2022 In Review: The 25 Most Heartbreaking TV Character Deaths

If your tear ducts feel bone dry after grieving TV death after TV death, brace yourself for one more cry to close out 2022.

As TVLine's Year in Review continues, we're looking back at 25 characters who met particularly tragic ends across broadcast, cable and streaming shows. And while many other characters bit the dust on TV this year, we're zeroing in on the deaths that dealt the biggest emotional blows, with only one loss per show represented.

Huge SPOILER ALERT for the list below. If you haven't caught up on the following shows (listed alphabetically), bookmark this post and return later: 1883, Andor, Better Call Saul, The Boys, Chicago Fire, Dead to Me, Dexter: New Blood, Euphoria, FBI: Most Wanted, Fear the Walking Dead, For All Mankind, House of the Dragon, Killing Eve, Manifest, Mayans MC, The Midnight Club, The Orville: New Horizons, Ozark, The Patient, Russian Doll, SEAL Team, Stranger Things, This Is Us, The Walking Dead and Westworld.

But if you're prepared to mourn, scroll on for 25 of the most heartbreaking TV deaths this year, and then leave a comment with the one(s) that hit you the hardest.

He was a monster, but Dexter Morgan was at least trying to be good... until son Harrison turned the in-hiding killer's life upside down. After breaking his code to escape prison, father and son knew there was only one option left: Dexter had to die. But the love he had for his son made for one gut-wrenching end to the antihero's story. And it was the ending that he — and we — truly deserved.

Date of Death: Jan. 9, 2022

Even though she rallied mightily after taking a Lakota arrow to the liver, Margaret and James Dutton's plucky teenage daughter couldn't escape a grim fate on the Oregon Trail. At least she had enough time to pick her own final resting place: beneath a tree in Montana's aptly named Paradise Valley. That turned out to be the spot where the Duttons established their ranch, as well, because as James told Margaret earlier in the episode: "Where she dies is where we'll stay."

Date of Death: Feb. 27, 2022

Fezco's young partner in crime was always so fearless, so stoic, so resolutely badass that we'd started to assume he'd always find his way out of even the diciest scrapes. And though Ashtray did try to outsmart the cops during the Season 2 finale's massive police shootout — by faking unconsciousness, then unexpectedly rising to kill one more officer — the victory was short-lived, and Ashtray was taken out via sniper (while Fez looked on!) moments later.

Date of Death: Feb. 27, 2022

Jess LaCroix's day began on a happy note, with him and his wife Sarah deciding where they would take their long overdue vacation. That's why it was so jarring and gut-wrenching — despite the knowledge that star Julian McMahon planned to exit the series — when the Supervisory Special Agent was shot to death while protecting a woman trying to escape her abusive ex-boyfriend. Adding insult to injury, Sarah planned to surprise Jess with tickets to Bali — his initial vacation suggestion, which was rejected for being too expensive — before he died.

Date of Death: March 8, 2022

Oh, this one hurt: Just when the hired killer with the killer fashion sense finally got to enjoy a few fleeting moments of bliss with her beloved Eve, and just after she finished off shadowy villains The Twelve? A bullet from a mystery sniper took her out, sending her to a watery grave in the series finale's very last moments. Oh, well... at least we'll always have that van ride.

Date of Death: April 11, 2022

The demise of Nadia's surrogate mother wasn't exactly untimely: The raspy-voiced old lady had been ailing all throughout Season 2. But it was still crushing when Nadia learned that Ruth had passed away while she was busy hopping through time, and wasn't even there for her in her final moments. In the end, Nadia learned that you can't change the past; you can only make the most of the time you have left.

Date of Death: April 20, 2022

We kinda knew things wouldn't end well for this intensely stoic drug pusher since we never saw him on Breaking Bad, so we weren't shocked when he (literally) bit the bullet in the final season. We'll still miss him, though, and at least he went out in a blaze of glory, securing his father's safety and then telling off the Salamancas before taking his own life. Vaya con dios, Nacho.

Date of Death: April 25, 2022

Just because Ruth Langmore was destined to meet a tragic end didn't make the beloved Ozark spitfire's death any less painful. Even after drug kingpin Camila gunned down the pluck-tastic firecracker in the closing minutes of the Netflix thriller's series finale, we still clung to hope that she had somehow survived the hit. In a post mortem interview with TVLine, however, showrunner Chris Mundy confirmed that Ruth "totally, absolutely" died.

Date of Death: April 29, 2022

At least he went out a hero. Less than a year after the Walking Dead spinoff killed and zombified his son, the elder Dorie — already suffering from radiation poisoning — served himself up to walkers to ensure that baby Mo would make it safely away from Strand's Tower with adoptive dad Morgan.

Date of Death: May 8, 2022

The Mayans' Season 4 war with SAMCRO yielded plenty of carnage — and truth be told, we considered giving this spot on the list to Gaby, who tragically died at EZ's hand later in the season. But Coco proved time and again to be a character worth rooting for, even in his darkest moments; for the biker to have survived his stint at Meth Mountain, gotten clean and started a love story with Hope, only to become one of the Mayans/SAMCRO war's very first casualties, was almost too heartbreaking to bear.

