History MoralEventHorizon / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier'': [[spoiler:John Walker was already a {{Jerkass}}, but he ultimately crosses the line when he brutally murders a defenseless Nico in cold blood. The fact that it was MisplacedRetribution as Nico ''wasn't'' responsible for Lemar Hoskins' death certainly cements it.]]

* ''Series/TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier'': John Walker was already a {{Jerkass}}, but he ultimately crosses the line when he brutally murders a defenseless Nico in cold blood. The fact that it was MisplacedRetribution as Nico ''wasn't'' responsible for Lemar Hoskins' death certainly cements it.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': Just when Walter White crossed the line from AntiHero to VillainProtagonist is a matter of debate. Popular candidates include:
** [[Recap/BreakingBadS2E10Over "Over"]], where he [[spoiler: forces Walt Jr. to drink tequila until he vomits.]] While this is far less horrible than many of the others, it has the distinction of being the first time he did something terrible for no conceivable rational reason, but just because he could.
** [[Recap/BreakingBadS2E12Phoenix "Phoenix"]], where he [[spoiler: stood by and watched Jane slowly choke to death during her sleep]]
** [[Recap/BreakingBadS3E13FullMeasure "Full Measure"]], where he [[spoiler:emotionally blackmails Jesse into murdering a defenseless man in cold blood, to save his own skin]]

** There are several candidates for Jesse as well:
*** Killing [[spoiler:Gale]] in Season 3.
*** [[spoiler:Selling meth to recovering addicts]] in Season 3 with Skinny Pete and Badger.

* In the ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'' episode "Malcolm Defends Reese", Malcolm's scheming principal, Lionel Herkabe, who kept dragging Malcolm into his schemes only for Malcolm to get wise to his actions before they can succeed, crosses it when he rigs Malcolm's grades by humiliating his brother Reese simply because Malcolm's GPA was about to exceed his. It's probably not a coincidence that after Herkabe got humiliated at the end of the episode, he made no further appearances on the series.

** [[DarkActionGirl Abaddon]], a secondary villain of season 8, and one of the [[BigBad Big Bads]] of season 9, crosses the line when she forces Dean to surrender his grandfather in exchange for Sam, and then going back on the deal anyway. It is later shown that she actually crossed it much earlier when she possessed the wife of her mentor Cain, and then tricking him into killer her.
** [[DracoInLeatherPants Despite what the fangirls may say about him]], [[{{Satan}} Lucifer]] himself has done several things that prove he is nothing more but an [[CompleteMonster irredeemable monster]]:

** The Dominion itself crossed the line during the Season 4 episode "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E24TheQuickening}} The Quickening]]", when they infected an entire planet's population with a slow acting but ultimately lethal bioweapon, purely to discourage other worlds from resisting. This was ''after'' devastating the planet with conventional weapons.

* In one episode of ''Series/{{NUMB3RS}}'', Colby warns Don about this as Don prepares some JackBauerInterrogationTechnique for their suspect.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': The aliens in "[[{{Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E7ScientificMethod}} Scientific Method]]" come across as an entire civilization who crossed the MoralEventHorizon long ago and have just kept on going. They routinely do medical experiments on sentient creatures, mutilating, torturing them, and even killing them if they feel it will benefit their medical research to do so. They feel completely justified in their actions and not only do they feel no remorse or regret over their actions, they feel that what they do is noble and beneficial. Genetically deforming, maiming and killing the crew of Voyager is the NightmareFuel evidence of their crimes and ''that'' is only the tip of the iceberg. What is really terrifying is that their flimsy justifications allow them to murder entire societies with impunity and go on torturing and killing as many sentient creatures as they feel is necessary for their "research."
** Captain Ransom in easily crossed this line when he started murdering aliens as a fuel source for his ship. IDidWhatIHadToDo is nowhere near a sufficient excuse, but he at least seems to realize this at some level and eventually undergoes a HeelFaceTurn and HeroicSacrifice.

** UsefulNotes/{{Lilith}}, the BigBad of seasons 3 & 4, either crosses this when she massacres a police station that Sam and Dean has just saved or possessing the body of a little girl and killing members of her family for angering her, and then allowing Dean to get mauled to death by a Hellhound while laughing.

** If you view the show after discovering [[spoiler: Chuck Lorre]] is an In-Verse character, he crosses by not only [[spoiler: continuing the show by writing out Charlie]], but even worse by [[spoiler: having a piano fall on Charlie as he returns home]]. Suffice it to say, [[KarmicDeath the punishment fits the crime]].

** The [[HeWhoFightsMonsters Alternate]] version of [[StrawNihilist Archangel Michael]], the BigBad of seasons 13 & 14, is already over it when he's introduced, as he has decimated the Apocalypse World and desires to do the same to the main reality, but we see that he's not fucking around anymore when he sends Kevin Tran as a suicide bomber filled with Angel Grace. And if he didn't cross it either then or when he spoiler:kills Gabriel, then he definitely crosses it when he goes back on his deal with Dean, by taking full control of Dean's body after he powered him up in order to kill Lucifer.

