5 Saddest TV Show Episodes

Have you ever been really enjoying your favorite television show and then a sad song comes along and just plays the strings of your heart? Sometimes I hate that. Sometimes I love it. Today I've put together 5 of the saddest TV show episodes. There's a lot of sad episodes out there, but these five stuck with me the longest. Either because they were relatable, they were in otherwise happy series, or they had lasting vibrations through future episodes. Here's 5 of the saddest TV episodes:

4. The Simpsons - Bart Gets an F

Some people aren't good at taking tests. I was never one of those people, I just didn't get the whole idea until this episode. Bart needs to get at least a "D" on his test otherwise he'll be forced to repeat the 4th grade. He prays to God for a day off and Springfield is hit with a blizzard. He does study. He studies really hard. He takes the test and he gets a 59, still failing. Bart burst into tears and starts reciting everything he had studied. Edna changes his grade to a passing one realizing that he's not necessarily a lazy underachiever but he doesn't test well and has all the knowledge and is able to use it practically.

It's not just the test that makes this sad. It's the fact that sometimes no matter how you try, you won't be good at something. For me, that's public speaking. I'll suddenly develop an intense stutter, forget everything. Bart stayed inside while every man woman and child was in the streets enjoying a snow day. He sat inside and studied the American Revolution. A 4th grader gave up a snow day to study and he still couldn't pass the test. I'm glad Edna is a good teacher and realized that Bard did know the information so everything turned out okay, but if it were a different teacher he could have been doomed to keep repeating the 4th grade.

3. Futurama - The Sting

Hey, Futurama can be serious too. They've got a lot of serious episodes. Some people state the one with Fry's dog being frozen waiting for him is the saddest. I disagree. I think "The Sting" is the saddest. The delivery crew goes to collect honey from space bees, a mission that killed a previous crew. Leela decides to take a baby queen so they can make their own honey on Earth. When the bees become enraged one attacks Leela and Fry dives in front of her. Each sting is deadly and Fry gets stung, killing him almost instantly. Leela is torn up by this. She blames herself for Fry's death and drowns in the loneliness. She uses the space honey to comfort her, causing hallucinations. In one she digs up Fry's corpse at one point only for it to whisper "wake up." Knowing too much of the honey is dangerous she plans to overdose on it so she can be with Fry in her dreams. A picture of Fry begins to talk to her and tell her not to kill herself. She destroys the jar of honey and bees attack. The picture of Fry keeps yelling for her to "wake up," causing her to finally do so. Leela was in the hospital. Fry did jump in front of her but the stinger went through him and still stung Leela. With a hole in his chest he sat by her bed for two weeks begging her to wake up.

It's sad because prior to this point, Leela had paid no attention to Fry's advances and shot him down at every opportunity. Not because she didn't love Fry, but because she was all work and no play. Eventually he gave up despite still loving her. Seeing Fry die, even if it was a hallucination made her realize how much she actually loved him. Then they got together and lived happily ever after.

2. House - Simple Explanations

Suicide sucks. It really sucks when it's someone you like. I'll say it, Kutner was one of my favorite characters on House. That's why when this episode rolled around I was left in shock. It was just like "are you serious right now?" In the episode Kutner doesn't show up for work which is strange because he's always there on time. House sends Foreman and Thirteen to his apartment and they find his dead body. First House believes that he's murdered because he can't accept the fact that Kutner would kill himself. He starts investigating and goes to see Kutner's adopted parents. He blames them for the death and storms out. Later he comes to the conclusion Kutner must have been murdered by the people who killed his birth parents. Only he learns that man died months earlier. House skipped the funeral and goes back to Kutner's apartment. He goes through photo albums and notices happy smiling Kutner but any photo that has Kutner alone in the background has him looking sad or staring off into space. House comes to the conclusion that Kutner was depressed and he thinks back realizing he missed all the signs.

This episode is so sad because you watch House go through all these alternatives to Kutner taking his life. He took the time to learn who Kutner's birth parents were, look them up, find their killer and locate him. He just couldn't accept his suicide. It doesn't stop with this episode either. It continues in the season finale which has him being taunted by hallucinations of Kutner and Amber, another dead protege(House's Head/Wilson's Heart also really sad episode combo). House is still blaming himself for both their deaths. Forget all the other deaths and problems he's caused people. Those are the two he blames himself for. After the break down House finally goes to get treatment for his drug addiction feeling as if he was sober he'd have been able to save them.

The episode does a good job hitting home the point of suicide being sudden and the fact that it can have lasting effects. Nobody ever sees a suicide coming and it's hard to accept. It seems like a lot of time the people we see as the happiest

1. Scrubs - My Lunch/My Fallen Idol 

So this is two episodes, that's why the title says five but the list starts at four. I'm recounting it as one episode because technically it deals with one episode in the characters' lives, and if Futurama taught us anything it's that technically is the best kind of correct. So JD and Dr. Cox go out to lunch and come across Jill, the annoying lady at the local grocery store. Everyone avoids her because she's too clingy. We all know someone like this. They try to dodge her. The next day Jill is found dead from what seems to be an overdose. JD blames himself. Thinking back on his interactions with Jill he realized that she was actually depressed and that's why she was so clingy. Dr. Cox tells him he couldn't have done anything because she never came into the hospital for help. JD tries to accept that but struggles. Meanwhile Dr. Cox is distributing Jill's organs to people in need.

Only, something goes wrong, and two of the patients die after their transplants. Dr. Cox starts to break down and then the third patient dies. It turns out Jill had died from rabies not a drug overdose but nobody tested because she had no signs of rabies or animal bites. The third patient dies and Dr. Cox loses it. JD tries to tell him it wasn't his fault and that testing for rabies would have been ridiculous and time wasting. Dr. Cox informs him one patient could have made it at least a month without a kidney transplant. 

The next episode starts with Dr. Cox showing up to work and JD telling him to leave because he can't stand looking at doctors that come in drunk. Over the course of the episode everyone tries to comfort Cox but JD refuses to go see him. Cox doesn't admit it but he really wanted JD to be there. Eventually JD does go and admits he was scared because seeing Dr. Cox break like that meant anyone could. He told Dr. Cox it meant a lot seeing that after twenty years in medicine he still cared that much about his patients. JD says he wants to be a doctor like Cox one day. Later at the bar Cox shows up sober and pulls JD aside and for the first time calls him JD and not a random woman's name. He then thanks JD for telling him what he needed to hear and they all have drinks.

Despite Turk coining the word Blerd, Dr. Cox is my favorite character because it always seems like he's a bad person and he knows it, so he's trying to do some good in the world but it doesn't always work. A lot of people can be hard on themselves and Dr. Cox is one of those. He's harder on himself than anyone else on the show. When someone is down, even if it's Elliot, Doug or even The Todd, he cares enough to help them out. But, when Dr. Cox is down on himself that's it. JD can often pull him up, or so it appears. In reality he puts on a smile and he still is upset with himself. In one episode he runs off everyone and knows he did it. He throws a party to watch a hokey game and nobody shows up. Nobody, but he's not mad they didn't come. He's mad at himself because he knows they didn't come because he's an ass. Still, he shows up at work, and lies about how great it was and nobody believes him because they all know, none of them went.

That's my list, I encourage you to tell me what your saddest episodes were.

You should buy Darrell's Book, watch him on the Blerds Online YouTube Channel or The CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. 

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