History DespairEventHorizon / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': In "[[Recap/InterviewWithTheVampire2022S1E1InThroesOfIncreasingWonder In Throes of Increasing Wonder...]]", Louis de Pointe du Lac [[NotAfraidToDie loses the will to live]] after his younger brother Paul (whom Louis "loved more than anyone on Earth" and promised their dying father to take care of him) commits suicide. Overwhelmed by the profound loss and feeling like a total failure, Louis undergoes a nervous breakdown while confessing his sins and exclaims in anguish "I wanna die!" Lestat de Lioncourt grants him his wish by murdering Louis as a human and then turning him into a vampire.

* In ''Film/TheChristmasThatAlmostWasnt'', after the BigBad Prune buys Prim's Department Store and basically steals the money Santa earned to pay for toys he damaged, deliberately screwing Santa over from paying the rent he owes to Prune, Santa and Whipple stroll listlessly down the street, hoping desperately for a miracle...

* ''Series/{{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.]]

** In a comparatively minor example of the trope, near the end of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E2TheGhostMonument "The Ghost Monument"]], the Thirteenth Doctor briefly hits this when [[spoiler:she thinks that she and her friends are stranded on Desolation and will die because the TARDIS (stuck in a thousand-year materialization loop) won't appear in time. Fortunately, it does.]]

* ''Series/TheDarkCrystalAgeOfResistance'': Rian crosses this briefly, thanks to a Breaking Speech from skekSil the Chamberlain. Thankfully, getting saved by Gurjin and Naia snapped him out of it, but the speech still heavily affected him, and even after being saved convinced him that he's tired of running away.

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In "Glyphic", every child in the small town of Tolemy (with the exception of Cassie and Louis Boussard) died of a rare form of brain cancer due to contamination from the town's mill. This resulted in the townspeople losing all hope for the future.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek''
** Commodore Decker in ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' was already in this when we first meet him in "The Doomsday Machine", having witnessed the death of his crew to the planetkiller weapon when he had hoped that he saved them. He's later DrivenToSuicide by this action.
** M-5, "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E24TheUltimateComputer The Ultimate Computer]]", when Kirk helps it realize that it's been responsible for the death of 500 Starfleet crewmen.
** Anton Karidian (the alias of mass murderer Kodos the Executioner) remains in control of himself even as Kirk's suspicions become increasingly evident, but breaks down in horror when he learns that his daughter Lenore -- the one part of his life that he thought was untainted by his past -- knows the truth and has been killing people to protect him.
** In ''[[Recap/StarTrekS2E3TheChangeling The Changeling]]'' Kirk neutralizes Nomad by [[BreakThemByTalking convincing Nomad]] that it had committed three errors and that being imperfect, it must [[DrivenToSuicide sterilize itself]]. Nomad's headlong plunge is actually quite heartrending.
** Both Benjamin Sisko and Worf his this in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''[='s=] "Image in the Sand" -- Sisko had already been there due to the fact that he failed to stop the Wormhole from collapsing, sealing the Prophets away, and getting Jadiza Dax killed. Worf has it pretty bad when he learns of how Jadiza died, realizing she'll never ascend to Sto-Vo-Kor. They spend that episode and the next fixing those little problems.
** Janeway ordering the crew to AbandonShip at the end of the first part of "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E8YearOfHell Year Of Hell]]" serves as this, and she spends the second part of the episode becoming a DeathSeeker, all the way to the point that she remains on board as she orders the last of the senior staff to other ships and drives Voyager itself into Annorex's time ship in an effort to smash the ResetButton.

*** For "Nepenthe", Jonathan Del Arco mentions in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKw8SfAz-ng this interview]] that when the xBs are slain by Narissa and her underlings in front of Hugh, any optimism that his character carried is thoroughly shattered.
---->'''Del Arco''': Certainly in my last episode of Season 1, when I watch [Narissa] kill my guys, that is a heartbreaking thing for [Hugh], it breaks, it really does crush every little bit of hope he had.
*** "Broken Pieces" reveals that Cristóbal Rios was discharged from Starfleet because he was diagnosed with post-traumatic dysphoria after he witnessed Captain Vandermeer, who was like a father figure to him, assassinate two people and then AteHisGun in remorse. Nine years later, Rios still hasn't fully recovered from the trauma.

* ''Series/TheWalkingDead'': [[TheLeader Rick]] gets two of these. The first after [[spoiler: he's forced to kill his best friend]] in the season finale and the second after [[spoiler: Lori dies]] in Season 3.

* In ''Series/{{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]].

* Halfway through season four of ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'', 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.]]

* In the 1st episode of season five of ''Series/{{Community}}'', Jeff informs his old law firm partner that he isn't giving up on his career (even though repo men are taking his furniture away as they talk), for he still has a beacon of hope left. A repo man takes the glass of scotch he was holding. ''That'' was it.