*** And in case you still thought that there was still hope for him, Lucifer truly crosses the line for good when he kills an innocent refugee named Maggie, and even states with a smirk on his face that he '''enjoyed it'''. When his son Jack rightfully calls him a monster, Lucifer goes completely insane, steals Jack's powers for himself, tries to force Sam and Jack to kill each other, and just when you think he couldn't get any worse, proclaims his intentions of [[OmnicidalManiac destroying the universe]], [[RestartTheWorld remaking it in his own image]], and [[AGodAmI ruling over it as the new God]]. All this, combined with his above actions, make [[AssholeVictim his death at the hands of Dean]] [[CatharsisFactor ''immensely'']] satisfying.
*** The [[HeWhoFightsMonsters Alternate]] version of [[StrawNihilist Archangel Michael]], the BigBad of seasons 13 & 14, is already over it when he's introduced, as he has decimated the Apocalypse World and desires to do the same to the main reality, but we see that he's not fucking around anymore when he sends Kevin Tran as a suicide bomber filled with Angel Grace. And if he didn't cross it either then or when he spoiler:kills Gabriel, then he definitely crosses it when he goes back on his deal with Dean, by taking full control of Dean's body after he powered him up in order to kill Lucifer.

** UsefulNotes/{{Lilith}}, the BigBad of seasons 3 & 4 either crosses this when she massacres a police station that Sam and Dean has just saved or possessing the body of a little girl and killing members of her family for angering her, and then allowing Dean to get mauled to death by a Hellhound while laughing.

*** And in case you still thought that there was still hope for him, Lucifer truly crosses the line for good when he kills an innocent refugee named Maggie, and even states with a smirk on his face that he '''enjoyed it'''. When his son Jack rightfully calls him a monster, Lucifer goes completely insane, steals Jack's powers for himself, tries to force Sam and Jack to kill each other, and just when you think he couldn't get any worse, proclaims his intentions of [[OmnicidalManiac destroying the universe]], [[RestartTheWorld remaking it in his own image]], and [[AGodAmI ruling over it as the new God]]. All this, combined with his above actions, make [[AssholeVictim his death at the hands of Dean]] [[CatharsisFactor '''immensely''']] satisfying.

** [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Dick Roman]], the BigBad of season 7, crosses the line when he kills Bobby Singer, and unlike with {{Satan}}(mentioned below), he didn't get better.

*** Blowing up Castiel for molotoving [ArchangelMichael Michael]] with holy fire, because "nobody dicks with Michael but him", snapping Bobby's neck (he got better), and then beating Dean to a bloody pulp, all while wearing Sam's body.

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': [[spoiler:Zachariah]] used to be Jerkass-personified, even if they were ([[KnightTemplar arguably]])[[WellIntentionedExtremist well-intentioned.]] And there ''could'' be some (flimsy) [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans rationale]] behind their motives as presented in the Season 4 finale. But they showed that {{light is NOT good}} in the season 5 premiere, when they [[spoiler: threatened to cripple Bobby for life, removed Sam's lungs, and gave Dean Stage 4 stomach cancer, all to give Dean incentive to work with him.]] For what it's worth, [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Dean tells them to fuck off, each and every time.]]

* ''Series/Batwoman2019'': Alice makes an elaborate plan to kill her stepmother in front of her stepsister, while framing her father for the crime, all because she's too deep into her obsession with revenge for abandoning her. Also counts as an InUniverse example, since this makes Kate and Jacob to finally give up on her, vowing to take her down.

* ''MoralEventHorizon/OnceUponATime''

