20 Most Shocking TV Character Deaths EVER
1. Jack Pearson - This Is Us
We learn that Jack Pearson is dead over a season before we actually see him die, and the exact nature of his death is kept vague until we do. How he dies hangs over his family (and This Is Us) like a spectre, an event they have silently agreed to leave unspoken.
When it's finally revealed how Jack died, in the season two episode "Super Bowl Sunday," it's harrowingly easy to see why the rest of the Pearson clan, even 20 years on, can't bring themselves to explicitly mention it.
The twists are horrible. As a fire engulfs the Pearson home, Jack, superdad that he is, races to save his kids from the flames. He succeeds, leading them all to safety outside, but then races back into the smoke to save their dog. You think this will be it, that he never makes it out of the house, but then he does! With the dog! Superdad!
All is well, but the death is still coming. And when it eventually hits, delivered as an off-screen heart attack caused by smoke inhalation, we're forced to watch his wife Rebecca find him dead, and cry anguished tears alongside her. This Is Us, ladies and gentlemen!