40 Most Shocking TV Moments of 2014

We were already 99.9 percent sure that Gareth (Andrew J. West) and his minions were cannibals after seeing the Terminus killing floor and butcher shop in the season premiere. But it wasn't until the closing moments of ''Strangers,'' when Bob Stookey (Lawrence Gilliard Jr.) awoke to find his amputated leg on the barbecue just a few feet away, that we knew for sure. ''If it makes you feel any better,'' says Gareth, munching some ka-Bob, ''you taste much better than we thought you would.'' —Jeff Labrecque

For a brief moment, Game of Thrones transformed from jaunty fantasy epic to vomit-worthy gore porn when The Mountain (Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, if you care) finished off a duel with Prince Oberyn (Pedro Pascal) in an eye-popping fatality reminiscent of a medieval Mortal Kombat. Not only did reaction videos of the moment hit the web (much like the prior season's wedding dance from hell), but the jaw-dropper managed to truly put Thrones' best season over the edge with nothing more than a well-timed squish. —Marc Snetiker

No, not fun, legal-in-15-states stoned—stoned to death. In one of the most cringe-inducing and violent scenes ever to grace the already envelope-pushing Sunday night on HBO, Gladys (Marceline Hugot)—one of the silent women who form the chain-smoking activist group known as the Guilty Remnant—is attacked by masked haters while strapped to a tree. This sequence, depicted in real-time as Gladys slowly gets pelted with large rocks to her skull, was enough to make at least one TV critic call it quits on the bleak drama. —Jason Clark

Fans had speculated that the show's titular mother would die by series' end—but that didn't make the moment when it's revealed that she did indeed die any less of a heart-stopper (or, for many watchers, a groan-inducer). —Ariana Bacle

More than halfway through Good Wife's superb, game-changing fifth season, fans were forced to say goodbye to one of the show's fan favorites as Will Gardner (Josh Charles) found himself the unlucky victim of gunfire in the courtroom when a mentally unstable young client (Hunter Parrish) on a murder charge got hold of an officer's weapon. Will's death left viewers so shaken the creators penned an open letter to fans, but the show managed to keep its forceful momentum going in the character's wake—and the aftermath likely helped Julianna Margulies nab her second Emmy for the show in 2014. —Jason Clark

The tragic breakdown of Michael Ginsberg (Ben Feldman) in the face of Sterling Cooper & Partners' new computer came to a startling, gross-out conclusion. In her office, Ginsberg told Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) he had feelings for her and then handed her a box. Inside? His nipple, cut off his body. ''It's the valve,'' he explained. —Esther Zuckerman

Netflix's shady-dealing politico drama got jaws to hit the floor with the very first episode of season 2, when Slugline reporter Zoe Barnes (Kate Mara) met her end on a Washington D.C. subway platform. The real shocker? She was not pushed onto the tracks by some crazy, demented loon but by presidential hopeful and former extracurricular lover Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey). Fans of the '90s BBC drama knew what to expect, but Cards' U.S. viewers were stopped in their tracks. —Jason Clark

Given that Freeman's Lester Nygaard seemed to be the William H. Macy character of the series right off the bat, we didn't have high hopes for the fate of his wife. But did we expect him to gruesomely bash her head in with a hammer at the end of the pilot? No, you betcha we didn't. —Esther Zuckerman

Viola Davis's Annalise Keating spends most of her time on the show heavily made up, but at the end of one episode she removed all her makeup, her wig, and her fake eyelashes to reveal what she looks like when she's not dressing up for the courtroom—and to prepare for delivering one of the year's best lines to her slimy husband: ''Why is your penis on a dead girl's phone?'' —Ariana Bacle

Anyone who can come across as more hardcore than a terrifying clown named Twisty?wins? As it were, upper-crust Freak Show Dandy (Finn Wittrock) is more unsettling and less sympathetic than Twisty precisely because he appears so very normal. It's also the only reason he was welcomed into a suburban Tupperware party—where he proceeded to slaughter every housewife in sight before soaking in their blood. —Lanford Beard

Puppy dog eyes Jake (Scott Foley) just had to ''protect the Republic'' when he killed prying journalist James Novak (Dan Bucatinsky), didn't he? But what has the Republic ever done for him? Throw him in a hole? Sometimes these B613 guys need to put that silencer down, chill out, and drink some of Olivia Pope's wine. —Teresa Jue

Yes, it's happened on other beloved shows before, but killing off the main character is a bold and exciting move. Arrow's third season hasn't been as consistent as its second, but the showdown between Ra's al Ghul (Matt Nable) and Oliver (Stephen Amell) invigorated the midseason finale with a brutal and thrilling energy. Sure, will they probably revive him soon after the show returns? Of course, but there's no way Ollie comes back from the dead without some MAJOR—and hopefully fascinating—repercussions for Team Arrow. —Jonathon Dornbush

