"What Now?" Ending: Difference between revisions

One way to do this is a [[Cliff Hanger]]; but Cliff Hangers are a [[Cyclic Trope]], or maybe your series, which is already cliffhanger-heavy, wouldn't stand up to another cliffhanger, or maybe you're worried that you won't last another season. That's where the [['''"What Now?" Ending]]''' comes in.

The [['''"What Now?" Ending]]''' allows the three months to a year to pass between new episodes in "series" time as well, if the writers so desire. Also, a [['''"What Now?" Ending]]''' allows a form of insurance against [[Real Life Writes the Plot]]; actors who die or are unavailable can be handled by having something happen to the character during the [[Time Skip]].

If the [[Five-Man Band]] is broken up, or the hero leaves the [[City of Adventure]], or the wife of the protagonist leaves him, that's a [['''"What Now?" Ending]]'''.

Not to be confused with [[So What Do We Do Now?]] or [[Now What?]], a different kind of "'what now?' ending".

{{quote| {{spoiler|Pretend I did blow up the school - all the schools. Now that you're dead,}} what are you going to do with your life?}}

** The seventh and final season, ended with the question, "What are we going to do now?"

** The fifth season ended with a [[Bolivian Army Ending]].

* ''[[Twenty Four|24]]'', by its nature, is quite heavy on these.

* [[Police Procedural|Police Procedurals]]s, such as ''[[Law and Order]]'' and ''[[CSI]]'' tend to have these.

* ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' has had four of these so far.

** In the third season finale, House fires his entire staff (or they resign, depending on member).

* Season 5 of ''[[Stargate SG-1 (TV)|Stargate SG-1]]'' ended with Daniel Jackson dead (and [[Ascend to Aa Higher Plane of Existence|ascended]]), the Tok'ra devastated and scattered, Thor's mind trapped in the controlling computer of Anubis's abandoned mothership, and Anubis himself rapidly gaining power and influence. But at least Earth and the SGC weren't in any immediate danger. The "mood of despair" was even more obvious at the conclusion of the two-parter "Summit/Last Stand" in the latter half of the season, but it wasn't the season finale.

* The ''[[Stargate Atlantis (TV)|Stargate Atlantis]]'' series finale "Enemy at the Gate" ended with Atlantis {{spoiler|landing near the Golden Gate Bridge}}. While the series is over, the story will continue in spin-off movies.

** ''[[Stargate Universe (TV)|Stargate Universe]]'' ended on a big one. {{spoiler|''Destiny'' goes into an extended FTL jump to escape the drone armada, with the entire crew entering hypersleep for the next three years, possibly to be set adrift forever. Eli volunteers to stay behind with the single damaged pod, with two weeks to fix it before the life support fails and he dies.}}

* Season 4 of ''[[Lost (TV)|Lost]]'' ends with {{spoiler|the Oceanic Six getting off the island and the island ''vanishing'', leaving viewers to wonder what the structure of the show will be in season 5.}}

* ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' did this a lot:

** Season five ended with the Federation having to evacuate Deep Space Nine and the beginning of a war with the Dominion.

** Season six ended with [[Dropped a Bridge Onon Him|Jadzia Dax dead]] and [[Ten -Minute Retirement|Sisko leaving the station]].

* ''[[The X -Files]]'' ended its fifth season with the titular department closed and Mulder and Scully reassigned. [[The Movie]] picked up with this, ending when Mulder and Scully's adventure leads to the re-opening of the X-files, but, surprisingly, when the sixth season starts, though the department is open, Mulder and Scully haven't been returned to it.

* The season 5 finale of ''[[Highlander the Series]]'' ends with {{spoiler|Richie [[Dropped a Bridge Onon Him|dead at Duncan's hand]], and Duncan abandoning his katana and walking off into the night.}}

* ''[[Smallville]]'' season 2: While this is very much a [[Cliff Hanger]] for Lex, for Clark it's a [[What Now? Ending]] to a T - he's {{spoiler|destroyed his only link to Jor-El, directly causing his mother to lose her baby}}, alienated Lana and Chloe, and is in so much emotional turmoil that he ends the season riding away from [[City of Adventure|Smallville]] [[Not Himself|self-medicated]] on [[G-Rated Drug|Red Kryptonite]]. The next season premiere picks up months later.

* ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' second season ends with one of these, which is made even worse since the series has been [[Screwed Byby the Network|screwed by the network.]]

* ''[[Torchwood (TV)|Torchwood]]: Children of Earth'' has {{spoiler|A major character dead, Torchwood non-existent and Jack having left Earth}}.

* ''[[Community (TV)|Community]]'' episode [[Community (TV)/Recap/S1 /E25 PascalsPascal's Triangle Revisited|Pascal's Triangle Revisited]] ends in the spring of one school year, and the next season premier picks up with the first day of school in the fall.

* ''[[Captain Power and Thethe Soldiers of Thethe Future]]'' is the quintessential example, as Season One (the [[Cut Short|only season it had before cancellation]]) ended with the [[Anyone Can Die|death]] of [[Dying Declaration of Love|Jeniffer "Pilot" Chase]] after she [[Heroic Sacrifice|self-destructed the Powerbase's reactor]], both to keep the base's sensitive information from falling into Lord Dread's hands, and [[Taking You Withwith Me|to destroy Blastarr]]. The [[Five-Man Band]] was effectively broken up, leaving Power, Hawk, Tank, and Scout destitute and hopeless in the wilderness.

* Much like the Captain Power example above, [[Space: Above and Beyond]] ended its first and only season with two members of the 58th squadron safe and sound, two more in the cockpit of a transport falling toward a planet with one of them already unconscious from a head wound, and the fifth one most definitely dead after the wreck of a destroyed enemy fighter hits him head on. Meanwhile, Earth's attempt to strike the enemy homeworld ended in disastrous failure, and we've just learned that their genocidal war might have been provoked by a human corporation that knowingly treaded all over their holy ground. With or without a second season, it was decidedly downbeat and any sense of victory was pretty small-scale.

* ''[[Blake's Seven7|Blakes Seven]]'' ended two of its three seasons like this: season 3 ends with the crew stranded on Terminal and the Liberator destroyed. Season 4 ends with Scorpio destroyed and the crew apparently dead. Season two is a near miss: it ends on an actual [[Cliff Hanger]] with the Liberator staring down an invading armada, but the next season seemingly skips to the end of the war, with the Liberator crew abandoning ship and only returning much later.

* ''[[The Others (TV series)|The Others]]'' ended its first and only season with the entire cast apparently dead thanks to the machinations of an evil force. A cryptic comment by Einer as he dies points to the possibility that, had the series been renewed, the whole thing might have turned out to be a [[Thantos Gambit|complex]] [[My Death Is Just the Beginning|plan]].

* ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' infamously ended its third season with the Command Center annihilated, the Rangers without their powers and helpless against the bad guys.<ref>Luckily, that little crisis was resolved [[Power Rangers ZEOZeo|next season]] when the Rangers got new powers to fight evil.</ref>

* ''[[Halo Reach|Halo: Reach]]'' first ends like this with Noble 6 shoting down the Covenant cruiser from the ground and watching the Pillar of Autumn escape into space, leaving him presumedly the last living human on Reach. But it's then averted with a bonus level as [[The Stinger]], in which {{spoiler|you are swarmed by an endless horde of enemies to fight to the last bullet.}}

* The ''[[Gargoyles (Animation)|Gargoyles]]'' spin-off "Bad Guys" ended with the Redemption Squad out in the middle of the ocean on a boat made of Matrix. They've managed to take Mistress Quickly prisoner, but Falstaff and the rest of his gang got away. [[The Hero|Hunter]] and [[The Lancer|Dingo]] are starting to fall in love. Yama waxes philosophical just before [[Taken for Granite|turning to stone]]. [[Token Evil Teammate|Fang]] is bitchy as usual. Someone's going to save them, right? Right?

** Season 3: {{spoiler|Cocktease's group of assasinsassassins suceededsucceeded in [[Batman Gambit|their plan]] to have Brock kill their competition. Brock lost his mullet and resigned from both the O.S.I. and being a bodyguard. Also [[Mauve Shirt|Number 24]] died}}.

* ''[[Scooby -Doo! Mystery Incorporated]]'' ends with {{spoiler|Fred learning the [[Big Bad]] is his father, and then that actually he's ''not'' his father, and breaking the team up, while Shaggy's parents decide they're going to send him [[Military School]], and Scooby [[Released to Elsewhere|to a farm]]}}.

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