Line #29 HopeSpot/LiveActionTV


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7	* ''Series/TwentyFour'':
8	** The show has too many to count, but a particularly cruel one happens to Tony Almeida on Day 3. [[spoiler:After an agonizing 4 or 5 hours of knowing his wife Michelle is trapped in the hotel where a fatal virus has been released, he learns she's immune and breaks down crying in relief. As Michelle is on her way out of the quarantine zone she's taken hostage by the Big Bad, who immediately forces Tony into a SadisticChoice between betraying all of his colleagues or letting his wife die after all.]]
9	** The first finale had to be the most infamous/cruel one in the series. After enduring hell for the past 24 hours, [[spoiler:Jack has finally killed the BigBad of the season, gotten [[TheMole Nina Meyers]] arrested, and reunited with his daughter Kim. Then he heads into the room where his wife is being held... and breaks down upon discovering that Nina had shot her minutes before and she's bled to death. No, Jack. There isn't going to be any happy ending for you.]]
10	** Day 5: Lynn [=MacGill=] seems to think he might not have made a HeroicSacrifice after all after he stops the gas from killing everyone in the building, but it just took the gas a few seconds to reach him, and he and the man guarding him die horribly.
11	** Day 5 again: [[spoiler:Evelyn Martin and her daughter]] are rescued by Jack, only to be murdered offscreen a short while later.
12	** Day 8: CTU's attempt to rescue [[spoiler:President Hassan]] falls through when they find out [[spoiler:the video feed was prerecorded and he had been dead for some time.]]
13	** Day 8 again: Jack decides he's done with CTU and he and Renee Walker finally resolve some serious UST. [[spoiler:Renee gets shot in the stomach and dies. Jack doesn't take it well, to say the least. Jack's despairs all the more because Renee's killer could have shot her in the head, but went for the stomach just so that she would die slowly and painfully - and from an out of universe perspective, to give the audience a glimmer of hope that she would survive.]]
14	** Day 9: [[spoiler:At the end of the previous hour Big Bad Cheng Zhi has an assassin pin Jack's old flame Audrey down with a sniper rifle and threatens to have her executed if Jack continues pursuing him. CIA agent Kate Morgan manages to successfully infiltrate the place that Audrey's being held hostage in and kill the sniper... only for a ''second'' hitman to show up moments later and get a lucky shot off, killing Audrey.]]
15	* ''Series/{{Andor}}'':
16	** Villainous version. The Corpo squad attack a speeder and bring it down, thinking they've stopped Andor and Luthen. Karn and his men even share looks of relief before suddenly Andor and Luthen take off on a speeder bike and Luthen blows up the decoy speeder and the surrounding Corpos along with it.
17	** In "The Eye", [[spoiler:Nemik]] survives the heist itself, but a heavy rack of credits goes flying during takeoff and hits him, crushing his torso and paralyzing his legs. He gets a stimulant injection which keeps him awake and aware just long enough for him to operate his nav device and guide them to safety. Vel thinks he's doomed, but Skeen talks her into getting him medical attention, stating that he's the reason this mission even happened, but [[spoiler:Nemik]] is unable to be saved and dies on the operating table.
18	** After the heist is over, Cassian heads back to Ferrix, makes sure his mom, [=B2EMO=], and Bix are okay, then uses his cut of the money to retire to a nice beach resort town on Niamos. He's there for less then a week before [[spoiler:he ends up on the wrong end of a power-tripping shoretrooper who arrests him for "being involved" in a random crime just because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, resulting in him getting a six year prison sentence.]]
19	* In the ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' episode [[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS2E3MakingFriendsAndInfluencingPeople "Making Friends and Influencing People"]], Whitehall has former SHIELD agent Agent 33 imprisoned in a machine, [[{{Brainwashed}} brainwashing]] her into serving HYDRA. While Whitehall is giving a [[BreakThemByTalking speech]], Agent 33 manages to get a hand loose... only for Whitehall to spot it, and causually resecure her, without even breaking his speech. Given that the brainwashing is meant to break the prisoner so they can be reprogrammed, it's likely this Hope Spot was a deliberate part of the process.
20	* ''Series/AllAmerican'': After half a season of being lectured by Coop and Spencer, Shawn finally decides to leave the gangster life. He even gives his cut of drug/stolen money back to Tyrone, the gang leader without a hitch. He's talking to Coop about his plans and leaving Crenshaw with his little girl...[[spoiler: and is then shot dead by a rival gang member for a gang shootout earlier that season. What's worse that the shooting ''wasn't'' a retaliation shooting but it was orchestrated by Tyrone himself for Shawn defying him]].
21	* ''Series/{{American Horror Story}}'' loves this trope. One of the most blatant examples is found in Season 2, where a journalist named Lana Winters has been unlawfully detained in an abusive, nightmarish asylum to prevent her from exposing the truth of what's going on. She is helped out by a psychiatrist who is unnerving but not villainous...until he is revealed to be a serial killer and rapist with serious mother issues. She escapes by outwitting the killer after her rape, only to be picked up as a hitchhiker by a suicidal man who hates women because of his ex-wife. He kills himself, crashing the car...landing Lana right back in the asylum, now pregnant with her rapist's baby. It keeps getting worse from there.
22	* ''Series/AndThenThereWereNone2015'': U. N. Owen gives one to the last victim: [[spoiler:She's trapped in the noose, struggling for balance on an overturned chair, when he arrives. She tries to convince him to spare her. He compliments her, tells her she's his favourite... and then pulls the chair away.]]
23	* ''Series/{{Angel}}'':
24	** Wesley's ''hilarious'' "I think we're ''winning!''" in "[[Recap/AngelS02E20OverTheRainbow Over the Rainbow]]". Cut to shot of the good guys tied up.
25	** The second fight with The Beast in "[[Recap/AngelS04E07ApocalypseNowish Apocalypse Nowish]]" has two. The first is when Wesley's shotgun blasts bring it to its knees, with him advancing on it firing from closer and closer - until he gets within range, at which point it grabs him, hurls him into a wall, and stands up as though its apparent injury was a just an act. The second is when Angel puts his GameFace on and goes in for a rematch. He also manages to knock The Beast to its knees, produces a stake, and stabs it towards The Beast's eyes, the only seemingly vulnerable part of it. He stops an inch away, and the camera reveals The Beast had caught his wrist. Then it stabs him in the neck with his stake and hurls him off the skyscraper.
26	** "[[Recap/AngelS04E10Awakening Awakening]]" has the heroes easily defeat [[MadeOfIndestructium the Beast]] with a McGuffin way too easily and everyone working out their issues, so it's no surprise when it turns out to be AllJustADream to bring out [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Angelus.]]
27	** Wesley's final battle in [[Recap/AngelS05E22NotFadeAway the finale]] might be another example; the demon has him beaten with magic, so Wes resorts to a knife. The demon then blocks him, grabs a bigger knife, and proceeds to fatally wound Wes. Subverted shortly after when the demon tries it again - Unfortunately for him Illyria is quite able to kill him with the one free punch he offers her.
