"What Now?" Ending: Difference between revisions
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Sometimes, as a television producer or writer, you want the viewer to wonder "What Happens Next?" when a season is over.
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
Instead of leaving the protagonists in mortal danger, this ending leaves them broken, or gone, or what have you.
The
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
Not to be confused with [[So What Do We Do Now?]] or [[Now What?]], a different kind of "what now? ending".
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* ''[[24]]'', by its nature, is quite heavy on these.
* ''[[Sliders]]'' ended with Rembrandt sliding alone to his homeworld, despite a (very accurate) seer's warning that doing so would be fatal. The others are left standing there, asking, "Now what do we do?"
* [[Police Procedural
* ''[[The Shield]]'' and ''[[Rescue Me]]'''s first seasons both ended with the wife of the protagonist leaving him and going into hiding because their spouse had become dangerous.
* ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' has had four of these so far.
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* The season 5 finale of ''[[Highlander the Series]]'' ends with {{spoiler|Richie [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|dead at Duncan's hand]], and Duncan abandoning his katana and walking off into the night.}}
* ''[[The Wire]]'' season 3: Stringer is dead, Avon Barksdale along with the rest of his crew other than Broadie and Slim Charles are in prison, McNulty decides to quit Major Case Squad and become a beat cop, Colvin is forced to retire and Hamsterdam is torn down.
* ''[[Smallville]]'' season 2: While this is very much a [[Cliff Hanger]] for Lex, for Clark it's a
* ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' second season ends with one of these, which is made even worse since the series has been [[Screwed by the Network|screwed by the network.]]
* ''[[Torchwood]]: Children of Earth'' has {{spoiler|A major character dead, Torchwood non-existent and Jack having left Earth}}.
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