Season Finale / Live-Action TV

Season Finales of live-action TV.

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• 24, in addition to wrapping up the season-long plot and having the Big Bad either killed or brought to justice, usually has some sort of change up in the finale:
  • Day 1: Jack discovers that his wife has been murdered.
  • Day 2: In what's probably the happiest ending for him in the entire series, Jack manages to finally reconnect with Kim, while an assassination attempt is made on David Palmer's life.
  • Day 3: The events of the day cause David Palmer to ultimately leave the Presidency while Tony Almeida is imprisoned for treason.
  • Day 4: Jack is forced to fake his death and goes into hiding
  • Day 5: After exposing President Charles Logan as the one who made a deal with Russian terrorists, Jack is taken prisoner by the the Chinese Government.
  • Day 6: Jack is forced to say goodbye to his love Audrey Raines and dejectedly leaves with nothing really left in his life, while Chloe discovers she's pregnant.
  • Day 7: The now Fallen Hero Tony Almeida reveals that everything he's done for the day has been to avenge the death of his wife and unborn child and ultimately gets arrested, this time for good, while a dying Jack prepares to accept his death only to have Kim come in after he's put into a medical-induced coma and agree to a procedure that could save his life.
  • Day 8: Allison Taylor ultimately decides to expose the Russian Government as the masterminds behind a foreign President's assassination while stepping down from her own Presidency after previously taking part in covering their involvement up, Jack is now an international fugitive after his actions against said government, and an epilogue on the DVD and Blu-ray sets reveal that Chloe has been arrested for helping Jack escape.
• 30 Rock: The Season 4 finale parodies the overdramatic season finales of most sitcoms by seriously shaking up the status quo. Aside from three of the show's characters getting married, Liz meets her potential soulmate, Jack breaks up with Nancy when he learns Avery is pregnant, Jenna and Paul get into a fight, and Kenneth gets himself fired.
• Agent Carter:
  • Season 1: Carter faces off with Big Bad Dr. Fenhoff and his Black Widow henchwoman, who have kidnapped Howard Stark and hypnotized him into carrying out a nerve gas attack on Times Square.
  • Season 2: Carter and her allies face off with Whitney Frost, as they seek to end the threat of the Zero Matter once and for all.
• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
  • Season 1: Coulson's team has a final showdown with the Clairvoyant; Coulson is appointed the new Director of SHIELD and tasked with rebuilding the organization; Raina is revealed to have a connection with Skye's father.
  • Season 2: The conflict between SHIELD and the Inhumans results in the deaths of Raina and Jiaying; Terrigen crystals are dumped into the ocean, where they infect fish that are then harvested and distributed worldwide; Coulson tasks Skye with putting together a team "like the Avengers, but secret"; Ward starts rebuilding HYDRA with himself in charge; Simmons is absorbed by the Kree artifact.
  • Season 3: The Final Battle with Hive ends with Lincoln performing a Heroic Sacrifice, and then there's a six month Time Skip that reveals that Daisy has gone rogue from SHIELD, and Coulson — who is no longer Director — in part of the team chasing her.
  • Season 4: Teaming up with Ghost Rider, the SHIELD team manages to defeat AIDA and Ivanov, but not before they carry out a False Flag Operation that frames SHIELD for an attempted assassination of General Talbot. Mysterious government agents subsequently arrest the team, and in the episode's stinger, Coulson is shown to now be in space.
  • Season 5: The team has a final showdown with General Talbot, who's gone crazy and is on the verge of cracking the Earth. He's defeated, breaking the time loop and averting the Bad Future, but in the process Fitz is killed. Afterwards, Coulson leaves with May to spend what time he has left in peace, while the rest of the team flies off to find the younger Fitz, who's sleeping in stasis to reach the future.
  • Season 6: The team faces off with Izel (and Sarge, after he joins her) in a fight that sees May mortally wounded and needing to be frozen to save her life. Meanwhile, the Chronicoms seize control of the Lighthouse, sending the team on the run; with help from Enoch, FitzSimmons develop a plan to somehow fight back, which involves the team time-jumping back to the 1930s, and creating an LMD of Coulson.
  • Season 7: The Grand Finale. The team has their Final Battle with the Chronicoms and Nathaniel Malick, then there's a one year Time Skip, followed by a "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue showing where the team members have all ended up after going their separate ways.
• Angel:
  • Season 1: This season finale revolves around the Vocah demon, who turns Kate against Angel, causes Cordelia's visions to harm her, kills the Oracles, and assists Wolfram & Hart in resurrecting Darla.
  • Season 2: Angel Investigations finally returns from Pylea bringing Fred and Cordelia with them, only to learn that Buffy has just died.
  • Season 3: Angel and Cordelia plan to go on a date, only for Connor to trap Angel at the bottom of the ocean, and Cordelia ascending to a higher plane. Also, Lorne and Groo leave, and Wesley sleeps with Lilah.
