Day 30 – Saddest Character Death

Warning: Spoilers for The Wire and Downton Abbey are below.  They are detailed and super-duper-extremely sad-making.  If you haven't watched those series and you plan to and you don't like spoilers, then quit readin' already and get busy watchin'.

I think this post is the reason I didn't update the challenge for a month.

I'm a crier, and I have cried at many a TV death in my day.  I won't tell you the specific ones here, in case that will spoil you, but let's just say that my sofa has seen its fair share of my tears and then some.  The two listed below are the ones that hit me the very, very hardest-- even though I already knew both of them were coming.

First, Downton Abbey's Lady Sybil Cora Crawley Branson

she loved those stupid pants

I had heard all of the rumors about Dan Stevens wanting to leave the show, but I hadn't heard the Jessica Brown Findlay ones at all.  I watched this latest season on a slight delay (as in hours and days after the UK airings), but I knew a big, big death was coming, and I couldn't help myself.  I took to the tumblr, and there it was.  So I watched the episode.  Even with the warning, I wasn't prepared for how entirely heart-breaking it would be.  Stupid Robert Crawley and his stupid pompous fancy doctor!  And Sybil's death scene... that was one of the more harrowing things I've ever seen on TV!  They are all utterly helpless as she seizes and dies while her mother and her husband wail separately and simultaneously.  Tore. Me. UP.  Now, our dear Tom is left all by his lonesome... with Baby Sybil, of course.

Sorry, Tommy.

And second, The Wire's Wallace.

Just looking at this picture makes me want to sob.

The Wire is a hardcode show, and it is not for the faint of heart.  The following paragraphs aren't for the faint of heart either-- this is your warning.  It is also not recommended for people who live in Baltimore but don't know a lot about it.  Basically, you'll start thinking that everyone sells drugs.  Everyone's got them WMDs.  Here's a little backstory to set the cry-making mood.  There are a couple of interweaving plotlines in the first season, and one of them revolves around a gang of teenage drug dealers, including Wallace (played to bittersweet perfection by a baby-faced Michael B. Jordan).  His crew gets robbed by Omar (one of the best characters in the history of television).  Wallace spots Omar's accomplice and calls it in, which leads to said accomplice being tortured and brutally murdered by Stringer Bell (another brilliant character).  Wallace gets a cut of the bounty due to the information, but he also sees what his information wrought, so he wants out.  Unfortunately, that's not how things work for these kids, and so his very best friends are ordered to kill him.

So Wallace shows back up because he wants to get his life back together.  He sees his friends, and at first he's all happy.  Then they point a gun at him with shaking hands, so naturally Wallace wets himself and cries.  And then, his best friends pull the trigger and kill him.  It's awful.  I will never forget it.

Hubs had watched this episode before me, and (again, because I am a spoiler reader) I already knew what was coming, so I asked him, "How sad is it?"  He replied, "It's not too bad."  YEAH, "not too bad" = tears pouring down my cheeks faster than I could wipe them away and pressing my hand to my mouth to keep from sobbing breakdown-style.  "Not too bad," my aunt Fanny.  Just remembering it makes my chest ache.

This is a depressing post.  To make up for that, here's a gif of my favorite part of While You Were Sleeping.

omg best