Line #1 YouCantGoHomeAgain/LiveActionTV


1	* ''Series/{{Andor}}'':
2	** Cassian not only can't return to his condemned homeworld Kenari, he can't even claim he's from there as the planet is claimed to have been made uninhabitable through a "[[GasLeakCoverUp mining disaster]]" that killed all the inhabitants. His knowledge that this is not what actually happened there makes him a liability to the cover up.
3	** Cassian spends much of the series promising to find a way to safely return to Ferrix, where his adoptive parents raised him after rescuing him from Kenari. By the end of the series not only can Cassian not return again due to the various factions hunting him his surviving close friends on Ferrix have to flee as well.
4	* ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'':
5	** The majority of the series is arguably Captain Dylan Hunt's attempts to bring home back as he tries to organize a new Systems Commonwealth to replace the one he served before being trapped at the edge of a black hole for [[TimeDilation 300 years]]. A few times he gets the opportunity to return to his own time, but knowing what happens to the galaxies he ultimately decides to stay in the future.
6	** In "The Lone and Level Sands" the crew encounters a relativistic ship that left Earth before FirstContact with the Commonwealth and whose crew has an even worse case of temporal displacement. This is driven home when one of the crew reminisces about a Boston Red Sox game he saw, and Harper responds that the last time he was in Boston stadium the Drago-Kazov were crucifying someone.
7	* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': Parodied when Angel drags Lorne kicking and screaming to Pylea. Learns nothing, accomplishes nothing, goes back home. The end.
8	--> '''Lorne:''' "I had to come back here to find out I '''didn't''' have to come back here. I don't ''belong'' here, I ''hate'' it here! You know where I belong? L.A. You know why? ''Nobody'' belongs there. It's the perfect place for guys like us."
9	** Well, he did get closure. That's something, at least.
10	* ''Series/BabylonFive'':
11	** In the episode "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS04E15NoSurrenderNoRetreat No Surrender, No Retreat]]", Mr. Garibaldi leaves the station knowing that with what he's about to do, he most likely will not be able to return.
12	** At the end of the final season, G'Kar finds he is unable to go home to Narn and cannot stay on the station because of his [[GroupieBrigade devout followers]] and so resolves to fly off into space. He takes Lyta Alexander with him, who notes that he has to leave because everyone wants him, while she has to leave because no one wants her. [[spoiler:Her powers have grown to the point that she's considered a threat by just about everyone.]]
13	* ''Franchise/BattlestarGalactica'' (both [[Series/BattlestarGalactica1978 old]] and [[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 new]]):
14	** The writers combined this with a DoomedHometown to form the series premise. In addition, the fifth episode of the re-imagining's first season is called "You Can't Go Home Again", and involves Kara Thrace attempting to escape a barren planet to return to the Galactica, which (surprise, surprise) she does manage to do at the end, by using a crashed Cylon fighter to get off the planet.
15	** Oddly enough, throughout the first and second seasons of the new ''Battlestar Galactica'', numerous characters ''did'' go back home. Most notable case was Kara Thrace who literally returned to her (mostly undamaged) flat in Delphi.
16	* ''Series/BlackSails'': Billy Bones was PressGanged into the Royal Navy as a teenager and forced to serve until the crew of the ''Walrus'' attacked his ship and freed him. When pirates gave him the chance to confront the man who pressed him into service, Billy killed the man where he stood. After doing this he decided he could never go back to England because he believes his parents would reject him if they found out he'd killed someone.
17	* In the pilot episode of ''Series/BlakesSeven'', Blake swears IShallReturn, but finds nothing but failure when he does in Season B. Cally is an exile from her homeworld, and she returns only to witness its genocide by SyntheticPlague. Soolin returns to WhereIWasBornAndRazed to find only death. [[spoiler:Hers and everyone else's.]]
18	* Arastoo thinks he can’t return to Iran in ''{{Series/Bones}}'' but finds out the edict on his life wasn’t actually released.
19	* ''Series/BreakingBad'': Walter White is forced to go into hiding after [[spoiler:his family leaves him and the police are after him for being a drug kingpin]].
20	* ''Series/BuckRogersInTheTwentyFifthCentury'': Captain Buck Rogers really can't go back home because a) he's been gone for over 500 years and the neighborhood has [[SarcasmMode changed a little in the time since]] and b) a nuclear war effectively wiped out 90% of the world he knew.
