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Back For The Finale / Live-Action TV

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  • Ally McBeal: Billy, big love of Ally's life who deceased unexpectedly.
  • The Amazing Race has all the eliminated teams at the Finish Line to cheer on the Final 3.
  • Happens several times in American Horror Story:
    • In Coven, Stevie Nicks returns in the Cold Open of the finale after last appearing in episode 10.
    • In Freak Show, Edward Mordrake and his craven coterie, now including Twisty the Clown, reappear in the finale after their last appearance in episode 4.
  • Arrow:
    • In the Season 6 finale, Sara appears for the final few minutes, having been absent since the Crisis on Earth-X crossover (justified by her being on her own show), just in time to learn of her father dying on the operating table.
    • In the Grand Finale, Moira Queen, Tommy Merlyn, Quentin Lance, and Emiko Adachi are all brought back through Oliver Queen's actions in the Crisis, and attend his funeral. Among the living characters, Felicity Smoak, Nyssa al Ghul, and Rory Regan return after having been absent for a while, in addition to Thea Queen, Talia al Ghul, Anatoly Knyazev, and Curtis Holt, who guest starred in previous episodes of Season 8. Finally, Barry Allen, Kara Danvers, and Sara Lance make their final crossover appearance.
  • Ashes to Ashes (2008) brought back Nelson, who owned the Railway Arms in Life On Mars as some sort of St Peter figure who guides all the dead coppers to heaven. The series creators also considered bringing back John Simm as Sam Tyler, but it was decided that his presence might detract from Alex Drake's (Keeley Hawes) story, and they wanted the focus to be on her.
  • Several characters from the first seasons returned for the Grand Finale of the Peruvian TV series Asi Es La Vida, to rescue the current protagonists that had been kidnapped by the Big Bad.
  • ''Series/Bunk'd":Ava, Finn, Matteo and Gwen returns for the series finale.
  • Susan Ivanova (Claudia Christian) appeared in the finale of Babylon 5, after being absent for the entire final season. However, this was because a shooting schedule shuffle when the possibility of a fifth season was uncertain due to network issues. B5 got the season, but Christian didn't return for the final season.
  • Lt Buck Compton in Band of Brothers.
  • The finale of Beverly Hills, 90210 brought back Andrea, Valerie, and Brandon, albeit the latter in a video message.
  • Blake's 7 brought Blake back for the final episode, and had him bloodily shot dead. This was because the actor was fed up with the part and wanted it to be unambiguously the last time he would have to play the role in case the show got Un-Cancelled.
  • Blue Heelers: Constable Adam Cooper, a regular for most of the first five seasons before being exposed as a Dirty Cop, returned in the final two-part episode to frame Senior Sergeant Croydon for corruption.
  • Bones :
    • Zack returned for two episodes in season 4, an episode in season 5, and the finale of season 11, where he was seemingly revealed to be the season's Big Bad.
    • Two recurring characters, Gordon Gordon Wyatt and Sully, also made appearances in the final season.
  • In the series finale of Breaking Bad, Walt tracks down Gretchen and Elliott Schwartz and forces them into an elaborate plan to get his drug money to his children. He also enlists Badger and Skinny Pete for the plan, after they had all but vanished from the show.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel:
    • Angel appears in the first and last episodes of Buffy. He departs both episodes in the same way, smiling and vanishing into shadows.
    • Faith returns for the last five episodes of Buffy following her redemption arc on Angel.
    • The Buffy season 2 finale "Becoming" brought back every major character from the first 2 seasons who wasn't dead... And a couple who were.
    • Giles returns for the Season 6 finale of Buffy, after his departure in episode 8 of the season. (Anthony Stewart Head was spending too much time away from his kids and got a little freaked out.)
    • Some of the former regulars are in season 7 of Buffy in spirit. Oz got a casual mention from Xander, and Cordelia (who had been shifted to Angel) appeared in a piece of footage from "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered".
    • Oz's final on-screen appearance is in Willow's dream in the season 4 finale of Buffy, "Restless".
    • The First Evil, an incorporeal body which can only inhabitant the dead, takes the form of each Big Bad we've encountered thus far in "Lessons": Master, Adam, Glory, etc. One of them, Harry Groener, reappears as the Mayor to taunt Faith in "Touched".