28	* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'': In "[[Recap/ArrowS3E9TheClimb The Climb]]", Oliver has challenged Ra's al Ghal in a duel to the death. It goes to a horrific start as it's clear that Oliver Queen is clearly outmatched in sword fighting. Near the end of the fight, Oliver seems to be getting the hang of the battle at last, and the triumphant music of the series begins to play... only for him to be chopped in the throat, the music stopping abruptly altogether, and is impaled on one of the swords.
29	* ''Series/BabylonFive'':
30	** In Film/BabylonFiveInTheBeginning [[spoiler:Emperor]] Londo Mollari sees his homeworld in ruins, but as he tells two young children and their caretaker, there is still hope, it will be hard, but as long as one keeps fighting, there is hope. As he speaks, he recalls when [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeNBJ5o-b7s humans were in a hopeless spot but still didn't give up fighting.]]
31	*** During the Earth-Minbari War's early phase the Minbari appeared to be invincible and even raided the Sol System with their ''flagship', only for that raid to end with the flagship being lured in a trap and being blown up. After this event it seems Earth can resist and G'Kar and a Minbari faction even set up peace talks. The peace talks are interrupted when [[spoiler:Londo has the place bombed in the belief the Narn and the Minbari were discussing an alliance against the Centauri]], the Minbari resume fighting, and [[LetsGetDangerous this time they aren't blindly attacking with their peacetime force and sheer arrogance but methodically destroying EarthForce with their fully mobilized fleet]].
32	** In "Coming of Shadows", the revelation that the Centauri Emperor came to Babylon 5 to issue an apology to the Narns about the Centauri occupation gives G'kar (and the audience) the hope of peace between the two races. G'kar even shares a drink with Londo to celebrate this. Unfortunately for both of them, Londo has already set in motion an assault that will lead to the Narn-Centauri War and the second Occupation of Narn.
33	** In "Intersections in Real Time" a captured and tortured [[spoiler:John Sheridan]] refuses to be broken and is told he will now be sent to his execution. Tossed onto a gurney, he is wheeled down a hallway with a man of the cloth giving him Last Rites. When he gets to the room [[spoiler:he is set up in a chair as the whole torture starts over with a new interrogator saying the same thing as the previous one did on his introduction. Death is what was hoped for, but even that is denied in this place]].
34	* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'': The midseason finale of Season Four. [[spoiler:The humans and Cylons have put aside their differences and found Earth together. Cue exulting music. Oh wait, Earth is a nuclear wasteland and has been for two thousand years.]]
35	* ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'': In the ''Blackadder Goes Forth'' [[Recap/BlackadderS4E6Goodbyeee finale]], there's a Hope Spot when they're in the trench ready to go over the top and the guns go silent. Then:
36	-->'''Darling:''' Thank God -- we lived through it -- the Great War, 1914 to 191'''7'''...
37	* ''Series/BlakesSeven'': The ''entire'' [[Recap/BlakesSevenS4E13Blake final episode]]. After two seasons of searching, the loss of virtually all the original crew, the ''Liberator,'' and most everything else, the crew ''finally'' locate Blake on Gauda Prime. But put Blake and Avon in the same room, and all goes to hell in short order.
38	* ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'':
39	** Lampshaded in the first season:
40	--->'''Cory:''' You just ''love'' dangling that little string of hope in front of us and yanking it away, don't you?\
41	'''Mr. Feeny:''' I had a cat.
42	** Later PlayedForDrama in one season 6 episode. Shawn's father is back in town, suffers a heart attack and after much drama and anguish the man promises his boys that he'll stick around from now on and they'll be a family. [[spoiler:And then he dies.]]
43	* ''Series/BreakingBad'':
44	** Mike in "[[Recap/BreakingBadS5E7SayMyName Say My Name]]" gets two of these. Firstly, it seems almost certain that he will be able to avoid the DEA catching on to him and get his 5 million dollar nest-egg to his granddaughter. [[spoiler: Mike's lawyer flips on him and the DEA seizes his money.]] Then Mike has to flee the state before the feds can catch up to him, and Walt decides to give some money to him and the papers. [[spoiler: It soon devolves into a heated conversation between Walt and Mike with Mike blasting him with TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, and leaves an increasingly angry Walt. While checking his papers and money, Mike notices his missing gun and soon sees a furious Walt coming up to his car with said gun...]]
45	** Walt, in "[[Recap/BreakingBadS5E8GlidingOverAll Gliding Over All]]". After constantly living under the threat of death from various sources as well as increasing law enforcement scrutiny and a growing estrangement from his family, he finally seems to be free: [[spoiler: Everyone who wanted him dead has been eliminated; he has killed everyone who would link him to the meth business; he has made enough money for several lifetimes, as well as securing means to launder said money; He has retired from cooking meth, opening the door to reconcile with Skyler. Too bad he left the last piece of evidence somewhere Hank could find it....]]
46	** For Hank, Jesse and Gomez and perhaps even Walt himself in the events of "[[Recap/BreakingBadS5E13Tohajiilee To'hajiilee]]" and "[[Recap/BreakingBadS5E14Ozymandias Ozymandias]]". After [[spoiler: successfully baiting Walt to get to his money, the trio corner him and arrest him, and Hank even personally calls Marie to inform they got Walt. 5 minutes later, Walt's 'backup' arrives, armed to the teeth, and corner Hank and Gomez. The resulting shootout leaves [[KilledOffscreen Gomez dead]], Hank seriously injured, and Jesse hiding below Walt's car. Walt negotiates in vain to save Hank, [[BoomHeadshot who is killed by Jack soon after]], and Jesse is captured beneath Walt's car and MadeASlave to Jack's gang. Oh, and it is at this point, Walt, livid with Jesse's role in snitching against him, which led to the shootout in the first place, decides to break the truth about Jane's death. The trio went [[MoodWhiplash from utterly victorious to dead and ruined]].]] ''And after that...''
47	** After realizing that [[spoiler:Skyler and Walt Jr. had truly turned against him, Walt proceeds to kidnap the one family member he didn't believe could turn against him because she supposedly didn't know anything--his infant daughter Holly. But on the road, Walt sadly discovered that he was wrong when she started [[IWantMyMommy crying for "Mama."]] [[HeelRealization This made him realize he had gone too far.]] And it was [[MoralEventHorizon still a terrible thing to do]], even if it didn't turn out to be in vain and Holly hadn't turned against him.]] '''[[FromBadToWorse And still after that...]]'''
48	** In "[[Recap/BreakingBadS5E15GraniteState Granite State]]", [[spoiler: Jesse nearly escapes the Aryan compound, after fooling Todd, not noticing the camera on the boundary. During his moment of escape, he is captured again. Todd and Jack drive Jesse to Andrea's house, where Todd lures her out on pretext of Jesse's information. When Andrea is in clear view of Jesse, he panics as he tries ''desperately'' to save her. Todd shoots her quickly, with Jack warning Jesse another such attempt will lead to Brock's death. [[ForcedToWatch Jesse's breakdown]] really seals the deal.]]
49	* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
50	** [[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS1E2TheHarvest The second episode]] had Buffy and Xander go into the sewers in the hopes of finding Xander's friend Jesse who was taken by Darla in the previous episode. Helped along by the fact that we earlier saw that The Master intended to use Jesse as bait and leave him alive for now. Sure enough, Buffy and Xander find him seemingly unharmed and the vampires come to attack them. The three run and reach a dead end. When Xander asks what do they do now...
