History BookEnds / LiveACtionTV

* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', the first and last person we see firing one of the Ancient's drone weapons is Dr. Beckett. Also in the pilot Dr. McKay in essence complaining about not having the ancient gene and thus not being able to use the chair and in the finale that he has a lower aptitude for using the chair.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E1TheImposibleAstronaut The Impossible Astronaut]] starts with Amy and Rory at home, followed by [[spoiler:the Doctor's death]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E13TheWeddingOfRiverSong The Wedding Of River Song]] ends with [[spoiler: the Doctor's "death", followed by Amy and Rory at home]]

However, this is only an instance of bookends in-universe; actually the first scene was shown in a {{flashback}} in the second series opener, and the second in the last episode but four.

* In the first episode of ''{{Sanctuary}}'', Helen offers Will "a chance to explore a world that you've been trying to understand on your own … with very little success" and the second episode ends with Magnus saying "Shall we begin?" In the last episode of season 4 (the likely series finale), Magnus says "What if I offered you the chance to explore a world that you've been trying to see since you were a child?" The last words of the episode are Magnus once again saying "Shall we begin?" to Will.

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

*** Proof that they weren't entirely lying when they claimed to know the ending of the show all along. They actually did know the final scene, just nothing that had anything to do with the plot.
* Used in many episodes of ''ThirdWatch'', often with the same song playing at the beginning and end of the episode.
** Not only that, the ''entire series'': The first sequence in the first episode concludes with [[spoiler:Sully]]'s trademark "[[spoiler:Crap]]". The last scene in the last episode does, too.
* In the ''GreysAnatomy'' episode "(As We Know It)", a scene with George viewing Christina and Izzie [[spoiler: washing 'splodey bits of bomb-squad-guy Dylan out of Meredith's hair]] was a bookend for the opening scene of the two-part episode -- wherein George has a wet dream of the same three women showering together.
** 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 ''[[{{MASH}} M*A*S*H]]'' "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.
* ''[[HomicideLifeOnTheStreet Homicide: Life on the Street]]'' begins and ends with a conversation between two detectives just as they're about to perp sweat a suspect. The conversation is the same in both cases ("If I could just find this damn thing, I could go home...") and one of the detectives appears in both.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'', "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 HGWells' ''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 [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] ("Oh, no - not again!").

* The very first episode of ''{{Seinfeld}}'' began with Jerry commenting about the second button from the top on George's shirt being in an odd place. At the end of the series finale, [[spoiler: as the group sits in their prison cell,]] Jerry once again brings up the shirt button and quotes verbatim the first lines of the first episode. LarryDavid mentioned that he wanted the show about nothing to end right where it began, therefore going nowhere.
* The pilot of ''{{Buffy the Vampire Slayer}}'' features a final scene in which Buffy, Xander, and Willow walk off exchanging light-hearted banter, followed by Giles commenting "The world is doomed." The series finale features a scene in which Buffy, Xander, and Willow walk off exchanging light-hearted banter, followed by Giles commenting "The world is definitely doomed."
** In this scene (as Buffy and friends prepare to make their final stand at Sunnydale High) she sends off each of her allies to their posts until she is completely alone. The order in which all the others depart is exactly the opposite order in which they first appeared in the series (Andrew first, Xander last).
** Angel's departure in the last episode, where he disappears into the shadows, was also deliberately made to mirror his entrance into the series.
** Also, season 6. Opens with Buffy climbing out of a grave, alone, into a hellish burning Sunnydale being invaded by a demon gang. Ends with Buffy climbing from the earth, with her sister, to see the world as a beautiful place worth living in.
** A subtler and possibly unintentional one from season four: in the premire, Sunday gloats about breaking Buffy's arm, only for Buffy to reveal it's not broken. In the final battle against Adam, Buffy breaks the retractable arm spike he's been using in all his fights, only for Adam to reveal his other arm turns into a machine gun and grenade launcher.
** The episode "Lessons" beginning and ending with the line "It's about power." The first time spoken by Buffy, the second by, well, The First (appearing as Buffy).

