We watched a lot of TV this year… and said goodbye to a lot of characters we loved, too.
As part of TVLine’s Year in Review coverage, we’re looking back at the TV character deaths that hit us especially hard in 2024. We’re not talking just your run-of-the-mill characters getting killed off here; these are deaths we felt in our bones, either because we’d grown to have real affection for the character or because their demise was so devastating to characters we care about. And we came up with more than two dozen examples from broadcast, cable and streaming, all of which packed an incredible emotional wallop. (Plus, we limited ourselves to one death per show, to keep the heartbreak to a minimum.)
It goes without saying, but this collection comes with a gigantic SPOILER ALERT. Be forewarned that this list includes characters from (in alphabetical order) Agatha All Along, Bad Monkey, Bad Sisters, The Bold and the Beautiful, The Boys, The Cleaning Lady, Days of Our Lives, The Diplomat, Fargo, General Hospital, The Good Doctor, Grey’s Anatomy, House of the Dragon, Interview With the Vampire, Outer Banks, Reacher, Shōgun, Snowpiercer, Superman & Lois, Sweet Tooth, The Umbrella Academy, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, X-Men ’97, Yellowstone and Young Sheldon. So if you’re not caught up on any of those shows and hate to be spoiled, bookmark this and come back to read it when it’s safe.
Grab some tissues and join us as we pay tribute to the most heart-wrenching character deaths that TV served up this year. And of course, you’re welcome to offer your own eulogies to characters who met their end this year in the comments below.
Asher Wolke, The Good Doctor
Photo : Jeff Weddell/Disney
Midway through the ABC medical drama’s farewell run, the surgical resident was the victim of a hate crime. His life was cut short just moments after he confronted a pair of thugs who had desecrated a nearby synagogue. They came up behind him and struck a fatal blow to his head. By the time the rabbi found Dr. Wolke, he was already dead.
Date of Death: April 2, 2024
Ben, Snowpiercer
Photo : AMC+ screenshot
Engineer Bennett Knox may not have had the splashiest storylines or richest backstory, yet when he sacrificed himself in the final season in order to manually decouple the trains — freeing Big Alice to return to/save New Eden — it hit us hard, that we’d known this low-key hero since Day 1. And his actual means of death? Chilling.
Date of Death: Aug. 18, 2024
Birdie, Sweet Tooth
Photo : Netflix screenshot
It took Gus years to find his estranged mother Birdie, which makes her death in the series’ final showdown that much more of a gut-punch. In the penultimate episode’s big cave scuffle, she died protecting Sweet Tooth from the blow of Dr. Singh’s knife. If she had to go out like that, at least she saved the hybrid she (and we) loved the most.
Date of Death: June 6, 2024
Chloe Yasuda, Grey’s Anatomy
Photo : ABC screenshot
Truth be told, we hadn’t really gotten to know Mika’s sister all that well. But we were keenly aware of how dearly Mika loved her. So when her fellow interns were unable to save the cancer patient after Mika fell asleep at the wheel and landed them in a car crash, it cut us as deeply as it did our favorite resident.
Date of Death: Nov. 21, 2024
Claudia, Interview With the Vampire
Photo : AMC screenshot
Recasts can be extremely hit or miss, so we were pleasantly surprised by Delainey Hayles’ seamless transition into the role of baby vampire Claudia in the second season of this AMC drama. But we’re sad to report that one of her best performances was also her last; the image of Claudia burning in the sunlight, and the sound she released upon her demise, will haunt us forever.
Date of Death: June 23, 2024
Doug, Days of Our Lives
Photo : Peacock screenshot
There was nearly a full calendar year between when actor Bill Hayes died at the age of 98 and when his beloved Days character followed suit, but not even that amount of time was enough to prepare ourselves to witness this real-life tragedy play out on the show. The most difficult part? Hayes’ real-life wife, Susan Seaforth Hayes, also plays his on-screen wife, so the poor woman was forced to act out losing her husband all over again. This wasn’t just devastating, it was downright traumatic.
Date of Death: Nov. 28, 2024
The Dragon Queen, Bad Monkey
Photo : Apple TV+ screenshot
With her commanding presence and hypnotic way of speaking, we could’ve sworn the Caribbean priestess played by Jodie Turner-Smith was immortal. Alas, it turned out she was mortal indeed, as a rain-soaked struggle with Eve left her fatally impaled on a jagged tree branch. We’re pretty sure her spirit lives on, though.
