I think any fan of any serialized television knows the feeling, when a character that meant a lot to you as a viewer is killed off, sometimes in ways that feel brutally insensitive to your own emotions. (Yes, I’m looking at you, Shonda.) It’s hard, because depending on how attached you’d become to the character, the series, or both, it can cause you to feel genuine grief. People who have never felt real emotions for a fictional cast of characters will roll their eyes and look at us like we’re nuts, since these people aren’t real. But they are real: they exist in our minds, imaginations, and on the screen we watch pretty much every day, and depending on how long you’ve spent consuming a given series on which these characters appeared, it feels like a real loss. Because it is.
I’ve been thinking more about this phenomenon lately, how a series about fictional people can help real-life viewers process their grief and emotions in unexpected ways. Like I said, characters who die might be fictional, but that doesn’t make the loss any less real or worthy of sorrow. Thus, I decided to compile this list of 7 fictional deaths on television that caused me real grief, while asking myself why exactly that was.
Derek Shepherd, Grey’s Anatomy
The creator of this beloved television vehicle knows exactly what she’s doing when it comes to killing off beloved, long-running characters in a way that feels like physically ripping your heart from your chest. I decided to start with Dr. Derek Shepherd from Grey’s Anatomy, because out of all the gut-wrenching deaths we’ve experienced during its exhaustively ongoing network run, it’s the one that hurts the most. I’m sure most fans will agree.
Whether it’s the fact that Patrick Dempsey was the literal embodiment of Dr. McDreamy in that he was the ultimate sexy and gifted doctor for girls and gays of the millennium (George Clooney still holds that title for the ‘90s), or that he died after rescuing and saving four other lives from a separate car accident, it felt like a real emotional punch right where it hurts. Not to mention the character growth and development it prompted for widow Meredith (I still hear her saying “give me the papers!” in moments of silence), Derek’s death was nicely plotted and executed, even if it didn’t make up for the actor’s awkward periods of absence leading up to it.
Lucy Knight, ER
I’ve been in the midst of watching ER all the way through over the last year, and believe me when I say that this particular fictional death eviscerated me. The first season of the legendary medical drama will turn 30 next year, so suffice to say I can’t get upset if I stumble upon spoilers while watching it for the first time decades later. I’d seen a tweet early in my quest referencing the episode where “John and Lucy get stabbed” being one of the most shocking TV moments, but I didn’t know when or how it was going to happen. So let’s just say when it does happen, when an untreated schizophrenic stabs both medical student Lucy Knight (Kellie Martin) and Dr. John Carter (Noah Wyle), and Lucy — who I’d predicted would become such a great doctor one day — doesn’t make it, it made me feel such real sadness. Because I am only human! Justice for Lucy Knight!
Will Gardner, The Good Wife
Another shocking TV death that is still held in high regard, it’s literally impossible to not feel All the Emotions™ when attorney Will Gardner (Josh Charles) is shot and killed by a disgruntled client during season 5 of The Good Wife, a plot twist viewers and critics alike did not see coming. (Man, that was quite the Sunday night on Twitter.) Because even as Will had his unlikable moments of arrogance and poor judgment, his sexual chemistry with protagonist Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) is the stuff television dreams are made of. Plus, even as Alicia had hurt Will by leaving Lockhart Gardner to join a newly formed law firm of former employees that season, there was still love, care, and passion in their eyes for each other. It was the type of death that ricocheted throughout every character, because they’d all had ties to Will Gardner at one time or another. The type of death everyone has likely known themselves in real life. In the immortal words of Oprah Winfrey, “Tissue, please! I now need tissue.”