* ''Franchise/SuperSentai'':
** In ''Series/EngineSentaiGoOnger'', BigBad Yogoshimacritein crosses the line when he [[spoiler:shoots at the Rangers ''through'' his sympathetic subordinates Kitaneidas and Kegalesia]], resulting in their deaths. He ended up [[TheDogBitesBack shooting himself in the foot]] by doing this, however, as they hang on just long enough to destroy the source of his powers.
** ''Series/SamuraiSentaiShinkenger''. Being a half-Gedoushuu who spends much of his time in his natural human form, Fuwa Juzo is subjected to many WhatMeasureIsANonHuman topics, thinking he might make a HeelFaceTurn (he even likes Genta's sushi). His sword Uramasa is made from his family who wanted him to stop being a BloodKnight that lives in slicing people with it. Then, when Akumaro tried to use his human emotions to use Uramasa to create a HellOnEarth, Juzo instead slices him off and reveals that he prefers to be a full-blooded Gedoushuu and doesn't care one bit for his family's pleas, all he wants is to use Uramasa to give him the pleasure of killing people.
** Juzo's successor in this role is Basco ta Jolokia from ''Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger.'' Again the twist is that the ''expected'' twist of him really being not so bad never happens. Though presented as a traitor and villain who'll stab anyone in the back to get what he wants, he [[spoiler: usually]] has a human face, and he's a lot of fun to watch, and he even has the same gimmick as [[Series/KamenRiderDecade Daiki Kaito, aka Kamen Rider Diend]], who is a ''textbook'' JerkWithAHeartOfGold. Okay, so he's not the SixthRanger after all like we all assumed, but surely he'll show his former friends some mercy when about to strike the final blow, or realize that there are more meaningful things than serving his own greed, right? ''Right?'' Well, surprise: it turns out he's a traitor and villain who'll stab anyone in the back to get what he wants. Including [[spoiler: putting a bomb on his cute monkey-beast sidekick Sally and pushing the button, killing him[=/=]her instantly, to try to get rid of the Gokaigers]], which is the moment that ''really'' makes you hate the guy. With this, he's revealed as actually being the evilest bad guy in the series (Compare this to the ''actual {{Big Bad}}s,'' where Oiles Gil just wants to prove he's competent, Damaras is a NobleDemon, Barizorg's brainwashed, etc. Would ''any'' of them pull something like that?)
** Before that, there was ''Series/ChoujuuSentaiLiveman'' and its BigBad Great Professor Bias. To explain his Moral Event Horizon, it is important to understand how he runs his group, Volt. As of Episode 22, his students are three geniuses from Earth and two aliens, all of whose experiments he urges on with the utmost confidence. The first of the five students to go is the alien Guildos. [[spoiler: Right before his death, Guildos realizes that he is not an alien, but a robot. Bias then confirms that not just Guildos, but the other alien, Butchy, were robots created to make the Earth students work harder. Butchy breaks down at this point because he had memories of a happy life that he just learned were completely fake and that his whole life was a lie and, as Butchy starts undergoing a Heel-Face Turn, Bias makes him self destruct. If you don't consider this Bias's Moral Event Horizon, then there's his motive for everything in the series: He recruited four students from Earth- one of them had already made a Heel-Face Turn by Episode 22- so he can raise their "scores" to 1000 so he could extract their brains and extend his immortality. After all the care he seemed to show to his students before this was revealed, this is shocking.]]

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* ''MoralEventHorizon/Whoniverse'' (includes Doctor Who, Torchwood, et cetera)

* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** WordOfGod confirms that in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E9TheTimeMeddler "The Time Meddler"]], the Vikings did, in fact, rape Edith.
** One could argue [[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E7Logopolis "Logopolis"]] for The Master when he was portrayed by Creator/AnthonyAinley. Yes before he had manipulated, threatened, and killed lots and lots of people, but compared to the number of people The Doctor had manipulated, threatened and killed, they were basically even, and before Delgado died he was even supposed to have a DeathEqualsRedemption plot. And then, when he gets a proper new body again, he destroys one-quarter of the universe, including the home planet of one of the Doctor's companions (though admittedly that was an accident he caused by going on a killing spree). And the new body he got is the corpse of said companion's father. After that, there was really no going back for that specific incarnation.
** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E4Dragonfire "Dragonfire"]], Kane has the tourists, passers-through, and residents herded into a spacecraft and blows it to Kingdom Come.
** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E3TheCurseOfFenric "The Curse of Fenric"]], Millington locks two men up in a cellar, leaving them to their Haemovorey death.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]]:
*** [[spoiler:Why is Master insane? Because Rassilon put the signal of drumming into his head to save himself and Gallifrey!]]
*** And, of course, [[spoiler:Rassilon's battle cry: "For victory! FOR GALLIFREY! FOR THE END! OF TIME! ITSELF!"]].
** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E11TheCrimsonHorror "The Crimson Horror"]], when [[spoiler: Mrs Gillyflower takes her own daughter hostage]].
** Invoked by [[http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/doctor-who/32928/doctor-who-steven-moffat-on-series-8-missy-lies-and-leaks Moffat in an interview]], who is well aware of Missy's DracoInLeatherPants tendencies. In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E12DeathInHeaven "Death in Heaven"]], he had her kill off fan-favorite Osgood to remind us that just because she's a woman now the Master isn't any less of a psycho she's always been.
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor The Name of the Doctor]]" and its follow-up, "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor The Day of the Doctor]]" reveal that an incarnation of the Doctor was forced to cross the horizon [[spoiler: in order to end the Time War. In doing so, he refused to accept the name Doctor, and his later incarnations effectively disowned him. ''Day of the Doctor'', however, reveals that events played out differently than the Doctor remembered, and he never actually crossed the Moral Event Horizon at all.]]
** In the opinion of the Eighth Doctor, the point where he decided he would be willing to destroy the AlwaysChaoticEvil Daleks is when the [[BigBad Dalek Time Controller]] engineered the second Dalek invasion of Earth, planning to turn it into a plague planet and pilot it around the Universe to wipe out all other life.
** '''The Doctor''' nearly crossed this in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E16TheWatersOfMars "The Waters of Mars"]] when he decides to save Adelaide without respect to time laws and possible catastrophes. He does it very smugly, not at all caring about Adelaide's worries when she pulls What the Hell, Hero? on him. Only her suicide [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone leads him to remorse]] and averts it. Keep in mind that it was a fixed point. The whole universe could have been destroyed.
** Donna was absolutely right that Doctor needs a companion as a MoralityChain. What happens to the Doctor when a companion is [[spoiler: killed thanks to a Senseless Sacrifice]] in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E10FaceTheRaven Face the Raven]]" and he is immediately imprisoned in a torture chamber, all alone save for the MonsterOfTheWeek, in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent Heaven Sent]]"? He is ultimately DrivenToMadness and his torment becomes [[spoiler: a Self-Inflicted Hell]] before he manages to escape. Due to these mounting horrors and '''absolutely no one around him caring about or even realizing''' what he's endured, in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent Hell Bent]]" the Doctor becomes TheUnfettered WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds willing to risk the destruction of the universe just to [[spoiler: save Clara from her death]], again changing a fixed moment in time. The moment of truth comes when he intends to [[spoiler: Mind Rape Clara to protect her from his enemies]]. Will he go through with it and lose all hope of redemption? As it turns out, no. Even after all his torment, none of it just, he not only repents for going too far but accepts [[spoiler: losing her for good]] '''and''' [[spoiler: being Mind Raped himself and thus losing his memories of her]] as just punishment on his way to returning to his best self.

