This Sunday night marks the end of a bloody, bacon-filled, color-theory-crazed era of television known as AMC's Breaking Bad. It's been a long journey, and we've lost quite a few along the way. Some deaths were sad, some weren't quite so sad, and some were just plain awesome and/or terrifying. We didn't get to attend their funerals, so we did the next best thing–we ranked the show's major deaths in terms of how sad they made us. So grab some Kleenex and join us as we honor those characters who are no longer with us and the show we're already crying over. The deaths are ranked from ones we didn't really drum up much emotion for to the ones that still haunt us to this day. We even give them a score of one to 10 on the Sad Scale, because we love alliteration.
Obviously, spoilers below for those who are behind on the show! And for those who are faint of heart, there are some graphic images and videos ahead.
1. Emilio Koyama, "Pilot": Emilio (John Koyama) was an old friend/meth-cooking partner of Jesse's (Aaron Paul), and he was killed when Walt (Bryan Cranston) caused a toxic explosion in the RV. His was the first death that Walter White ever caused, and the first death of the series. His body took two more episodes to fully be rid of, after Walt and Jesse dissolved him in acid. It was gross, but an iconic sequence on the show, and the start of a long, bumpy, bloody road.
Sad Scale: 3 out of 10.
2. Hector "Tio" Salamanca/Gus Fring/Tyrus Kitt, "Face Off": They weren't good guys, of course, but good old Hector Salamanca (Mark Margolis) could always be counted on for bell-related comedy. At least he died while exacting revenge—with his bell, natch.
Sad Scale: 3 out of 10. Gus (Giancarlo Esposito), however, gets a 10 out of 10 on the awesome scale for his terrifyingly perfect tie-straightening/face-melting ending.
3. Krazy 8, "…and the Bag's in the River": While he was trapped in the basement with a bike lock around his neck, Walt got to know Krazy 8 (Max Arciniega) pretty well, while Krazy 8 got to know Walt. He thought he wasn't capable of murder, but boy, was he wrong. Walt strangled him with the bike lock. Emilio may not have been the first death of the series, but this was the first intimate, direct death that Walt dealt out. Walt even later adopted Krazy 8's habit of cutting the crusts off of his sandwiches. The fact that Walt has a single tear fall down his cheek as he realizes he has to travel fully to the dark side makes this death much sadder than others that happen later in the series.
Sad Scale: 5 out of 10.
4. Maximo Arciniega, "Hermanos": We didn't really know the character (named after the actor who played Krazy 8 and played by James Martinez) beyond what the flashback showed us, but it seemed like he was the Jesse to Gus's Walt (and maybe more than that, some speculate), and it was clear that Gus was devastated when Tio shot him in the head. It showed a little of Gus's well-hidden humanity.
Sad Scale: 5 out of 10.
5. Combo, "Mandala": Combo's death was sad not only because he was one of Jesse's friends and co-drug dealers, but because he was shot by a young, seemingly harmless kid on a bike. We feel bad for Combo, and we feel bad for the kid.
Sad Scale: 5 out of 10.
6. 167 Unnamed Passengers, "ABQ": We didn't know any of them, but a whole lot of people died as the result of Donald Margolis' (John de Lancie) grief over losing his daughter Jane (more on that later), which could have been prevented if Walt weren't such a jerk. But alas, Walt is a jerk, and his only punishment was a bunch of debris in his pool and yard.
Sad Scale: 6 out of 10.
7. Jane, "Phoenix": She wasn't good for Jesse (and he wasn't good for her, either), but it was the way she went out that was horrifying. Walt stood idly by while she choked on her own vomit after a drug session, and come the morning Jesse found his girlfriend, and any hope for an actual relationship, dead. Plus, Krysten Ritter! How dare you kill the B in apartment 23!
Sad Scale: 6 out of 10.
8. Steven "Gomie" Gomez, "Ozymandias": Poor Gomie (Steven Michael Quezada). He was Hank's (Dean Norris) right-hand man, and the single significant casualty at the very start of "Ozymandias," the first loss after that torturous week of wondering about the results of the shoot-out. It was pretty easy to predict that he wouldn't survive, but it was sad all the same.
Sad Scale: 7 out of 10.
9. Drew Sharp, "Dead Freight": We knew very little of him, other than his fearlessness in the face of giant spiders, but his death was sad. He was an innocent kid, shot on impulse by the oddly mesmerizing country-frat-boy-psychopath also known as Todd (Jesse Plemmons). The death of this poor kid was also kind of the tipping point for Jesse, leading him to eventually try (and fail) to find his way out of the meth business and away from Walt.
Sad Scale: 7 out of 10.
10. Gale, "Full Measure": Gale was great while he was alive, but got even better as his death was investigated. He was just a karaoke-singing, tea-drinking, poetry-loving meth cook who didn't deserve to die. It didn't help that our beloved Jesse was the one forced to kill him, marking the first death that Jesse was directly responsible for.
Sad Scale: 8 out of 10.
11. Andrea, "Granite Slate": She wasn't loved as a character as much as Mike (Jonathan Banks) or Hank, and we didn't know her as well, but how can you get much sadder than this? She was a recovering addict, working hard to provide for her young son. But because Jesse cared about her, she and her son were constantly in danger. She was shot in the head by Landry-Freakin'-Clarke, while a poor injured and tortured Jesse was tied and gagged in the truck, all because he attempted to escape from his hole-in-the-ground. Why would you do that, Jesse? And after Mr. Crazypants was nice enough to give you ice cream, too! Jeez.
Sad Scale: 9 out of 10.
12. Hank, "Ozymandias": Hank was pretty obnoxious in the beginning, but that was when it was still not unreasonable to root for Walt. It wasn't hard to imagine that the series would end in a showdown between Walt and Hank, so his demise at the top of "Ozymandias," even after Walt tried to save him, was both shocking and incredibly upsetting. At least he went down with some curse-laden dignity.
Sad Scale: 10 out of 10.
13. Mike, "Say My Name": Sure, the guy did some pretty illegal things in his life, but he never stopped trying to provide for Kaylee, his adorable granddaughter. He was like a badass grandfather to all of us, and he only died because Walt is the worst. If you don't agree that he's the saddest death in Breaking Bad (thus far), you're just wrong.
Sad Scale: 10 out of 10.
What Breaking Bad death made you the most upset? Did we miss anyone you think deserves to be on the list? Tell us in the comments!