6. "A Hole in the World" Angel
Now, I have made no secret of my love for Joss Whedon on my previous posts, however I am going to admit that I was never really a fan of Angel. Angel was always the messier, less well written, B-movie to Buffy's far superior series, however, Angel did get better and better with time, and this episode, in the middle of the last season of Angel (the best season) showed what a mature and powerful drama this show about a vampire with a soul really could be. This episode was also both written and directed by Joss Whedon, which always helps. The episode shows the sweetest most easy to love character on Angel, Winifred Burkle (aka Fred) become infected by an ancient demon that begins to eat away at her insides, trying to completely take over control of her body and kill her. All her friends desperately search for a cure for her because out of all of the gang, she is the one that is universally loved by everyone (even Spike), however the only cure they could find would end up killing thousands of people, so instead of this, they have no choice but to let Fred die. Meanwhile, Wesley, who loves her deeply, has to watch her die by her side, as her body is completely taken over by a demon. This episode was shocking, however I guess, because Whedon loves to kill off his characters, I shouldn't really be shocked anymore (look out Avengers 2). But of all the characters in the Whedonverse who didn't deserve to die, Fred was arguably the one that deserved it the least (maybe her and Dawn... as much as you may hate Dawn). This death is made only the more difficult to accept when the news that not only did Fred die, but her soul also died with her... so, unlike other characters who have died in the Buffyverse (Buffy for example) she doesn't get to spend eternity in heaven, and everything that made Fred Fred was gone. More painfully, the characters have to watch what is effectively her corpse being controlled by a demon for the remainder of the season. Wesley's last moments in the series finale come in at a close second to the most heartbreaking scene in the entire show.