2024 TV started off pretty shaky as the industry returned to normalcy following strike-related delays, but it wasn’t long before everything felt normal again. And “normal” tends to mean “lots of big character deaths” to go alongside all of the cancellations and series endings. Thankfully, we had a full year to get through all the genuine emotions that were sparked by so many scripted tragedies.
So let’s take a look at what I thought matched the combination of being the most heartbreaking and unexpected TV deaths of 2024, while accepting the dread of knowing that the cycle of televised trauma will start up anew when the 2025 premiere schedule gets underway. So join me in pouring one out for all of our fallen TV brethren, as well as for the many talented artists who were also lost along the way.
It should probably go without saying, but SPOILERS BELOW for a variety of different series that aired across 2024. So tread lightly if there are some major shows that you haven’t gotten around to just yet.
Victor Aguilar (The Penguin)
For a TV show focusing on someone that every single viewer knew was a major villain going in, The Penguin somehow bewitched me into thinking Rhenzy Feliz's Victor would continue thriving with confidence under Oz's wing for years to come. Instead, Victor's fate was sealed the moment Oz laid eyes on him, no matter how charming or empathetic he proved himself to be. At least he didn't have to be around to watch Colin Farrell's criminal go hard on his Oedipal urges.
Isabelle Carriere (The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon)
An extension of one of TV’s deadliest franchises. The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon gave longtime fans a stellar reunion in Season 2 between Norman Reedus’ titular survivor and Melissa McBride’s Carol. But along the way, the show killed off its best character in Clémence Poésy’s Isabelle, and in the episode right after her and Daryl’s big kiss. It was an angering shock, and Season 3 will need to deliver something amazing to truly make up for it.
Asher Wolke (The Good Doctor)
Noah Galvin’s Dr. Asher Wolke arrived at St. Bonaventure in The Good Doctor’s fourth season and worked his way up to becoming a resident under Shaun’s wing by the ABC drama’s final season. Tragically, after Asher stopped a pair of men from vandalizing a synagogue — during which he openly declared himself gay and Jewish — the young doc was murdered on the street when one of the antisemitic vandals clubbed him in the head with an iron bar.
Colby Mayfield (Yellowstone)
Yes, Yellowstone featured multiple jaw-dropping deaths in the long-delayed final six episodes of its fifth season, from killing off John Dutton sans Kevin Costner to having Beth finally take out Jamie. But it was the lowest-profile death that actually hurt the worst, with the western drama taking out one of the bunkhouse’s best by having a wild horse lethally clomp Denim Richards’ ranchhand Colby. Hopefully Teeter can find a way to get over that heartbreak down in Texas.
Gambit (X-Men ‘97)
One of TV’s most celebrated revivals, X-Men ‘97 took little time in taking viewers right back to the animated fan-fave’s roots, but with a modern storytelling touch that heightened the character dynamics and upped the ante for danger. Case in point: the fifth episode rocked many viewers’ cores when the charismatic, crop top-wearing Gambit impulsively chose to sacrifice himself to take out the newly upgraded Master Mold. Sure, Rogue was sad, but I dare say everyone at home was even more taken aback.
Rhaenys (House Of The Dragon)
Okay, so those who are more intimately familiar with George R.R. Martin’s source material were no doubt awaiting the death of Eve Best’s Rhaeynys Targaryen, but not even such foreknowledge made her demise at Rook’s Rest easier to witness or live with after the fact. The Queen Who Never Was became the first to die in the Dance of the Dragons — at least the first human — crashing into the rocky walls in a fiery explosion.
Doug Williams (Days Of Our Lives)
Something of a unique (but equally heartbreaking) outlier of a 2024 TV death, Days of Our Lives honored veteran character Doug Williams with a final episode in July 2024, roughly six months after soap actor Bill Hayes passed away at 98. (He starred off and on from 1970-2024.) Making the episode all the more emotional is the fact that the actor’s real-life wife Susan Seaforth Hayes portrayed Doug’s wife Julie, and so his final episode featured the widowed actress once again mourning her hubby’s death by paying fictional respects.
Hughie Campbell Sr. (The Boys)
The Boys’ comic Hughie owes his whole look to Simon Pegg, and while the actor’s live-action impact on the Prime Video series has been limited, Eric Kripke & Co. thankfully(?) gave his Hughie Sr. a Season 4 death that was truly gut-wrenching both literally and metaphorically. Post-coma and with V in his veins, the seemingly healthful chap was suddenly unable to maintain his place in time or space, and unmenacingly blazed a gory train of panicked mayhem through a hospital before the eyes of his son and rekindled love.