  • Season 4: Angel Investigations takes a job at Wolfram & Hart.
  • Season 5: In their attempts to kill all of Wolfram & Hart's senior partners, Angel's team suffers many casualties: Wesley dies, Lorne leaves, and Lindsay is ordered to be killed. Even worse is that the finale ends with the remaining members facing a massive horde of enemies, and with pretty much no chance of survival.
• Arrested Development:
  • Season 1: Michael finally decides to leave the Bluth family behind when he learns that George Sr actually did commit treason and has just escaped from prison.
  • Season 2: George Sr escapes again, pins the blame on Oscar, and takes Tobias's job at the Blue Man Group.
  • Season 3: Lucille was the real mastermind behind everything, Michael runs away, Lindsay learns that she was adopted, Annyong is revealed to be a mole, and Gob reveals that the Christian girl he was dating was actually Ann.
  • Season 4: George-Michael punches his father in the face, and Buster is suddenly arrested for Lucille 2's murder.
  • Season 5: It turns out that Buster did kill Lucille 2, and Michael leaves with George-Michael seemingly for good.
• Much like Star Trek, Arrowverse finales tend to take place around the same time (not counting Legends), ensuring the heroes of one show are too busy to help the others. It's best to avoid Star / Central / National / Gotham City around May...
  • Arrow:
    • Season 1: In the flashbacks, Oliver and his friends fight to stop Fyers' plans on the island. In the present, Oliver fights to prevent Malcolm Merlyn from destroying the Glades and fails, resulting in Tommy's death.
    • Season 2: The flashbacks have Oliver facing down Slade aboard the Amazo, while the present has Team Arrow, joined by the League of Assassins, fighting to prevent Slade's Mirakuru army from destroying the city.
    • Season 3: This year's flashback storyline is wrapped up as Oliver kills General Shrieve and leaves for Coast City. In the present, he has his final showdown with Ra's al Ghul and in the aftermath, Malcolm takes control of the League, while Oliver gives up being the Arrow and literally drives off into the sunset with Felicity.
    • Season 4: The flashbacks end with Oliver killing Baron Reiter and then Mercy Killing Taiana, before heading to Russia to keep his promise to her. In the present, Team Arrow rallies the citizens of Star City to confront Damien Darhk and his army of Ghosts in a Final Battle; in the aftermath most of the team leaves to deal with the emotional fallout of the season, while Oliver is installed as interim Mayor.
    • Season 5: The flashback Myth Arc comes to an end as Oliver has a Final Battle with Kovar, before being rescued from the island (as seen in the pilot). In the present, Prometheus kidnaps basically everyone Oliver cares about - including his son - and holds them hostage on the island. Oliver joins forces with Nyssa and three former enemies to rescue them. In the end, Prometheus demonstrates what a sore loser he is by shooting himself in the head to trigger a Dead Man's Switch. The whole thing ends with Oliver and William the only confirmed survivors, watching from a boat as the island goes up in flames.
    • Season 6: The reunited Team Arrow teams up with the FBI in order to take down Diaz. And while they get ahold of evidence that allows them to arrest all the corrupt officials on Diaz's payroll, Diaz himself escapes, now allied with the Longbow Hunters. Additionally, Quentin dies of wounds sustained fighting Diaz, while Oliver publicly outs himself as the Green Arrow and allows the FBI to arrest him in exchange for their aid.
    • Season 7: Team Arrow, while being hunted by the police, fight to stop Emiko and the Ninth Circle from unleashing a bioweapon on Star City. Afterwards, Oliver and Felicity retire to raise their child where the vengeful Ninth Circle can't find them, until the Monitor arrives to take Oliver in preparation for "Crisis on Infinite Earths". In the flash forwards, the heroes destroy the ARCHER program to stop Galaxy One from destroying Star City, after which the older generation of heroes retire to make way for the younger heroes.
    • Season 8: The Grand Finale of the series, acting more as a coda than anything else, as the various heroes of Star City and their allies gather to mourn and honor the fallen Oliver.
  • The Flash (2014):
    • Season 1: Barry attempts to go back in time and save his mother, and has his Final Battle with the Reverse-Flash, resulting in Eddie's death (erasing his descendant Reverse-Flash from existence), and creating a black hole over the city, which Barry ends the season trying to close.
    • Season 2: Barry and Zoom face each other for their Final Battle in a race for the sake of The Multiverse. While Barry wins, he is so emotionally devastated that he runs back in time and saves his mother, triggering a Cosmic Retcon.
    • Season 3: Everyone vs Savitar. The heroes manage to prevent Iris' prophesied death, breaking the Stable Time Loop of Savitar's existence. He switches to a backup plan of splicing himself throughout time, but is thwarted and shot dead by Iris herself. In the process, however, the Speed Force becomes unbalanced, and Barry enters Savitar's Speed Force prison to fix it and atone for his own tampering with time.
