Book Ends/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

 

''Note that some [[Book Ends]] can be a spoiler, so beware.''

* Every Season of ''[[Charmed]]'' begins and ends with the door to Halliwell Manor being closed by magic.

* The first shot of the first scene of ''[[Lost]]'' is Jack's eye opening. {{spoiler|The final shot is his eye closing.}}

** Also, one episode opened with Meredith dreaming of a threesome with her two love interests ended with her and her two friends lounging on the bed eating ice cream. Another started with McDreamy pulling Meredith out of a bathtub, which turned out to be foreshadowing for a dark and dramatic ending.

* Especially well done in ''[[M*A*S*H (television)|Mash]]'' "A War for All Seasons." The episode opens with a boisterous New Year's Eve party, which turns quiet when Col. Potter makes his toast. "Here's to the new year: may she be a damn sight better than the old one, and may we all be home by the end of it." The episode takes place over the course of a year, and ends with the next year's New Year's Eve party. Poignantly, Col. Potter makes the same toast he did at the previous party.

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'', "Army of Ghosts/Doomsday": "This is the story of how I died...".

** The TV movie begins and ends with the Doctor sitting in the console room of the TARDIS reading [[H. G. Wells]]' ''The Time Machine'' and listening to a jazz record, before the jazz record abruptly sticks and jumps. The first occurrence was a moment of sinister foreshadowing; the second is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] ("Oh, no - not again!").

** And a specific episode example: season 1 episode 6 opens and closes on the same image: {{spoiler|Brandon's}} dead body [[Dead Guy on Display|displayed on the hood of a car]], the beginning on the real thing, and the end in the photograph on Lieutenant Daniels' desk.

* ''[[Star Trek]]'' has played with this a lot.

** In two instances, the opening narration is used to imply that "we're back to the beginning" or "it's come full circle":

{{quote|'''Picard:''' Space, the final frontier... these are the voyages of the Starship ''Enterprise''. Her ongoing mission...

'''Kirk:''' ... to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations...

** However, this is only an instance of bookends in-universe; actually the first scene was shown in a [[Flash Back]] in the second series opener, and the second in the last episode but four.

* The pilot of ''[[Leverage]]'' has a scene where the team (minus Sophie, who had not been introduced yet) started out standing in a circle, but then walked away, with an overhead shot. The episode ended with the team (included Sophie this time) standing in a circle and not separating. The season ended with an overhead shot of them (again in a circle) going their separate ways.

** The TV-Movie ''The Plan'' has this in two ways. First, the film opens with a shot of the two Cavils from "Lay Down Your Burdens" about to be airlocked. The rest of the film consists of flashbacks, ultimately leading up to the point where they stand in front of the airlock.

*** The second book end is a more meta example. ''The Plan'' ends with an altered version of the [[Crowning Music of Awesome|opening theme]] [[Theme Tune Cameo|of the show]]. Since ''The Plan'' is the very last ''Battlestar'' episode to air (excluding spinoffs), having the opening theme as the last thing the audience hears has a certain meaning to it.

* The first episode of ''[[ER]]'' begins with an ambulance full of patients and a lagging Dr. Carter. Dr. Greene calls out to him, "Dr. Carter, you coming?" The final episode ends with an ambulance full of patients and a lagging Dr. Greene (the daughter of the man in the pilot). Dr. Carter calls out to her, "Dr. Greene, you coming?"

** And both the pilot and the finale begin with a similar shot of Greene/Carter asleep and then woken up by the same exact nurse.

* Episodes of the [[Discovery Channel]] series ''[[American Guns]]'' often begin and end with Rich Wyatt and his family firing guns together.

* In the pilot episode of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', Peter catches a cab driven by Mohinder. Peter asks Mohinder if he ever had the feeling he was meant to do something special, and a conversation about destiny and natural selection ensues. In the first episode of Volume Four, after an adventure that put both of them in a bad light (and made plenty of heroes turn on each other), Peter again catches a cab driven by Mohinder and, laughing, asks the same thing. Mohinder says he had the feeling, but was proven wrong.

** Likewise, the seventh season premiere opens with a flashforward of Ted talking to the groom at the wedding {{spoiler|it's Barney}}, and [[Word of God]] has said that the season finale will end with a flashforward to Ted meeting with the bride, revealing her identity.

** The episode "Tick Tick Tick..." both opens and closes with the sound of a ticking clock.

* ''[[Nikita (TV series)|Nikita]]'': [[Magnificent Bastard|Percy]] begins season 2 locked up in a prison cell at the bottom of a missile silo, having been deposed by [[The Starscream|Amanda]]. In the season finale, {{spoiler|Nikita [[Disney Villain Death|drops him down that silo]], and he ends up smashing right into the cell.}}

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