* The ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'' character Ralph Moreno was a borderline AxCrazy crook with a huge case of ChronicBackStabbingDisorder from the start. But, he hits a new low after an elderly widow takes him in, after he escapes prison with nothing but his underwear, only to mistake him for her dead husband. Ralph's first instinct is to take complete advantage of her, by asking for "their" ATM number, driving around in her dead husband's car, looting the medicine cabinet, and generally using her confusing to mooch off of her.

** Lorelei forces a husband to murder his own wife simply because she can and then later rapes Ward whilst he's under her control. However she makes it clear she crossed it many centuries ago, when she gloats to Sif about making her lover a "pet" and using him as a SexSlave. She even forced to Sif to kill him in the end. It's made clear she's done all this and more countless times over her very long life.

** It is unknown when Daniel Whitehall crosses it, but there are a few indicators that he's perhaps the most vile villain the MCU has ever seen:
*** His InUniverse crossing point is human experimentation with the Obelisk. When he's in her custody, Agent Carter makes it clear that that's a huge part of the reason why she's having him locked up for life unlike other HYDRA scientists.

* ''{{Series/Alias}}'': Arvin Sloane was a permanent resident of the HeelFaceRevolvingDoor for four and a half seasons...until he murdered [[spoiler:his own daughter, Nadia]] because she got in the way of his obsession with unlocking Milo Rambaldi's secrets. The show itself treats this act as the crossing of the moral Rubicon, and afterward Sloane is never treated as anything other than the BigBad again.

** Helena Bertenelli/The Huntress is given multiple chances to redeem herself, but in her final crossing moment she yells that Oliver betrayed her and began fighting him. Any remaining doubt is squashed when she paralyzes Makenna Hall, forcing her to retire from the police force.
** Malcolm Merlyn/The Dark Archer spends an entire season building up to a crossing. In his Merlyn persona, [[spoiler:he kidnaps Walter, threatens Thea’s life, and mentions repeatedly that he killed Robert to force Moira to stay in line. The tension boils to the point that Moira turns to the Chinese Triad to assassinate him.]] As the Dark Archer (even if his dual identity is kept seperate at first), he beats Oliver to near death in their first encounter, then initiates the Undertaking, a manmade earthquake that hit the Glades and killed 503 people, [[spoiler:including his son Tommy]]. Later, after returning from faking his death, he [[spoiler:forces his daughter Thea to murder Sara Lance while she’s drugged to force Oliver to confront Ra’s al Ghul]] and later allied with [[spoiler:Damien Darhk]].

** General Shrieve of the Season 3 flashbacks is revealed to be [[spoiler:behind the poisoning of Hong Kong through the Alpha-Omega virus simply to damage China’s economy and prevent it from calling on United States debt. If he had any hope of redemption, it was lost when it was revealed his actions killed Akio, an 11 year-old boy, and he laughed in Oliver’s face]]. Oliver and Maseo tortured Shrieve to death for his actions, driving Oliver away from home and Maseo to the League of Assassins.
** Damien Darhk doesn’t so much cross over the Line as much as he pole vaults over it and gets a gold from the judges he hasn’t murdered yet. In a rare moment, he establishes himself as truly evil before he even appears, as Ra’s tells Oliver that he was behind several of the potentially city-destroying threats Oliver stopped in his second year, including a second earthquake machine created by Malcolm Merlyn. In his first appearance, he drains the life force of one of his soldiers for failing him using dark magic, horrifying Team Arrow as that is mostly their first encounter with true magic. Later on, [[spoiler:he attacks a community service project with a drone, nearly killing a little girl, kidnaps William and threatens him with death to get Oliver to drop out of the mayoral race, and murders Laurel Lance using Oliver’s own arrow out of revenge. This is all before he reveals his end game is to literally destroy the world using nuclear weapons.]] By the time Oliver kills him, he has established himself as one of the most, if not the most, evil villain to appear in the series. His subsequent actions on Legends of Tomorrow do not make him any better.

