# Best scene in Television **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [August 30, 2024, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scene-in-television/1006483 "2024-08-30T19:14:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scene-in-television/1006483/1 "2024-08-30T19:14:10Z")
As a companion to thread with “Best Scene in Film” : [https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scene-in-film/1006452](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scene-in-film/1006452) I decide I would start a new thread to talk about the best scenes from TV shows. As the other thread said it all subjective and people’s opinion will vary: One of my favorites: from _Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles_ season 1 finale “What He Beheld” --The Terminator Cromartie (played by Garret Dillahunt) takes out an entire FBI SWAT team all while Johnny Cash’s song “When the Man Comes Around” plays on the soundtrack. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scene-in-television/1006483/2 "2024-08-30T19:31:06Z")
Nominated: the first scene of Season 2, Episode 1 of _Lost_. Much of Season 1 had revolved around the mysterious Hatch on the island. (No, not [that one](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hatch_(Survivor_contestant)).) In the final Season 1 episode they blew the lid off the hatch and let the viewers cliffhang for about 4 months wondering what was inside. The Season 2 premier started with a typical cold open, just some unknown guy making a smoothie and running on a treadmill listening to Cass Elliot, when suddenly he hears a huge bang. He arms himself and goes to find our Season 1 characters [peering down at him](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7GkdaLSxeQ) – he’s been living down inside the Hatch. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scene-in-television/1006483/3 "2024-08-30T19:38:19Z")
Henry Blake’s death in M_A_S\*H. I’m sure there are several from _West Wing_ that belong on the list. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scene-in-television/1006483/4 "2024-08-30T19:41:30Z")
_The Handmaid’s Tale_, the end of “Mayday” (S3E13) where the [“Angel’s Flight” lands in Canada](https://youtu.be/yqX1TwW68FA?si=BjPC25LSfc5nnNc1). The show is so brutal to June and the other subjugated characters up to that point that to get such a win is total catharsis. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scene-in-television/1006483/5 "2024-08-30T19:41:58Z")
The prison escape in Andor. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scene-in-television/1006483/6 "2024-08-30T19:50:45Z")
When Edith escapes her rapist with a pan of burnt cake in _All in the Family_. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scene-in-television/1006483/7 "2024-08-30T19:57:33Z")
The final scene in the British television series _Jekyll_(2007), when the protagonist, thinking every problem has been solved, finally tracks down the elderly British woman that has been secretly helping him, only to find out in the last seconds that she is the alter ego of the nasty American woman that was chasing him down the entire series. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scene-in-television/1006483/8 "2024-08-30T21:28:49Z")
Another oldie. “I, Claudius” when Livia tells Claudius why she’s determined to be a goddess after her death. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2024, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scene-in-television/1006483/9 "2024-09-11T16:30:53Z")
4 posts were merged into an existing topic: [Keyhotea Cornfielded Posts](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keyhotea-cornfielded-posts/1007125/42) ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scene-in-television/1006483/10 "2024-08-30T21:31:47Z")
“Star Trek: The Next Generation,” s.1, ep. 24 - “Conspiracy” [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g\_Vr9LnogLM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_Vr9LnogLM) YT link blurred, as it contains a milestone in the depiction of disgusting alien gore for TV. ---
**Author:** ![Mallard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Mallard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mallard)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scene-in-television/1006483/11 "2024-08-30T21:34:45Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](#): > > When Edith escapes her rapist with a pan of burnt cake in _All in the Family_. I loved the look on his face when Archie bunker realized his blood transfusion donor was black. And how Gloria and meat head ridiculed him mercilessly. Man I loved that show. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scene-in-television/1006483/12 "2024-08-30T21:35:07Z")
In Breaking Bad, when Skyler tells Walt she gave the money to Ted. In Better Call Saul, when Jimmy gets Chuck to break in court. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scene-in-television/1006483/13 "2024-08-30T21:39:39Z")
_Magnum, P.I._: When Magnum shot Ivan after asking “Did you see the sunrise?” was pretty shocking for affable, good guy Thomas Magnum. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scene-in-television/1006483/14 "2024-08-30T21:42:46Z")
My favorite is the scene at the end of the _Outer Limits_ episode “Demon with a Glass Hand” (written by Harlan Ellison) when Consuela (Arlene Martel, who went on to plat Spock’s betrothed T’Pring in “Amok Time”) realizes the truth about Trent (Robert Culp) and withdraws her hand, and Trent realizes he’s in for a very long lonely time. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scene-in-television/1006483/15 "2024-08-30T22:27:50Z")
How about non-fiction television: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/2WoDQBhJCVQ/maxresdefault.jpg "The Greatest Shot In Television") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WoDQBhJCVQ) ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scene-in-television/1006483/16 "2024-08-30T22:39:48Z")
If I had been an actress I would have loved to play villains. And Livia would be the height of my ambitions. She aged from froty to ninety in that show, arranged goodness knows how many deaths, and died in her bed. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scene-in-television/1006483/17 "2024-08-30T23:04:37Z")
Vincent van Gogh visits the Musée d’Orsay, _Doctor Who._ ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scene-in-television/1006483/18 "2024-08-30T23:12:19Z")
- LOST - When Desmond gets Penny on the phone at the end of the **The Constant**. “You picked up! I love you, Penny!” “I love you, Desmond!!!” - **The Red Wedding** (I think the Battle of the Bastards is too long to be a “scene”) - Mulder seeing his sister and the dude’s dead son/daughter in the episode Closure. Finally understanding…she’s dead. She has been the whole time. Closure for sure. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scene-in-television/1006483/19 "2024-08-30T23:18:16Z")
My “best scene” in terms of “Fuck, I did NOT expect that!” is this one: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/aI4Bk4Dv2m0/hqdefault.jpg "The Simpsons: Guy Incognito") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI4Bk4Dv2m0) ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2024, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scene-in-television/1006483/20 "2024-08-30T23:18:31Z")
**It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia**. [Frank Reynolds, stark raving naked, claws his way out of a couch he was hiding in at a party because it got too hot in there](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-KcdWTIA5w). Hilarious, but not safe for work (or lunch.). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-scene-in-television/1006483.md?page=2)