Winchester brothers Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) have been to Heaven, Hell, and back again, but Demon Dean was a complete shake-up to their dynamic. Sure, Soulless Sam was mean, but Dean working with Crowley proved how dark—and surprisingly funny—an evil Winchester could be. Deanmon may have not been around too long, but his demonic ways, which encompassed just about all of the Seven Deadly Sins, delivered during their brief stay. —Jonathon Dornbush

In a season filled with shocking moments (we're lookin' at you, Tony the transsexual), we didn't think we could continue being surprised. Cue the final scenes of the season, wherein we were introduced to something we never expected—male clones. Male clones raised by soldiers, no less. As Alison (Tatiana Maslany) might say: Oi! —Andrea Towers

In the season 5 finale, Elena (Nina Dobrev) and Damon (Ian Somerhalder) killed themselves in order to get to the Other Side and bring back Stefan (Paul Wesley). Only, by the time Luke (Chris Brochu) stopped the spell, not everyone had made it back. Stuck on the Other Side as it disintegrated, series regulars Bonnie (Kat Graham) and Damon held hands and accepted their fate. But when a bright white light appeared, fans couldn't help but wonder where they actually went. —Samantha Highfill

The majority of viewers expected Jax (Charlie Hunnam) to kill Gemma (Katey Sagal). But Jax putting a bullet in Unser (Dayton Callie), who refused to leave the two alone in the penultimate episode, turned some fans against Jax. It wasn't just the most shocking moment of the final ride, it was the most shocking moment of the entire series. —Mandi Bierly

The tension between Red (Kate Mulgrew) and Vee (Lorraine Toussaint) was mounting all season, but it finally got real when Red tried to choke Vee with some plastic wrap—and Vee kind of let her. For a second there, it seemed like this is how Litchfield would lose Vee, but Red ended up letting go and calling a truce with her once-enemy in a weirdly sentimental moment. Nothing like some friendly bonding to follow an almost-murder! —Ariana Bacle

Alcide himself, a.k.a. Joe Manganiello, may have seen it coming. He told EW, ''As soon as I read the season finale last year and he was with Sookie, I went, 'I'm dead, they're gonna kill me,' immediately. Like, immediately.'' But that doesn't mean the audience saw it coming. In the final season's third episode, werewolf Alcide survived a battle with H-vamps only to be killed by a supe-hating redneck. As Manganiello succinctly put it, ''I get shot in the head by this random character whose name I don't even know and die naked in the woods.'' At least they got one thing right! —Mandi Bierly

After seeing Brody (Damien Lewis) horrifically flailing from the gallows in the season 3 finale, his sudden reappearance was nothing less than unnerving. That it was happening during a full-blown psychotic break for his former lover Carrie (Claire Danes) certainly didn't ease our own neuroses. —Lanford Beard

When it came to King Henry (Alan Van Sprang), Reign fans knew to expect the unexpected, but nothing could've prepared them for Henry humping a woman out of the castle window to her death. What started as a love (or at least sex) scene ended in comedy when the ever-sexy up-against-the-wall approach turned deadly. But was it on purpose? —Samantha Highfill

To call Daniel Grayson's death ''shocking'' wouldn't really be fair. Granted, it came a bit on the early side, but, even so, it was the perfect way for the Hamptons pretty boy to go: taking a bullet for Emily and telling her their relationship wasn't all a lie. It not only cleanly wrapped up his character arc, but it reintroduced a glimmer of hope into a world that, especially for the past two seasons, has been nothing but bleak. —Emily Blake

Andi's season of The Bachelorette seemed ho-hum after Juan Pablo's controversial turn, but that all changed at the After the Final Rose when disgruntled runner-up, Nick, with his downcast eyes and lovelorn attitude, asked Andi, ''If you weren't in love with me, I'm just not sure why...why you made love to me.'' It was so awkward. Nick might as well have let out some Nancy Kerrigan-decibel yelps of ''WWWWHHHHYYYYY?'' —Teresa Jue

Word on Greg Kinnear's legal drama was decidedly mixed. Even EW's own Jeff Jensen, in a middling-to-favorable B review, had to ponder the Australian adaptation's inherent conundrum: ''How long before we get weary of increasingly bad behavior before we demand that the Rake begin to progress? But then, if that happens, how much self-improvement do you allow into Deane's character before Rake stops being Rake?'' —Lanford Beard

Alan Alda. Exploded. In front of our eyes. Some things you can't unsee. —Lanford Beard

In the fifth mid-season finale, the Liars teamed up with Mona (Janel Parrish) to try to find proof that Alison (Sasha Pieterse) was ''A.'' But by the time Mona made the call claiming she could say for certain that Ali was the elusive ''A,'' a blond someone in a black hoodie entered her house. Mona didn't come out. Well, she did—but not on her own two feet. —Samantha Highfill

The Knick's pilot had some great, gross moments, but none was more gloriously visceral than the scene in which Dr. John Thackery (Clive Owen) had to get his shlong vein poked with some cocaine in order to get his fix. Nurse Lucy (Eve Hewson) had the—tiresome? enviable?—task of injecting cocaine into Thackery's penis, just in time for the surgeon to make it into surgery in the next scene. —Teresa Jue

