1. Joyce Summers - Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Alright, I know I shouldn't include two deaths from the same show, but I genuinely do believe that they both rank in the top ten most heartbreaking death scenes in television. Joyce was Buffy's long-suffering mother, often confused about her daughter's activities but always there for her. She was such a constant on the show it didn't really seem possible that she could die. But Buffy comes home one day to find her mother dead on the couch. The look on her face as she gradually realizes what's going on is devastating, and hearing Sarah Michelle Gellar's trembling voice saying, "Mommy?" still gives me chills. There's no dramatic music, no non-diegetic sound at all. It's a starkly realistic scene in a show famous for its fantasy elements. At the end of the day, it's not a vampire or a demon that killed Joyce -- she's a human, and humans die. The Body is one of the best episodes of television, period. Jesus, even thinking about this right now is making me tear up.