* The first season of ''TheWire'' ends with a sequence showing that despite Avon and D'Angelo getting arrested, nothing has really changed in the projects, including Poot passing on D'Angelo's advice to separate payment and delivery.
** The entire show ends with scenes showing that nothing has changed.
** The first season intro song is used in the final montage.
** And a specific episode example: season 1 episode 6 opens and closes on the same image: [[spoiler:Brandon's]] dead body [[DeadGuyOnDisplay displayed on the hood of a car]], the beginning on the real thing, and the end in the photograph on Lieutenant Daniels' desk.
* ''StarTrek'' has played with this a lot.
** ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'''s first and last episodes both feature Q testing humanity's potential.
** In the first and last episodes of ''StarTrekEnterprise'', they visit Rigel.
** ''StarTrekVoyager'''s first and last episodes both end with Janeway ordering "Set a course. For home." (Tom Paris in the Pilot, Chakotay in the finale, as [[spoiler: Paris is heading to sickbay to meet his newborn daughter.]]
** In two instances, the opening narration is used to imply that "we're back to the beginning" or "it's come full circle":
*** ''StarTrekEnterprise'', at the end of its series finale, uniting all three ''Enterprise'' captains:

*** The [[Film/StarTrek new movie]], with [[spoiler:Leonard Nimoy as Elder Spock reciting the famous lines just before [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome Michael Giacchino's magnificent orchestral rendition of the original ''Star Trek'' theme blasts over the end credits]]]]. Trekkies everywhere cried tears of joy.
* A subtle version of this happened in ''Series/{{House}}'', Season Four. In the beginning, Wilson tries to mess with House's head (stealing the guitar and making him believe he's hallucinating the cottages) so he can do his lecturing thing. At the end of the season, Wilson literally wants to mess with House's head so that House can save Wilson's dying girlfriend. As you can probably tell, one is sadder than the other.
** A much less subtle one happened in Season 5, again with Wilson.
** The first and last episodes of Season One end with the song "You Can't Always Get What You Want".
** There's one that encompasses the end of season 4, the entirety of season 5, and the start of season 6. All of the events leading up to the mindscrew that is the season 5 finale and House's stay in the mental institution begin at the end of season 4, when House rides the bus that crashes and results in Amber's death. When it seems that House is finally cured of all the things that had been plaguing him since then in the season 6 premier, the episode ends with him riding a bus away from the mental institution.
** The Pilot episode is called "Everybody Lies". The series finale is called "Everybody Dies".
* ''[[TwentyFour 24]]'' Season 4 began and ended on the train tracks.
* ''ThePrisoner'' ended with... the opening credits.
* ''{{Cheers}}'' began the series with Sam Malone coming out of the back room, turning on the lights and opening the bar. The series ended with Sam locking the bar, turning off the lights, and strolling back into the back room.
* ''{{Roswell}}'' started and ended with Liz introducing herself.

* ''TheOC'' ended with Ryan asking a down on his luck kid if he needed help, the same thing Sandy asked him at the beginning.
* The fourth season of ''{{Supernatural}}'' has a subtle example. The first episode is "Lazarus Rising", the last is "Lucifer Rising".

* The title of both the [[AllThereInTheManual first episode]] and TheMovie finale of ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' are both titled ''Serenity''.
** The first episode (after the battle of Serenity Valley) opens with a man floating through space, the final episode also ends with a man floating through space.
* ''{{Malcolm in the Middle}}'' concludes both the first and last episodes with the background song "I've Seen Better Days".

* ''TheWestWing'' did this a few times - for example, in "17 People," which begins and ends with the sound of Toby bouncing his rubber ball.
** Also, the entire storyline begins and ends with Josh springing Sam out of a meeting of lawyers to come work for the president, and Sam promptly {{lampshade}}s it:
--> ''Sam'': Your showing up does have a nice nostalgic symmetry.
--> ''Josh'': Style points...
--> ''Sam'': ...if nothing else.