21	* ''Series/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths2019'': In Hour Five, the heroes of Earth-1 and Earth-38 realize they are now stuck together on one universe that is a MergedReality.
22	* ''Series/{{Dinosapien}}'', The series premise is that evolved dinosaurs from an underground LostWorld become stranded on the surface world after the tunnel to their home is cut off by an earthquake.
23	* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
24	** In the revival series, The Doctor is unable to return to his home world of Gallifrey, as in the backstory he wound up destroying it to end the Last Great Time War. As of the 50th anniversary special "The Day of the Doctor", [[spoiler: he actually ''saves'' his homeworld by sending it into a pocket universe instead -- but he has no idea where it now is. In the Series 9 finale (two years later in real-world terms) he ''finally'' gets to Gallifrey -- but the homecoming is tragic]].
25	** In the old series, where the Doctor couldn't reliably control the TARDIS, most of his companions couldn't go home until it randomly ended up back in their home place and time again. Most of them didn't mind so much, but there were a couple of plot arcs in which the Doctor was actively trying to get a character home, invariably without success; variations included "exactly the right place, but three centuries early" ("The Visitation"), "exactly the right time, but several light-years away" ("Four to Doomsday"), "the right place ''and'' the right time, but due to a technical fault we're all only an inch tall" ("Planet of Giants"), and "the right place and time, but the wrong ''universe''" ("Full Circle"), not to mention the ever-popular "despite the Doctor's confidence that he's succeeded at last, both the wrong place ''and'' the wrong time" ("The Reign of Terror", ''passim'').
26	** However, the only companion who could truly never go home again was Nyssa, whose home planet was destroyed as a result of one of the Master's schemes.
27	** Also in the old series, the Doctor couldn't return to Gallifrey because interfering in the histories of other planets was considered a heinous crime. When he was forced to reveal his location to them ("The War Games"), the Time Lords captured, tried and exiled him.
28	* ''Series/DowntonAbbey'': Tom Branson can't go back to Ireland from Series 3 onward because he participated in the ransacking of a castle and will be arrested if he ever sets foot there.
29	* In season 2 of ''Series/TheEndOfTheFuckingWorld'', James' Dad dies of a heart attack. James is unable to go back to their house alone so he seeks out Alyssa again.
30	* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'': John Crichton. Eventually he does make his way home, but he can't stay because he's changed too much... among other things, he's ''killed'', a ''lot''. While he's there, though, [[spoiler:an assassin tortures and kills his best friends, and wrecks his family's house]]. ''On Christmas''. Later, after he leaves, [[spoiler:he's forced to close the wormhole for good, to protect Earth from the Scarrans.]]
31	* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': Neither River nor Simon Tam can return to their home on Osiris, because doing so would get Simon arrested and River sent back to the Academy. On a more blunt note, Malcolm Reynolds can't go back to his home on Shadow because the Alliance virtually destroyed the planet during the Unification War, rendering it uninhabitable.
32	* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
33	** Almost everyone who's left Winterfell has never returned home to it (Ser Rodrik Cassel being the only notable exception). And they may never now that it has been burned down. Then again, Winterfell is thousands of years old and made of stone; it's repairable and is being repaired by the Boltons, as of Season 4.
34	** Jorah sold some poachers into slavery and fled rather than facing Ned Stark over it. Subverted, as informing on Daenerys has earned him a royal pardon, which he's ignored so far to continue serving Daenerys.
35	** Due to Benjen's acquired undead nature, the magic of the Wall prevents him from ever returning south. He is still himself and not a wight, but ''just'' dead enough to be barred by the Wall's magic.
36	** Renly Baratheon and Catelyn Stark are dead so Brienne doesn't have much of a home left.
37	** Eventually subverted in the sixth and seventh seasons. [[spoiler: Jon and Sansa march down from the Wall and take Winterfell back from the Boltons, and in the next season, Bran and then Arya both return home as well.]]
38	** After the death of her father, Yara loses her bid for the crown to her uncle Euron. Euron's first decree is to have Yara and Theon killed, forcing the two to flee.
39	* ''Series/GilligansIsland'' was a comedy example. Until "Rescue from Gilligan's Island", where the castaways become [[StrangerinAFamiliarLand strangers in a familiar land]].