    • Season 4: Barry enters DeVoe's mind in order to defeat him and stop the Enlightenment. He's aided by a still-alive Ralph, who manages to retake control of his body, ejecting DeVoe, who survives in his hover chair long enough to Colony Drop a satellite on Central City. After stopping it, the team celebrate the birth of Joe and Cecile's daughter only for the Mystery Girl who's been popping up all season to show up again, revealing herself to be Barry and Iris' daughter Nora from the future, asking for help to fix a mistake.
    • Season 5: Team Flash have their final showdown with Cicada, who is preparing to send her anti-metahuman plague into the past. This plays into Thawne's plans to free himself from prison in the future. He's confronted and defeated by Team Flash, but escapes while the others are trying to save Nora, who is being erased by changes to the timeline, only to fail. Afterwards, Sherloque returns to his Earth, Cisco takes the metahuman cure, and the future newspaper changes to say that the Crisis where the Flash disappears is now happening in 2019 instead of 2024.
    • Season 6: Team Flash find themselves forced to protect Joseph Carver when Eva McCulloch comes after him, leading to a large fight against Carver's own metahuman assassins, who have defected to Eva. They ultimately fail, Eva successfully killing Carver, retaking her company, and framing Sue for the assassination. Meanwhile, Iris is still trapped in the Mirrorverse, and after further acclimating to its environment suddenly disappears in front of Karmilla in a flash of light. ^note  This was not originally meant to be the season finale, but was forced to act as it due to the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down production with the rest of the season incomplete.
    • Season 7: Barry gathers together every speedster he can, including his children from the future, to finally confront Godspeed and his plans of achieving godhood. Ultimately, in order to defeat him, Barry resorts to giving Thawne his physical form back. After the battle, everyone gathers for Barry and Iris' vow renewal ceremony.
  • Legends of Tomorrow:
    • Season 1: The team has their Final Battle against Vandal Savage, in a confusing battle that spreads across three time periods.
    • Season 2: With no other options left to them to undo Doomworld, the Legends break the first rule of time travel and go back into their own timeline to stop their younger selves from losing the Spear of Destiny to the Legion of Doom. This leads to a Final Battle between both versions of the Legends and the Legion.
    • Season 3: After Mallus escapes his prison, Rip Hunter sacrifices himself to buy the rest of the Legends time to fall back to the Wild West and regroup. When Mallus tracks them down with an army of past enemies in tow, the Legends summon old friends for help, leading to a large battle that culminates with the Legends combining the six Zambesi totems to create an avatar in the form of Beebo which faces off with Mallus himself.
    • Season 4: While Constantine and Nora work to free Ray from Hell, the Legends create the Hey World amusement park to prove to the world that magical creatures don't need to be feared, in order to counter Neron's plans. In the process of succeeding, the timeline is altered so that Zari never joins the Legends, instead being replaced with her brother. In The Stinger, Astra unleashes evil souls stolen from Neron's collection in Hell.
    • Season 5: Having escaped from the TV realities they were trapped in, the Legends work to break the Fates' control of the world. This culminates in a big fight with Lachesis' collection of Encores, and Charlie forgiving her defeated sister. In the aftermath of this, Charlie returns to 1970s England to build a life for herself, and Sara is suddenly abducted by aliens.
    • Season 6: With Bishop's Zaguron allies preparing to invade Earth, the Legends quickly arrange a wedding ceremony for Sara and Ava before having a Last Stand. After their narrow victory in the resulting fight, Mick and Constantine leave the team (Mick to raise his Necreian children with Kayla, Constantine to walk a different path). And as the Legends prepare to leave the 1920s, the Waverider is blown up by what appears to be another Waverider.
  • Supergirl (2015):
    • Season 1: Kara and J'onn face off with Non and Indigo to stop them from destroying Earth out of spite. In the final scene, a Kryptonian pod crashes in National City.
    • Season 2: Kara duels Rhea to stop the Daxamite invasion. To win, she's forced to disperse lead in the atmosphere, killing or chasing off the Daxamites; to Kara's dismay, this includes Mon-El. The two admit their love before he leaves Earth in his pod, and is last seen being sucked through a wormhole (possibly to the Phantom Zone). The final scene is a flashback to Krypton's destruction, revealing that a cult-like group also sent an infant to Earth, where it is meant to "reign".
    • Season 3: After stopping the Hostile Terraforming of Earth, Supergirl, the DEO and the Legion have a showdown with Reign and the Witches, ending with a Mirror Match between Sam and Reign that sees the latter destroyed. Afterwards, Mon-El and Winn return to the future with the Legion to find a cure for a plague killing AIs (which also forces Brainy to stay in the present), while J'onn steps down as Director in order to walk the Earth and promotes Alex to replace him, and James publicly outs himself as the Guardian. And in the final scenes, it's revealed that Lena is still secretly studying the Harun-El, and a doppelgänger of Kara appears in Siberia.
