10 Recent TV Scenes That Shocked The World
7. Riley Sacrifices Himself - Midnight Mass
Mike Flanagan's fantastic recent horror series Midnight Mass further cements Flanagan as a modern master of the genre, melding pulse-quickening horror with genuinely thoughtful existential enquiry.
For much of the show, the protagonist appears to be Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford), a man struggling to overcome his guilt for killing someone in a drink-driving accident. Upon returning to his remote hometown of Crockett Island, a vampire descends upon the island and begins infecting the locals.
This eventually leads to Riley being attacked by the vampire at the end of the season's fourth episode, becoming one himself.
Riley then attempts to tell his love interest Erin (Kate Siegel) about what's going on, and in order to prove it to her beyond all doubt, he makes the drastic, ultimate decision to do something she couldn't ever deny.
Riley sails out onto the lake with Erin just as the sun rises, causing him to burst into flames and quickly perish in a pile of ash, much to Erin's traumatised horror.
It's an incredibly well executed sequence that's only as jaw-droppingly surprising as it is totally upsetting, and one of the best moments from any of Flanagan's growing pile of acclaimed horror series.