    • Sarah Michelle Gellar offered to return as Buffy for Angel's series finale, but Joss Whedon turned her down because he wanted the finale to be about Angel and the gang, not about Buffy. However, the finale did bring back Lindsey and Connor.
    • Spike makes an unexpected return at the end of the Buffy Season 8 comic season.
  • The Series Finale of Charmed had recurring characters Victor Bennet, Grams, Future Wyatt, and Patty return along with old leads Leo and Future Chris. Shannen Doherty did not return though, because of a variety reasons but most notably 1) Because she was too expensive and 2) She said no.
  • Diane Chambers (Shelley Long) returned for "One for the Road", the Grand Finale of Cheers.
  • The Colbert Report has on Stewart and nearly a couple of hundred guests who had appeared the Report show up for the curtain call (including Smaug, Big Bird, and Cookie Monster), along with every member of the show staff.
  • CSI closed out with a special 2-hour movie that brought back Gil Grissom, Catherine Willows, and Jim Brass. Inverted for Nick Stokes, as his actor left in the last regular episode of the series right before the finale and didn't make an appearance.
  • The Daily Show brought back all of the past correspondents for Jon Stewart's last show. Every last one. Including the previous host Craig Kilborn.
  • Desperate Housewives brought back Katherine Mayfair (Dana Delaney, who had her own series at the time) for the finale, along with many characters who were killed on Wysteria Lane over the seasons.
  • Walter was brought back for the finale of A Different World just in time to see Dwayne and Whitley off to their new life in Japan, but not Denise, Stevie, Lettie, Maggie, or Millie.
  • Doctor Who:
  • Ray Vecchio returned for the two-part finale of Due South.
  • The Grand Finale of Earth: Final Conflict brings back Liam Kincaid, who was missing for the whole final season and presumed dead, just in time to help stop the season's Big Bad Howlyn from unleashing a powerful Atavus warship and an army of Atavus warriors on the unsuspecting Earth. Surprisingly, no one else came back. William Boone, the protagonist of Season 1, was brought back earlier in the season, only to be unceremoniously Killed Offscreen while performing a very uncharacteristic action.
  • A number of old characters made appearances in the last few episodes of ER, including, most notably, Drs Carter, Corday, Weaver, and (via flashback) Greene.
    • Dr. Ross (George Clooney) and Nurse Hathaway (Julianna Margulies) also made an appearance together in an episode the last season.
    • Corday, Benton, and Lewis also returned for the final episode (and Benton even managed to appear in an episode before that). In addition, Romano returned in the same flashback episode as Greene (this due to Romano also being Killed Off for Real in Season 10).
  • The series finale of Eureka brought back Jordan Hinson as Zoe Carter.
    • Brought back Matt Frewer as Taggart as well. Even had him chasing down the dog Lojack.
  • Several editions of the Eurovision Song Contest find a way to bring all the participants back together for either the grand final interval act (such as all the 2014 finalists joining Emmelie de Forest's performance of "Rainmaker") or the winner's reprise. A notable example of the latter was in 1999, when the other 22 contestants and the dancers from the interval act not only returned to the stage to dance along to Charlotte Nilsson's reprise of "Take Me to Your Heaven," but also to sing 1979 winner "Hallelujah" together as a tribute to the victims of the Balkan War.
  • "The Peacekeeper Wars", the Wrap It Up for Farscape, brought back departed regular character Jool, only to kill her off as a Kick the Dog moment for the villains.
  • The Season 3 finale of The Flash brings back Jay Garrick, Gypsy, Harry (although he appeared in a few scenes in the previous episode), and the Black Flash to battle Savitar. Additionally, the Speed Force itself makes an appearance as Nora Allen to take Barry into the Speed Force, as he has reached his finish line. The Season 4 finale brings back Wally, who is now a regular on Legends of Tomorrow, for the final few minutes. And also Ralph, who was thought dead but has managed to regain his body from DeVoe.
  • The series finale of Frasier brought back Anthony La Paglia as Simon, Daphne's brother.
  • Fringe brought back Lincoln and Altlivia in the first hour of the two-part finale. The various means the team uses to battle the Observers is also a greatest-hits collection of prior Fringe events.
  • Steve, DJ's boyfriend in Full House.