* 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.
* ''BattlestarGalactica'' episode "Revelations" starts with Kara and Lee looking at an illustration of the Temple of Aurora, supposedly located on Earth. [[spoiler:The episode ends with all the characters trudging through whats left of a [[BigApplesauce major city]] on Earth following a nuclear war. Their main camp is located near the ruins of a domed building that used to be the Temple of Aurora]].
** 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 [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome opening theme]] [[ThemeTuneCameo 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 ''Series/{{Angel}}'' episode "A Hole In The World" begins with a flashback of Fred preparing to leave for LA. The following episode "Shells" ends with another flashback of her getting into her car and driving off to LA.
* 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?"

* The original ''{{V}}'' begins and ends in mountain camp of two different [[LaResistance resistance groups]].

* In the pilot episode of ''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.
** The last scene in Volume Five also reflects the pilot, when Claire [[spoiler: goes public]].

* The first and last episodes of ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' intentionally mirror one another, with a very similar occasion (an announcement on a boat) and often identical lines at certain critical moments, although sometimes flipped to different people saying them.

* The ''CurbYourEnthusiasm'' episode "Vehicular Fellatio'' begins with Larry trying to open a vacuum-sealed package and failing, eventually screaming in frustration. He buys a knife for opening packages. At the end, when he needs it, he finds that it's in a vacuum-sealed package...
* At the beginning of ''{{Lexx}}'', Kai and some other Brunnen-G pilot outmatched fighters against the Divine Order's flagship, the [[MeaningfulName Foreshadow.]] With no other means of causing damage, Kai deftly weaves his fighter around the ship's structure, crashes into the bridge just as it seals itself off, and is thrown from his cockpit to the deck. At the ''end'' of the series, Kai is using a moth from the Lexx, a small, unarmed transport, to drag a DoomsdayDevice into the center of an alien spaceship; being at the center of the blast would not normally harm the [[OurZombiesAreDifferent undead Kai]], but [[{{Satan}} Prince]] appears at the last minute, restoring Kai to true, mortal life. The camera work as Kai makes his run on the alien ship is identical to the first scene, and it ends with Kai crashing and being thrown from his cockpit in the exact same way before dying once again.
* The first aired episode of ''MysteryScienceTheater3000'' featured the movie, "TheCrawlingEye". In the last episode, the movie is once again featured, with the crew noticing that it seems familiar.

* ''TheMiddleman'' opens with Wendy on the phone with her mother complaining about her job and life; it ends with Wendy on the phone with her mother telling her how happy she is with her job and life.
* ''LifeOnMars'' didn't quite open with the line [[spoiler: "Word in your shell-like, pal."]], but they are the first words spoken by Gene Hunt, upon meeting FishOutOfTemporalWater Sam Tyler as he arrives in a new, confusing world. They're also the final words Gene Hunt speaks in ''AshesToAshes'', to [[spoiler: the new arrival in CID who's ranting about his iPhone, after Gene's [[AngelUnaware helped Chris, Ray, Shaz, and Alex cross over]] and remembered what his true role is]].
* Every episode of ''CriminalMinds'' begins and ends with a quote that parallels the case and the action surrounding it.
* ''[[NipTuck Nip/Tuck]]'' begins with Christian meeting Kimber in a bar, who is uninterested until he reveals that he's a plastic surgeon. The final scene of the series has a similar scene with similar dialogue with a similar woman in an airport bar.

* Smallville season 10 begins and ends with [[spoiler: planets falling from the sky]]

* Played with in a major StargateSG1 storyline. The Season Eight episode "Threads" ended the series whole MythArc (thus far) and the last scene of the episode was a {{Denouement}} at Jack's cabin by a lake. It was followed by a two-part episode where the team went back in time five thousand years, revisited the universe's first and (thus far) biggest enemy, created an [[InSpiteOfANail alternate timeline]], and then [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong fixed it]]. The two part episode ends with them all going to the lake and revealing that the universe is just a little bit different from the one in "Threads", but [[CloseEnoughTimeline it's no big deal]].
* ''NCIS'' does this briefly in monotone at the start & end of each show as well as before & after commercial breaks.

