The moment on <i>Grey's Anatomy</i> when all the female doctors lined the hallway for a patient still gives me chills.
31 TV Scenes That Are Absolutely Heartbreaking, But Don’t Involve A Character Dying
Over the years, we’ve asked the BuzzFeed Community to tell us about some of the most heartbreaking TV moments of all time, and they’ve delivered time and time again. Now, while a lot of those scenes often include a tragic death, there’s something even more emotional when a scene makes you cry and there’s no death involved. So, here are some of the saddest TV moments that don’t involve a character’s tragic end:
Warning: There are massive spoilers ahead, as well as mentions of assault and depression.
1. First on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, when Will broke down to Uncle Phil over his dad leaving again.
4. On The Good Place, when Chidi was about to have his memory wiped and he said goodbye to Eleanor.
5. On Stranger Things, when Max escaped Vecna while “Running Up That Hill” played.
6. On The Summer I Turned Pretty, when Belly, Jeremiah, and Steven learned that Susannah’s cancer returned, and that Conrad had known all summer.
7. On Grey’s Anatomy, when all of the women at Grey Sloan lined the hall to usher a sexual assault survivor into surgery.
8. On Parenthood, when Alex broke up with Haddie, and then he had to say this heartbreaking goodbye to Kristina.
9. And on Parenthood, when Max was upset that all of the kids on his field trip made fun of him and one of them peed in his canteen.
10. On Maid, when Regina dropped off Alex and Maddy at the domestic violence shelter.
11. On The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, when Bucky told Sam that he was worried Steve was wrong about him.
12. On Black-ish, when Bow and Dre decided to take some time apart.
13. On Never Have I Ever, when Devi told her mom she didn’t want to go away to a boarding school for senior year because it meant they wouldn’t be together.
14. On Boy Meets World, when Mr. Feeny said goodbye to his class one last time.
15. On One Tree Hill, when Brooke begged Julian to save Jamie before he saved her as their car filled up with water following a car crash.
16. On This Is Us, when Kevin sat on his high school football field, and relived his childhood and what led to him hitting rock bottom and feeling completely alone.
17. On One Day at a Time, when Elena told Alex what she really wanted to say at their dad’s wedding, and how much it still hurt that their dad didn’t accept her right away after she came out.
18. On Wynonna Earp, when Jolene was torturing Waverly by convincing her that nobody loved her.
19. On Only Murders in the Building, when we watched Bunny’s final day before she was murdered, and it included the sad moment when she just wanted to hang out with Charles, Oliver, and Mabel, but they didn’t get the hint.
20. On The Flight Attendant, when Cassie revealed that she had broken her sobriety a few times, and she went to the beach and sobbed.
21. On Angel, when Angel got to spend a day as a human with Buffy, but then they had to reset the day like it never happened.
22. On Outer Banks, when JJ broke down to Kie and Pope after he said he couldn’t take his father’s abuse anymore.
23. On Our Flag Means Death, when Ed waited for Stede to show up on the dock so they could run away together, but Stede never arrived.
24. On Criminal Minds, when Emily listened to a message from Garcia saying everyone was coming to help her.
25. On Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., when Bobbi and Hunter said goodbye to the team.
26. On Pachinko, when Sunja’s mom begged the rice merchant for some Korean-grown rice so that Sunja could have it before leaving for Japan.
27. On Superstore, when ICE arrived at Cloud 9 and took Mateo.
28. On Kevin Can F**k Himself, when Allison revealed to Patty how much Kevin had taken away from her over the years.
29. On Dickinson, when Sue begged Emily to want her back and the scene took place at the orchard from the very first episode.
30. On Supernatural, when Dean told Sam about his time in hell and how he was forced to torture people.
31. And finally, on Gilmore Girls, when Emily told Richard he wasn’t allowed to die first.
We can’t fit everything into one post, so tell us which other TV moments are so heartbreaking, but don’t involve a character dying, in the comments below!
Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.