** Talia al Ghul has no direct crossing, but helping create Prometheus and joining his crusade against Oliver, a crusade that Oliver ironically notes her father would not have supported, marks her as irredeemable.

** From the beginning, Ricardo Diaz was an evil force. In addition to being revealed to have [[spoiler:manipulated Cayden James into destroying the city before murdering Cayden to take control of his criminal cabal]], he also had a large amount of cops on his payroll and [[spoiler:leaked the photo that originally created the investigation into Oliver and the Green Arrow]]. To establish his ruthlessness, he confronted his childhood bully, Jesse, after 30 years and burned him alive, an act so disturbing even Black Siren, a brutal killer who once blew up a man’s head without remorse, couldn’t look at it directly.

** Tom Zarek is morally ambiguous character who is difficult to label as an outright villain, right up until [[spoiler: he orders marines to execute the Quorum of Twelve when they refuse to support his and Gaeta's mutiny.]]

*** Cain. She always had a twisted sense of morality, but she completely went past the moral event horizon when she finds out her lovers a cylon, all but telling her crew to gang rape her ex-lover.

* ''Series/BeingHumanUS'': It'd probably be easier to list character's who ''don't'' cross a Moral Event Horizon. Just the main characters:
** Aiden: Likely crossed a long time ago. One of his most heinous acts onscreen is luring two girls into the house to feed his flayed vampire son. Because he sucks at compelling the girls wake up and he's forced to kill them. As we later find out the ghosts continue haunting and tormenting him afterwards.

* ''Series/BigTimeRush'': Crossed in the episode ''Big Time Sneakers'', when Jett Stetson and Jo's publicist plan on faking a relationship between Jett and Jo, regardless of her relationship with Kendall. Jett and Jo's publicist flat out tell Jo and Kendall that since Jett and Jo are an InUniverse FanPreferredCouple, so them dating gives the InUniverse show ''New Town High'' good publicity, and Jo refusing to date Jett will be the end of her carrer. So yeah, they tried to strong arm two teenagers into breaking off their relationship over tv publicity.

** ''Recap/BlackMirrorWhiteBear'': [[spoiler:The protagonist crossed it long before the events of the episode, when she murdered a little girl. Then her oppressors cross it with what they do with her, and the general public with their ''glee'' over her fate.]] [[HumansAreBastards Nobody comes off looking good in this story.]]

** Gyp Rosetti is by far the most psychotic gangster in the series, as such he has a few potential moments that can act as candidates for when he crossed the MoralEventHorizon.

** While Warren Knox seems like a rabid KnightTemplar FBI Agent, considering the people he's after, his actions can be seen as understandable. Then he detains, abuses and manipulates the relatively innocent [[spoiler:Eddie Kessler]] so badly that the man commits suicide afterwards, and you know he's scum.

** Jack does it by, what else? [[spoiler:Killing Hank of course!]]

** For the first half Season 6, The Trio are presented as little more than incapable comic relief, posing no real threat to The Scoobies or society. The murder of Katrina however, cements Warren as a full-blown misogynist with no care for anyone (including his lackeys) and no chance for redemption.

* ''Series/{{Dallas}}'': Oh, Cliff, on account of practically [[spoiler: '''murdering''' your own unborn grandchildren. By causing an explosion on a rig which your own daughter was and was pregnant with twins and still going on with it. For many you would stop and say "no way". But he pauses and thinks about it.]] Yes, you've crossed it hand down.

** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor The Name of the Doctor]]" and its followup, "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor The Day of the Doctor]]" reveal that an incarnation of the Doctor was forced to cross the horizon [[spoiler: in order to end the Time War. In doing so, he refused to accept the name Doctor, and his later incarnations effectively disowned him. ''Day of the Doctor'', however, reveals that events played out differently than the Doctor remembered, and he never actually crossed the Moral Event Horizon at all.]]

** '''The Doctor''' nearly crossed this in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E16TheWatersOfMars "The Waters of Mars"]]:when he decides to save Adelaide without respect to time laws and possible catastrophes. He does it very smugly, not at all caring about Adelaide's worries when she pulls What the Hell, Hero? on him. Only her suicide [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone leads him to remorse]] and averts it. Keep in mind that it was a fixed point. The whole universe could have been destroyed.