Date of Death: Oct. 9, 2024
Gambit, X-Men ’97
Photo : Disney+ screenshot
This one ticks every box on the tragic death bingo card. Beloved character? Check. Heroic sacrifice? Check. Love interest weeping as she holds his lifeless body in her arms? Big check. … Great, now we’re crying all over again.
Date of Death: April 10, 2024
George Sr., Young Sheldon
Photo : Bill Inoshita/Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
The Big Bang Theory prequel’s third-to-last episode reached a tragic moment in Sheldon Cooper’s coming of age when his father (played since Season 1 by Lance Barber) died of a heart attack, off screen, at work. He was expected home for a family photo that afternoon; instead, Mary opened her front door to find a visibly upset Tom and Wayne, who were there to relay the news that her husband of nearly 20 years — and the father to her three children — had passed away.
Date of Death: May 9, 2024
Grace, Bad Sisters
Photo : Apple TV+ screenshot
We love having a laugh with the raucous Garvey sisters on Apple TV+’s pitch-black comedy, so we couldn’t help but shed a tear when the meek Grace, played by Anne-Marie Duff, lost control of her car in Season 2’s second episode, dying in the crash. We couldn’t believe it… in fact, we held out hope all season long that she’d turn out to be alive somehow. Aye, it was not to be.
Date of Death: Nov. 13, 2024
The Hargreeves siblings, The Umbrella Academy
Photo : Netflix screenshot (2)
Allison, Klaus & Co. were awfully accepting of their fates in the Netflix drama’s series finale, which is more than we can say for ourselves. In theory, it made sense that the Hargreeves should perish (by way of The Cleanse consuming them), allowing the universe to reset to a single, cohesive timeline. But in execution? We were crushed to say goodbye to these weird and wonderful siblings, whose existence made The Umbrella Academy meaningful in the first place.
Date of Death: Aug. 8, 2024
Hugh Sr., The Boys
Photo : Prime Video screenshot
While Hugh Sr.’s tragic demise certainly wasn’t lacking in The Boys‘ trademark gore and guts, it was the tender and all-too-realistic emotions surrounding his death that stayed with us. After an injection of V, Hughie’s dad found himself phasing through hospital walls and patients, all while suffering from super-powered dementia. When Hugh Sr.’s confusion, fear and shame became too much, Hughie injected his father with a drug to help him peacefully pass on in a tearful goodbye scene.
Date of Death: June 27, 2024
Isabelle Carriere, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon
Photo : AMC screenshot
Alas, there would be no fireflies for the con artist-turned-nun with whom our titular hero found love over the course of the spinoff’s first two seasons. Not until the afterlife, anyway. Defending her nephew Laurent from the cult that was determined to sacrifice the boy as a messiah, she slashed at the group’s leader Losang, only to suffer what would turn out to be a fatal stab to the abdomen.
Date of Death: Oct. 20, 2024
JJ, Outer Banks
Photo : Netflix screenshot
It makes sad sense that the unluckiest — as well as the most reckless — Pogue was the one who met his maker in Season 4. But it doesn’t make the loss any less gutting! After finding the elusive (and priceless) Blue Crown, JJ’s celebration with Kiara was cut short by his thieving biological father, Groff… who then stole the artifact and fatally stabbed his son. The fact that JJ died in the arms of the woman he loved, and his final thoughts were of his friends, was a comfort… but honestly, not much of one.
Date of Death: Oct. 24, 2024
John Dutton, Yellowstone
Photo : Paramount Network screenshot
The assassins that Sarah hired to rub out Montana’s governor did their damnedest to make it look like he’d killed himself rather than face impeachment. But it soon came to light that his “suicide” was as big a lie as adopted son Jamie’s protestations that he’d had nothing to do with it.
Date of Death: Nov. 10, 2024
Lilia, Agatha All Along
Photo : Disney+ screenshot
There was at least a silver lining to Lilia’s demise: The episode in which it happened, “Death’s Hand in Mine,” was one of the year’s most inventive and moving on any TV show. But even though Agatha‘s seventh installment gave us Patti LuPone’s best work (and a truly gorgeous, slow-motion death scene), it took our breath away to realize that Lilia’s tarot-centric trial on the Witches’ Road had an unavoidably fatal end.
