From 'Breaking Bad's 'Ozymandias' to 'Game of Thrones' 'The Red Wedding': The 9 Most Intense TV Episodes of All Time

Breaking Bad has had its share of disturbing scenes (that multi-prison killing rampage wasn't exactly light-hearted fare), but none have been as difficult to watch as the scene in this week's episode when Walt and Skyler attacked each other, Walt Jr. called the police, and Walt ran away with baby Holly. It was a marvelously shot but emotionally exhausting sequence, and viewers' heartbeats are still coming down a day later. Image: AMC

You know an episode was disturbing when even viewers who knew it was coming had to look away when it aired. Game of Thrones' 'The Rains of Castamere,' more infamously known as 'The Red Wedding,' was so shockingly intense that both book readers and new viewers found themselves gasping for air during the episode's bloody finale. Fans may still be recovering over three months later, but Thrones ' creator George R.R. Martin had the last laugh. Image: HBO

The effects of Grey's Anatomy's Season 6 finale, in which a grief-stricken gunman (Michael O'Neill) went on a killing rampage at Seattle Grace, can be summed up like this: I'm currently watching The West Wing for the first time, and every time O'Neill, who had a recurring role, appears on screen, I'm forced to pause the episode so my heart rate can go down and my hands can shop shaking. Image: ABC

Arguably the best episode of Homeland to date, 'Marine One' featured Brody record the now-ubiquitous confession video and get this close to killing Vice President Walden in a suicide mission. The whole episode put viewers on edge, but it was the scene in the bunker, where Brody decided to forgo the attack after a pleading call from his daughter, that made this Season1 finale so memorably intense. Image: Showtime

This Season 4 episode had Dexter getting an inside look at the Trinity Killer's family life, and it was quickly revealed that all was not what it seemed. Viewers watched in horror as it was discovered that Arthur's innocent, church-going demeanor was merely a mask, and that in reality, the man was a child-abusing monster. Abuse is never not difficult to watch on-screen, and 'Hungry Man' kept the tensions distressingly high. Image: Showtime

Remember the good old days, when Lost was simply a show about a group of plane crash survivors rather than a mythology lesson on black smoke, purgatory, and polar bears? Still, while Season 1 may have been the calmest of the show's six, it had its fair share of intense moments — just rewatch the pilot episode to remember. The two-parter featured people being sucked into propellers, a pilot in a tree top, and, okay, a polar bear. So maybe Lost didn't ease into insanity, but its pilot episode sure knew how to get viewers' blood pumping. Image: ABC

You see that picture on the left? That's "pink mist," the name for what's left of a person who's been blown up by a bomb, in this case, Grey's Anatomy guest star Kyle Chandler. His character's death was the defining moment of this two-part episode, in which Meredith found herself the only thing between a piece of unexploded ammunition and a destroyed Seattle Grace. Add in a terrified Christina Ricci and an in in-labor Dr. Bailey, and you've got yourself one of the most intense Grey's episodes of all time. Image: ABC

Has there ever been a series finale more controversial than this one? It seemed like everyone had an opinion on what happened to Tony Soprano after the screen faded to black. Some praised showrunner David Chase for his boldness to end the series on such an unresolved note, while many more had nothing but criticism for the episode's mysterious end. No matter where you stand, chances are you're still reeling from The Sopranos' finale six years after it aired. Now that's good TV. Image: HBO

The Season 1 finale of The West Wing started out like most of the series' episodes, with high drama, a fast pace, and a whole lot of walk-and-talks. Yet by the episode's conclusion, all hell had broken loose. At a town hall meeting, a gunman opened fire, and the hour ended with bodies on the ground and a Secret Service agent shouting, "Who's been hit?!" Intense didn't even begin to describe it. Image: NBC