor's baby, and ultimately choosing to commit suicide in order for Jessica to catch Kilgrave, Hope didn't have the most enviable ending.

11. Patti Levin (The Leftovers)

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Patti technically died in Season 1, slitting her own throat in front of Kevin and causing him horrible guilt from the start of Season 2. However, she remained in his mind, taunting him unceasingly and causing him to question everything he saw, pushing everyone close to him to mistrust his every action. In his quest to rid himself of Patti's ghost, Kevin journeys to an Inception-like universe where he ultimately is forced to push Patti's younger self into a well, banishing her from his life for good.

10. Lowell Tracey (iZombie)

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Lowell is sweet, cute, and completely understanding of Liv's brain-eating condition, since, of course he struggles with the same issue. Their relationship lasted for a grand total of five episodes and they were the best of the season. His sacrificial death to save Liv from having to take a life, even the life of a maniac like Blaine, was so cruelly quick and thoughtless.

9. Tyreese Williams (The Walking Dead)

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Oh, Tyreese, you magical human, you left us too soon. Just when we viewers thought he was invincible, Tyreese was bit by one of Noah's twin brothers turned walker. He managed to stay alive long enough to have his arm hacked off by his closest friends, all the while being plagued by ghosts of his past, including the governor, Mika and Lizzie, and recently-deceased Beth. What a way to leave a show like The Walking Dead.

8. Jo Laughlin (The Vampire Diaries)

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This death was even more devastating than most, as it was more like three stabs to our TV-loving souls when Jo, pregnant with twins, died in her nearly-husband's arms. Right in the middle of her vows, she was stabbed in the back by her psychopath of a brother, who was definitely not invited to her vampire-friendly wedding. You may ask, "Hasn't Alaric been through enough on this show? Is there anyone else he loves that he can watch die?" Well, you spoke too soon, because right after he suffers the casualty of his fiance, number two on this list has to go and cause him more sorrow.

7. Charlie Bradbury (Supernatural)

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Ah, Charlie. The glue that held her two surrogate-like brothers together. After searching day and night for a way to translate the Book of the Damned and save Dean, Charlie is hunted down by the Styne brothers and stabbed repeatedly, her efforts to fend them off with a knife futile, in the end left to bleed out in a motel bathtub.

6. Myrcella Baratheon (Game of Thrones)

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Myrcella's death, though sudden and shocking, was less about her and more about the pain we felt seeing Jamie lose his daughter mere seconds after she confessed that she always knew he was her real father. The lengths that he went to bring Myrcella home, the victory of finally being together on a boat back home, and at last, the look of panic on Jamie's face as his daughter collapses to the floor, poisoned by Ellaria Sand as she kissed the princess goodbye.

5. Liz Forbes (The Vampire Diaries)

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Liz has been with us since the beginning, surviving all the turmoil in reliable, old, death-ridden Mystic Falls, but in the end she was taken by cancer. Her death, leaving Caroline in ruins, shook us all to the core to see such a strong character leave the show from such a realistic threat. The flashbacks of Liz teaching young Caroline to ride a bike were the final touches of her departure guaranteed to bring us all to tears.

4. Shireen Baratheon (Game of Thrones)

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The death of this innocent is perhaps the most gruesome of 2015, as it was nearly impossible to watch as a little girl was burned at the stake in a worthless attempt to win the aid of the Lord of Light. The fact that her death occurred with the permission of both her mother and father was just one of many stabs in the hearts of the viewers.

3. Jon Snow (Game of Thrones)

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However little Jon Snow knew, he could still never deserve the death that befell him. Stabbed numerous times by the men he fought beside after his newly appointed position as their leader, all the while these men claiming that his death is "for the wall", and the very last person to drive the knife into Jon being his very own young steward, Olly, this death might never allow us trust the Night's Watch again.

2. Elena Gilbert (The Vampire Diaries)

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Okay, technically no, Elena isn't really dead. However, since Nina Dobrev has been clear that she fully intends to search for other opportunities that do not include returning to The Vampire Diaries, I'm going to go ahead and count it. Besides, she is going to be in a coma for the next sixty years at least; her role on the show doesn't seem to appear very alive. It's always hard to watch a regular get killed off in a favorite show, but watching the star say her goodbyes via a dreamlike state to all her closest friends who've been there through it all was not an easy feat. The final touches of dancing with Damon in the street, crying with her brother, and employing the feather floating trick of season 1 with Bonnie were sure to crush the remaining fragments of feeling we still had left after the recent tragedies of this past season.

1. Derek Shepherd (Grey's Anatomy)

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And at last, we come to the number 1 most heart-wrenching death of 2015. Derek Shepherd AKA McDreamy AKA the love of every Grey's Anatomy fans life. If you didn't see the show on it's original airdate, you most likely heard the terrible news from your crying best friend, Twitter feed, or any major news station; this death topped the charts. And if it wasn't bad enough that twisty Meredith's other half was leaving her forever, Shonda Rhimes just had to remind us all of every single adorable moment the two shared through a barrage of heartless flashbacks. May we never be the same trusting, carefree binge-watchers of Netflix again.