Date of Death: May 10, 2022

Knowing death is on its way for someone doesn't make the ache hurt any less. So we were gutted by Rebecca Pearson's incredibly moving, very foreseeable death in the NBC drama's penultimate episode. As an elderly Rebecca slowly succumbed to Alzheimer's Disease, she dreamed of a younger version of herself, riding a train filled with the people she loved. By the end of the hour, she reunited with her first husband Jack, who'd died decades before and who promised her that death wouldn't stop her from being a vital part of her family's life forever.

Date of Death: May 17, 2022

Completing a fantastically bittersweet season-long character arc, the supposed coward died a hero after ensuring that little buddy Dustin was safe and bravely taking on a flock of Vecna's merciless demobats in the Upside Down. "I didn't run away this time, right?" Eddie said hopefully before slipping away in his pal's arms. No. He most definitely had not run away... except with our broken hearts.

Date of Death: July 1, 2022

After admitting he knew all along that Soldier Boy was Homelander's father, Black Noir met his bloody demise at the hands of his pal Homelander. In Noir's sweetly sad final moments, his cartoon animal friends consoled him, assuring him that he would soon be "in the sweet embrace of Christ the Lord." Sure, someone else will take up Black Noir's mask next season, but there's no replacing the OG.

Date of Death: July 8, 2022 

More major characters died during Season 3 of the Apple TV+ drama, but it was the Soviet cosmonaut's passing that had the biggest emotional impact, thanks to his growing relationship with American astronaut Kelly. (The two found love in the most unlikely of places: space!) Alexei miraculously survived a sand landslide on Mars, only to then later die of head trauma caused by the incident. To make Kelly's sobbing over Alexei's body even more devastating, she was pregnant with his baby!

Date of Death: July 29, 2022 

You know the age-old drill: Established TV series brings on a new character who doesn't always say the right things, and thus gets under your skin. But then just when you start to warm up to the noob, BOOM! They nobly give their life to save the many.

Date of Death: Aug. 2, 2022

Courtesy of The Man in Black, Maeve never got to see the world she fought so hard to protect. Sure, she has died plenty before, but she won't be coming back from this one.

Date of Death: Aug. 7, 2022

The paramedic field chief tragically and unexpectedly died when he was crushed by a burning building collapse while rescuing an innocent bystander. The sharp shock of his horrific demise and his girlfriend Violet's devastated reaction as the rest of the firehouse tried to free Hawkins from the rubble was made even more crushing by the fact that the smitten couple had finally just taken their relationship public.

Date of Death: Oct. 5, 2022 

We always knew the patients of Brightcliffe were not long for this world, but that didn't make it any easier to say goodbye to Anya, the club's sharp-tongued bone cancer patient. Episode 7 was a heartbreaking, yet beautiful tribute to the poor girl who, merely hours before her death, experienced what her life would've been like had she survived. By the end of the hour, she accepted her doomed fate, and we were painstakingly forced to do the same.

Date of Death: Oct. 7, 2022

The long-suffering sovereign was ill and decaying long before he passed, so we assumed the actual event wouldn't leave much of an emotional mark. We were wrong. Watching the depleted king — whose last, unrealized wish was family unity — reach out and call for his beloved (and dead) wife Aemma as he breathed his last was gutting.

Date of Death: Oct. 9, 2022

We had a bad feeling that Steve Carell's imperiled therapist probably wouldn't survive his captivity with serial killer Sam... but that didn't make it hurt any less when Sam ultimately choked the life out of him. Alan's empathetic effort to locate a shred of humanity inside Sam was admirable, if doomed, and Carell's performance was one of his very best, so we found ourselves hoping against hope for a happy ending that, unfortunately, never came to be.

Date of Death: Oct. 25, 2022

We knew a death was coming, but we didn't expect this one! With Cal on his final breath, it seemed like the aged-up teen would succumb to leukemia after making peace with his fate. But then Zeke, who'd been previously saved by Cal, returned the favor by using his empathetic powers to absorb the disease. That heroic sacrifice left us — and his wife Michaela — in shambles.

Date of Death: Nov. 4, 2022 

Talk about pulling the rug out from under viewers! Clay nearly died in last season's Mali ambush, yet he made it home to wife Stella and newborn Brian (albeit down one leg). So when his life abruptly ended at the hand of a trigger-happy strip mall security guard? BRUTAL.

Date of Death: Nov. 13, 2022

Sad as it would have been to actually see Cassian's mother pass on, simply HEARING that it happened off-screen, as Episode 11 opened, somehow hurt more — especially given B2EMO's wimpering reaction. Soothing the sting is the fact that Maarva and Cass shared loving words the last time they saw each other, and that the Daughter of Ferrix left behind a most empowering message for everyone else.

Date of Death: Nov. 16, 2022

We never actually saw Judy die onscreen; the exact details of her demise were left intentionally ambiguous, according to series creator Liz Feldman. But it's just as well: Season 3 had us reaching for Kleenex by the fistful, and we're not sure we could have handled watching such a massive loss in real time. But even though Judy's death was deeply tragic, her sendoff was so like Judy: beautiful, a little mysterious, and profoundly impactful.

Date of Death: Nov. 17, 2022

Cruelly, the AMC drama let us think in its series finale that Coco's mama had emerged unscathed from her fall into a pack of walkers. Only later, once our heart rates had slowed back down, did the show reveal to us — and Rosita to bestie Eugene — that she had, in fact, been bitten. At least she was given a peaceful passing, allowing us to remember her as the badass that she was rather than the zombie that she could've become.

Date of Death: Nov. 20, 2022