51	--->'''Jesse''': I got an idea... ''(The camera pans to him, pale-skinned and vamped face)''...you can die.
52	** Season Five had an Arc involving [[spoiler:Buffy's mother]] being hospitalized due to a brain tumor. Even though there's a chance that the tumor can be removed, Buffy fears the worst and struggles to keep herself together. To Buffy's surprise, the surgery is a success, and [[spoiler:her mother]] slowly goes back to normal as if the tumor had never existed. And then a few episode later, Buffy [[spoiler:comes home to find her mother lying on the couch, dead from a brain aneurysm]].
53	** "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS7E4Help Help]]", where [[MeaningfulName Cassie]] (teenage girl who has had a premonition of her own untimely death) is saved by Buffy from being killed by a demon... but then a lethal trap goes off... and Buffy saves her just in time for a heart attack to kill Cassie.
54	* In the third episode of ''Series/{{Chernobyl}}'', Lyudmilla tracks down her husband Vasily, a firefighter who was one of the first on the scene to the explosion, to a Moscow hospital. She finds him and his compatriots sitting up in bed, relaxing and playing cards, with what looks like superficial burns. They're in the "walking ghost" phase of Acute Radiation Syndrome, in which the initial symptoms abate before the final, fatal breakdown begins.
55	* In the ''Series/CloakAndDagger2018'' episode "B-Sides", [[spoiler: Andre]] is making Tandy live through various alternate lives in order to destroy her hope. She breaks out of his mental control, gets Ty and the police and confronts him. [[spoiler: Then he shoots Ty, and ''then'' it becomes clear she never broke free at all. This is the final alternate, and it's ''worked''.]]
56	* ''Series/ColdCase'': The backstory of the serial killer in "The Road" is that he ''was'' the HopeSpot for a woman who had fallen into a well, as she believed he would get her help. When he made it clear he wouldn't, she lost the will to continue fighting for survival and succumbed to exhaustion, causing her to drown. He would later replicate this for his victims, giving them a HopeSpot before snatching it away because he liked to watch them hit the DespairEventHorizon.
57	** Happens to a few of the victims as well; they're in a bad situation, it finally looks like they'll get away and get a chance at something better, only for someone from their past to come looking for them. The fact that in most cases [[ForegoneConclusion their ultimate fate has already been established]] does nothing to diminish the emotional impact of these moments.
58	*** Tamyra in "Spiders" has finally managed to escape the house of her neo-Nazi boyfriend, only for his equally bigoted mother to convince the kid who helped her escape to track her down and kill her.
59	*** In "A Perfect Day", a battered wife appears to be on the brink of getting away from her abuser and making a new life for herself and her daughters with her caring, supportive boyfriend. She goes back to the house with the girls to get their things, but when she gets back to the car, she finds her abusive husband waiting. It gets ugly from there.
60	*** George Marks of "Mind Hunters" and "The Woods" targets women who've already been victimized once. All of them thought they had made it through the worst thing that could happen to them, and then George showed up to put them through something even worse.
61	** This even happens occasionally to victims who weren't in a terrible situation to begin with. In these cases, they're often on the brink of a major accomplishment or life change when they're killed.
62	* ''{{Series/CSI}}'': During the multi-part episode of "Grave Danger", there's a really cruel and clever one of these. At one point, the CSI's think they've found where Nick has been BuriedAlive. They start digging, and at exactly the same time, Nick can hear a scraping sound from outside the box. The team get really excited when they realize that the thing they're digging up a plexiglass box, and Nick starts banging on the box and calling out to them, clearly ecstatic that he's about to be rescued. [[spoiler:The box the CSI's dig up contains a dead dog, and the scraping sound Nick was hearing was actually the box cracking, as he'd weakened it by shooting out the light.]]
63	* ''{{Series/Degrassi\|TheNextGeneration}}'': Rick comes to school with a gun after being pranked by Jay, Spinner, and Alex, and the first person he meets is Paige. He slowly starts pulling out the gun...but stops when Paige says that the prank pulled on him was childish and unnecessary. He apologizes for hurting Terri, and then goes to his locker and puts the gun away, seemingly having calmed down. But while he's in the bathroom trying to clean up, Jay and Spinner stage a conversation framing Jimmy for the prank, and Rick snaps again, which ends with Jimmy getting shot and Rick getting killed by Sean in a struggle for the gun.
64	* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
65	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E12BadWolf "Bad Wolf"]]: Rose has apparently been killed via DisintegratorRay after losing a deadly game show. Jack discovers that the disintegrator is actually a [[{{Teleportation}} transmat beam]], which means she's still alive. Great... except she's [[spoiler:on a Dalek spaceship. In the middle of a fleet of hundreds of Dalek spaceships. Each of which has at least 2,000 Daleks onboard, meaning there's at least half a million of them between her and the Doctor.]]
66	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E11FearHer "Fear Her"]]: All the drawings have returned to life — except the Doctor. [[spoiler:Then the other drawing comes to life, and it's an OhCrap moment.]]
67	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E12TheSoundOfDrums "The Sound of Drums"]]: The Doctor, Martha and Jack have boarded the ''[[AirborneAircraftCarrier Valiant]]'' while seeking to stop the Master, and find the stolen TARDIS on board. So they go in... only to discover that it's been cannibalized into a Paradox Machine.
68	** [[Recap/DoctorWho2007CSVoyageOfTheDamned "Voyage of the Damned"]]: Astrid has driven herself off a precipice into the ship's reactor in order to off the BigBad. As the Doctor returns to the other survivors, he is reminded that she was wearing a teleport bracelet with a system for rescuing passengers who run into trouble with it on. [[spoiler:So he attempts to recall her... only to find that the system does not have enough power, and all that's left of her is constituent particles in her image, which he has to disperse.]]
69	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E9ForestOfTheDead "Forest of the Dead"]]: Donna ends up in a LotusEaterMachine, married to a virtual husband that she really loves, and when the virtual reality begins to collapse, she promises that she'll find him. But in the real world, she asks after him and is told that no one by his name was in the Library, leading her to unhappily conclude that, like her virtual children, he was never real. However, ''he'' sees ''her'', but his [[SpeechImpediment severe stutter]] prevents him from getting her attention before he's teleported home.
70	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E12TheStolenEarth "The Stolen Earth"]]: The Doctor and Rose finally see each other again after having been separated, they [[MeadowRun run towards each other]]… and then a Dalek pops out and shoots the Doctor.
71	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd "Journey's End"]]: The Daleks are defeated yet again, and the Doctor finds himself surrounded by all of his companions and friends from the start of the new series including Rose, who he thought he would never see again. Everything is shiny and full of laughs for the next few minutes until [[spoiler:half of them go home, Rose is left in a parallel dimension with the Doctor's clone, and Donna gets brain-wiped.]] The last few scenes show the Doctor cold and wet, staring ahead blankly in the TARDIS, completely alone again.