  • Game of Thrones: The Grand Finale brought back Robin Arryn and Edmure Tully, both last seen in Season 6.
  • The series finale of Glee brought back almost every former member of New Directions for one final performance, with the exception of Finn, Marley, Rory, and Myron. Finn's actor was deceased, and Marley and Rory's had scheduling conflicts. The actor who played Myron filmed the final number but was edited out since he wouldn't realistically be able to portray an 18 year old in the Distant Finale - though he does appear earlier in the episode. The final season also worked to bring back several non-glee club recurring characters, including some who had been Put on a Bus earlier in the series, such as Will's ex-wife Terri, former bully Karofsky (as Blaine's brief boyfriend), and Jesse St. James (who later marries Rachel).
  • Gossip Girl had Jenny and Eric returning for Serena and Dan's wedding; the finale also saw Juliet, Vanessa and others in cameos finding out Dan was Gossip Girl.
  • Carol Seaver on Growing Pains; the actress who played her suffered from anorexia, and while she was being treated her character was Put on a Bus to London to explain her absence. But she was allowed to come back for the series finale.
  • The Happy Days finale had Richie and Lori Beth turning up for Joanie and Chachi's wedding, along with Jenny (Cathy Silvers) who had left the show after the previous season.
  • Head of the Class: precocious pre-teen Janice, who was already several years ahead in school, had left high school early to attend college, returned for Graduation.
  • The final two-part episode of Highlander: The Series featured the returns of Tessa and Richie, as the episode took place in a world where Duncan MacLeod never existed.
  • In an alternate ending, The Hills saw the return of Lauren Conrad, who had left the show two seasons prior.
  • The series ending movie of Homicide: Life on the Street included every single regular the series had, including those who had been killed off.
  • House brought back Cameron, Stacy, Masters, Dominika, and Chase (who admittedly hadn't been gone for very long), though some of them were cameos of the "hey look, there's X in the third row" variety. Kutner and Amber also reappeared as hallucinations.
  • During the last season of How I Met Your Mother, most of the minor characters came back for a cameo or "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue moment. Many were done in a 30-second montage in the penultimate episode before the finale (Ted even remembers Blah Blah's name, finally.)
  • The final episode of Hustle features the return of Stacie. Also of Danny, but we don't find that out til the end.
  • Before the final battle of the original Iron Chef, every previous challenger from the entire series entered Kitchen Stadium one last time. A scene sadly cut from the Food Network version. Out of over three hundred competitors, the only one who didn't appear was the late Rory Kennedy (from episode 504, "European Pigeon"). Before the final tournament began, all seven past and present Iron Chefs took the stage together, including former Iron Chefs Japanese Rokusaburo Michiba and Koumei Nakamura and original IC French Yutaka Ishinabe.
  • Kamen Rider:
    • Kamen Rider Double's summer movie brings back several victims of the week, who cheer Double on during his Final Battle with Eternal and give him his movie-exclusive 11th-Hour Superpower.
    • In Kamen Rider OOO, Akira's entire motivation for being Kamen Rider Birth in the first place was to get enough money to pay for the delicate surgery needed to remove a bullet lodged in his head before it's too late. So roughly two thirds of a way through he passes the torch to Goto, and travels overseas to have that sorted out. And then comes back in the last few episodes, with the surgery a success, as Birth Prototype, and proceeds to fight side by side with his protegé, Double Riders style.
    • The Kamen Rider franchise has an odd version of this with the annual Movie Wars film, which acts as either a Grand Finale or a Postscript Movie for last year's Rider and has the cast Crossover with the heroes from this year's series.
  • The season 4 finale of Leverage brings characters from as far back as season one. Nate's father Jimmy Ford plays a very prominent role in it. His ex-wife Maggie is gathered to help with the con along with, Hardison's Evil Counterpart Chaos, Eliot's Not-as-Evil Counterpart Quinn and Parker's adoptive father Archie. The villain is Victor Dubenich, the series very first Villain of the Week.
  • The final episode of The Killing saw a brief appearance from Mayor Darren Richmond, who had not been seen since season two, and proceeded to sweep Linden's involvement in Skinner's death under the rug, in order to avoid the political fallout of Skinner's crimes being revealed.