    • Season 4: While J'onn, Dreamer, and Brainy work to free Lex Luthor's alien prisoners and stop him from firing a Wave-Motion Gun at Argo, and James and Alex face off with Ben Lockwood, Supergirl fights Lex himself. Lex is defeated thanks to Supergirl's clone Red Daughter sacrificing herself, and escapes only to be gunned down by Lena, revealing to her that Kara is Supergirl with his dying breaths. Lockwood and President Baker are arrested after their complicity with Lex is revealed. Eve escapes, but is revealed to be working for an organization called Leviathan. The Monitor brings J'onn's vengeful brother to Earth, then collects Lex's body.
    • Season 5: Lex and Leviathan prepare to use Obsidian's VR program to kill half the world's population, while an atoning Lena tries to help Supergirl and the others stop them. They ultimately succeed in shutting down the VR, while Brainy subjects himself to lethal amounts of radiation to trap the Leviathan members in a bottle; unfortunately, Lex saw that coming and collects the bottle for his own ends, while leaving Brainy to die. ^note  This was not originally meant to be the season finale, but was forced to act as it due to the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down production with the rest of the season incomplete.
    • Season 6: The Grand Finale. The Superfriends and several allies from across the series face off with Lex and Nyxly in a Final Battle that ends with the villains dragged into the Phantom Zone. Afterwards, the heroes gather for Alex and Kelly's wedding, and after that Cat Grant convinces Kara to finally Take a Third Option regarding her split life and go public with her Secret Identity.
  • Batwoman (2019):
    • Season 1: Batwoman tries one last time to forge a working relationship with the Crows, only for Commander Kane to make it clear he intends to take her down at all costs. Meanwhile, Alice advances her plans, killing Mouse when he refuses to keep following her revenge schemes, and giving Hush a flesh mask duplicate of Bruce Wayne's face so that he can enter Wayne Enterprises and find the Kryptonite she can use to penetrate the Batsuit and kill Kate. ^note  This was not originally meant to be the season finale, but was forced to act as it due to the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down production with the rest of the season incomplete.
    • Season 2: Gotham descends into chaos as Black Mask unleashes his army, forcing Team Bat to ally with Alice to stop him, during which time Luke dons the Batwing suit. Alice and Ryan manage to free Kate's mind from her conditioning as Circe, but afterwards she decides to leave Gotham to track down Bruce. Alice is arrested and taken to Arkham, but reveals that Ryan's mother is still alive. In The Stinger, a Poison Ivy vine stolen from the Batcave breaks out of containment and starts spreading.
  • Stargirl (2020):
    • Season 1: The JSA face off with the Injustice Society to stop their plan to brainwash the country. Afterwards, The Shade is shown taking up residence in the ISA's abandoned base, Cindy finds a gem containing Eclipso, and Starman turns out to still be alive, and looking for Pat.
    • Season 2: The JSA and their allies have a showdown with Eclipso, ultimately defeating him with the aid of Starman. Afterwards, Cindy asks to join the JSA, the Crocks move next door to the Dugan-Whitmores, and Mister Bones prepares to come to Blue Valley to carry out an experiment.
• Ash vs. Evil Dead
  • Season 1 ends with Ruby revealing herself as the Big Bad, and facing off with Ash, while Kelly burns down the cabin in an attempt to end the evil. In the end, Ash and Ruby agree to a truce, much to Pablo and Kelly's shock.
  • Season 2 concludes with a two-part Time Travel Episode, wherein Ash and co. head back to before the events of the original movie to try and prevent them from happening, which ends up leading to a Final Battle with the season's Big Bad, Baal. In the aftermath, Ash and his friends return to the present to a hero's welcome, but a post-Heel–Face Turn Ruby is killed by her younger self, who somehow follows the others to the present, while The Stinger sees the Necronomicon once again unburied by some unwitting hikers.
  • Season 3 is the Grand Finale, and is as epic as one would expect. The Dark Ones use the Necronomicon to unleash Hell on Earth, including the massive demon Kandar the Destroyer. Ash manages to kill it, but in the process is rendered comatose. He awakens some time later in a post-apocalyptic future, and ends the series riding off to keep fighting the evil.
• Battlestar Galactica (2003) loved Cliff Hangers, Mind Screws, and Shocking Moments for its finales.
  • Season 1 ended with a two part epic that revealed supposedly fictional Earth is real. It ended with Sharon shooting Adama.
  • Season 2 closed with Karma Houdini / Jerkass President Gaius Baltar surrendering humanity's colony of New Caprica to the Cylons.