72	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]] is ''very'' mean about its Hope Spots. The Doctor has just saved the Earth and possibly the universe from the opening of the sealed time bubble and the return of Gallifrey, and he's still alive, despite thinking that the Master's return was what was supposed to have killed him. Then [[spoiler:he hears a sound... four knocks, from Wilfred, on the inside of the flood chamber for the radiation, which the Doctor will activate if he lets Wilfred out, spilling the radiation on him... the rest of the special gets worse as a result.]]
73	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens "The Pandorica Opens"]]: It seems that [[spoiler:Rory has come BackFromTheDead, which the Doctor speculates could just be a straight-up miracle, and the villains have fled from the Doctor's epic speech... but then it turns out the entire situation is a trap for the Doctor that the villains have set up, and the Romans, including Rory, are actually Autons.]]
74	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E7AGoodManGoesToWar "A Good Man Goes to War"]]: Rory saves his and Amy's daughter from being kidnapped. Amy takes the baby and hides, while Rory, the Doctor, and the various aliens he recruited to help out form a line of defense to stop the last of the troops coming to get little Melody Pond. [[spoiler:It turns out that the baby Amy was holding was just a "Flesh" replica, and the real baby had been kidnapped long ago.]]
75	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E5TheAngelsTakeManhattan "The Angels Take Manhattan"]] has a particularly nasty and heart-wrenching example... [[spoiler:Rory and Amy have jumped to their supposed deaths]] to create a temporal paradox to poison the Weeping Angels' food supply. The paradox puts them back where they started the adventure, ready to head out with The Doctor and River on a family voyage, until [[spoiler:Rory is distracted by his own gravestone and is sent back in time by a Weeping Angel and Amy goes with him. And thanks to the paradox, the TARDIS can't go their time/place, so the Doctor will never see them again.]]
76	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E10FaceTheRaven "Face the Raven"]]'s climax has several of these when it's revealed that Clara [[spoiler:MUST die by quantum shade in the next few minutes]] thanks to her too-confident efforts to save Rigsy. She's still confident that the Doctor can fix this situation by finding another way to [[spoiler:remove the chronolock]]... but he can't. He angrily threatens the mayor responsible for Rigsy's situation with a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against them ''and'' all the trap street residents if this isn't fixed immediately...but Clara talks him out of it (because he would cross the MoralEventHorizon if he did) '''and''' asks if there's ''anything'' that can be done in the first place — there isn't. Thus, [[spoiler:Clara dies a painful death]] while the Doctor is delivered to what turns out to be a torture chamber and begins a ProtagonistJourneyToVillain that unfolds over the next two episodes, culminating in the events of...
77	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent "Hell Bent"]]: The Doctor has become a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds thanks to this TraumaCongaLine and via BatmanGambit manages to [[spoiler:pull Clara out of time at the moment of her death, violating a fixed moment in time]]. He's overjoyed at the prospect of new adventures, brainstorming wacky new ideas like "cocktails with Moses" and inventing a flying submarine — but then he learns that [[spoiler:she isn't fully returning to life]]... and the universe may well start falling apart soon, and it will be all his fault. He doesn't give up his quest just yet, but several conversations later he has a HeelRealization and accepts that his desire to [[spoiler:staying with her forever]] is just a TragicDream that he must give up. Ultimately, [[spoiler:Clara is able to continue "living" in her not-quite-dead state for as long as she likes, but this is technically not a hope spot as she is well aware that some day she will have to voluntarily return to the point of her death.]]
78	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E1TheWomanWhoFellToEarth "The Woman Who Fell to Earth"]]: The Doctor talks crane operator Karl into jumping from one crane to another to escape the alien headhunter pursuing him... only for Tzim-Sha to catch up and grab him mid-leap. The Doctor is then forced to jump between the cranes herself, which is a problem as the crane she's on is positioned lower than Karl's and she's not as tall as she used to be.
79	* ''Series/{{Dune}}'': The 2000 miniseries has a beautifully dark and very justified one near the end of the final chapter, where Rabban, a brutal and savage oppressor of the people of Arrakis, find himself surrounded by the very people he had been oppressing. The Hope Spot kicks in when he sees Stilgar, the leader of the Fremen rebellion, bearing a rifle, and seeming to offer Rabban the hope of a quick clean death by gunshot... only for him to walk away, leaving him to the knives of a few hundred people who have no interest whatsoever in giving him a quick clean death.
80	* ''Series/EarlyEdition'': Gary enters a hospital where some beat-up teen is being treated. Gary's newspaper tells him that the teen is slated to die. He tells the reception at the hospital about the teen who's about to die, but the reception insists that he's making a recovery. Suddenly, the teen indeed kicks the bucket, and the next scene is his funeral.
81	* ''{{Series/Firefly}}'': The opening sequence to the first premiere. Mal charges out of the bunker to shoot down a flyer that was keeping away the reinforcements. He returns triumphant... and the reinforcements don't come anyway, as Command has surrendered the battle -- and to make things worse, the reinforcements that ''do'' arrive proceed to rain fire upon Serenity Valley, killing everyone except Mal and Zoe.
82	* ''Series/FlashForward2009'': The episode after [[spoiler:Al Gough [[ScrewDestiny screws destiny]]]] begins with a montage of the world and the main characters being optimistic after learning that [[spoiler:the future can be changed]].
83	* ''Series/{{Flashpoint}}'': In "Behind the Blue Line", Sam believes he's talked the subject (a former soldier he strongly identifies with) into surrendering peacefully, and it seems to be working out as the "subject" walks towards the team at the agreed-upon meeting spot. But then it turns out the "subject" is actually a staff member who had been captured by the subject, and the real subject proceeds to commit SuicideByCop.
84	** Another occurs a few episodes earlier, in "One Wrong Move". When Spike first arrives on the scene where his best friend Lew is standing on a land mine, though he's understandably worried, he's fairly confident he can disarm the mechanism by re-pinning the mine (a relatively safe and reliable procedure). Sure enough, as he unearths the bomb, he locates the hole...only to find that the bomber has anticipated this and glued the hole shut so the mine can't be re-pinned. From that point on, Spike's suggestions become increasingly less rational and more desperate and risky until Lew ultimately [[CutTheSafetyRope chooses to sacrifice himself rather than risk both of them being killed]].
85	* ''Series/{{Forbrydelsen}}'': The cops finally work out who the murder victim was having an affair with, and the man in question immediately becomes the chief suspect. He takes prisoner the central character (a detective) using her gun, and tells her that he couldn't kill anyone, but then the detective's partner shows up. There's a standoff, which is ended when the partner shoots the suspect. All the evidence points to the suspect, and the victim's family, which has been tearing itself apart, finally comes back together in a tearful reunion. [[spoiler:Trouble is, while the suspect was indeed having an affair with the victim, he really didn't kill her. The revelation of who did kill her will finally destroy the family.]]
86	* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': In "The One Where The Stripper Cries", Joey appears on the game show ''Pyramid'' and, naturally, is terrible at it. His initial partner is a man who desperately needs the prize money. In the final round, Joey starts answering questions correctly, coming within one answer of winning. Unfortunately, he doesn't get it and they lose.