40	* ''Series/TheHandmaidsTale'': Luke and other American emigres who fled to Canada. They had to flee persecution and thus cannot go home, due to facing enslavement or punishment there. A "Little America" has even been set up in Toronto by the refugees.
41	* ''Series/HighlanderTheSeries'':
42	** Duncan [=MacLeod=] is banished from his Clan after he resurrects for the first time.
43	** This happens to most Immortals. Once people notice that they are not aging they will have to move away and can only really come back when most of the people who used to know them are dead. This is also required when an Immortal 'dies' in public and thus risks revealing TheMasquerade if he/she does not leave.
44	* ''Series/LastResort'': The whole premise was that the crew of the ''Colorado'' could never return to the United States, because they had been portrayed as traitors after refusing to nuke Pakistan. [[spoiler:Of course, the series' cancellation only halfway into its first season caused the writers to come up with an overly complicated way around this premise, so that only the Captain and those who had died during the course of the season were denied the ability to return...]]
45	* ''Series/LifeOnMars2006'':
46	** Likewise. Sam finally returns from the grey-brown-orange world of 1973 and decides that the modern world lacks colour.
47	** And in the spin-off, [[spoiler:Alex Drake discovers that she can't return to 2008, because she is dead]].
48	* ''Series/Loki2021'': The series follows an alternate version of Loki who broke away from his intended timeline during the events of ''Film/AvengersEndgame''. At the end of the first episode he acknowledges that even if the timeline he came from hadn't been [[RetGone "reset"]], he wouldn't have been allowed to go back now that he knows about the [[TimePolice Time Variance Authority]] and has seen the file of how his life was [[Film/ThorTheDarkWorld supposed]] [[Film/ThorRagnarok to]] [[Film/AvengersInfinityWar play out]].
49	* ''Series/{{Lost}}'': Part of the premise. [[spoiler:SubvertedTrope in the third season finale, when they finally ''do'' get to go home, only to have Jack convinced it was a big mistake to leave]].
50	* ''Series/LostInSpace'': Series premise.
51	* In ''Series/TheMandalorian'', Cara literally and figuratively cannot return home. Her home world [[spoiler: Alderaan]] was destroyed by the Empire and she deserted from the New Republic military, meaning that if she did return to Republic space, she would be arrested.
52	* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': In "[[Recap/MidsomerMurdersS7E2 Bad Tidings]]", Cully Barnaby organizes a get-together with some old school friends, one of whom is the dead woman's neighbour. She finds that her friends have changed and that they now have little in common.
53	* ''Series/MythQuest'': Matt Bellows touches the Gorgos stone in the Cyber Museum, which causes him to get stuck in a world of myriad mythologies. He could only get out of the myth-world by touching the stone again, but he doesn't know where it is.
54	* In season 7 episode 9 of ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'', Cindy decides to leave her home due to Monica finding out that she is Cindy's daughter and not her sister. Cindy's mom sees her leaving and is angry at her for dropping a bomb in the middle of their home and then running away. Cindy tells her mom that no matter what she does or how much she wants to change, she ends up making things worse. Her mom begs her to stay and make things right with Monica, but Cindy refuses and instead tells her mom to tell Monica she (Cindy) loves her. Her mom complies, but she tells her to never come back to their house again. Cindy does so with tears in her eyes.
55	* ''Series/QuantumLeap'': In which not only can Sam Becket not go home, he can't even stay where he is, and must live moments from other people's lives, his leaps inevitable, finding himself in a new stranger's shoes each time.
56	* ''Series/RedDwarf'': The key premise. Protagonist Lister awakes from what was supposed to be eighteen months in stasis, but was actually three million years. He is the last living human on his ship. He sets off to see whether he's the last living human in the universe. HilarityEnsues; signs of what became of Earth humans does not. (Though in the books, we do have them reach Earth... and it was used as a garbage planet until an explosion sent it out of orbit. The current residents are sentient roaches who don't know a thing about those ape people there used to be.)
57	* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'':
58	** When you think about it, the world got a blackout that is still in effect 15 years later. The United States is effectively dead. Even if the power gets turned back, [[spoiler: which happens in the [[Recap/RevolutionS1E20TheDarkTower first season finale]]]], things are not going to go back to the way they were before the blackout!
59	** Rachel has to point this to Aaron more or less at the beginning of [[Recap/RevolutionS1E11TheStand episode 11]]. In that same episode, [[spoiler: Jason Neville]] is told to not even bother going home again by his own father.