  • In one of the greatest Mind Screws of all time, the Season 3 closer revealed that not only is Starbuck alive, but Tigh, Tyrol, Anders, and Tory are four of the Final Five Cylons.
  • The writer's-strike-induced halfway finale of the final season ended with humanity reaching Earth to find a nuked-out, radioactive shell.
  • The actual finale to the series blew previous Mind Screws out of the water. In summary: Head Baltar and Head Six, along with Starbuck, are really angels. The series takes place 150,000 years before our present day, and Hera is a precursor to humanity as we know it. The song All Along the Watchtower is apparently one of God's tools for change. Non- Mind Screw, but still big: The Galactica, along with the rest of the fleet is flown into the sun by Anders. Humanity and the human-model Cylons settle down on our Earth. Roslin finally dies. Tyrol strangles Tory, preventing Resurrection technology from ever again being created. The Centurions take the last remaining Basestar for parts unknown. And it ends with footage of modern-day robotic advances.
• Blue Heelers, in its later seasons, went the cliffhanger route.
  • 2000 had Jack being taken into surgery for a risky operation for his back.
  • 2001 had Hayley reveal to Tess her real mother was going to take her away.
  • 2002 ended with Tess revealing she was married, with it being hinted it was to Evan.
  • 2003 had Ben shoot Susie's husband, in self defense.
  • 2004 portrayed Tom murder the girl who killed his dog in cold blood.
• Breaking Bad typically has the season finales where Walt descends to a new low in his drug dealings.
  • Season 1: Walt and Jesse look horrified as their boss Tuco beats an underling to near-death.
  • Season 2: Skyler finds out about Walt's second phone and has left the house. Walt watches horrified as a mid-air collision happens right above his house, due to the air-traffic controller whose daughter Walt let die.
  • Season 3: A war sparks up within Gus and Walt due to Walt killing Gus's dealers to save Jesse. Gus plans to 'replace' Walt with Gale, which Walt counters by making Jesse kill Gale first.
  • Season 4: Walt manages to bring Jesse back to his side, after which Jesse tells him about Hector hating Gus. Walt conspires with Hector to lure Gus into a trap, which Gus falls for. Hector blows himself up, taking down Gus with him, Hank finally has definitive proof that Los Pollos Hermanos is a front for meth-dealing, and Walt and Jesse destroy the superlab. But it's revealed in the last scene of the season that Walt poisoned Brock to bring Jesse back to his side.
  • Season 5: The Grand Finale. Walt travels to Alberqueque to make his former friends donate the rest of his money to his family when Flynn turns 18. Walt meets Skyler for a final time, where he tells her Jack and his crew murdered Hank and Gomez and Walt is planning to avenge them, while finally admitting to Skyler (and the audience) that everything he did, from cooking meth to murdering people was all for himself, and it was the only time he felt good at anything. Walt tricks Lydia into thinking he's weak, sneaking the ricin into her tea, and then goes to Jack and learns that their crew have enslaved Jesse. Having a change of heart about his former partner, Walt shields him from his own machine gun as it mows down the Neo-Nazi gang, and a bullet hits Walt. Jesse finally kills Todd for murdering Drew Sharp and Andrea, and Walt kills Jack and avenges Hank and Gomez. Jesse goes free into the sunset as Walt takes a last look at the gang's meth lab, and dies content.
• Brooklyn Nine-Nine tends to raise the stakes for most of its season finales:
  • Season 1: Jake leaves to go undercover and confesses his feelings to Amy.
  • Season 2: Holt is forced to leave the Nine-Nine, and Jake and Amy kiss.
  • Season 3: Jake and Holt are forced to go into Witness Protection when their lives are threatened.
  • Season 4: Jake and Rosa are accused for a crime they didn't commit, and are sentenced to prison.
  • Season 5: Jake and Amy get married, and Holt learns whether or not he got the job of commissioner.
  • Season 6: When Commissioner Kelly is fired, Wuntch becomes acting commissioner and demotes Holt from the rank of Captain to Traffic Enforcement Agent.
  • Season 7: Marks a change, as this time it focuses on Amy giving birth to her and Jake's child, while Amy also micro-managing the Precinct.
• Each season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended with a huge fight against the Big Bad.
  • Season 1: The Master is killed after escaping. Buffy has died for a few moments previously, an important plot point for the next 7 years.
  • Season 2: Angel is reensouled, however Buffy is forced to stab him and send him to a hell dimension, presumably killing him. Buffy leaves for LA an unknown city.
  • Season 3: At graduation, the Mayor turns into a giant snake. He's blown to hell along with Sunnydale High. Faith is in a coma. The third happiest season ending in the show
  • Season 4: Adam is defeated by having the Scoobies combine their power with Buffy as well as every Slayer in history. This really pisses off The First Slayer, who proceeds to try to kill them in their dreams, which are major mind fucks. They stop her. Second happiest ending to a season.