  • The Last of the Baskets: Mr. Armitage, who had been in half of Series 1's episodes, was absent from Series 2 except for "A Tisket, a Tasket", the final episode.
  • The sixth season of Lost had the flash-sideways timeline, which allowed for dead or disappeared characters to return. The actual series finale brought back Shannon, Boone, Juliet, Daniel, Charlotte, Libby, Charlie, Christian, Rose, Bernard, Penny, Dr. Chang, Eloise Hawking and John Locke. (The rest of the final season also saw the return of Arzt, Frogurt, Alex, Danielle, Roger Linus, Keamy and Omar, Ana Lucia, Anthony Cooper, Helen, Nadia, Michael, George Minkowski, Mikhail, Marshal Mars and Ethan)
    • Walt shows up in the epilogue.
    • Mr. Eko was also supposed to appear in the final episode, but contract talks with the actor broke down.
  • Lucifer: Charlotte Richards and Reese Getty (Linda Martin's ex-husband) return in the Grand Finale.
  • Luther brings back Alice Morgan for the Series 3 finale after she'd left in the middle of Series 2.
  • Martin: Female lead Tisha Campbell-Martin left the show before filming of the final season after accusing Martin Lawrence of sexual harassment, which made things awkward for the writers since she played the title character's wife. Usually her absence was explained by her being away on business, or in one case, the group went on a cruise but Gina just barely missed the boat. However, Campbell-Martin returned for the series finale after being promised she wouldn't have to be in the same room with Lawrence, and they not-so-subtly have one actor leave the set before the other one enters.
  • The Mary Tyler Moore Show finale had appearances from Rhoda and Phyllis, both of whom had long since departed for their respective spinoff shows. They even appeared in the end credits curtain call.
  • Although not a series regular, Major Sidney Freedman (Alan Arbus) returned for the M*A*S*H finale and was a major (sorry) character in it.
  • Joe Bastianich left as a judge for the U.S. MasterChef at the end of Season 5, but returned as a guest judge for the finale of Season 8.
  • Merlin:
    • The third season finale brings back Lancelot, Elyan, Leon and Gwain as future knights of the Round Table, Excalibur and Freya, the Lady of the Lake, and, among the villains, Cenred and Morgause.
    • Merlin's mother Hunith return in the first part of the two-part fourth season finale, after a three year hiatus.
    • For the series finale, Balinor reappears as a spirit.
  • In a subversion, Sharona Fleming from Monk is supposed to 'fly in' during the last episode of the sixth season. Then the problem resolves itself, and she never shows up. It's zig-zagged for the final season, as she does return during it, but not during the final episode, instead showing up a few episodes prior, though she does make a cameo via a picture that Randy brings with him when he transfers to New Jersey to live with her.
  • Murphy Brown brought back Phil for the series finale despite the fact that he had died: his death was retconned as having been faked by the CIA due to Phil knowing too much about Whitewater.
    • While Phil is the most surprising example, the finale also brought back Miles and Eldon, both of whom had been absent for some time.
  • The fourth season of My Kitchen Rules introduced the "Comeback Kitchen", where previously eliminated teams are brought back to the show and must compete each other for a spot in the final.
  • The final weeks of Neighbours saw the returns of several dozen past characters, some of whom hadn't appeared in decades, and while quite a few cast members only appeared on computer screens (such as Delta Goodrem, Margot Robbie and Jesse Spencer), a few such as Peter O'Brien, Daniel MacPherson, Guy Pearce, Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue returned to Ramsay Street in person.
  • A strange, extended version of this trope was used in the series finale of Newhart. For the series finale, they actually brought back Bob Newhart's wife from The Bob Newhart Show. This was used to reveal that the entire series was All Just a Dream.
    • And in a TV special about that show, in which Bob is shown dealing with this dream, at the very end he meets a trio of elevator repairmen who introduce themselves by saying, "Hi, I'm Larry, this is my brother Daryl ..."
  • The last episode of Night and Day featured a montage roll call of the most significant characters from throughout the show’s run. In addition Jane Harper, whose disappearance forms the backbone of the show, returns in the flesh for the final few episodes - while deceased regular Will Radcliffe enjoys a robotic reprise.
  • Medavoy came back for a minute in the last NYPD Blue after retiring an episode or two before.