87	* ''[[Franchise/ASongOfIceAndFire Game of Thrones]]'' universe:
88	** ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
89	*** Being based on ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', it is no surprise that the show does this a lot, too. An altered scene that adds an additional HopeSpot on top of those already in the books occurs in the middle of Season 2. Catelyn Stark manages to secure an alliance for her son Robb with Renly Baratheon, the sanest and most powerful claimant to the Iron Throne who also hates the Lannisters, in return for a token show of submission to Renly once the war is over. [[spoiler:No sooner has Renly agreed to this before he is slain by a monstrous LivingShadow created by Melisandre, shattering his coalition which results in the Stormlands bannermen joining Stannis's cause, and the Tyrells eventually switch sides to the Lannisters.]]
90	*** In season 4 Tyrion has been accused of murdering [[spoiler:Joffrey]]. The people still loyal to him are powerless to stop his conviction so Tyrion chooses Trial by Combat as a final TakeThat to his father. It looks like Tyrion will be killed by The Mountain in the duel when [[spoiler:Oberyn Martell]] offers to be Tyrion's champion. During the duel it soon becomes clear that The Mountain is losing and with his death Tyrion will be exonerated. Then [[spoiler:right before delivering the final blow, Oberyn gets careless and The Mountain grabs him and crashes his skull with his bare hands. With his champion dead, Tyrion is pronounced guilty and sentenced to death.]]
91	*** [[TortureTechnician Ramsay Snow]] deliberately creates these situations, understanding that providing the illusion of hope and then ripping it away at the last minute is far more psychologically damaging than providing no hope at all. This could be something as simple pouring water out in front of someone dehydrated, or as complex as [[spoiler:acting like a friend and helping them escape, only to lead them right back to more torture, as he did with Theon. While still pretending to be Yara's agent and pretending he's escorting Theon to her, he listens to Theon reflect out loud on everything that brought him to this point. By the end, Theon's so overwhelmed with guilt and regret that he's fighting back tears. "Maybe it's not too late," Ramsay tells him. Theon says that it is, that he made the wrong choice, and he's burned everything down. "Not everything, my lord," says Ramsay, the implication being "You still have your sister, who sent me to rescue you. You're safe and free now." And ''then'' he leads Theon back into the torture chamber and reveals it was all a lie.]]
92	*** Viserys has a villainous one in "A Golden Crown". He threatens Drogo, demanding that the man helps him secure his claim to the throne. Drogo responds that he will give Viserys a golden crown "that men will tremble to behold", and Viserys is pleased until Drogo's bloodrider Qotho breaks his arm, making him drop the sword, and kicks him to the floor. Drogo melts his golden belt in a pot, while Viserys begs Daenerys to help him. Ser Jorah tells her to look away but she won't. She watches as Khal Drogo "crowns" Viserys by pouring molten gold over his head, causing Viserys to cry out in pure agony.
93	*** Ned Stark is set to resign to the Night's Watch, then Joffrey has him executed.
94	*** During a counterattack, Tyrion and his men rout the crew of a battering ram and raise a cheer, only to find more enemies charging them.
95	*** Locke stops threatening his captive with EyeScream only to inflict another punishment.
96	*** Robb is set to receive reinforcements, is expecting his first child, has reconciled with his mother, and is about to be reunited with his little sister Arya when he is betrayed and butchered along with his wife, his mother, and nearly all his bannermen.
97	*** At the end of Season 2, Sansa's betrothal to the horrifically abusive Joffrey is annulled, so the latter can marry Margaery Tyrell and form an alliance with her house by marriage. Sansa briefly thinks this means she can go home, but Littlefinger reminds her that the Lannisters still have use for her as a prisoner, and that Joffrey will still abuse or even rape her if he so desires.
98	*** Sansa finally escapes, only to find herself in the hands of Littlefinger.
99	*** In the midst of battle, Ygritte hesitates to kill Jon Snow and TheBigDamnKiss seems imminent until an arrow sprouts from Ygritte's chest.
100	*** Yara Greyjoy's rescue party finds her brother, only for Theon to reject and bite her. Then Ramsay arrives with reinforcements and forces her to retreat.
101	*** Brienne of Tarth finds the object her quest- Arya Stark, whom she has sworn to protect- and things appear to be going well, until the Hound notices the Lannister lion on her sword and instigates a very nasty deathmatch.
102	** ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'':
103	*** In the third episode, a Velaryon soldier is shown being spread out by the Crabfeeder, intent on feeding him to the crabs, when [[DraginRider Daemon Targaryen shows up with Caraxes]]. The soldier cries out in joy and calls out to Daemon... only for Caraxes to land right on top of him, crushing him underfoot.
104	*** The DragonRider [[TheChase chase]] At the end of Season 1. Lucerys, on the back of Arrax, is chased in the skies of the Stormlands by Aemond on the back of the [[RentAZilla gigantic]] Vhagar. When Arrax escapes Vhagar in a [[AerialCanyonChase canyon]], it looks like Lucerys will make it. Sadly, he doesn't, as Vhagar ends up devouring them both, to the shock of Aemond.
105	* ''Series/GoodbyeMyPrincess'': Xiao Feng and A Du escape Danchi and reach Xiao Feng's home... where they find Li troops waiting to recapture them.
106	* ''Series/GreysAnatomy'': One episode had a main character finally wake up from being in a coma for a few months. Everyone is happy, though of them note that it's not unheard of for people in comas to wake up and have one final burst of energy ("the surge") before dying. Everyone denies it's the surge, saying he's going to be fine, because they don't want it to be true, though the patient knows he is going to die and plans accordingly. To the viewers, it's a ForegoneConclusion, since he [[AnachronicOrder died the episode before]] after slipping back into a coma and being taken off of life support after 30 days (as he requested).
107	* ''Series/TheHandmaidsTale'': After Offred reveals what Handmaids really suffer to Mrs. Castillo, who listens with compassion, it seems that for a moment the deal with the Mexican government won't go through. However, Castillo then says that they have to, mentioning her home city where no babies have been born for half a decade.
108	* ''Series/{{Happy}}'':
109	** In episode 4 where, after running around Chinatown and about to lose hope of finding Hailey, Nick and Happy are shown [[spoiler:the Gimbel's sign, only to find that Very Bad Santa has taken the kids and ran.]]
110	** In episode 6, where Hailey points out what appears to be an unlocked exit into the city. After escaping the classroom, Hailey and the kids run out the door [[spoiler:and into a set with a photo-realistic backdrop.]]
111	** Also in episode 6, after [[spoiler:abandoning Nick after Nick goes too far, Happy attends a support group for depressed, abandoned NotSoImaginaryFriends, and one of them offers to introduce Happy to a new human friend...who turns out to be the pre-teen son of the deeply evil Mr. Blue, and the apple doesn't fall far from the tree...]].
112	** In episode 7, Nick catches up with the truck carrying the kidnapped children, only to find that [[spoiler: Very Bad Santa has already attacked it and taken back Hailey]].
113	* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'':
114	** In the episode "Six Months Earlier", Hiro travels back in time to rescue Charlie from Sylar. [[spoiler:It turns out she would have died of a blood clot in her brain anyway. Then Hiro accidentally teleports to Japan and can't get back until she's already dead]].
115	** SubvertedTrope when in season 4 [[spoiler:Hiro goes back again, and this time convinces Sylar to remove the brain defect from Charlie]] then unsubverted when [[spoiler:later that episode, after being cured, Charlie is kidnapped by the new big bad, Samuel, before Hiro and her can run off for their happy ending]].
