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Iconic, gut-punch moments from television shows

Underseer

Underseer

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I just finished watching Jessica Jones in anticipation of the upcoming release of Luke Cage.

While watching it, I couldn't help but notice one scene that chilled me to the bone and kind of transcended the whole show. If someone were doing a montage sequence on YouTube of shocking television moments, this would be the one from Jessica Jones.

It's just a couple of seconds. No one in the show talks about it or says anything about it. Right after screwing something up and endangering an innocent woman's life, Jessica faces an oncoming subway train, and you can see her lingering in the tracks trying to decide whether or not she wants to jump out of the way of the train.

JessicaJones_S1E07_3.png


That one image, that one moment really sums up the entire series, and certainly tugs at the heart strings.

Anyway, are there any really shocking, iconic, gut-punch moments from other television shows that are burned into your memory?
 
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When Lester killed his wife in Fargo.

Game of Thrones must have dozens of such scenes. The Red Wedding scene had the biggest impact on me, although so many others from that show come close.
 
Tales of Ba Sing Se

talesofbasingse.jpg

General Iroh from the Last Airbender is one of my favorite animated characters. There is one particular episode with multiple shorts in one episode. The one with General Iroh just goes through his day being nice to people and doing chores. At the end of the day though, everything comes together to show that it was his dead son's birthday and everything was done in memory of his son.
 
Sajara said:
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General Iroh from the Last Airbender is one of my favorite animated characters. There is one particular episode with multiple shorts in one episode. The one with General Iroh just goes through his day being nice to people and doing chores. At the end of the day though, everything comes together to show that it was his dead son's birthday and everything was done in memory of his son.
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That scene really stuck with me also.
 
The moment in Black Mirror when

The Prime Minister subjected himself to having sex with a pig on live television

 
Underseer said:
Nah. As long as it had a large emotional impact for you and lodged itself in your memory.

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RavenSky said:
ZiprHead said:
The M*A*S*H episode where Radar announces Colonel Blake died.
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:(

I think this one set the high bar for "iconic, gut-punch moments from television shows"
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Either I didn't see that episode or I don't remember it. Can you describe it?
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The episode arc running up to this scene was that Colonel Blake was finally getting to go home. Earlier in the episode were the joyous, comical (and sad) good-byes as Colonel Blake left the 4077th to go back to the U.S.

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g450eyrN7Pg[/YOUTUBE]

It was a gut-punch like no other in my memory of television, especially because it was all too real of war.
 
All the weird shit that went down in Twin Peaks.



And:

 
Not iconic per se, but certainly unexpected and shocking:

House of Cards, Season 2, Episode 1: Subway scene with Frank and Zoe.
 
"Love's Labor Lost" on E.R.

Greene misdiagnoses a pregnant patient, leading to a long and arduous surgery.
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My wife and I watched this episode...in the hospital...the day after our son was born. We were gut-punched by the tragic ending, having a "That coulda been us" moment.
 
On HBO's series Rome 1st season ender, when a long held secret is finally outed, Lucius is seen at the table, grappling with his love for his wife and his Roman duty to honor, a knife in his hand. Roman honor demands he kill his wife for her actions. But he is near tears, trying to work himself up to the killing

and failing. His wife Niobe spares him the decision by committing suicide. Lucius is last seen holding his wife's body and weeping. It was heart-wrenching and you were sitting there, stunned, saying no no no no no. Because a major plot of the whole season had been Lucius returning to his arranged marriage wife he hadn't seen in 6 years because he'd been on campaign in Gaul. The audience watched their sometimes awkward and sometimes charming attempts to get to know each other again and we all watched them fall in love for real.



Fuck.:(

It's been over 10 years. And it's STILL upsetting.
 
credoconsolans said:
On HBO's series Rome 1st season ender, when a long held secret is finally outed, Lucius is seen at the table, grappling with his love for his wife and his Roman duty to honor, a knife in his hand. Roman honor demands he kill his wife for her actions. But he is near tears, trying to work himself up to the killing

and failing. His wife Niobe spares him the decision by committing suicide. Lucius is last seen holding his wife's body and weeping. It was heart-wrenching and you were sitting there, stunned, saying no no no no no. Because a major plot of the whole season had been Lucius returning to his arranged marriage wife he hadn't seen in 6 years because he'd been on campaign in Gaul. The audience watched their sometimes awkward and sometimes charming attempts to get to know each other again and we all watched them fall in love for real.



Fuck.:(

It's been over 10 years. And it's STILL upsetting.
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Sounds highly reminiscent of the scene in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica in which colonel Tigh had to execute his own wife for political reasons, which would have been broadcast a couple of years before Rome. That was also haunting, made even moreso by the fact that both Tigh and his wife were deeply flawed, damaged people with a deeply flawed, damaged marriage but still cared about one another.
 
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