Shocking TV viewers these days is harder for a variety of reasons, and that is true of even major character deaths. Audiences may be tipped off by internet leaks and rumors — or, in this intellectual property-driven age, by source material.

But for the many viewers of HBO series “The Last of Us” who haven’t played the video games, Sunday’s episode most likely came as an immense shock. (The episode, the second of Season 2, is drawn from events in the video game sequel The Last of Us Part II, from 2020.) As when Rosalind (Diana Muldaur) fell down the elevator shaft in “L.A. Law” or when Omar (Michael K. Williams) was killed by a child in “The Wire,” the death of Joel (Pedro Pascal) was jaw-dropping.

we look back at some shocking character deaths that changed everything.

‘M*A*S*H’

Season 3, Episode 24 (Airdate: March 18, 1975)

In retrospect, it shouldn’t be that shocking for someone in the Army to die during wartime. But audiences in 1975 were unprepared for news that the former commanding officer of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital didn’t make it home alive. Sure, it had been announced that McLean Stevenson (who played Lt. Colonel Henry Blake) was leaving the series, but the expectation was that his character would be simply discharged.

‘Good Times’

Season 4, Episode 1 (Sept. 22, 1976)

Norman Lear’s sitcoms were known for tackling tough subjects, but they rarely turned tragic. But that changed with the character James Evans Sr., who helped create a blueprint for strong Black fathers on television. John Amos, who portrayed Evans, had been dissatisfied with the direction of the show. He wanted more authenticity, more serious storylines. He also publicly criticized what he saw as the show’s increasing tendency toward caricature. His attitude put him on Lear’s chopping block.

‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’

Season 5, Episode 22 (May 22, 2001)

When the apocalypse comes, remember to beep Buffy, the “chosen one” who stands against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. Naturally, this comes with a lot of death, including Buffy’s own. She had already died in Season 1 (just a little drowning), but this second time, which capped Season 5, was different. When she realized she could close a portal between human and demon dimensions, she made the fateful choice to sacrifice herself, shocking her sister (Michelle Trachtenberg), her friends and viewers.

‘The Sopranos’

Season 5, Episode 12 (May 23, 2004)

“The Sopranos” wasn’t reluctant to dispatch characters — the mob world is dangerous, and people get whacked. But Adriana La Cerva (played by Drea de Matteo) wasn’t expecting to die — at least not until she found herself on a one-way drive with Silvio Dante (Steven Van Zandt) and started to realize what was about to happen. By then, it was too late. Compared with the show’s other characters, she was collateral damage — mob-adjacent but not really a criminal, even if the FBI had made her think otherwise when it tricked her into turning informant.

‘Game of Thrones’

Season 1, Episode 9 (June 12, 2011)

Readers of Martin’s books were not surprised when Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) called for the head of Ned Stark (Sean Bean). But non-readers definitely were, having been set up for the biggest of rug-pulls — not least because Bean had figured so prominently in the marketing of the series, as if he were the star. It seemed certain that he would escape a bloody fate. But poor Ned was shocked when his plea bargain was betrayed, and viewers soon realized that his story was only a prelude to the war to come.

‘Breaking Bad’

Season 5, Episode 14 (Sept. 15, 2013)

Martin once wrote that Walter White was “a bigger monster than anyone in Westeros.” There is also an argument to be made that Walt’s brother-in-law, DEA agent Hank Schrader (Dean Norris), was the true hero of “Breaking Bad.” When Hank was executed, it was devastating. The two men’s positions reversed so rapidly: from Walt in handcuffs, spitting at Hank, to Walt begging and bargaining the neo-Nazis for Hank’s life, wrestling with his own culpability.

‘The Good Wife’

Season 5, Episode 15 (March 23, 2014)

Often when an actor asks to leave a show, his or her character is killed off. It wasn’t surprising, then, how “The Good Wife” handled Josh Charles’ request to stop playing Will Gardner. What was surprising was how violently it did so. (He is shot by a client having a psychotic break during a courtroom hearing.) This became one of the best things to happen to the show’s protagonist, his longtime associate and former lover Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies), allowing her to reveal her true emotions and creating a hole she could never quite fill.

‘Orange is the New Black’

Season 4, Episode 12 (June 17, 2016)

This one hurt. When Litchfield Penitentiary inmate Poussey Washington (Samira Wiley) was suffocated by Officer Bayley (Alan Aisenberg), it felt all too real, like the then-recent deaths in real life of Eric Garner, Michael Brown and Sandra Bland. Poussey was a lovable, nonviolent offender who might easily have reentered society, but she was instead killed and then blamed for her own murder. A perfect storm of problems — the overcrowding, the privatization of the prison, brutal guards — could lead only to disaster.

‘The Walking Dead’

Season 7, Episode 1 (Oct. 23, 2016)

Any adaptation of a popular book will inevitably run into the problem of what to do with the death of a major character. The sixth season finale of the Robert Kirkman zombie comic “The Walking Dead,” “Last Day on Earth,” made it obvious that someone would die at the hands of Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his barbed bat, but who? Fans were left in suspense for a grueling seven months after that tease, only to discover that, yes, Glenn (Steven Yeun) was indeed a goner, just as he was in the comics.

‘Succession’

Season 4, Episode 3 (April 9, 2023)

You can’t have a succession without someone either stepping down or dying, so the idea of Logan Roy’s death was always in the background. (He nearly died in the pilot.) But Logan (Brian Cox) managed to hang on, continuing to outmaneuver his adult children, each of whom wanted his throne or power of his or her own. Finally, though, Logan collapsed in the bathroom of his private jet. As he received heart compressions, the audience was mostly with Logan’s children Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Roman (Kieran Culkin) as they tried to say goodbye on the phone.