16 Of The Most Brutal TV Series Finale Deaths Of All Time

Content warning: contains mentions of murder and suicide.

There's a huge amount of pressure on TV series finales. Sometimes, ending the characters' journeys means ending the characters' lives, which can add an extra layer of heartbreak to viewers who are already bidding farewell to their faves. Here's a look at some TV series finale deaths that were particularly brutal...

1. Rue on Euphoria. Rue went through a lot over the course of the show, so to see her murdered in the final episode – in a way that looked like she had relapsed – was an absolute gut punch. What made it really brutal was the way the rug was pulled out from under viewers with the reveal that the scenes of Rue going back to her old haunts and home were not actually real, and she was in the process of dying. The sound of Rue's gasping breaths over it all were the hardest part to endure.

HBO

2. Daenerys on Game of Thrones. There's perhaps a version of this story (maybe the one George R. R. Martin is never going to get around to writing) in which the events aren't entirely different, but play out in a more coherent and satisfying way. That's not the version we got. While the whole season felt rushed and shallow, the sequence of events that led up to Daenerys' death, and the way it happens, are just maddening to watch.

3. Jen on Dawson's Creek. The writers of Dawson's Creek put Jen through so much, and she was underappreciated by almost everyone in the show (and many who were watching it). So it felt extremely cruel when a time jump in the last couple of episodes of the final season revealed the painful combination that Jen had a) had a daughter and b) was dying. Ultimately, her death was used as a plot device in service of the others' stories, and she deserved better.

4. Dan in the original Roseanne. While the reboot walked back this plot point, for a long time, the ending we had for Dan's character was that he had died of a heart attack without the viewers' knowledge, with the final moments of the finale revealing that Roseanne's unreliable narration had falsely kept him alive in the show. It was a very sour note to end things on.

5. Logan on Veronica Mars. Fans had been waiting years to see Veronica and Logan again – and to see them together. A new season was eagerly welcomed, but what happened in it felt like a slap in the face to everyone who loved the characters, especially Logan. Just as Logan and Veronica get their happy ending in the series finale, Logan is killed in an explosion. It's just too much.

6. Tracy in How I Met Your Mother. Fans had been waiting many seasons to find out who the mother of Ted's children was (technically, the whole point of the show), and when she was finally revealed to be Tracy, played by Cristin Milioti, everyone fell in love with her character. So it was bittersweet (with an emphasis on bitter) to learn in the final episode that not only did Tracy die, but the whole story was actually about Ted wanting to be with Robin.

7. Anya on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She'd been a big part of the show since Season 3, so the fact that Anya was unceremoniously killed off in a split-second moment in the series finale, without any other characters ever being given a moment to mourn her, felt like a huge disservice to her character and to fans who loved her.

8. Joe on Medium. One of the bright spots of Medium was the love story between Alison and Joe, so the fact he was killed off in the last episode of the series was always going to hurt – but the elaborate dream sequence fake-out that made you believe he was actually okay for part of the episode made the final reveal even more upsetting.

9. Deb on Dexter. The last few seasons of the original Dexter series were pretty hard to watch, and a big part of that was what they did with Deb's character. The whole "I am in love with my brother" storyline was bad enough, but then at the end of the show, they kill her character – or, more specifically, Dexter kills her in an act of mercy after she is pronounced brain dead. To top it all off, he tosses her body in the ocean like the rest of his victims. It all felt like a cheap use of her character in service of Dexter's arc.

10. Jax on Sons of Anarchy. Jax's death felt inevitable, but when it came in the final episode it was still hard to watch him die by suicide (involving the innocent driver of a truck, no less). On top of that, the poor CGI effects were a distracting element that cheapened the whole sequence.

11. Villanelle on Killing Eve. In the final moments of the show, it seemed like Villanelle and Eve were getting their "happy" ending, just like in the books. But it was wrenched away in seconds, with Villanelle being killed by a sniper and dying out of Eve's reach in the water of the Thames. Viewers were furious, especially as the death felt too in line with the "bury your gays" trope.

12. The dinosaurs on Dinosaurs. Dinosaurs may have gone extinct in real life, but watching the Sinclair family, the anthropomorphic dinosaurs at the heart of this kooky family sitcom, face not only their own mortality but that of all life on earth, is perhaps one of the most brutal series endings in TV history. It's certainly the bleakest of any show targeted at kids.

13. Humanity in The 100. While one group of humans is still alive at the end of The 100, the show makes it clear they're the last ones – and they won't be able to reproduce. Considering the show had always been about humanity surviving against all odds, it feels like an ending designed to uniquely hurt fans. It just doesn't feel like a satisfying conclusion for any of the characters.

14. Jonas and Alt-Martha (and almost everyone else) on Dark. Dark is a beautiful, twisted, and, yes, dark show with an ending to match. Jonas and Alt-Martha realize they must "break the knot" to stop the cycles of time travel-induced suffering they and their loved ones are stuck on, and in doing so they erase their very existence, as well as that of the huge web of characters we've come to know and love (and hate) over the past three seasons. Watching them all literally fade away into nothing is heartbreaking.

15. The Umbrella Academy on The Umbrella Academy. The Umbrella Academy is another time-travel/apocalypse show that ends with its main characters erasing their existence. In this instance, it's an incredibly unsatisfying and frankly depressing ending, coming at the conclusion of what was a disappointing final season.

16. Finally, the main characters on The Good Place. Yes, the characters on The Good Place are already dead, but the last episode sees most of them choosing to end their afterlives in a kind of existential suicide that's framed as a peaceful conclusion, but is still harrowing to witness.

What's the most brutal TV death you've ever watched? Share in the comments or the anonymous form below!