Date of Death: Oct. 23, 2024
Lois, Superman & Lois
Photo : The CW screenshot
Despite following the exploits of an alien superhero, this short-lived CW drama’s secret weapon has always been its unapologetic humanity, which was firing on all cylinders during the show’s absolutely brutal series finale. Watching the titular lovers live out their final days was heartbreaking, with Lois’ death from cancer standing out as a particularly devastating development. Frankly, it was a relief to see Clark reunite with Lois in the afterlife — looking drop-dead gorgeous in her signature red dress, may we add — or else we’d still be emotional wrecks.
Date of Death: Dec. 2, 2024
Mariko, Shōgun
Photo : FX screenshot
FX’s samurai epic told a tale of warlords and swordsmen, but the bravest character of all turned out to be soft-spoken translator Mariko, played by Anna Sawai. She sacrificed her life to halt a deadly power struggle, bracing her body up against a door loaded with explosives — and when she died, we almost got as emotional as her lover John Blackthorne did.
Date of Death: Apr. 16, 2024
Nadia, The Cleaning Lady
Photo : Hulu screenshot
Oh, man, poor Nadia was so close to getting her happy ending (or whatever the equivalent of a happy ending on this show might be). Still reeling from Arman’s death and longing to get out from under the cartel’s thumb, Nadia was just moments away from flying off in a helicopter to start her new life as Natalie Vasquez… until cartel queenpin Ramona Sanchez intercepted Nadia’s departure and fatally stabbed her. We knew Nadia’s escape seemed too good to be true, but those suspicions did little to ease the sting of her untimely demise.
Date of Death: May 21, 2024
Nat, The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live
Photo : AMC screenshot
A single episode. That was all we got with Michonne’s crafty travel companion. But we came to love him as much (and as quickly) as she did. That being the case, we felt like we’d been shot through the heart right along with him when he was killed only seconds after seeing his friend reunite with long-MIA husband Rick.
Date of Death: March 3, 2024
Rhaenys, House of the Dragon
Photo : HBO screenshot
We’ve grown painfully accustomed to fan-favorite character deaths in the Game of Thrones universe, but we’ll admit: We thought we had more time with Eve Best’s Queen Who Never Was. An unwavering ally to Rhaenyra and one-half of perhaps the only loving couple in all of Westeros, Rhaenys was a nuanced badass who ultimately perished in a dragon-on-dragon battle with Aemond and his beast, Vhagar. And in true Rhaenys fashion, she stayed remarkably calm as death closed in on her, which only made her fate more devastating to behold.
Date of Death: July 7, 2024
Ronnie, The Diplomat
Photo : Netflix screenshot
We knew that someone wouldn’t survive the car bomb explosion that ended Season 1 of the Netflix political thriller — and it felt like a punch to the gut to find out that Ronnie, the idealistic young embassy officer played by Jess Chanliau, perished in the attack. Ronnie’s tragic death hung like a dark cloud over all of Season 2, proving that all these political games have very real consequences.
Date of Death: Oct. 31, 2024
Russo, Reacher
Photo : Prime Video screenshot
When Russo — the NYPD detective who was at first believed to mean the 110th vets harm, but wound up an ally — died in a hail of bullets in the name of protecting a young girl, it was as devastating as it was heroic. The fact that haphephobic Neagley accepted his hand, when offered, added further poignancy to the moment.
Date of Death: Jan. 5, 2024
Sam McCall, General Hospital
Photo : ABC screenshot
Dante’s newly minted fiancée came through surgery to donate part of her liver to his comatose ex-wife just fine. But then, out of nowhere, she flatlined. WTH? Someone — who, we don’t yet know — gave the heroine enough digitalis to cause an overdose.
Date of Death: Oct. 30, 2024
Tom Starr, The Bold and the Beautiful
Photo : CBS screenshot
Given that it meant we’d never again have to hear Clint Howard’s formerly homeless guy sing, we could probably consider his demise a mercy killing — except for the fact that he was murdered by his own maniacal daughter, Luna Nozawa. She was hell-bent on letting everyone believe that her real father was Daddy Warbucks Bill Spencer.
Date of Death: July 21, 2024
Witt Farr, Fargo
Photo : FX screenshot
In a word: noooooo! We realize that Fargo’s fickle wheel of fate sometimes lands on the pure and innocent, but we were still devastated when goodhearted cop Witt Farr was fatally stabbed by that malicious bully Roy Tillman in the Season 5 finale. At least Lamorne Morris earned a well-deserved Emmy for his troubles.
Date of Death: Jan. 16, 2024