The Hargreeves Siblings (The Umbrella Academy)
If The Umbrella Academy can be described with any one word, “unpredictable” would likely work best, as no one could have foreseen the comic adaptation’s mega-mutant culmination of “The Jennifer Incident.” Or the threat of existence’s destruction due to Ben’s marigold mixing with Jennifer’s durango. Or that the entire group of characters at the end of Season 4 would have to sacrifice themselves to save seemingly everyone else who met doomed fates throughout the series. I guess that’s just the (Gerard) way it goes when Five’s the one in charge of anything.
Emma Morley (One Day)
Sure, any shock surrounding One Day’s tragic 13th episode comes with the caveat of “never having read David Nicholls’ novel or the Nicholls-scripted 2011 movie.” But for those whom that applies, it applies so fucking hard. The highs of watching Ambika Mod’s Emma and Leo Woodall’s Dexter finally dovetailing into a relationship soon cascaded into all-too-real middle ground and then abject tragedy when Emma is knocked off of her bicycle and dies. Even for those already aware of Emma’s fate, I can imagine twelve episodes of build-up helped keep it soul-crushing, if not surprising.
Mrs. Hart / Sharon (Agatha All Along)
Despite killing its titular witch off in the second-to-last installment, Agatha All Along’s most shocking death, if perhaps not the most emotional, belonged to Debra Jo Rupp’s mind-warped Sharon — Mrs. Hart during WandaVision’s hex — who rather unceremoniously drowned in the second episode right as the coven figured out how to get past the first trial of the Witches Road. (And after she suffered a traumatic flashback hallucination.) Despite an abundance of theories proposing how she could return, and despite Agatha herself returning in a ghostly form, Sharon apparently had no such luck.
George Cooper (Young Sheldon)
Technically, George Cooper’s death was set in stone on The Big Bang Theory before Young Sheldon even existed, but only through the prequel series were viewers able to emotionally invest in the character’s life and legacy. So that by the time Lance Barber’s patriarch actually did bite the metaphorical bullet, which went down in the series’ penultimate episode, it truly did warrant a full in-episode funeral to provide him a worthwhile farewell.
Chloe Yasuda (Grey’s Anatomy)
Grey’s Anatomy should have multiple eponymous awards for heartbreaking and shocking deaths, with Mike’s sister Chloe arguably the show’s most jarring in the past year. Julia Rose’s character appeared in just three episodes, but after the emotional triple scoop of cancer, surgery, and recovery, it seemed like she was off to enjoy recurring character status. But no, it was more suffering for one and all after Mika fell asleep at the wheel and caused a crash that eventually led to Chloe succumbing to her injuries in ICU, and the reverberations were intense, y’all.
Clark And Lois (Superman & Lois)
By being The CW’s final post-Arrowverse DC drama, Superman & Lois was arguably already aimed at some kind of forever-ending as opposed to a happily ever after. Yet it was still both an emotional and surprising journey into the near and distant future with Clark and Lois after taking Lex Luthor down. Happy weddings and pregnancies gave way to Lois’ cancer returning and her death, then Clark’s own death due to heart failure. But wait! A happily-ever-after conclusion is indeed reached when Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch’s characters reconnect once more in the afterlife. I’m wiping smudges off my glasses, not tears.
Grace Garvey (Bad Sisters)
Perhaps Bad Sisters was giving Anne-Marie Duff’s Grace some legitimate in-universe grace with her left-field Season 2 death, given all of the skeletons that escaped her closet across Season 1. But given the darkly comedic tone of creator and co-star Sharon Horgan’s series during that stretch, the idea of forever breaking up the five-sister bond seemed wildly unlikely, if not impossible. And yet that car crash and funeral went down in the first three episodes. Hug your siblings if you got ‘em.
Larry Dalrymple (The Simpsons)
The Simpsons has been on the air long enough for some to think it’s no longer capable of producing fresh ideas, but the show’s creative team took a wild swing early in Season 35 by killing off a longtime background character that viewers may not have even known had a name: Larry Dalrymple, the jacket-wearing barfly. Fans were both surprised and outraged by the canonical death, which sparks a bonkers funeral-jumping caper for Homer & Co.