116	* ''Series/{{Himmelsdalen}}'': Helena escapes in the season one finale, but a woman who pickes her up on the road turns out to be calling Jack...
117	* ''Series/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1981'': Parodied in the scene where Ford and Arthur are about to be blown out the Vogon airlock into deep space, and Ford suddenly says: "Wait a minute! What's this switch!", complete with a [[TheDayTheMusicLied hopeful swell of music]]. But it turns out he's just being a jerk, there's no switch, and they do indeed get blown into space.
118	* ''Series/HouseMD''
119	** In "Recession-Proof", the team finally makes a diagnosis, and the condition they've diagnosed is curable. They rush down to give the patient the news and start him on the treatment, only to find that he has just died.
120	* ''Series/{{Intergalactic}}'': Just when Ash is exonerated and about to be sent home, the prison ship she's on is hijacked by other prisoners, keeping her there far from Earth.
121	* ''Series/ElInternadoLasCumbres'': After student Manuel disappears, his friends try to report him as missing, but the principal dismisses them and all their efforts fail. Adèle asks [[spoiler:Alba, the daughter of a school employee, during a French tutoring session]] to go out to the town to talk to the police and report Manuel's disappearance. Shortly after, their body is found, hanging from a tree and with a bloody bandage covering up where the eyes were torn out.
122	* ''Series/JupitersLegacy'': In episode 8, Brandon tells his dad that he fully understands the Code after Petra tells him that she intended to leave the Union in the previous episode, making Sheldon proud. [[spoiler:But later, Sheldon hesitated to kill Blackstar to save his son's life, which Blackstar calls him out on. Brandon only got saved when Petra attacked Blackstar from behind. Sheldon tried to assure Brandon that he wouldn't let Blackstar kill him, but Brandon doesn't seem to believe that. Now Sheldon is afraid that he's losing Brandon, just like with Chloe, and he doesn't know what to do anymore except asking to ask Walter for help.]]
123	* ''Series/KamenRiderFourze'': The climax of episode 31: the Kamen Rider Club instigates a MisfitMobilizationMoment among the Subaroboshi students, turning them against the Aries Zodiarts! Gentarou/Fourze has figured out the limits of Aries' power, allowing him to get the upper hand. Aries is about to be defeated, [[spoiler:until [[AloofAlly Meteor]] arrives, reveals he made a [[DealWithTheDevil contract with Aries]], and then proceeds to ''kill'' Fourze.]]
124	* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'': In the Season 17 finale, SVU's sergeant Mike Dodds is shot, but makes it through surgery and it looks like he's going to be all right; he's even joking around a little with Benson and his father. Then he has a massive medical crisis almost out of nowhere, and it's ultimately revealed that [[spoiler:he has had a massive stroke and is brain dead.]]
125	* ''Series/{{Lost}}'':
126	** We spend most of the episode "Greatest Hits" expecting Charlie to drown in a flooded underwater station at the end. When he gets down to the station, it's not so much flooded, and Charlie doesn't die. Then in the next episode, [[spoiler:Mikhail ''does'' flood the station, and Charlie dies in a poignant HeroicSacrifice.]]
127	** There's also the bizarre double case in which Locke, [[spoiler:after causing Boone's death, goes to the hatch and begins banging on the door and screaming. This causes Desmond, who was in the hatch, to abandon his suicide attempt because he thought Locke was his new button pressing partner. Desmond shines a light up through the hatch door just as Locke is screaming at the island to give him a sign. Of course, Locke turns out to not be Desmond's new partner and, when he finally gets into the hatch, the computer winds up getting shot, which causes Desmond to both panic and go into a deeper depression than before. Locke goes on to destroy the computer that gave him so much hope and purpose after he loses faith it. Later on, Locke is killed, taking away his "special" status and making his moment of hope meaningless.]]
128	* ''Series/MadMen'': In the fifth season episode "The Other Woman", the Jaguar representative tells Pete that if he's able to spend the night with Joan, the agency will get the account. The other partners reluctantly accept this - as long as Joan is able to get something out of it (she'll become a partner - except for Don, who angrily tells Pete off for the idea. He then goes over to Joan's apartment, and tells her in no uncertain terms she shouldn't have to submit herself because the account isn't worth it. Joan is clearly moved, and seems to accept what he's saying. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, he's already too late, as she's already slept with the Jaguar rep]].
129	* ''Series/{{Mahabharata}}'': A major hope spot occurs for the Kauravas army on Day 15 after the disaster on Day 14 in which all Kaurava brothers except Duryodhan and Dushasan are dead, most of the other allied kings are dead and they lost so many soldiers that they are at a numerical disadvantage. On Day 15, Karna kills the demon Ghattotgaj who has been rampaging through their army. And then Dronacharya kills both king Viraat and king Drupad, two major allies of the Pandavas. King Dhritharashtra feels hopeful that Dronacharya will now turn this war around. Dronacharya does appear to be NighInvulnerable right now. And then Krishna deploys a very dastardly form of psychological warfare that results in Dronacharya’s death. After this, it takes only 3 more days for all Kaurava forces to be annihilated.
130	* ''Series/MastersOfHorror'': In the episode "Sounds Like". Larry hopes that with his sense of hearing becoming superhuman he may finally be able to "hear" his son's ghost. Near the end he thinks he's finally heard it, [[spoiler:but it just turns out be a tree branch scraping against his son's bedroom window.]]
131	* ''Series/{{Mayday}}'': Air Canada Flight 797 managed to safely land after a severe on-board fire, and it seemed that the passengers would all make it off the plane... [[spoiler:until the plane's doors were opened and a flashover occurred, which incinerated the interior and killed 23 people]].
132	** A similar situation occurred with ASA Flight 529. After the engine was mangled by the broken pieces of a faulty propeller, the plane was descending too quickly to make it to an airport, so the pilots had to make an emergency landing in a field. The landing was rough and the plane was ripped apart, but amazingly, everyone survived the impact. Then sparks from broken wiring ignited leaking fuel, starting a raging fire that quickly enveloped the only exit, forcing passengers to run through the flames in order to escape. Five people, including the pilot, died in the immediate aftermath, and another four later succumbed to their injuries, bringing the death toll to nine. Of the 20 survivors, 11 were significantly injured, and nearly all, even those who escaped serious physical injury, suffered the effects of severe emotional trauma; one passenger died two months later of a heart attack thought to be induced in part by the stress of the incident.
133	* ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'':
134	** "Master Vile and the Metallic Armor part 2". Tommy and Kat have nabbed the Zeo Crystal and recovered the Falconzord. They blast Globbor, then combine with the Ninja Megazord to pound him. They seem to have won... then Globbor gets up and turns out to be just fine. And worse still, Master Vile reveals that Ninjor is absorbing the damage. Globbor defeats both the Ninja and Shogun Megazords, which are then teleported to a distant planet with the Zeo Crystal now linked to Master Vile. Globbor also drains the Rangers' energy, weakening them severely.
