Biggest Heartbreak

Sometimes even the funny shows stab you in the heart when you’re not expecting it. Or you are expecting it, but you get there and it still hurts. Anyhoo, time for some sad stuff, because why get invested in a show that CAN’T break your heart.

Honourable mentions: This is supposed to be one powerful moment of heartbreak in one scene in one episode of one show, not five moments spread over several shows. So as I can’t possibly pick just one of these, let’s say that powerful though each was, “The Last Stand of the Green Arrow” from Crisis on Infinite Earths part one, “Final fate of Oliver Queen” from Crisis part four, and Oliver’s three funerals (the other heroes, the people of Star City, and the final funeral with nearly every friend and loved one from all eight seasons) have split the “Goodbye Green Arrow” vote. Also, while “The Last Run of Flash-90” really got to me, if you didn’t also watch and love the 1990 Flash series when it first aired, it might not get to you the same way. And Liv and Clive’s farewell from iZombie’s penultimate episode was really touching, but it only lasted like seven minutes before Clive said “Screw this, they need me,” and joined Liv and Ravi’s heist to cure zombieism.

Onwards.

Bronze: “You can’t save everyone, Seg,” Krypton, “Blood Moon”

Yeah. Krypton. Who knew.

Kem was never my favourite character on Krypton, as he wasn’t Nyssa-Vex, Brainiac, or on a good day, actual series lead Seg-El. He was just Seg-El’s buddy from his days in the dregs of society, and it sometimes seemed like season two was working hard to keep him in the story. But towards the end of the season, we reached this moment.

General Zod had unleashed Doomsday on the resistance, and the only way to stop him was a series of bombs that had to be set off manually. Seg-El, being Seg-El, decides it’s his job to die stopping Doomsday. But Kem is not having it. And, yeah, it got to me. If a man giving his life so his best friend won’t doesn’t get to you, you’re a little dead inside.

Silver: Kara’s confession, Supergirl, “Event Horizon”

Kara Danvers and Lena Luthor were best of friends for three years, but that whole time, Kara had been keeping her true identity secret from Lena. In the fifth season premiere, without knowing that Lex had already spilt the beans and thus not realizing that Lena has been intentionally twisting the knife for some time, the guilt finally reached a breaking point, and Kara admitted to being Supergirl… and also to being too selfish and scared to come clean earlier, despite knowing keeping this secret was hurtful to Lena. And damned if Melissa Benoist didn’t act the living hell out of this scene.

You put her and Katie McGrath in a scene together and sparks are gonna fly. You can almost understand why so many people are angry they haven’t hooked up. Almost. I don’t want to be a buzzkill, but both characters are straight. Still… between this moment and Lena’s apology to Kara in the inadvertent finale, this has to be the second-best friendship in comic TV.

Second best.

After these two.

Gold: Ray’s farewell, Legends of Tomorrow, “Romeo V Juliet: Dawn of Justness”

Okay first of all big ups to that episode title, yeah?

The most wholesome, the most pure, the most touching friendship on comic TV (I’d say “on any show since Turk and JD on Scrubs” but I cannot back that up) has to be Ray Palmer and Nate Heywood on Legends of Tomorrow. The Time Bros. Their honest and open love for each other as best pals is so touching and so refreshing. I mean look at the moment where, after a successful mission, Ray and Nora head into a school dance, and Ray makes sure Nate is included.

So when Ray made the decision to leave the Waverider (a choice from the producers I’m still not 100% on board with, he was one of my favourites damn it), the hardest part of saying goodbye to Legends life for him was clearly going to be saying goodbye to Nate. Leaving the Waverider meant leaving his best friend behind in order to build a life with Nora. And neither thought it was the wrong move, but both knew it was going to hurt like a sonnuva bitch.

And it did. Look, they didn’t intercut Ray and Nate’s goodbye with Romeo and Juliet for no reason. The Time Bros splitting up hurt.

“This sucks, and I love you” has so much meaning these days.

It is dusty in here. Let’s move on.

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