10 Soul Crushing Torchwood Moments That Left Us Traumatised

So, what tops the sudden and heart-wrenching death of a fan favourite character? The sudden and heart-wrenching deaths of two fan favourite characters. That's what.

In a move that only Torchwood could pull off, the series 2 finale, Exit Wounds, disposes of two of its main characters, both well beloved by fans, at the same time. After being shot by the charisma-vaccum that is Gray, Tosh lays dying in the operating theater as she tries to talk Owen through averting a nuclear meltdown. Realising that a manual override is needed (when is it not?) and that the chamber that Owen is in is about to be flooded with radiation, Tosh tells him to get out as quickly as he can. Owen, unfortunately, is too slow, and is trapped inside the chamber, doomed to die. At this point, Owen, who has had quite a rough time of it recently and doesn't fancy dying for the second time in the space of a few weeks, begins to (understandably) lose his s**t, yelling that it's not fair and that he doesn't want to die. Tosh begs him to stop but he refuses until she confesses, tears streaming down her face, that he is breaking her heart. This is where the audience tends to start blubbering.

Owen calms down and accepts his fate, apologising, not just for screaming, but for not taking her out on the date that he promised her - regretting that they missed their chance. We'd spent two years waiting for these two to get together, and to finally hear Owen express an interest in her as the two are about to die is devastating. Owen, in his dying moments, tries to comfort Tosh, thanking her for all the times she has saved his skin and telling her that she's going to be okay. What makes this ordeal all the more upsetting is that Owen never knows that Tosh is also dying - he dies thinking that she's safe and that he's done all he can to soften the impact of his death. We watch as he stands up, ready to face his death as his body starts to decompose and the comms go dead.

Tosh is left alone, bleeding out on the floor, a look of emptiness in her eyes. For a moment, it looks like she's going to die alone, but Jack and the crew find her and Gwen attempts to save her. Jack, knowing it's too late, cradles her in his arms where she dies with a smile on her face and the music punches us in the gut. Later, Jack, Gwen and Ianto find a recording whilst deactivating her Torchwood account, recorded in the event of her death. In the recording, she thanks Jack for saving her and showing her a new world before confessing her love for Owen, who is not there to hear it, solidifying this scene as the single most emotionally destroying moment in a series that is one long string of emotionally destroying moments.

This show is depressing. Why did we put ourselves through this?