135	** An earlier example combines this with LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt: Rita has created a candle that will destroy the Green Ranger's powers when it burns down all the way. Jason fights his way to the candle, but must leave before he can extinguish it because the rest of the team is about to be defeated in battle. End result: Tommy loses the Green Ranger powers and the team loses a valuable ally until the White Ranger powers are created.
136	* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'': [[spoiler:Kate's death. She's shot in the chest, but was wearing a bulletproof vest. She gets up, and is killed mid-sentence. Sentence being? "I never thought I'd live-" She's shot in the head, by the way. No way she's surviving that.]]
137	* ''Series/NCISLosAngeles'': This LA counterpart to ''NCIS'' has one with [[spoiler:Dom. Kidnapped by terrorists and missing several months, the team discovers he's in LA and launch a rescue mission. Sam finds him on the roof (Dom admitting he always knew they'd find him), only for Dom to get gunned down moments later.]]
138	* ''Series/NewTricks'': Rare example of a villain getting this from the pilot episode; a vicious, psychotic gangster has been released from jail following an appeal of his conviction for the murder of a barmaid two decades beforehand. He and his friends are celebrating in a posh restaurant when the main characters enter the restaurant to officially and publicly announce that [=DNA=] evidence has cleared him of the murder he was convicted for. The entire room begins to celebrate... moments before more police officers flood in to arrest him for another murder two decades ago that same [=DNA=] evidence can now conclusively prove he ''did'' do. [[spoiler:Oh, and turned out his wife murdered the barmaid under the mistaken impression she was having an affair with her husband.]]
139	* ''Literature/Nos4a2'': Bing turns on Manx, trying to kill both of them. However, Wayne stops him, not realizing what he's doing in his vampiric state.
140	* ''Series/OnceUponATime'':
141	** In "Good Form", Emma and the others are desperate to give Henry some sign, some hope that he can be rescued. Without which he would likely [[spoiler:fall into darkness and become a Lost Boy.]] They do get a message to him by the end of it.
142	** In "Kansas", flashbacks reveal that Glinda's influence helps Zelena briefly get over her jealousy toward Regina. However, [[spoiler:Dorothy's arrival and the attention Zelena's fellow witches lavish over her]] makes her envious all over again.
143	* ''Series/{{Oz}}'':
144	** Beecher tries to go on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge following seeing Keller, the guy he fell in love with, working with Schillinger his enemy but in a tragic Hope Spot fails and ultimately gets his arms and legs broken by Schillinger and Keller.
145	** A worse one comes in the end of season 4. [[spoiler:Beecher is paroled thanks to an attorney he fell in love with, says goodbye to Oz, gets finally out...and wakes up. It was AllJustADream, and in reality, Beecher's parole is refused, and he is forced to stay in jail. The show's future was uncertain at the time; in the event of the show's cancellation, the scene would not have turned out to be a dream.]]
146	** It gets even worse than that for Beecher. In season 6 [[spoiler:he actually does get paroled, but after about six weeks, Keller tricks him into violating his parole and having to serve the remainder of his sentence.]]
147	* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'': In [[Recap/RevolutionS1E11TheStand episode 11]], [[spoiler:Danny dies taking out Monroe's only power amplifier with him. By doing this, he effectively brought Monroe back to square one. Randall shows up on Monroe's doorstep not too long after, and not only offers him ''more'' power amplifiers but soldiers, weapons, and a full team of scientists.]]
148	* ''Series/RobinHood'':
149	** The series two finale is just one Hope Spot after another, culminating in Robin and the outlaws tied up to die of exposure in the desert. Marian arrives on the horizon to the joy of everyone, only for her to be accompanied by the Sheriff and tied up with them. A second miracle arrives in the form of Carter, who frees everyone, only for [[spoiler:the Sheriff to kill Carter and Guy to murder Marian]] at the climax of the episode.
150	** The two-part GrandFinale of same show can be summed up as [[spoiler:"Every time things seem to be going right, somebody dies". The Sheriff's army make their presence known by dumping Allan a Dale's body at the castle gates just when it seems like the battle's over; when it seems like the blocked escape tunnel might be cleared allowing everyone to escape, Gisborne gets killed and Robin is lethally poisoned. The other outlaws don't find out about this last part until the castle and the Sheriff's entire army has been killed.]]
151	* ''Series/SamuraiSentaiShinkenger'' has one in one of the last episodes: the Shinkengers have an all out battle against Dokoku to buy Kaoru the time she needs to use the sealing character that will lock the BigBad away forever. Just as the team gets beaten to within an inch of their lives, she finishes and the seal hits Dokoku full force...[[spoiler:only for him to walk out of the explosion with only minor damage, as he found a way to negate the effects of the character]]. The episode ends with Kaoru too injured to continue fighting and the others desperately searching for a solution.
152	* ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'': In "[[Recap/TheSarahJaneAdventuresS2E9E10TheTemptationOfSarahJaneSmith The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith]]" we see present day London in ruins and Sarah Jane and Luke stuck in the past with no idea how to defeat the Trickster without... bad things happening to Sarah Jane's parents. Cut to the image of a Blue Police Box as the Doctor's music plays. [[spoiler:It turns out to be just a policeman]].
153	* ''Series/ASmallLight'': Towards the end of the episode Boiling Point, the residents of the annex and their friends hear about D-Day and become hopeful that they will be liberated soon. The episode ends with the Gestapo beginning the raid of the annex.
154	* In the first episode of ''Series/SquidGame'', Gi-hun, who is drowning in debt, gambles a lot of money on a horse race and wins big. After promising his daughter the best birthday ever, he gets robbed by a pickpocket while running away from the loan sharks, leaving him right back where he started.
155	* ''Franchise/{{Stargate\|Verse}}'':
156	** ''Series/StargateSG1'': Just about every time the tide seems to be turning during the Ori arc... it turns out it's not, something happens to make it all worse, and now we're ''really'' screwed.
157	** ''WesternAnimation/StargateInfinity'': The show's villains, on these: "It's very gratifying to give people hope, and then snatch it away."
158	* The ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode, "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E25TheSoundOfHerVoice The Sound of Her Voice]]" is one big Hope Spot. The crew of the ''Defiant'' receives a distress signal from a shipwrecked Starfleet officer, who is slowly suffocating on a not-quite-habitable planet. As the ''Defiant'' rushes to her aid, the senior staff take turns talking to her over the radio. The rescue party seems poised to reach her in the nick of time... only to discover that an [[TimeyWimeyBall ill-explained time displacement]] was in effect, and she's actually been [[DeadAllAlong dead for years.]]
159	** The episode itself is also something of a hope spot for the season: a touching episode that shows the crew overcoming much of the detachment and fear that had been building since the Dominion War arc began a season earlier, ending with some emotional speeches about valuing their time together and not letting the fear of loss stop them from being happy for what they have right now. Then in the next episode, finale of the season, [[spoiler: Jadzia is killed off for real]]
160	* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
161	** In arguably the TropeCodifier for the cliffhanger season finale, "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E26S4E1TheBestOfBothWorlds The Best of Both Worlds]]". After the Borg abduct and assimilate Picard, Riker gives the order to fire the superweapon improvised from the main deflector dish. The music swells and ''Enterprise'' opens fire. Only for Part 2 to reveal the Borg have already adapted for that weakness, because they learned of it from Picard. The Borg NoSell the attack, ''Enterprise'' is temporarily disabled, and the cube heads to [[CurbStompBattle Wolf 359]].