** [[Recap/DoctorWho50thPrequelTheNightOfTheDoctor The Eighth Doctor]] was ready to die permanently upon realizing that the Last Great Time War was making it impossible for him to do any more good as a Time Lord. He was convinced to regenerate and to find a way to bring the war to an end for the sake of the universe... but decided to give up his principles as a healer to do so. The result? After years of fighting, the War Doctor was ultimately willing to destroy both the Daleks and ''his own people, including billions of innocent children'', to bring the war to an end. His later incarnations deliberately forgot about him for this and other dirty deeds — though after the events of [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "The Day of the Doctor"]], in which [[spoiler:he helped them '''save''' Gallifrey instead]], he was acknowledged once more.
** The Twelfth Doctor undergoes a horrific TraumaCongaLine in the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E10FaceTheRaven final]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent three]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent episodes]] of Series 9: First, he is betrayed by [[spoiler:Ashildr, who owed her now-immortal life to him]]. This accidentally leads to [[spoiler:the death of his companion Clara via a foolish, Senseless Sacrifice]], which he is helpless to stop. Then, his enemies imprison him in a giant torture chamber; save for a mute monster, the place is deserted and he has no TARDIS or anyone to help him through his anguish and rage. The enemies turn out to be [[spoiler:'''his own people''']]. By the time he finally escapes — [[spoiler:four-and-a-half '''billion''' years later, all of which he remembers]] — he has undergone a SanitySlippage and become a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds obsessed with [[spoiler: saving Clara by preventing her death, heedless of the paradox]] and, while this is at first actually successful, he firmly crosses the horizon when he realizes [[spoiler:that she won't, and can't, fully return to life]] even as he is risking '''the entire universe''' in hopes of making it so. No one can convince him to come back across it; it isn't until he has a HeelRealization that he does so by [[spoiler: not only parting from Clara for good but losing many of his memories of her — namely those that made him love her]]. This relieves him of his burden of sorrow and resultant madness, thus he is able to come back and be a selfless hero once again.

** Although Cersei doesn't become a monster after she and Robert have a conversation where it initially looks like they're going to reconcile and improve their relationship, she is then rejected by Robert. This scene ends with Robert asking her how she feels, and her responding that she doesn't feel anything. Her subsequent actions make a lot more sense in light of this. And then, if she hadn't crossed it before, she certainly does when Joffrey dies in her arms in "The Lion and the Rose". Later, it turns out there was still some sanity for her to lose, which she finally does when Tommen abandons her to her fate in the hands of the Sparrows, which prompts Cersei to mass murder all of her enemies she can at once — along with a good chunk of bystanders — and even give up on her son himself.

** Tasha "Taystee" Jefferson in season 7 had lost hope of ever getting out of prison after being found guilty of a murder she did not commit and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. She had tried to kill herself many times, but failed due to intervention. In the last episode, she makes the best of her sentence by helping other inmates.
** Blanca Flores in season 7 lost hope of being free and having a family with her boyfriend Diablo due to ICE picking her up from Litchfield, her green card being voided, and her boyfriend even being detained by ICE due to his green card being expired. Maritza who was also detained tried to get her to be positive and not give up, but Blanca shouted at her to stop for they'll never get help outside the detention center. However, they did get help from their old friends from Litchfield Max, but Maritza got deported back to Colombia for helping other detainees.

* ''{{Series/Poldark}}'': George crosses it in the series 4 finale when [[spoiler:his wife Elizabeth]] passes away. As cruel as he is, [[spoiler:he really did love her and regrets his actions that pushed her to her early pregnancy]]. He grows despondent, even suicidal, and begins hallucinating her. Even when he's brought back to stability, a sadness hangs over him that never really leaves.

* In ''Series/{{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]].

** Both Benjamin Sisko and Worf his this in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''[='s=] "Image in the Sand" - Sisko had already been there due to the fact that he failed to stop the Wormhole from collapsing, sealing the Prophets away, and getting Jadiza Dax killed. Worf has it pretty bad when he learns of how Jadiza died, realizing she'll never ascend to Sto-Vo-Kor. They spend that episode and the next fixing those little problems.