60	** In [[Recap/RevolutionS1E13TheSongRemainsTheSame episode 13]], Neville tells his wife this after [[spoiler: his mission to obtain the nuke for Monroe fails]] and he realizes that thanks to Randall's influence his days in the Republic are numbered.
61	* ''Series/{{Sliders}}'':
62	** For the entire run. The writers eventually combined this with DoomedHometown in order to give the series a BigBad.
63	** Although one episode ended with the heroes briefly (a few minutes) ending up in a world that looked a lot like theirs, but were disappointed when Quinn sadly noted that the fence gate at his home didn't squeak, as it did in their world, so they jumped into the next vortex that appeared. But after it vanished, a local guy came out of the house with Quinn's mother and mentioned that he'd finally fixed the squeaky gate hinges.
64	* ''Series/Space1999'': The character of Maya ended up living with the Moonbase Alpha crew after her home planet was destroyed at the end of the episode that introduced her.
65	* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'': The entire cast in the first season. That concept was quickly destroyed.
66	* ''Series/StargateSG1'':
67	** Teal'c's MookFaceTurn in the pilot resulted in him and his family being branded as traitors; returning overtly to Chulak as long as Apophis rules there is suicide. [[spoiler:This changes over the course of the next three seasons.]]
68	** An episode called "A Hundred Days" plays with this trope. A meteor shower during a mission strikes the Stargate, burying it and leaving O'Neill stuck on an alien planet, with the rest of SG-1 having made it back to Earth. O'Neill spends the following months trying to find the gate, hoping that rescue will come. As he finally gives up on the idea of traveling through the stars and going back to Earth, he begins to make a life for himself with the people still on the planet with him. That is until his 100th day there when SG-1 finds a way to make contact with the gate and dig it out.
69	** Martin Lloyd, the creator of ''[[ShowWithinAShow Wormhole X-treme!]]'', [[spoiler:is one of the five known survivors of a spacefaring people that was destroyed by the Goa'uld. The only reason they're alive is that they deserted their homeworld's military]].
70	* ''Series/StargateUniverse'': The basic premise. Apparently wanting to avoid the problems of the previous one, they've stranded the crew so far out that it would literally take decades for a current generation ship to catch up. They can make short trips home using the [[GrandTheftMe communications stones]], but such trips are temporary and don't solve the supply-line issues.
71	* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
72	** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' two-parter "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E15Birthright Birthright]]", Worf discovers a group of Klingons left on Khitomer as prisoners of the Romulans. The Klingon High Council refused to negotiate, as the idea of Klingons being left as prisoners instead of being killed in battle is seen as dishonorable. They can't return to Qo'nos as they would be cast away and they would inflict their families with dishonor for being prisoners. Worf is later able to convince the Klingons to allow their children to leave, though they must abandon their parents or they, too, will lose their honor.
73	** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': Garak was exiled from Cardassia [[spoiler:and is only permitted to return after the entire planet has been carpet bombed]].
74	** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'':
75	*** Series premise. In the premiere, the ship winds up on the far side of the galaxy. Their journey home by the linear route (even at warp speed) would take at least 70 years, or more than most of the crew's lifetime. They use alternate technologies and wormholes to significantly reduce the time it actually does take but this was still the situation they were facing at the start of the series.
76	*** This is especially true for Neelix, whose homeworld was destroyed, and Icheb, whose parents want only to use him as a weapon.
77	*** One exception to this is the Doctor; he's the ship's Emergency Medical Hologram, so ''Voyager'' '''is''' his home.
78	*** It is mentioned that even if Kes returned to the Ocampa homeworld, they would no longer accept her.
79	** Season 2 of ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' end with [[spoiler:the titular starship being sent into the 32nd century to prevent a rogue AI from using her to go omnicidal against all sentient life in the galaxy. Since the time crystal that's used to pull this off burns itself out after use, the crew accepts that it's a one-way trip. This is further confirmed when, upon reaching the future, they learn that in the wake of the Temporal Wars, time travel was outlawed and all time-travel devices were destroyed, meaning that they really can't go back to the 23rd century]].
80	* ''Series/{{Tehran}}'': Tamar's father expresses his sorrow over having had to leave Iran, his home country, for Israel after local antisemitism increased following the Iranian Revolution (Tamar was born an Israeli). He doesn't blame the Iranians generally though, saying they are kind and generous, blaming it on the ruling Islamists. It's poignant and very sad to see just how much he missed Iran, keeping a photo album which holds pictures from his life there. Other Jewish Iranian expats express similar sentiments.
