“You probably don’t even hear it when it happens, right?”
These haunting words were uttered by gentle gangster Bobby Bacala 19 years ago during the of the HBO mob drama “The Sopranos” when discussing how a wise guy usually meets his unceremonious end.
Just a few short episodes later, and everyone’s favorite manicotti-obsessed soldier would find himself in a pool of his own blood on the floor of a model train store.
Bacala isn’t the only death that gripped television audiences when it happened, though.
Here are five characters who met an untimely demise during the run of their respective TV shows, and how their deaths still impact fans to this day.
Also, this may be obvious, but spoilers ahead.
This one was hard to watch even as a 20-something single guy, but now that I have a child of my own, it’s a literal knife to the heart.
Shireen Baratheon is the daughter of hopeful king Stannis Baratheon, and for the majority of her three-season run, she is one of the purest characters on a show full of absolute scoundrels.
It’s what makes her death all the more shocking and heartbreaking when Stannis, drunk with power and desperate to claim the throne, is convinced by religious zealot Melisandre to sacrifice his daughter to The Lord of The Light to help him win a war.
And we aren’t talking a poison drink or clean beheading here. This is a gruesome death where Shireen is burned at the stake.
What makes the scene even more gut-wrenching is seeing how much Shireen adores and trusts her father throughout the show, only to be cast aside like a pawn in his quest for power.
As she screams, Stannis can only watch in horror, likely realizing what he has just done, but Melisandre looks on, completely unfazed.
Tough to watch, if we are being honest.
Okay, this one might be a little self-indulgent, since many of you likely haven’t seen “Chuck”, and it just so happens to be my favorite show, but hopefully you’ll check it out after reading this.
Anyway, in the show, the titular Chuck Bartowski downloads a government supercomputer (codename: Intersect) into his brain, and the and NSA launch a joint operation to keep him out of harm’s way while they try to wipe his memory of all the classified information he has access to.
As it turns out, Chuck’s father Stephen (played by Scott Bakula) invented the Intersect, and is the only one who knows how to remove it, but has been on the run since Chuck and his sister, Ellie, were kids.
When Stephen shows back up in Chuck and Ellie’s life, things are awkward at first, with Chuck and his father not knowing each other’s secret, but after the cat gets out of the bag, they bond over their shared circumstance.
Stephen becomes an integral character for the two seasons he is on the show, until a rogue agent kills him in cold blood to make sure the Intersect is never recreated.
The scene is set in slow motion and causes Chuck to have a mental breakdown, knowing that he finally had a chance to catch up with his dad after all those lost years, only to have it snatched away from him.
Chuck breaking the news to Ellie afterwards is equally heartbreaking, as any closure the two siblings were looking for was snuffed out in a subway station for no good reason.
The show M*A*S*H* dealt with some pretty heavy topics (namely the ), but did so with a touch of comedy to keep things light.
There’s a reason the show ran for 11 seasons, as it was one of the most popular TV programs of the ’70s, and part of its charm was how it would deftly dance between drama and comedy.
The ensemble cast of characters, all medics in a MASH unit during wartime, endeared themselves to audiences everywhere, and none were more lovable than Henry Blake.
All Blake ever wanted was to return to his home