  • Season 5: Glory is stopped, but Buffy is dead. Really dead. Deader than last time. Not that it stops her from getting better next season. Most depressing season ending and some believe it should be the Series ending.
  • Season 6: Dark Willow is stopped via The Power of Love, Buffy and Dawn are getting along better than ever and Buffy promises to lower the sheltering, which actually does happen in Season 7 (notable occurring as Buffy really becomes a bitch in S7).
  • Season 7: Sunnydale is destroyed, Faith is back and is fighting for the side of good (and is actually in a relationship, though it falls apart before Season 8 even starts), Willow is officially the most powerful being on the planet, only really limited by the fact that using all that power would turn her evil, Xander's a cyclops, Anya's dead and all the potential Slayers on Earth have been activated. Still the happiest season ending if only because the characters are no longer alone in their fight.
  • Season 8 The source of all magic is destroyed and Giles is dead. If you haven't read the comics and highlighted this I bet you're saying something along the lines of "HOLY SHIT!"
• Chuck was well-known for pulling out all the stops in its Season Finales. This was driven by the show's struggle to find an audience, with each season finale being written as if it were to also serve as the Grand Finale. And then taken up to eleven in seasons three and four, which were actually given two season finales: Originally the show was only picked up for thirteen episodes in each season, before receiving an extended order (6 additional episodes in season 3, and 11 in season 4). Which means two very climactic and satisfying season finales had to be topped again by the actual finale. Season 3 and 5 also had two-hour finales on top of that.
  • Season 1: The only season to not have a preplanned finale, as the first season was ended prematurely by the Writer's Strike. A Fulcrum spy plants a listening device which discovers Chuck is the Intersect. Chuck is nearly forced to be taken into government custody unless the device can be recovered, while Devon proposed to Ellie.
  • Season 2: Devon and Ellie's wedding is nearly ruined by a vengeful Ted Roark. Bryce Larkin is killed, and Chuck downloads Intersect 2.0.
  • Season 3:
    • Original Finale: Shaw's Face–Heel Turn is revealed, and he uses the team to help the Ring steal intelligence to repair their Intersect while also attempting to kill Sarah. Chuck kills Shaw instead, and he and Sarah begin their relationship.
    • Actual Finale: Ellie discovers Chuck is a spy, while Shaw is revealed to be alive, and stages a coup to take over the CIA and discredit Chuck and his team, capturing them one by one and killing Chuck's father. Devon, Morgan and Ellie rescue Chuck, Sarah and Casey. The rest of the team then plan a counter attack to unmask Shaw and destroy the Ring. The Ring Elders are successfully captured and Chuck defeats Shaw. The Buy More is destroyed.
  • Season 4:
    • Original Finale: Ellie is about to have her baby, and Chuck launches a final push to take down Volkoff and bring his mother home. Chuck proposes to Sarah.
    • Actual Finale: Chuck must team up with Volkoff to secure a remedy for the poison killing Sarah. Chuck rebels against the CIA when they attempt to prevent him from doing so and has the Intersect removed. Chuck manages to convince Vivian to save Sarah and start her life anew with her father. Chuck and Sarah marry and purchase the Buy More as a cover to establish a freelance spy team. Morgan downloads the Intersect.
  • Season 5: Sarah's memory has been forcibly destroyed by Quinn using a malfunctioning Intersect, turning her against the team in an effort to steal a working copy of the Intersect for himself. Chuck manages to break Sarah free from Quinn, but with her memory destroyed she leaves to go after Quinn. When her attempt to kill him fails she returns, and Chuck helps her seek out the components of the Key, the final secret to the Intersect. Sarah shoots and kills Quinn, Jeffster! buys the team time to defuse the bomb, and Chuck downloads the Intersect once more. The team breaks up, to pursue their own lives, and the series closes with Chuck and Sarah kissing on the beach from the pilot.
• Community, The first season really has three Season Finale episodes, while the second season ends in a two part Season Finale.
  • "Modern Warfare": This episode focuses on the cultural referencing aspect of the show, by having a paintball battle break out with many Shout-Out to various action movie film franchises.
  • "English as a Second Language": This episode focuses on the academic setting aspect of the show and what is keeping the study group together going forward.
  • "Pascal's Triangle Revisited": This episode focuses on the emotional aspect of the show. With someone contemplating moving away, another moving in with a classmate, a Betty and Veronica descision being forced to the surface, all ending in The Big Damn Kiss.
  • "A Fistful Of Paintballs": Sees a return to paintball in the second Season Finale, but this time with many Shout-Out to Spaghetti Western and The Western. It is revealed that the study group has voted out one of their members.