    • Bobby Simone came back to give Andy spiritual advice in an episode of the final season, after having been previously Killed Off for Real early on in Season 6.
  • The first season finale of Odd Squad ended with a massive battle against all the odd creatures released from the containment rooms, in which just about every named squad member takes part, with plenty of Callbacks to go with them.
  • The Office (US) spread this out over its entire final season. Roy, Jan, David Wallace, and Gabe came back during the final season.
    • Also, Ryan and Kelly came back for the finale, after leaving at the beginning of Season 9 due to the actors' commitments to The Mindy Project.
    • Steve Carell returns as Michael Scott in the finale to be the best man at Dwight and Angela's wedding.
    • Several long forgotten side characters also make brief cameos in the finale including Elizabeth the stripper, Meredith's son Jake, and Michael's ex-girlfriend Carol.
  • Once Upon a Time:
    • The season one finale brought back the Huntsman and Maleficent in the fairytale world. Belle also returns, in Storybrooke. (Maleficent's other form appeared in Storybrooke as well but she herself did not.)
    • Season three sees a lot of the past versions of the cast that hadn't been seen since the the winter finale, along with the return of Red Riding Hood after being relegated to cameos.
    • The Grand Finale brings back just about everyone, especially notable after a season that had a Soft Reboot leading to an almost entirely new cast.
  • Orange Is the New Black checked in with nearly the entirety of its cast in its final episode, many of whom hadn't been on the show for seasons (having been sent to different prisons after the riot).
  • Robert Leckie, despite being one of the three protagonists of The Pacific, is absent for several episodes in the series' latter half and reappears only in the finale.
  • Parks and Recreation
    • Ann and Chris return in "One Last Ride", the Grand Finale episode of the series, after leaving Indiana to move to Michigan in the middle of the sixth season.
    • In general, several major and minor supporting characters made cameo appearances throughout the show's seventh and final season, but notably, this was averted for Mark Brendanawicz, whose Long Bus Trip following his departure in the second season essentially turned into a borderline case of Chuck Cunningham Syndrome.
  • Almost every minor character in Person of Interest either appeared or was mentioned in its final season.
  • The very first episode of Pee-wee's Playhouse, each character is given their own little scene throughout the episode, most of them disappearing shortly after that, but most of them return for the very last scene.
  • The Practice: Bobby Donnell makes appearances in the final couple of episodes after leaving at the previous season's finale.
  • Prison Break's broadcast finale does this to the point of Continuity Cavalcade - and to the point where it makes the absence of the few major characters who DON'T return really, really noticeable. Sucre, C-Note, Kellerman, Sofia and Felicia all make an appearance, with Kellerman's being the most notable since he had been dead for two seasons and provided the Deus ex Machina.
  • During the reunion shows for The Real Housewives, controversial side characters are brought back for confrontations with the main cast.
  • Dr. O'Hara comes back from London to see Jackie for the Nurse Jackie finale.
  • Pretty Little Liars: Ella, Ashley, Veronica, Pam, Byron and Wren all show up. Well, Aria and Ezra do get married.
  • The Sheriff of Nottingham and Marian came back for the final episode of Robin Hood, the former after a Not Quite Dead situation, and the latter for a Together in Death scene with Robin.
  • Roswell's penultimate episode saw the return of Tess, who bore Max's child in season two. She doesn't stay for the last episode, and is only there to quickly close the main arc in season three.
  • Hilda returned for Sabrina's wedding in the finale of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, which to be fair is certainly a good reason to return... except that it drew attention to all the people who weren't making a cameo (like Valerie).
  • PeepShow: The ninth season features the return of several past characters: Dobby (episode 2), April (episode 3 onwards), Sophie (episode 5) and Jeff (episode 6).
  • Scrubs, via a JD-fantasy.
    • There were some notable absences. Lisa the gift shop girl and Franklyn the lab tech weren't allowed to come back by the show's former network NBC. Jordan's siblings were both absent, as were Dr. Molly Clock, Dr. Kevin Casey, and recurring patient Harvey Corman. But the most inexplicable absence was Doug the mortician, who had appeared earlier in the season and had no known conflicts.
  • The final episode of Seinfeld had many minor characters on the show coming back to testify against them. Larry David, who was the showrunner until season 7 and wrote many episodes also came back to write the finale.