After predicting his own undoing, the finalist then proceeded to?undo himself. The misstep was so egregious that EW's own Dalton Ross felt the need to qualify, ''To be clear, I am not the one calling Woo the stupidest Survivor player ever—he is calling himself that.'' —Lanford Beard

True Detective forever changed how we look at flowers when Betty Childress (Ann Dowd) asked her half-brother—and the show's big bad—Errol Childress (Glenn Fleshler) if he wanted to ''make flowers''...and when Errol proceeded to honor her request. Never has a beautiful-on-paper euphemism for sex sounded so gross. —Ariana Bacle

It was not meant to be the series finale, but it seems only fitting that Dallas ended with a bang when Nicolas (Juan Pablo Di Pace) blew up Christopher's car—with Christopher (Jesse Metcalfe) still inside. Fans' final image of the show will forever be Elena (Jordana Brewster) screaming Christopher's name through tears?and flames. —Samantha Highfill

We knew Skye (Chloe Bennet) wasn't exactly human (hello, ''0-8-4''), but was she inhuman? Was she a Kree alien? Well, kind of. Agents of SHIELD's midseason finale saw the plucky hacker officially accept her destiny by revealing herself to be Daisy Johnson, a.k.a. superhero Quake, which in turn set the stage for a lot of theories about what's coming next in the Marvel universe. —Andrea Towers

You can't title your show I Wanna Marry Harry if nobody actually wants to. Fox's embarrassing reality debacle was canceled before any of the not-so-unsuspecting American girls ever reached second base with the Prince Harry doppelgänger (who could only boast a passing resemblance to the royal redhead in the first place). We'll never know if anyone actually wanted to marry Harry—and we couldn't care less. —Marc Snetiker

To support her 42-pound breasts, Lacey Wildd called in hog-hide reinforcements. To absolutely no one's surprise (except maybe Lacey's), Botched's reconstruction specialists Dr. Terry Dubrow and Dr. Paul Nassif ultimately chose not to honor her request to augment her super-boobs to an unheard-of size QQQ. —Lanford Beard

His goblin-like face may not have been that intimidating in the big picture, but the über vamp of Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan's small-screen adaptation entered with a spine-tingling splat! After draining his hapless victim dry, The Master went next-level and bashed the poor schmo's head in...over and over and over again. —Lanford Beard

Hard to say what was more shocking—that Aviva removed her prosthetic leg in a fancy restaurant, slammed it down on a table (full of food!), then hurled it across the room...or that she actually did something interesting at all. —Lanford Beard

A CBS show called Stalker is unlikely to pull any punches. But what about gasoline douses? In the first few minutes of the series debut, a nameless victim (Torrey DeVitto) whimpered, scrambled, and finally careened into a tree—and to her death—as her pursuer set her car ablaze. So hot it was cold. Chilling, in fact. —Lanford Beard

The Originals' season 1 finale began with Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin) giving birth to her daughter. With witches standing by to take the newborn child, the episode's biggest shock occurred only a matter of minutes in when Hayley got to hold her daughter for the first time?and Monique (Yasmine Al-Bustami) slit her throat. The twist on the twist? Hayley came back to life later in the hour, but as a hybrid. —Samantha Highfill

She was a lonely woman on a 13-month solo space mission. He was an alien who looked like her dead boyfriend, spoke in one-word, Groot-like phrases, and sure knew how to caress with his pointer finger. And apparently that's all it takes to get laid in space. Missed this particular shocking moment? Don't you worry! EW has you covered. —Dalene Rovenstine

For weeks at the halfway house, Michael (Ronnie Gene Blevins) bullied Keith (Paul Walter Hauser). But it wasn't until Michael went after Ryan (Matt Lauria) that Keith couldn't take it anymore. When Michael asked about Ryan's father, it seemed almost guaranteed Ryan was going to punch him in the face; instead, Ryan walked away just in time to realize that Keith had taken a butcher's knife from the kitchen and was stabbing Michael repeatedly. —Samantha Highfill

It was clear that the Mountain Men were sketchy, but it wasn't revealed just how much of a Big Bad the underground people were until the last few moments of ''Reapercussions,'' when Clarke (Eliza Taylor) stumbled upon a harvest chamber...for humans. That is, humans hung from their legs being drained of their blood in a room full of thousands of other humans in cages. The show had definitely gone dark before, but it wasn't until this moment that it went full-on horror flick. —Dalene Rovenstine

After The Sound of Music Live!, viewers tuning in for Allison Williams' turn as Peter Pan were primed to tweet jokes at the production's expense. While those jokes certainly came, Peter Pan Live! was neither a rousing success nor a spectacular flop, and that in and of itself was surprising. Sure, Christopher Walken as Hook was loopy (in an arguably delicious way). Sure, Williams could have perfected her crowing. And, sure that croc was...well...something. But, all in all, Pan was nothing to write home about. —Esther Zuckerman