* ''Series/{{ER}}'': VillainOfTheWeek Derek Fossen in Season 7's two-part finale. In the first part, Greene learns Fossen is an {{Abusive Parent}}, so the former decides to help the latter's son escape into foster care. And in the second part, how does Fossen respond? By [[AxCrazy completely snapping]] and invoking GoingPostal [[DisproportionateRetribution on anyone even-remotely connected to him (justifiably) losing his son (and soon just everyone in Fossen's way), eventually threatening Greene's own family for some cold-blooded irony]]. [[spoiler:Thankfully, Fossen is finally stopped and critically injured... but then [[OhCrap finds himself under]] [[PapaWolf Greene's]] [[VigilanteExecution care]].]]

** Zoom's first appearance on Earth Two was to fake a call about hostage situation and kill 14 out of 15 cops that came to rescue them. The last one was spared to tell the tale... and after he did, Zoom murdered him too.

** A couple Inverse examples: Sonny, at first, believed Andrei Karpov crossed it by shooting his fiancé Kate Howard/Connie Falconeri on their wedding (it was actually faux cripple Anthony Zacchara who framed Karpov) and attempted a few times to pay him back for it. This drove Karpov to stab Sonny, have him chained to an anchor, then dropped in the harbor and left for dead. Believing he's about to die, Sonny asks Karpov to admit what he did and when he doesn't, that convinces Sonny that he did not do it. Sonny survives. However, even though he knows now that Karpov is innocent of Kate/Connie's shooting, Sonny believes Karpov's crossed by attempting to kill him in the first place and that it must now be answered for. It is indeed as Sonny shoots Karpov dead in revenge for the attempt on his life.

** In volume 3, you're being subtly led to believe that you've been too quick to judge Sylar. When [[MessianicArchetype Peter Petrelli]] [[spoiler: gains Sylar's ability for a while, he goes from saintly nurse to AxCrazy and nearly kills his own mother on sight out of the hunger for power before restraining himself]], which makes you wonder, especially since [[spoiler: to get that power Peter had to go to a future where Sylar is an upright family man and has undergone a total HeelFaceTurn]]. You also get to see that Sylar was [[spoiler:so remorseful over murdering his first victim that he tried to commit suicide]]. He goes to [[spoiler: Elle]], whose father he killed, to plead for forgiveness and goes through what seems to be a LoveRedeems subplot with her. Then he [[TheFarmerAndTheViper randomly decides he's had enough of being a nice person]] and ''kills her'' all because of random soap opera shenanigans that barely have anything to do with her. At this point you concede the point the writers were trying to make - that is, that this man is not right in the head. You also want him to die.

** Dickie Bennett seems like a stupid but pitiable BigBadWannabe. Then he murders the relatively innocent [[spoiler:Helen Givens]] and tries to arrange for his DirtyCop brother to frame his remaining accomplice for the deed then murder him afterwards to ensure his silence.

** Meg Abbott, who by season two is in charge of her chapter of the Guilty Remnant, pretty much crosses it herself in "Ten Thirteen" by not only [[spoiler: trapping the children on a schoolbus with a grenade inside, even though it's a dud (the GR, for all their sins, never go after kids and don't attack people unprovoked)]] but also [[spoiler: having a guy who wandered onto the compound outside Jarden stoned to death simply for being there, even though he didn't see anything and has no idea what her plan is]]. And in "I Live Here Now" she goes even further across it by [[spoiler: having all the people hanging around Miracle break in and trash the town, for no apparent reason other than to punish them because she didn't get what she wanted from visiting.]]

** We all knew [[PsychoForHire Martin Keamy]] was bad news from the get go, but he firmly crossed the line in "The Shape of Things to Come", where he [[spoiler: coldheartedly murdered Ben's daughter, just for the sake of proving he wasn't fucking around. Needless to say, he is quite possibly the only ''Lost'' character to ever cause [[MagnificentBastard Ben Linus]] to [[VillainousBreakdown lose his cool.]]]]
** If you think [[ArchnemesisDad Locke's father]], Anthony Cooper, hasn't crossed this by Season 3, "The Man From Talahassee" will obliterate that theory. He murders the son of one of his con victims for threatening to expose him, and when Locke confronts him about it, Cooper [[spoiler: throws him out of an eight-story window, shattering his spine]].

* In the ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'' episode "Malcolm Defends Reese", Malcolm's scheming principal, Lionel Herkabe, who kept dragging Malcolm into his schemes only for Malcolm to get wise to his act before they can succeed, crosses it when he rigs Malcolm's grades by humiliating his brother Reese simply because Malcolm's GPA was about to exceed his. It's probably not a coincidence that after Herkabe got humiliated at the end of the episode, he made no further appearances on the series.