  • "For A Few Paintballs More": Reveals the continued existence of Greendale College is at stake, and everyone must work together to save it.
• The second-season finale of Desperate Housewives was padded out to two hours with Mary-Alice flashback scenes.
• The Doctor Who revival often has multi-episode, arc-ending stories serving this function, and which usually feature one of the series' signature Big Bads as the antagonist(s). Often, the connecting Cliffhanger reveals an additional, even worse villain.
  • Series 1 has "Bad Wolf"/"The Parting of the Ways". Villain: The Daleks.
  • Series 2 has "Army of Ghosts"/"Doomsday". Villain: The Cybermen AND the Daleks.
  • Series 3 has "Utopia"/"The Sound of Drums"/"Last of the Time Lords". Villain: The Master, plus the Toclafene.
  • Series 4 has "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End". Villain: The Daleks, now led by Davros.
  • Despite being specials, the 2009 episodes were filmed as a continuation of Series 4, and thus "The End of Time" was treated as a season finale, rather than just a two-part Christmas/New Year's special. Villain: The Master AND the Time Lords led by Rassilon.
  • Series 5's finale, "The Pandorica Opens"/"The Big Bang", does not solve every mystery from within the season; most of them are instead resolved in Series 6, which broke form and had a single-part finale, "The Wedding of River Song". The Big Bad of both seasons is the Order of the Silence.
  • In another variation, Series 7 is divided into two halves with separate arcs that each have a finale: "The Angels Take Manhattan" for 7A, with the Weeping Angels as the villains, and "The Name of the Doctor" for 7B, which resolves the Great Intelligence's plot (the Intelligence having been established as the Big Bad when the arc began). The latter also has a hook for the Milestone Celebration special "The Day of the Doctor" following the resolution of the season's story arc.
  • Series 8 has "Dark Water"/"Death in Heaven", which features the threat of Cybermen under the control of Missy, aka the female incarnation of the Master. Interestingly, the Twelfth Doctor and Clara's personal arc is not truly resolved until the post-season Christmas Episode "Last Christmas".
  • Series 9 has "Face the Raven"/"Heaven Sent"/"Hell Bent", which breaks with tradition — the Big Bad, Rassilon and the High Council of the Time Lords, sees their cruel plot accidentally create a much bigger threat to space and time: the Doctor himself!
  • Series 10 has "World Enough and Time"/"The Doctor Falls", which initially sets up Missy and the Saxon!Master as the main antagonists, only for them to be usurped by the Cybermen.
  • Series 11 has "The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos", which has Tzim-Sha the Stenza.
  • Series 12 has "Ascension of the Cybermen"/"The Timeless Children", which has Ashad the Lone Cyberman who is eventually usurped by the Dhawan!Master.
• The Expanse:
  • Season 1 has "Leviathan Wakes", wherein Miller and Holden's crew race to escape Eros even as it's destroyed by being absorbed by the protomolecule. Meanwhile, on Earth, Avasarala begins to uncover just how deep The Conspiracy goes.
  • Season 2 has "Caliban's War". The crew of the Rocinante fight to destroy a protomolecule Super-Soldier that's stowed away aboard the ship. Avasarala, Bobbie, and Cotyar try and escape captivity on Jules-Pierre Mao's ship. The expedition exploring the Eros crash site on Venus are destroyed by the protomolecule. Naomi reveals that she gave a sample of the protomolecule to Fred Johnson.
  • Season 3 has "Abaddon's Gate". The Rocinante crew must race to prevent Ashford from attempting to destroy the protomolecule station, as Miller/The Investigator has told Holden that doing so will cause the station to destroy the solar system. After Ashford is stopped, portals to more than 1300 inhabitable systems are opened. Holden realizes that this is just an excuse the protomolecule gives humanity to explore as a means of finding out what destroyed its creators.
• Firefly, which only ran for one season, arguably had what qualifies as a true Season Finale in its fourteenth episode, "Objects in Space." By the end of this episode, most of the immediate loose ends in the plot have been tied up. The romantic tension between Mal and Inara is more or less resolved. Simon and River have settled into fairly solid positions as part of the crew. There were plenty of hooks to hang a second season off of, some of which were used in the subsequent movie, but most of those hooks would require a new story arc to develop fully.
• Most of the Friends season finales involved a Cliffhanger:
  • Season 1: Rachel learns about Ross's feelings for her, Ross finally gets over Rachel and gets a new girlfriend
  • Season 2: Rachel goes to Barry and Mindy's wedding, Monica and Richard break up, and Chandler starts dating Janice.
  • Season 3: Phoebe meets her birth mother, and Ross has to choose between dating Bonnie or Rachel.
  • Season 4: Ross and Emily almost get married until Ross accidentally says Rachel's name at the altar, and Monica sleeps with Chandler
  • Season 5: Ross and Rachel drunkenly get married in Vegas.