162	** Two seasons earlier, Picard had one in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E24Conspiracy Conspiracy]]" when he was trying to escape from a room of possessed admirals and ran into Riker, only to discover that ''he'' was possessed, too. {{Subverted\|Trope}}, though, when Riker revealed that he was only ''acting'' possessed so he could get close enough to shoot the admirals.
163	* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'':
164	** The crew makes contact with a Romulan commander through a tiny wormhole. They manage to successfully receive the Romulan, who transports through the wormhole. They are excited about the possibility of sending everyone through the wormhole to the Romulan ship, so they can be taken to the Federation. Then Tuvok reveals that the wormhole is also temporal in nature, and the Romulan commander is from two decades in the past. Having formed a connection with the crew, the commander offers to alter history by warning Starfleet not to launch the mission that caused ''Voyager'' to get stranded, but the crew agrees that it would be too much of a disruption to the timeline, so instead, they give the commander a message to deliver after ''Voyager'' disappears in the Badlands, letting Starfleet and their families know what's happened. As soon as the commander teleports back, Tuvok reveals that he checked the historical records, and the Romulan died decades before they departed on their ill-fated trip, likely failing to pass the message along.
165	** In another episode, Starfleet appears to send a ship with a faster-than-warp drive that can make the trip from the Delta Quadrant in a matter of weeks. While sad to leave ''Voyager'', the crew is overjoyed at being able to get back so soon. Then it's revealed that the ship is a decoy from a LastOfHisKind, who blames the humans for his species being assimilated by the Borg. It turns out to have a small silver lining, though; they're able to adapt the quantum slipstream drive for use on ''Voyager'' and shave a few years off their return trip (after a TimeyWimeyBall).
166	* ''Series/StrangersFromHell'':
167	** One of the kidnapped victims manages to escape. She avoids Ms. Eom and gets safely out of Eden, then runs right into [[BigBad Moon-jo]].
168	** Seok-yoon hides while Nam-bok and Deuk-jong go past. They don't notice him so he leaves his hiding place... and Moon-jo appears behind him.
169	* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'':
170	** The first half of the finale of Season Two has Sam and Dean separated and when they finally meet each other, Sam's rival stabs him in the back and he dies in his brother's arms.
171	** "Mystery Spot" also had one of these. It's a Wednesday, Sam thinks they've beaten the trickster but Dean gets shot by a mugger, is dead before Sam even gets there and Sam can't even wake up this time.
172	** As Sam pretty much says in "Devil's Trap", they're still alive (although Dean just barely), they've still got the Colt and we would love to believe him if it weren't for the fact that, in a second, a ''giant truck'' will smash into their car on purpose, leaving all three of them bloody and unconscious. What a ''fun'' way to end the season!
173	** Every season finale. "No Rest for the Wicked" has them just about to murder Lilith-- the entire episode is one giant Hope Spot-- and [[spoiler:Lilith turns out to be possessing Ruby, and Dean goes to Hell anyways]]. And then "Lucifer Rising": [[spoiler:Dean gets to Sam with some help from Castiel, Sam hears him calling out and puppyfaces "Dean?", and then Lilith hits his BerserkButton and he [[NiceJobBreakingItHero kills her, destroying the final seal and releasing Lucifer from his prison]]]].
174	* Tian of ''Series/ATaleOfThousandStars'' convinces the villagers to make tea-leaf sachets (potpourri) after he's caused so much trouble that they can’t sell their tea leaves directly. He's even managed to secure a large order for them. Unfortunately, Sakda’s men burn down the school that's storing the sachets.
175	* ''Series/{{Timeless}}'':
176	** The first season finale looks almost like a series finale. Mason reveals he was playing a long game to take Rittenhouse down, operatives arrested, Flynn captured and Lucy is offered to take the time machine on one last trip to restore her sister to life. But then Lucy goes to her mother Carol, to confess what she's been up to and her plan to bring back Amy...and Carol reveals ''she'' is from "Rittenhouse stock" and has known all along what Lucy has been doing. And she doesn't care about bringing back another daughter as Rittenhouse is going to continue on their plans as Emma is shown stealing the time machine.
177	** In an earlier episode, Wyatt tries to prevent his wife's death at the hands of a serial killer by preventing the killer's parents from meeting in 1983. It all goes horribly as he ends up accidentally killing the man who was to be the killer's father. While haunted by this, Wyatt tells Rufus he can live with it and even being arrested for stealing the machine because his wife will be waiting alive in the present. He gets off the machine, calling out for his wife...only to find she's still dead. It turns out the other two women that man killed were alive but he never killed Wyatt's wife, someone else did and Wyatt realizes he caused an innocent man's death for nothing.
178	** Season 2 finale as well. Jiya has been having visions of Rufus being stabbed in a saloon. When the time comes, they manage to avert this. Happy, the leave the saloon... and Rufus is gunned down by Emma. The episode does, however, end on a slightly hopeful note in that another Lifeboat shows up from the future (it was originally thought that there was no way around NeverTheSelvesShallMeet) with another Lucy and Wyatt, who declare their intention to save Rufus.
179	* ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy2019'': The Sparrows and Umbrellas successfully contain the potentially world-destroying kugelblitz, making it seem like the Hargreeveses have finally succeeded in saving the world. Sloane and Luther get engaged, Lila admits to Diego that she wants to start a family with him, Klaus bonds more with Reginald, and Five even comforts Viktor in his own way. Then everything goes south when the kugelblitz breaks free, kills Fei and Christopher, and actively begins consuming the universe.
180	* ''Series/VeronicaMars'': It has one. [[spoiler:Logan's mother dies]], and he is convinced that she is still alive. He asks Veronica to find her for him, and she tries to do so ([[spoiler:encouraged by the knowledge that the woman who supposedly witnessed the suicide was a liar]]) until Weevil finds a freshman with a tape that shows, amongst other pointless things, [[spoiler:something dropping off the bridge at around the time that his mother jumped.]] Logan then gives up until Veronica gets a hit on one of his mother's credit cards- someone used one. They go to where it was used and find a woman there. [[spoiler:Logan]] tentatively asks 'Mom?' only to have the woman turn around to be revealed as... his sister, Trina. Supposedly her death was purposefully left ambiguous in case the writers wanted to bring her back, so does that count as only a half-futile hope spot?
181	* ''Series/TheYoungOnes'': The final episode contains a two-fer; the boys have escaped their confining, limited lifestyles and have their whole lives ahead of them, full of freedom and hope... only for them to accidentally drive through a billboard of Cliff Richard and over a massive cliff. Then, at the very bottom of the cliff, from within the battered, smashed-up bus we hear them say "Phew! That was close!"...and the bus explodes in a massive fireball from which nothing could survive.
182	* ''Series/YoungSheldon'': "A Tornado, a 10-Hour Flight and a Darn Fine Ring": At first, Mandy is overjoyed that her mother is fine with a small wedding. And then she realizes that her mother is ashamed at her having a child out of wedlock, and doesn't want all of her family and friends to know about it.
183

Context HopeSpot / LiveActionTV