  • The Show Within a Show in the final episode of Sliders had The Professor show up and save everyone.
  • Smallville's final season has featured the returns of Jonathan Kent, Brainiac, Lionel Luthor, Chloe Sullivan, Kara Kent, Zod, and Martha Kent. Along with Lex Luthor, Chloe Sullivan, Lionel Luthor, Martha Kent, and Jonathan Kent return again in the actual finale.
  • The final episode of Spooks has a brief appearance by Tom Quinn, one of the few major characters to get Put on a Bus instead of Killed Off for Real when leaving the show.
  • It's pretty clear that Stargate Atlantis brought back everyone they could get from SG1 and Atlantis for the series finale (one can only assume that Richard Dean Anderson was unavailable).
  • The last episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation saw the return of recurring villain/ally Q, Lt. Tasha Yar and Miles O'Brien, who was by then a regular on Deep Space Nine and had not appeared since season 6.
  • The Grand Finale of Supergirl has James, Winn, Mon-El, and Eliza join the heroes in the big fight, and Cat Grant giving Kara a pep talk later. On the villains' side, Luthor summons duplicates of Overgirl, Parasite, Red Tornado and Metallo.
  • Supernatural:
    • The show was originally planned to only run for five seasons, so this trope was intended at the time for a number of old characters who were brought back to have their plots wrapped up or at least get in one last appearance. Meg (Season 1 The Dragon and Big Bad of one Season 2 episode, then MIA for all the Apocalypse build-up with even the show creator asking the writers what she was up to), Jessica's ghost (The Lost Lenore in the pilot episode but recurring through Season 1 and Season 2 in nightmares, visions, and Lotus-Eater Machine; fittingly since we never saw the real her after the first episode, the "Jessica" that returns for Season 5 is really Lucifer disguised as her to manipulate Sam), Jo, Ellen, Ash (the Harvelles and Ash were recurring characters in Season 2 but Jo had been written out to appease fans who saw her as The Scrappy, Ellen and Ash were more popular but Ellen's return in Season 3 got axed by the 2008 writer's strike and Ash had been Killed Off for Real in Season 2 by the then-Big Bad for knowing too much), The Trickster (an Ensemble Dark Horse who'd made two appearances in Season 2 and Season 3), Rufus (a minor Ensemble Dark Horse who'd appeared in one episode near the end of Season 3 and was referenced near the end of Season 4), the Winchester brothers' parents (who'd both appeared in Season 1 and made appearances in Season 2 and Season 4 after dying in Season 1 (Mary) and Season 2 (John); it was a younger version of the couple seen in "In the Beginning" who returned for "The Song Remains the Same" via Time Travel, though the older version of Mary sort of reappeared too in "Dark Side of the Moon"note ), and Pamela (from Season 4 and like Ellen, one of the show's few popular recurring female characters) were among those brought back for their final bow in the last season. The angel characters introduced alongside Castiel in Season 4 (Zachariah, Anna, and Uriel) also came back to help tie up the Apocalypse storyline. Lisa (from Season 3, and Dean's best-received Girl of the Week) also turned up late in the season to make Dean going to live with her after the season finale feel slightly less jarring, but by the time of her reappearance the show had already been renewed and she was probably already been planned as a recurring character in Season 6.
    • The Grand Finale downplays this. The only other notable character who appears aside from Dean and Sam is Bobby Singer, who was killed back in Season 7 and mostly guest starred as a ghost (by this time, there is another, alive, Bobby, but he came from an alternate universe). Castile is also mentioned by Bobby as being Back from the Dead, but he never appears on-screen. According to the showrunners, they planned for the finale to be a love letter for the fans and wanted to have many absent characters returning, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to shelve the plan.
  • Carey, Kurt, and Arwin were brought back for the finale of The Suite Life on Deck, but not Marcus.
  • Eric left That '70s Show after the end of the seventh season, and Kelso left four episodes into the eighth. Both return for the final episode (or rather, final scene in Eric's case). Counts in-universe too, as the series finale was New Year's Eve 1979.
  • Jimmy Doherty (Eddie Cibrian), Kim Zambrano (Kim Raver) and "Doc" Parker (Michael Beach) returned for Third Watch's finale, although only Doc had lines.