* ''Series/TheShadowLine'': Gatehouse crosses this in the third episode. When he was introduced, it was as an ambiguous and slightly sinister character, but definitely the lesser of two evils when compared to the obviously psychopathic Jay Wratten. But then he [[spoiler:murders Andy Dixon, an innocent man set up as the FallGuy for a murder he committed, and his mother and pregnant girlfriend just to ensure no witnesses remain]], and it's clear that he's in fact a very ruthless and dangerous man. He becomes the main antagonist for the remainder of the series.
* ''Series/ShamelessUS'': Frank Gallagher is a morally reprehensible man who would rather pursue constant means of scamming people out of their money in order to feed his alcohol addiction, than to take care of his six children who are left to fend for themselves. He's done a lot of horrible things, including [[spoiler:sleeping with an underage girl]] and [[spoiler:attempting to sell one of his children for money]]. In the context of the show, however, even these actions are presented as things that he might still come back from. However, when he [[spoiler:cons a dying woman into agreeing to marry him in order to get her pension when she passes away, then conceals from her the fact that a heart transplant has become available for her, allowing her to die from her disease in order to get her money]] that is an offense that would make him irredeemable in the eyes of many viewers.
* ''Series/TheShield'': Had always played fast and loose with the moral event horizon concept with Vic Mackey, what with him shooting a fellow cop in the pilot and all. But his decision in the second to last episode to betray his only remaining friend, Ronnie Gardocki, by turning state's evidence against him and his cold proclamation that he would have no problem whatsoever LYING to Ronnie about his impending arrest, ultimately pushed Vic towards the point of no return for many fans. Even changing his mind finding out about Corrine's betrayal and [[YouAreTooLate his failed attempt to get Ronnie to go into hiding]] didn't change that the damage was done.

** Just as bad (or possibly worse), Maria is a RichBitch who likes the fact that she has control over all her classmates. But when Seira comes into the picture, she takes every effort to make her life miserable for easily stealing away her popularity. When Seira loses her fortune, she delights in making Seira grovel on the ground, donating huge amounts of money to the school and thus gaining enough power to make Seira her own personal [[strike: slave]] maid. She would also purposely spill soup on Seira and throw tomatoes at her when Seira was already at the [[BreakTheCutie lowest point of her life]]. And in a heartwrenching HopeSpot for Seira, Maria makes her believe that there was a slimmest chance that Seira could be [[Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet Juliet]], something Seira has dreamed of for the longest time. Maria gets to be Juliet and forces Seira to work extra hours in the kitchen, not allowing her a chance to even be in the play.

*** TheReveal later in Season Six that [[spoiler: he drugged Lana with synthetic hormones to fake the pregnancy and deceive her into marrying him, because he wanted to take her away from Clark forever. In "Promise", ''on the day of that very wedding'', he even murders the doctor who helped with the deception, due to the man getting sick of it and threatening to tell Lana.]]

* ''Series/SonnyWithAChance'': In a 2-part episode, Penelope crosses this by [[spoiler: framing Sonny for stealing, accusing her of plagarism, turning her friends against her, getting her booted off So Random, leaving Chad, Nico and Grady in a plane in a stormy sky without any parachutes]], and for the icing on the cake, [[spoiler: tries to kill Sonny with a bomb]], all this because Sonny loved Chad.

** And if that's not enough, the next episode reveals [[spoiler: he was knowingly responsible for both the bombing of a British embassy, killing 17 people, and the murder of a friend to steal their passport and identity.]] Not much chance of coming back from that....

** The last episode has the Female Changeling deal with Cardassian saboteurs by nuking Lakarian City; the resulting death toll is two million. When the Cardassian fleet learns of this, they perform a HeelFaceTurn, and begin firing on the Dominion and Breen ships. How does the Female Changeling react to this?

** Captain Ransom in easily crossed this line when he started murdering aliens as a fuel source for his ship. IDidWhatIHadToDo is nowhere near a sufficient excuse, but he at least seems to realize this at some level and eventually under goes a HeelFaceTurn and HeroicSacrifice.

** ''Series/SamuraiSentaiShinkenger''. Being a half-Gedoushuu who spends much of his time in his natural human form, Fuwa Juzo is subjected to many WhatMeasureIsANonHuman topics, thinking he might make a HeelFaceTurn (he even likes Genta's sushi). His sword Uramasa is made from his family who wanted him to stop being a BloodKnight that lives in slicing people with it. Then, when Akumaro tried to use his human emotions to use Uramasa to create a HellOnEarth, Juzo instead slices him off and reveals that he prefers to be a full-blooded Gedoushuu and doesn't care one bit for his family's pleads, all he wants is to use Uramasa to give him the pleasure of killing people.

** Before that, there was ''Series/ChoujuuSentaiLiveman'' and its BigBad Great Professor Bias. To explain his Moral Event Horizon, it is important to understand how he runs his group, Volt. As of Episode 22, his students are three geniuses from Earth and two aliens, all of whose experiments he urges on with the utmost confidence. The first of the five students to go is the alien Guildos. [[spoiler: Right before his death, Guildos realizes that he is not an alien, but a robot. Bias then confirms that not just Guildos, but the other alien, Butchy, were robots created to make the Earth students work harder. Butchy breaks down at this point because he had memories of a happy life that he just learned were completely fake and that his whole life was a lie and, as Butchy starts undergoing a Heel Face Turn, Bias makes him self destruct. If you don't consider this Bias's Moral Event Horizon, then there's his motive for everything in the series: He recruited four students from Earth- one of them had already made a Heel Face Turn by Episode 22- so he can raise their "scores" to 1000 so he could extract their brains and extend his immortality. After all the care he seemed to show to his students before this was revealed, this is shocking.]]