** Dean Winchester crosses the line in the season 2 finale after 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 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. In Season 9, [[spoiler:he is so wracked with guilt over ''everything'' that has gone wrong as a result of his initially ill-thought decision to have an angel possess Sam that he trashes the room he's in, takes off as soon as he ascertains that Sam is alright, then takes on the deadly Mark of Cain- while literally cutting off Cain mid-sentence when he tries to explain the consequences of the Mark. He literally no longer cared what happened to him at that point.]]
** Sam has also had several of these over the course of the series, especially times when Dean has died/Sam has believed him to be dead. In particular, after Dean went to Hell at the end of Season 3, Sam drank himself into a near-stupor and was overtly suicidal until Ruby propelled him into a revenge mission. When Dean disappeared at the end of Season 7, Sam "imploded," stopped any kind of hunting, and drove aimlessly for months- which was quite unfortunate, as Dean was, in fact, alive and could have really used the help. Between Sam's shame at not saving Dean (combined with other mistakes he'd made over the course of the series) and being worn down and ill by the Trials in Season 8, he seemed to hit that point again and by the end of Season 8 was entirely okay with dying to finish the Trials (after taking them on initially because he wanted to live and thought Dean would use the Trials as an elaborate suicide). [[spoiler: Then ''again'' in "First Born" in Season 9, when Sam discovered that Dean tricked him into accepting an angel possession to save his life, resulting in Kevin's death at Sam's hands, he became suicidal again and practically urged Cas to kill him in a slim-chance attempt to track the aforementioned angel, as he felt he never should have survived in the first place.]]
** I think it's safe to say that the whole of season 10 is one big Despair Event Horizon... And Season 11. ''Especially'' season 11. Dean, Sam, Cas...
** The season 12 finale has them crossing it again, what with [[spoiler: the deaths of [[TrueCompanions Castiel]] and [[FriendlyEnemy Crowley]], as well as Mary being lost in a parallel universe.]]
* 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]], realizes 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.]]

*** Sento Kiryu/KamenRiderBuild is slowly pushed towards his breaking point by events pilling up on (being powerless to save some people, finding out his true [[AmnesiacHero identity]], war breaking out because of his inventions). He finally snaps under the horror of [[spoiler: killing a man while in [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique Hazard Trigger]] induced berserk state]]. He recovered only some of his marbles from then on as apparent by developing a general apathy towards his life and anything relating to it.

* Sandor is in this state for most of the series, ever since his brother was knighted despite burning Sandor's face and murdering their sister. This made Sandor lose any shred of idealism, and develop the Hound as a persona (similar to Tyrion). He keeps his trauma and sadness hidden under layers of cynicism, snark, and brutality. Whenever the mask of stoicism falls, what we see is a scared, broken man who has lost all hope.

* In ''Series/ChariteAtWar'', Martin crosses it after the Nazi regime has him arrested for homosexuality and the doctor responsible for his assessment makes clear that he can't do anything now that would save him from the concentration camp. Even worse, he insinuates if he doesn't confess to being a homosexual, his ''little catamite'' will suffer in the same way. After that, he quietly resigns himself to his fate. [[spoiler:Then he gets unexpected help from his boyfriend's sister, who gives a false testimony about Martin's love life.]]

* In ''Series/ChariteAtWar'', Martin crosses it after the Nazi regime has him arrested for homosexuality and the doctor responsible for his assessment makes clear that he can't do anything now that would save him from the concentration camp. After that, he quietly resigns himself to his fate. [[spoiler:Then he gets unexpected help from his boyfriend's sister, who gives a false testimony about Martin's love life.]]

* {{Series/Poldark}}: George crosses it in the series 4 finale when [[spoiler:his wife Elizabeth]] passes away. As cruel as he is, [[spoiler:he really did love her and regrets his actions that pushed her to her early pregnancy]]. He grows despondent, even suicidal, and begins hallucinating her. Even when he's brought back to stability, a sadness hangs over him that never really leaves.

** ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Buffy crosses it in the final episodes of Season 5; when all of her efforts to [[BigSisterInstinct protect Dawn]] are rendered moot when Glory finally captures her, Buffy loses it and is [[AngstComa rendered catatonic]]. Willow goes on a JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind to snap her out of it, and during said journey, Buffy confesses to Willow that she'd long since given up hope of actually beating Glory, to the extent that part of her actually ''wanted'' her to win just so the fear would finally end.

*** After Raffi was laid off by Starfleet, she became a substance abuser consumed by paranoia who neglected her family. She remains an alcoholic and a druggie fourteen years later, and she's still estranged from her son.

** ''Series/StarTrekPicard'': For "Nepenthe", Jonathan Del Arco mentions in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKw8SfAz-ng this interview]] that when the xBs are slain by Narissa and her underlings in front of Hugh, any optimism that his character carried is thoroughly shattered.
--->'''Del Arco''': Certainly in my last episode of Season 1, when I watch [Narissa] kill my guys, that is a heartbreaking thing for [Hugh], it breaks, it really does crush every little bit of hope he had.

* In ''Series/ChariteAtWar'', Martin crosses it after the Nazi regime has him arrested for homosexuality and the doctor responsible for his assessment makes clear that he can't do anything now that would save him from the concentration camp. After that, he quietly resigns himself to his fate.