  • Ugly Betty starts this early, with Gio and Christina coming back in the third to last episode, Henry in the penultimate ep, and Connor for the finale.
  • The Ultra Series often crosses it over with Gondor Calls for Aid in the Grand Finale:
    • In the two-part finale of Ultraman Tiga, a large number of one-time characters from previous episodes appear to help GUTS save Tiga when he is turned to stone by Gatanozoa, including Keigo Masaki and Professor Tango (of Episodes 43 and 44), Makio Kirino (of Episode 39), Captain Hayate (of Episode 48), and Tomoki Iruma (Captain Iruma's son from Episode 25). The Kyrieloids also make a brief return to mock the petrified Ultraman Tiga.
    • Ultraman Gaia's three-part finale sees many Earth kaiju that Gaia had fought in earlier episodes come in defense of their planet alongside XIG when Zogu and the Dobishi arrive. This is not a case of Enemy Mine though, as by that point the characters had realized that the Earth kaiju also oppose the aliens trying to destroy their shared planet. These are Geel (from Episode 2), Mizunoeryu (from Episode 11), Zonnel (from Episode 17), Gomenos (from Episode 23), Shazak (from Episode 33), and Tigris (from Episode 38).
    • The "Final Trilogy" of Ultraman Mebius sees the return of Ultraman Hikari (who got Put on the Bus in Episode 17), Zamsha (from Episode 16), Kako (from Episode 36), and Alien Fanton (from Episode 7) to help GUYS defeat Empera.
  • The Vampire Diaries: Nina Dobrev, who portrayed Elena and Katherine, returned for the finale. along with several characters who had died or left the show including Lexi, Tyler, Jeremy, Jenna, Elena's parents.
  • The Walking Dead:
    • The Season 4 finale contains several flashbacks with characters who had died earlier in the season, including Karen, Patrick, and especially Hershel.
    • Season 7 ends with Abraham making appearances in flashbacks after his death in the season premiere.
    • Season 10 has two examples thanks to the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic. "A Certain Doom", which was intended to be the season finale before the pandemic, features the return of Maggie, who had been Put on a Bus in Season 9. The pandemic then resulted in the tenth season being extended by an extra six episodes, with "Here's Negan" becoming the new, official season finale. This episode sees Laura, the ex-Savior who was unceremoniously killed by Beta in "Stalker", make an appearance in flashbacks.
    • One of the last episodes of Season 11 sees the return of Luke and Jules, who hadn't been seen since "A Certain Doom" (Luke was written out as having moved to Oceanside due to his actor being busy filming other projects).
    • The Grand Finale has several unique examples. The commercials for the episode's airing had several cast alumni whose characters had been long dead returning such as Laurie Holden as Andrea. A background extra is also played by Chandler Riggs, who played Carl until his death in Season 8; and the series ends with a montage of various characters, many of whom say the Arc Words "we're the ones who live", including actors whose characters have been dead or moved on to other installments of the franchise (most notably, Steven Yeun as the late Glenn Rhee and Lennie James as Morgan Jones, who had become the lead of Fear the Walking Dead).
  • This trope can apply to whole networks too. Michigan J. Frog returned for the final week of The WB before the launch of The CW, having disappeared from The WB's imaging two years earlier.
  • In The West Wing, one of the final episodes was Leo McGarry's funeral, which was attended by a number of characters that hadn't been seen for a long time.
    • Sam Seaborn also returned to the series for the last few episodes. There was some talk of Aaron Sorkin coming back to write the final episode, but the idea fell through (he did cameo in it, though).
  • The Wire pulls this off spectacularly over the course of its final season with every living major character and many minor ones making cameos across the season. Surprisingly, all of them feel natural and don't interfere a bit with shows realism as most of the characters return for about 1 or 2 seasons and most of the previously departed characters had not been said to have ever left Baltimore making it all rather plausible.
  • Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) from The X-Files left the show at the end of season 7, returned for the second half of season 8, and for the last season only appeared in the finale. Alex Krycek, Marita Covarrubias, Gibson Praise, Jeffrey Spender, Knowle Rohrer, Mr. X, all three of the Lone Gunmen, and the Cigarette-Smoking Man also returned. Notably, about half of those characters were already dead.
  • Chase, who got Put on a Bus, for the finale of Zoey 101.

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