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19th Jun '13 8:17:16 PM WeAreAllKosh

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[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'':
** Malcolm Reynolds lost all idealism, along with any faith in God, at the battle of Serenity Valley which meant that the Independent Planets will be unified with and ruled over by the morally ambiguous if not downright evil Alliance.
** River Tam's dialogue indicates that she has no hope of ever being "normal" again. At one point, she even rails against the drugs Simon is giving her, saying that she ''hates'' being able to think clearly because she knows she'll just [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness slip back into madness sooner or later]]. You can actually ''see'' the very moment River breaks in the R. Tam Sessions, in the third video where the "counselor" tells River that her brother "is very busy". She stops, silently nods, then whispers "Yes...." and starts crying. ''[[BreakTheCutie (crack)]]''
* Halfway through season four of ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'', the fleet [[spoiler: discovers that Earth has been destroyed]], causing borderline cases of this for many characters, and a full-blown case for both [[spoiler: Dualla and Number Three.]]
* Series 3 of ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' has multiple Despair Event Horizons - as you would expect from a plot that involves [[spoiler:the governments of the world caving into an alien race's demands for 10% of the Earth's children. ObstructiveBureaucrat AntiVillain Frobisher is told by the [[PresidentEvil Prime Minister]] that, for PR purposes, his daughters will be among the 10% given to the aliens - so Frobisher takes a gun home and kills his wife and children, before turning it on himself. Then Jack, who has just had to [[DyingDeclarationOfLove watch his boyfriend die pointlessly]], realises that there's a way to defeat the aliens after all... but it will mean killing a child. And the only child close to hand is his own grandson, who he is forced to murder in front of his screaming daughter. Safe to say, Jack doesn't hang around on Earth for very long after that.]]
* ''DeadSet''. [[spoiler:Space agrees to unlock the Diary Room so Kelly can make a futile attempt to fight her way out only after seeing a zombie Pippa (his former girlfriend) hammering on the glass outside.]]
* In ''{{Spooks}}'',[[note]] ''Serious'' series 9 spoilers, FYI[[/note]] [[spoiler: Lucas North]] shuts down when Harry tells him that [[spoiler: "Albany", the biological weapon blueprint he betrayed all his friends over, getting his NewOldFlame killed in the crossfire as he did so...[[PyrrhicVillainy is a fake]]]]. [[DrivenToSuicide The "express elevator down" option off the top of the building they're on soon follows]].
-->'''Harry''': Who are you [[spoiler: Lucas]]? Who are you?
-->'''[[spoiler: Lucas]]''': ...I'm nothing.
* [[spoiler:Joseph Bede]] crosses it in the final episode of ''Series/TheShadowLine''. [[spoiler:His wife, whose Alzheimer's treatment he intends to pay for with the proceeds from his drug deal, tries to kill herself and is hospitalised. This prompts him to leave his gun behind when meeting Jay, who he already know intends to betray him, which leads to his death.]]
* [[BigBad Shiro Kanzaki]] from ''KamenRiderRyuki'' goes through this everytime [[spoiler: his sister, Yui dies]]. 
* This is the premise of Phantom's goal in ''Series/KamenRiderWizard'', as Phantoms are born from a person when their hopes are vanished and despair dominates the victim. Several characters have crossed this, and it's visibly shown as they slump to the ground and have purple cracks appear all over their skin.
* ''Warehouse 13''. Quite a few plots are centered around crossing the line, most notably in [[spoiler:Reset, where H.G. Wells turns on the agents to put the world into a new ice age, effectively resetting human life. She is stopped at the last second by Myka Bering.]]
* Dean Winchester crosses the line in the season 2 finale of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', after [[spoiler: his brother Sam dies in his arms. He ends up selling his soul to bring him back, and after a year is sent to hell. This leads to him crossing the line ''again''; after 30 years of torture he breaks and takes up on Alistair's offer to torture other souls.]] Ironically, in the Season 5 finale, Dean is the only one of the main characters ''not'' to lose hope after [[spoiler: Lucifer possesses Sam. Dean still had enough faith in his brother to wade into an apocalyptic showdown and try to get through to Sam. Although to be fair, he made it clear that he had absolutely nothing to lose at that point.]]
* A Serial Killer uses this as part of his MO in the ''Series/ColdCase'' episode "The Road". A SerialKiller known as John Smith would capture women, [[SealedRoomInTheMiddleOfNowhere seal them in a room in the middle of nowhere]], and subject them to MindRape. Once they lost the will to live, which he would prove by standing aside and giving them the option of walking out, he would seal them in completely and let them starve. He comments that once someone gives up hope, dying is just a formality. [[spoiler: The fact that his last victim ''didn't'' cross the Despair Event Horizon really rattles him]].
* ''Series/HoratioHornblower'': Young midshipman Archie Kennedy loses his will to live in "The Duchess and the Devil", the third episode of the miniseries. He was horribly tormented and abused by a sadistic bully of a midshipman. He got lost at sea during a stealth raid (his tormentor tried to murder him), and he ended up in Spanish jail. His escape attempts earned him ColdBloodedTorture in a PunishmentBox. When, by some incredible chance, his friend and fellow middie Horatio appears in the very same cell, it brings back memories of his tormentor and he also feels that his life is one big screw-up, compared to the heroic and successful Horatio. When Hornblower insists that they will all try to escape together once he gets better, he doesn't want to. He decides to starve himself to death so that Horatio and his men needn't deal with him. When Horatio realizes what's happening at the last moment, Archie refuses his help. [[spoiler:Horatio convinces him that he ''needs'' him. He eventually gets better, but it was hard and painful process.]]
* ''{{House of Cards}}'': Congressman Peter Russo, who's running for Governor of Pennsylvania, has this after [[spoiler: the drunken radio interview he gave after Underwood set him up to fall off the wagon with an ex-call girl who owed him favors]]. He hid from the press and disappeared for a few days, leaving his campaign in limbo, before being found by Underwood [[spoiler: who plied him with more liquor and murdered him, making it look like a suicide.]]
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19th Jun '13 5:51:17 AM dannytran1191