Biggest Heartbreak

Okay, let’s talk feelings. Who gutted us the most this season? Who’s big moments hit hardest? Let’s find out!

Any honourable mentions would be spoilers, so let’s just do this.

Bronze: The Secret Origin of Steven Grant, Moon Knight, “Asylum”

What does it do to you when your family is rocked by such a huge tragedy your mother stops loving you? How hard is it to live under constant abuse as a result of what was already the worst moment of your young life? And when your abuser dies, but she’s also the only mother you’ll ever have, how exactly are you supposed to respond to that? BoJack Horseman did a whole episode on this, “Free Churro,” one of their best. On Moon Knight, the story of Marc Spector’s Big Mistake and how it turned his mother against him for the rest of her natural life also turned out to be the reason Marc’s mind fractured and created Steven Grant to help him deal with it, and how their abuser’s death was the moment that caused the walls between Marc and Steven to begin breaking down.

It is a ride, and I cannot believe they cut the afterlife resolution from the season finale, god damn, how did that scene feel expendable, the season finale was not running long.

Silver: House of Pain, Peacemaker, “The Choad Less Travelled”

Okay I see what James Gunn named the episode as well, I understand your skepticism over how this episode delivered one of the season’s more gutting sequences, but hear me out.

At the end of a rough day for Team Peacemaker (not yet the 11th Street Kids), Chris Smith puts on a record, “House of Pain” by Faster Pussycat. One would think that John Cena dancing to hair metal would be an easy layup for a comedy beat, and not one of the most crushing sequences of the whole show. But it turns out that dancing to this song can’t protect Chris from his mind replaying some of his biggest traumas: being forced to kill as a child by his father, his greatest offense from The Suicide Squad, and his original sin, the death of his beloved older brother. And if that weren’t enough (it is), Vigilante also comes to terms with how his attempt to help his best friend Peacemaker has, in fact, made things worse.

Peacemaker’s first emotional break was played more for comedy, but this one hits much harder. And the audacity to deliver it accompanied by John Cena air drumming to hair metal.

Gold: The Farewell Tour, Lucifer, “Goodbye, Lucifer”

The final season of Lucifer, as we’ve discussed, hinges on the arrival of Lucifer and Chloe’s daughter from the future, Rory, who is propelled to the past purely through anger at her father’s absence for her whole life. But as she and Lucifer grow closer, so too does the date he seems destined to vanish forever. Believing that this is a closed time loop, Lucifer spends what might be his last day on Earth visiting each of his friends, human and otherwise, to give one last gift, to genuinely and uncomplicatedly enjoy their company one last time. And since it’s the penultimate episode, we know this is quite possibly the last time we’ll see them (not quite but mostly), and each one hits hard, before all that’s left is one last night with Chloe. A few other final seasons on this list wish they’d wrapped up their supporting cast this well or this emotionally.

Okay. Moving on.

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