10 Television Cliffhangers That Make Great Series Finales

We ’re always sad to see a dear video show last — but it ’s even more infuriating when a show goes out with a cliffhanger , that was clearly intended to run into another season of episodes . And yet , this variety of “ cancelhanger ” is n’t always the worst thing . Some time of year - ending cliffhangers actually make for a poetical ending to a show , that leaves you with just enough way to conceive of what might come next .

Here are 10 cliffhanger endings that actually make for better - than - ordinary series coda .

Note : Four of these cliffhangers really did help as series close , despite not being planned that means . The other six were resolve , and actually just process as season ( or mid - season finales . ) Either way , these are endings that were planned as cliffhanger , whether they dish up as finales or not .

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Also , we ’re not include the ending of Angel here , because it was plan as an close from the start .

Buffy sacrifices her liveliness to save up the world and her fake kid baby Dawn , at the poop final stage of a truly epic last struggle against the mad god Glory and her followers / slaves . The show really continues for two season after this , but at the time it felt as though a chapter was ending , with a new chapter beginning on a dissimilar web . And , to be honest , this is still a fitting send - off for Buffy , and the show was never quite as good again .

This show end with an especially stark , bleak fate for jolly much all the major characters except the snarky computer Orac . And this ending was originally designed as a cliffhanger leading into a potential time of year five — in which some of the characters could have miraculously come back . But this is a powerful , intense conclusion that gives Blake and Avon , in particular , the good send - off they could ever hope to have . It ’s hard to conceive of that a former time of year would have give the show a better finale .

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If things had go otherwise , the ending of season three could have been the series finish of Fringe — and it would n’t have been a bad one , at all . The state of war between universes is forfend , a dystopian futurity is prevented , and the two Walters forgather grimace to face at last . But there ’s a cost : Peter Bishop is rub out from history , so that nobody even remembers he was alive . As a cliffhanger , this was middling arbitrary and led to month of underwhelming stories about Peter slowly being reintroduced into the world — but as an ending , it might have been sort of fitting . We ’ll find out presently if Fringe has a better finale up its sleeve .

The final season of Heroes was fairly atrocious , completing the show ’s long down slideway . But the season finale , which lift up being the series close , actually move over the show a fairly consummate ending — not only does it correct the enquiry of whether mutants should be hugger-mugger , it also squall back to the track melodic theme in season one , where Claire hold on jump off high building and videotaping herself .

The rebooted V serial publication never quite reconcile on a strong identity , or found its groove . The aliens were addicted to Anna ’s “ Bliss , ” and incessantly desperate to mate with humans , and yet they also purportedly lack human emotion . And time of year two decide to judge and fixate thing by add Jane Badler to the mold , to win over the literally dozens of fans who were holding out for more shout - outs to the 1980s original show . And meanwhile , the Resistance against the aliens never barricade being hilariously fumbling . So this time of year finale — which wound up being a serial publication finale — is sort of complete . The alien eventually more or less succeed in stamp down humanity , reach their “ Bliss ” to passably much the whole human subspecies and making everyone Anna ’s slave . And meanwhile , Elizabeth Mitchell meets the material Resistance , the masses who have been ( alllegedly ) getting stuff done while her tiny group has been spin out its wheels .

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This gritty place - warfare drama got cancelled after just one season , and the time of year finale include a ton of cliffhanger . let in two part behind enemy argument and the main case obviously mortally injured , with the biggest battle just commence . But this was a arrant conclusion for a show about an endless war . As Jesse Alexanderexplainedin his essay about place : Above and Beyond for io9 :

https://gizmodo.com/why-space-above-and-beyond-blazed-new-trails-5345352

Part of me is beaming S : AB was n’t renewed . Rather than adjust their tincture or premise in a do-or-die beg for expanded viewership , creators Glen Morgan and James Wong ended the series on their own terms . I ’m still haunt by that last episode , by the heart - break emotion and narrative equivocalness that demonstrated just how far the series had come from its pilot . Space : Above and Beyond went down with its passion blazing and its middle fingerbreadth raised .

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Obviously , this show is a big hit and aim itself a second time of year — which we’remostly enjoyingfor the hilarious , mad soap operatics . But in an alternative universe where this show only survive one season , the first time of year finale credibly attend as a pretty good finish . The curse is sort of break , magic trick comes to the literal humans , and all the fairy story people commemorate who they really are . There are some super emotional moments , like Henry awake up , and Snow and Charming being reunify . And yet , there ’s a sense of , “ there ’s magic . Now what ? ” Might have been a great way to go out .

This is a weird case — Supernatural really ought to have ended after five seasons . Not only is the season five finale a thoroughgoing ending for the show , it would have been one of the all - time estimable serial publication finales of any show , ever . This episode brings everything full circle and show how the Winchester brothers have grown and change over the course of five years , while adjudicate the huge cosmic Lucifer / Michael storyline in a suitably epical ( if low - budget ) mode . The main cliffhanger ingredient is that Sam Winchester gets draw into Hell and then we see him enigmatically standing under a street light watch Dean ’s newfound domesticity through a window . But that probably would have been a nice last thing to be enquire about , after the show run away . alternatively , we got three more seasons of sometimes entertaining , sometimes confounding wackiness .

This is another show that we ’re still bask the heck out of — and yet , there may never be a better terminate to the show than Elena finally becoming a lamia by give-up the ghost in a manner that parallels her parent ’ expiry .

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And if thing had gone somewhat differently , this would have been the series finale of BSG — due to the writers ’ bang , production on the show was put on hold for months , and finally the contracts for the main actors were in danger of running out . Renewing all of those contracts might have been out of the question , so if the smash had go on a bit longer , the show probably would have end with the Galactica crowd find Earth … and it ’s a nuclear barren . This would have been one of the all - clip great bare , downer conclusion in science fabrication history , and pretty much nobody would have hated it . It would have been of a piece with the overall tone of BSG , and we ’d still be talking now about how brave the show was to go to such a dark place .

Further recital :

The 20 Best Cliffhangers Ever demo on Science Fiction or Fantasy TV

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