Edie Britt, Desperate Housewives
Every DH fan worth their salt knows that Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan) was always the most underrated, underappreciated, and underused character on the series. (And if you didn’t know, you do now!) She was far from perfect: she had her faults and her flaws, but that’s part of what makes a fully rounded character. Edie was essentially used to make sure Desperate Housewives always had both a healthy and unhealthy dose of catfights between the women on Wisteria Lane, and that often took value away from her overall character development. So when it came time to kill off Edie near the end of the fifth season, as a result of what we’ll call creative differences between Sheridan and series creator Marc Cherry (differences that would eventually go to court), it only made sense that her ultimate demise was essentially at the hands of the wrong man whom she had bedded that year. But it was the tribute episode they managed to give the character despite all the backstage drama that emphasized Edie’s significance, both as a character and to her neighbors. And yes, I still get goosebumps during Sheridan’s final narration in the episode in question, OK?
Billy Thomas, Ally McBeal
Many critics pointed to the death of leading male character Billy Thomas (Gil Bellows) as the moment Ally McBeal took a bizarre turn for the worst, which is actually false. For a series like Ally, which was always bizarre to begin with, it wasn’t so much Billy’s sudden death from a late-stage brain tumor — one that supposedly explained his increasingly peculiar behavior over the course of that year — that ruined the series. But that’s another article: I’ve written about Ally McBeal elsewhere here and here, if you’d like to learn more.
But as bizarre as Billy’s behavior had become leading up to his brain tumor diagnosis (he’d essentially become what today’s media would recognize as a men’s rights activist), the fact that the writers of Ally McBeal decided to bring that particular storyline back down to earth by explaining the character’s behavior with a medical condition proved that the series hadn’t yet gone past the boundaries of reality. And when Billy basically drops dead in a courtroom and declares his undying love for Ally (Calista Flockhart), it signified the end of an era for the series, since its entire original premise relied on the love triangle between Ally, Billy, and his wife Georgia (Courtney Thorne-Smith). But his death managed to bring the women even closer than they’d been, bound together by the loss and the love they shared for him. And isn’t that enough to get emotional over?
Mark Greene, ER
I’d known it was coming. It was impossible to go into ER as an established pop culture enthusiast without knowing that Dr. Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards), pretty much the series’ central focal point from day one, that he’s the only original main cast member to die during the run of ER. I’d been trying to emotionally prepare, since I’d grown attached to him and could already feel it was going to, once again, gut me. I gripped the armrest of the couch hard during the season 7 episode when Dr. Greene gets dizzy and disoriented in the ER and is diagnosed with a brain tumor soon after. But then he had miracle surgery (brain surgery, awake on the table) and recovered enough to be healthy again. But I still knew it was coming, dammit! So when the time came for Mark to ultimately succumb to his disease and pass away at the end of season 8, it didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would in the moment. It was only once the weight of his absence in the County General emergency room was felt that I started really feeling things. And despite not going immediately downhill thereafter, ER was never the same without Mark Greene.
Andrea Marino, Ghost Whisperer
I haven’t seen Ghost Whisperer in years, but I still remember what excellent television its first season finale was. I’m sure the Jennifer Love Hewitt supernatural drama would not hold up very well in the media of today (seeing as how some episodes were a stretch in the mid-2000s), but I’ll never forget how devastated I was when they killed off Aisha Tyler’s character, Andrea Marino, at the end of the first season. Especially considering that the original cast of Ghost Whisperer consisted of only three people, when you kill one of them off, it’s going to be noticeable. In the season 1 finale, Melinda (Hewitt) is visited by the ghost of a flight attendant who comes to inform her that the plane she died on is still in the air. Before long, the plane in question crashes just outside of Grandview, their charming small town. Andrea returns, having left in a rush to check the apartment of her brother whom she believed to be on the flight in question, in tears over not being able to find him. It’s only when her brother appears near the end of the season 2 premiere that we learn Melinda has been communicating with Andrea’s ghost — as her car had collided with the path of the plane. Ghost Whisperer had its fair share of weak and outlandish moments, but its handling of death and grief was usually poignant and tactful, and the Andrea ghost plot twist sealed that deal. The kind of plot twist on the type of network TV drama that has since gone extinct. Chef’s kiss!
Which fictional TV deaths impacted you the most?
Jeffrey Reads 
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