** Kate Argent [[spoiler: seduces an adolecent Derek Hale and burns down his home, killing most of his family.]]

** Season two's BigBad, Gerard Argent crosses it like a daily bridge - he declares a werewolf genocide on Beacon Hills, threatens to kill Scott's mother unless he betrays Derek's trust, [[spoiler: forces his son to help kill his wife for being bitten. He uses Allison's grief to turn her into an almost perfect copy of Kate. Even when he kills Matt, the Kanima master, we feel more sorry for Matt.]] In the season finale, he beats up Stiles in an effort to hurt Scott and [[spoiler: uses the Kanima to hold his granddaughter hostage - all this was an elaborate plan to become a werewolf himself to cure his own cancer.]]
* On ''Series/TheThinBlueLine'', Baz, a teenage boy is revealed to have crossed it when he forces his confused girlfriend, Natalie to throw her baby in a rubbish bin. She is at least remorseful for it, but Baz remarks "So what, who cares? It probably weren't mine anyway." [[BerserkButton This nearly causes Fowler to hit him.]]

** Lazarus, vicious and merciless killer for hire from 4-part StoryArc is already shown as cruel and remorseless assassin, killing undercover cops in a lot of violent ways and showing no remorse for it, but he really crosses this line when he kills an innocent young boy off-screen and after that doesn't feel anything.
** Johnny Blade from episode "The Lost Boys" just kept crossing the line: first he organizes the heist and kills a cop. Then he gives the gun to one of his accomplices and the same accomplice hides in his friend's house. After learning this Johnny threatens and innocent young teenager Jesse(the same friend who Johnny's accomplice hides the gun in his house and Carlos' nephew) to remain silent about his crimes and give him his gun back or else he will kill his mother. But he doesn't just stop there. Later Jesse is arrested and thought to have killed the cop and later Johnny kidnaps his mother and forces Jesse to take all the guilt guilt for his crimes and falsely confess or else he will kill his mother. But after Jesse does so, Johnny orders his lawyer and his henchmen in prison to kill Jesse, even after he took all the guilt and attempted to make his mother commit suicide. This was so evil, that judging from the look on his henchmen's faces, they seemed [[EvenEvilHasStandards disturbed by it]]. Luckily he is defeated and his accomplices are arrested.

* ''Series/TheWalkingDead'': Ed Peletier was certain nobody's favorite character, constantly abusing Carol and Sophia just to show his dominance. Nobody was sad when he was the first of the group to be killed off when the camp was invaded by Walkers and he was off sulking in his tent because Shane had beaten the shit of out him earlier in the day. However his MoralEventHorizon moment doesn't get revealed until the season two premier when Carol states that he was looking at his own daughter, suggesting he was ready to sexually abuse her as well.

** Walker is shown to be an all-around bastard, but crosses the Horizon when he [[spoiler:breaks Donut's fingers rather than attempt to arrest him]].

** Finn kills [[spoiler:several Grounder prisoners. He's sort of regretful about it, but still hates the Grounders. Eventually, he accepts his guilt and allows himself to be executed.]]

** Season 4: Dinah Araz [[spoiler: coldly poisoning an innocent teenage girl.]] It's the smiling and talking over family photos [[spoiler: while Debbie unknowingly drinks the poisoned tea]] that sends her over, and though she attempts a HeelFaceTurn afterward, [[spoiler: she gets a KarmicDeath instead.]] Her son Behrooz, [[spoiler: subject of a prominent WhatHappenedToTheMouse]] follows her right across the line by still following her orders despite clearing knowing she's crossed the MEH.
** Season 5: Christopher Henderson likely already crossed the horizon before he even appeared on-screen by [[spoiler: ordering the murder of David Palmer and Michelle Dessler.]] If not, then he seemed to do so [[spoiler: via his implied murder of Evelyn Martin and her daugher.]]

** Up until the finale of the first season, [[spoiler:Nina Myers]] seemed - at best - to be someone with muddled loyalties. Even when it was revealed in the previous episode that she was [[spoiler:Victor Drazen's contact in CTU (and was thus responsible for tipping the assassin off to the safehouse where Teri and Kim were staying)]], she still wasn't overtly bad. That changes in the span of the finale, though, when it's revealed that she [[spoiler:not only slit Jamey Farrell's wrists while the latter was handcuffed to a chair, but goes on to shoot and kill Teri Bauer (who just revealed to her that she was pregnant), despite not having any real reason to]]. Even though the writers tried to humanize her in the next two seasons, it didn't work.

** Additionally, many feel President Allison Taylor crossed it by [[spoiler: willingly listening to Charles Logan, despite knowing all about his past crimes and the type of man he is, and outright threatening Dahlia Hassan with military invasion of her country.]]