The Walking Dead: Top 5 Heartbreaking Moments

Tyreese on The Walking Dead (Photo: AMC)

1. Tyreese heartbreakingly dies over the course of an entire episode

There are a lot of deaths on The Walking Dead. Most of the time, they’re unexpected. People are killed in many horrific ways, but it’s usually so sudden that it’s more shocking than outright heartbreaking.

That’s not the case with Tyreese. In a show right after the death of another major character, nobody was expecting Ty to be bitten so early into the episode. A zombie takes a chunk out of his arm, and he is left alone as Noah goes to get help from the others. And he spends most of the episode alone and dying, making viewers shed tears nonstop.

As Ty succumbs, he has visuals of some of his friends and foes. He sees Bob, Beth, and even Lizzie and Mika talking to him. They tell him that it’s okay that he’s dying, that he wasn’t going to be a part of that world any longer. “It’s better now,” Mika would say, as my heart would split in two.

The group tries to save Tyreese as they did with Hershel by cutting off his bitten arm. However, it’s too little, too late. By this point, poor Ty had already lost so much blood. With his deceased friends telling him that everything is alright, he closes his eyes for the last time.

Next: The Walking Dead Graveyard: Season 1 Character Deaths

Through rewatching the show, I’ve really realized how devastating this particular death is. It’s basically an entire hour of heartcrushing sadness. It’s so much harder to get through than, say, somebody getting an arrow shot through their brain from out of nowhere. At least then, we’re already past the hardest part.

The Walking Dead airs new episodes Sunday nights at 9/8c on AMC.