There's You Can't Go Home Again, there's Stranger in a Familiar Land, and then there's this.
Basically, this is when a character who wants to escape some nastiness, or probably he just defeated the nastiness, and finally returns home... and sees that the nastiness is there, too.
It can happen in the middle of the plot or be a finale. In case of the former, it can trigger Let's Get Dangerous! or give the unlucky homecomer a level in badass when he finally decides to give the nastiness a fight. In case of the latter, it can be a Shoot the Shaggy Dog ending.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- In Digimon Tamers, Takato is horrified to find out shortly after the team returned to the Real World from the Digital World that the D-Reaper followed them home, kicking off the last arc.
- Quatre Raberba Winner, from Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, is brought home by his sister after a period of floating injured and unconscious in space. When he gets there, his father (once again) rejects him shortly before rebelling against the colony government and dying. This triggers Quatre's mental breakdown.
- Early in Inuyasha, Kagome finally manages to get back home to the present after several days trapped in the feudal era, but she only barely manages to sit down to dinner with her family before both Inuyasha himself and the demon Yura's Prehensile Hair come looking for her, forcing her to go back so her family isn't put in danger. (After this, however, she manages to go back and forth at will without very much further strangeness following her home.)
Comic Books
- In the comic book adaptation of Garfield's Halloween Adventure, Garfield and Odie have just escaped the haunted island and the ghosts pursuing them. As soon as they open their front door, the ghosts jump out at them and chase them up a tree. Garfield doesn't know what they want, but Odie realizes that they've come for a ring that Garfield swiped from their treasure chest back at the island. Garfield drops the ring into the palm of one of the ghosts, and they swirl out of existence.
Fan Works
- In Origin Story, after being attacked by Typhoid Mary while on their honeymoon, Alex and Louise flee Los Angeles like the hounds of hell are on their heels. They figure they're safe enough in Pensacola, Florida, after literally crossing the United States to get away. When they head to their car the next morning, Sabretooth and three other mutant supervillains who work for Magneto are waiting for them in the parking lot.
Films — Live-Action
- In The Warriors, the titular group are a "hero" street gang, and after being framed for murder, have to fight their way from New York back to their home in Coney Island. After many battles, traps by the police, and losing their members, they finally, as the sun rises, arrive "home"...an industrial dump filled with smokestacks and pollution, yet their happiness cannot be denied. But they have one final encounter to survive where they must deal with the villainous gang that framed them for murder in the first place. Going home didn't magically make their troubles go away.
- Troll 2: Joshua and his family have just escaped Nilbog and gotten safely back home. All seems fine until he realizes that the exchange family laced their food, and sees the goblins devouring what's left of his mother.
Literature
- The final chapters of The Lord of the Rings deal with the Scouring of the Shire, which has Frodo and the hobbits, fresh from finishing off the quest to defeat Sauron and destroy the Ring, returning home to find that the Shire has been taken over by evil Men led by Wormtongue and Saruman. The hobbits mobilize their fellows and drive the Men out of the Shire. Wormtongue cuts Saruman's throat after being abused one time too many by the wizard and is promptly killed by the hobbits as he tries to get away for murdering several of their own.
- The last few chapters of Coraline.
- Many, many Sherlock Holmes stories involve someone in England being haunted by their past overseas.
- In the fourth book of The Wheel of Time, Perrin goes home to Emond's Field only to find that both Trollocs and Whitecloaks are invading.
Live-Action TV
- In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a kid in a coma somehow "escapes the nightmare world in which he was trapped." Said nightmare world leaks out to create a sort of town-wide Room 101.
Video Games
- Doom: The original game ends on this note. You've just returned to Earth after literally going through Hell, only to find that Hell has broken loose on Earth, which leads to the events of Doom II.
- Devil Survivor has this as one of the multiple endings. Previously used in Shin Megami Tensei I in a Wham Episode. The protagonist comes home after being falsely imprisoned by demons, only to find that a demon ate his mother.
- Knights of the Old Republic, the destruction of Dantooine
- In The Suffering, you're on an island overrun by hideous monsters. In the sequel, you're back in your hometown—and the monsters have followed you.
- In the Half-Life series, Gordon Freeman's presence alone means trouble is coming. As soon as he completes his mission, he's either put into stasis or incapacitated. He returns only when there's something new to do. Poor guy never gets a break. It doesn't go unnoticed, either.
Alyx Vance: "I found him wandering around outside. A bit of a troublemaker, isn't he?"Dr. Kleiner: "We owe a great deal to Dr. Freeman, even if trouble does tend to follow in his wake."
- Towards the end of Horizon Zero Dawn, Helis leads an Eclipse raid on the Embrace, the bucolic valley where the Nora tribe live, as revenge for Aloy disabling the Eclipse's Focus network.
Visual Novels
- Once Akira has visited the death site of a spirit in Spirit Hunter: NG, there's a very real danger that the spirit will follow him home and continue to haunt him there. It's later revealed that Akira's apartment contains strong energy that naturally attracts spirits.
Web Comics
- In Dubious Company, the pirates barely escape Mary and Sue while rescuing Sal, and decide to quickly hire some new sailors and skip the country. Guess who the perky new hire is?
Tiren: So seriously, keelhauling?