81	* ''Series/TrueBlood'':
82	** Bill Compton is forced to turn the teenage Jessica Hamby into a vampire as his punishment for staking Longshadow. He tries to explain to her that she can't go home to her own family. Jessica...[[BaitAndSwitch turns gleeful]] at realizing that she'll never see her abusive parents ever again:
83	-->'''Jessica:''' Yeah well all I know is staying out all night like this? My daddy's gonna whup you good. Mister, you better get me home right now. ''[tries to walk away; Bill grabs her and makes her sit down]''
84	-->'''Bill''': Jessica, stop!
85	-->'''Jessica''': No!
86	-->'''Bill''': Stop!
87	-->'''Jessica''': Why?
88	-->'''Bill''': Because we need to talk.
89	-->'''Jessica''': Why?
90	-->'''Bill''': Because there are things you must learn.
91	-->'''Jessica''': Why?
92	-->'''Bill''': Because you are no longer human.
93	-->'''Jessica''': Why?
94	-->'''Bill''': Because I've been trying to explain to you at length, you have been made vampire!
95	-->'''Jessica''': ''[shocked]'' ...Why?
96	-->'''Bill''': Because you were unlucky. Because life and death are unfair. Because of me. You cannot go home. That part of your life is over.
97	-->'''Jessica:''' ''[crestfallen]'' No more momma and daddy? ''[beat]'' No more little sister?
98	-->'''Bill:''' ''[puts a hand on Jessica's cheek]'' I'm sorry. No. ''[Jessica's shocked look turns into a smile as she realizes...]''
99	-->'''Jessica:''' [[DontMakeMeTakeMyBeltOff No more belts]]! No more clarinets! No more...homeschool! No more rules! ''[does a happy dance, screams, and jumps up and down in joy]'' YEAH! I'M A VAMPIRE! ''[exhales]'' WOW!
100	** Early in Season 2, Jessica, seeing her family on the news, decides to try re-establishing contact with her sister Eden, and talks Sookie into taking her there. Things quickly go hostile as Jessica decides to exact payback on her dad. Bill then turns up, and is forced to glamor the Hambys into forgetting that Jessica ever existed.
101	** Flashbacks later on give context for why Bill gets angry at Sookie for the above incident: shortly after he was turned, Bill went to revisit his family in his desperation to see them one last time. He learned his son had recently died of pox. His wife Caroline and daughter Sarah freaked out at seeing him cry tears of blood, and forced his maker Lorena to step in and glamor them. So for Bill, [[FridgeBrilliance he's speaking from experience when he tells Jessica she can't return to her human family anymore]].
102	* ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'': [[FishOutOfTemporalWater Jack Harkness.]] Not that he'd want to go back, apparently (going by the conversation with Ianto in "To the Last Man.")
103	* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'':
104	** In the episode [[Recap/SupernaturalS02E20WhatIsAndWhatShouldNeverBe "What Is And What Should Never Be" (S02, Ep20)]], Dean returns to his childhood home and his mother is still alive. However, this was just an illusion created by a djinn, and Dean's childhood home was destroyed in a fire which killed his mother and started his nomadic lifestyle.
105	** When [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Castiel]] rebels to help the Winchesters save humanity, he is cut off from Heaven, diminishing his powers, and can't return home because the punishment for his disobedience is death. At the end of Season 5, [[spoiler:he is finally able to return]], but in Season 6 [[spoiler: he's embroiled in a civil war against Raphael.]] In later seasons, [[spoiler:[[ZigZagged he ping pongs between being hated by the other angels, marginally accepted, hated again, accepted, mistrusted, then mostly accepted, then hated again.]] Ultimately, the Winchesters are about the only home he has.]]
106	* ''Series/{{Supergirl 2015}}'' has its title character. Kara's home planet was destroyed, leaving her nowhere to return to.
107	* The destruction of Gransphire in the final episode of ''Series/UltramanDyna'' opens a wormhole and Asuka/Dyna get sucked into the wormhole, sending him to another universe—Nebula M78, aka the world of the Land of Light. Also counts as a BittersweetEnding.

Context YouCantGoHomeAgain / LiveActionTV