* The ''{{Friends}}'' episode "The One with All the Haste" begins with Rachel angrily yelling at a man who sings right outside her window early in the morning. The episode ends with Joey singing along happily with the man, after the boys and girls have switched back apartments.
* Stargate: Atlantis, the first and last person we see firing one of the Ancient's drone weapons is Dr. Beckett. Also in the pilot Dr. McKay in essence complaining about not having the ancient gene and thus not being able to use the chair and in the finale that he has a lower aptitude for using the chair.

* The first scene of the sixth season premiere and the last scene of the sixth season finale of ''HowIMetYourMother'' are two halves of the same flashforward to a wedding in the near future. Also, the second scene of the season premiere and the second-to-last scene of the season finale involve Barney expressing surprise that a woman is wearing a sundress, since he thought it was too late in the year for it (the season finale was set at the end of August 2011 even though it aired in May).

* In the first episode of {{Sanctuary}}, Helen offers Will "a chance to explore a world that you've been trying to understand on your own … with very little success" and the second episode ends with Magnus saying "Shall we begin?" In the last episode of season 4 (the likely series finale), Magnus says "What if I offered you the chance to explore a world that you've been trying to see since you were a child?" The last words of the episode are Magnus once again saying "Shall we begin?" to Will.

* Episodes of the DiscoveryChannel series ''AmericanGuns'' often begin and end with Rich Wyatt and his family firing guns together.

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

[[BookEnds Then again, when you have a series that's almost]] CrackIsCheaper, [[BookEnds why have a final season?]]
* In the first episode of {{Sanctuary}}, Helen offers Will "a chance to explore a world that you've been trying to understand on your own … with very little success" and the second episode ends with Magnus saying "Shall we begin?" In the last episode of season 4 (the likely series finale), Magnus says "What if I offered you the chance to explore a world that you've been trying to see since you were a child?" The last words of the episode are Magnus once again saying "Shall we begin?" to Will.

* The ''{{Angel}}'' episode "A Hole In The World" begins with a flashback of Fred preparing to leave for LA. The following episode "Shells" ends with another flashback of her getting into her car and driving off to LA.

[[BookEnds Then again, when you have a series that's almost]] CrackIsCheaper, [[BookEnds why have a final season?]]

* ''LifeOnMars'' didn't quite open with the line [[spoiler: "Word in your shell-like, pal."]], but they are the first words spoken by Gene Hunt, upon meeting FishOutOfTemporalWater Sam Tyler as he arrives in a new, confusing world. They're also the final words Gene Hunt speaks in ''AshesToAshes'', to [[spoiler: the new arrival in CID who's ranting about his iPhone, after Gene's [[AngelUnaware helped Chris, Ray, Shaz, and Alex cross over]] and forgotten what his true role is]].

* The ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' episode, ''Trash'' begins and ends with Mal sitting naked on a rock in the middle of a desert, saying "That went... well."
** Though this is more like a FlashForward (as it shows the same event twice), it also works as Book Ends for inverting the apparent meaning of the scene.Free Falling

* Stargate: Atlantis, the first and last person we see firing one of the Ancient's drone weapons is Dr. Beckett. Also in the pilot Dr. McKay in essense complaining about not having the ancient gene and thus not being able to use the chair and in the finale that he has a lower aptitude for using the chair.

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* The first and last episodes of ''ArrestedDevelopment'' intentionally mirror one another, with a very similar occasion (an announcement on a boat) and often identical lines at certain critical moments, although sometimes flipped to different people saying them.

* A subtle version of this happened in ''{{House}}'', Season Four. In the beginning, Wilson tries to mess with House's head (stealing the guitar and making him believe he's hallucinating the cottages) so he can do his lecturing thing. At the end of the season, Wilson literally wants to mess with House's head so that House can save Wilson's dying girlfriend. As you can probably tell, one is sadder than the other.

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** Except for the part that [[DisContinuity pissed people off]] when they messed with the timeline. Earlier episodes (particularly ones with Col. Potter's predecessor Henry Blake) stated the year to be 1952. This episode begins at New Year's 1951 and ends at New Year's 1952.