  • Season 6: Chandler proposes to Monica. She says yes.
  • Season 7: Monica and Chandler get married, Rachel is pregnant.
  • Season 8: Rachel has her child, and Joey accidentally proposes to her. Also, Monica and Chandler decide that they want children.
  • Season 9: Phoebe starts dating Mike again, Ross and Charlie start dating, and Joey kisses Rachel.
• Foundation (2021):
  • Season 1 has "The Leap". Cleon XIV/Brother Dawn's storyline ends with Demerzel killing him to preserve the genetic dynasty's purity, only for the Empire to learn that the entire clone lineage has been compromised. The Foundation, Anacreon, and Thespis form an alliance to begin secretly building opposition to the Empire. Salvor leaves Terminus after learning that she's Gaal's biological child. Gaal returns to Synnax after over a century in stasis, only to find the planet's civilization has been wiped out by the progressive flooding and finds Salvor waiting for her.
  • Season 2 has "Creation Myths". On Terminus, Cleon XVII/Brother Day's decision to wipe out every Foundation world causes Bel Riose to turn on him and kill him after a brutal fight, while the Spacers sabotage and destroy the Imperial fleet to free their people; Brother Constant is the only survivor, and is picked up by the Vault, which saved Terminus' population before its destruction, ensuring the Foundation's survival. On Trantor, Demerzel's programming forces her to kill Cleon XVI/Brother Dusk and Rue for learning her true role; when she also tries to kill Sareth, Cleon XVIII/Brother Dawn helps her escape, the two fleeing into exile to raise their child together, while Demerzel decants new Cleon clones and begins studying the Prime Radiant to make use of its secrets for the Empire. On Ignis, Gaal, Salvor and Raven Hari manage to kill Tellum and free the Mentalics, who they decide to start training as the Second Foundation to prepare for the foretold coming of The Mule; however, Salvor sacrifices herself to save Gaal from Tellum's last desperate attack, which proves that the future isn't set in stone, after which Gaal and Hari go into stasis until the time is right. In the final scene, set 152 years later, the Mule is shown sensing Gaal's arrival, and he prepares to hunt her down.
• The Gifted (2017):
  • Season 1, "X-roads": Sentinel Services attack the Mutant Underground's headquarters, with Andy and Lauren ultimately combining powers to destroy the building and most of the assaulting forces. Jace Turner is forced to accept blame for the failed attack, and resigns in disgust. Lorna is convinced by the Frost sisters to destroy the plane carrying Dr. Campbell and Senator Montez; later, she, Andy, and several others abandon the Underground to join the Hellfire Club.
  • Season 2, "oMens": The Inner Circle sic the Purifiers on the Underground as a distraction while Andy and Lauren are abducted and coerced to destroy Sentinel Services headquarters. John and Erg team up to defeat the Purifiers, with John beating down Jace but ultimately not giving him the death he wants. Lorna uses her friendship to appeal to Esme, turning her on her sisters to save Andy and Lauren. The Underground assault the Inner Circle's headquarters and Reed allows himself to have a Superpower Meltdown in order to kill Reeva. In the aftermath, the Underground attempts to rebuild, when Blink (who was believed to have been killed earlier in the season) shows up and says she needs to show them all something important.
• The Good Place: Each season usually ends with a game changing plot twist.
  • Season 1: "The Good Place" is actually an experiment by Michael made to torture Eleanor, Tahani, Jason, and Chidi. They're actually in The Bad Place, and they have their memories wiped before they can do anything about it.
  • Season 2: Michael decides to revive Eleanor, Tahani, Chidi, and Jason in order to bring them together on Earth and see if they can learn to become better people.
  • Season 3: As Eleanor is forced to pretend to be the architect of the new neighborhood, Shawn screws everyone over by inviting test subjects that the characters have personal connections to, leaving Chidi to erase his memories to avoid messing up the experiment.
• Gotham:
  • Season 1, "All Happy Families Are Alike": Maroni is killed, and Falcone decides to retire, allowing Penguin to become The Don. Barbara is revealed to have snapped after being kidnapped by the Ogre, but is defeated by Lee. Gordon is now more determined than ever to clean up Gotham, and Bruce and Alfred discover the Batcave.
  • Season 2, "Transference": Hugo Strange is revealed to be the one who called the hit on the Waynes, and is also arrested for creating his monsters. However, Gordon decides to leave the GCPD to find Lee. Bruce finds out that Strange actually received his orders from a secret group and he is now determined to find them. Fish Mooney comes back from the dead, and a clueless homeless woman accidentally releases Hugo Strange's monsters into the streets of Gotham, one of which looks like Bruce Wayne.
  • Season 3, "Heavy Dirty Soul": The Court of Owls is destroyed, and the GCPD manages to release the antivirus to the public. Although Gordon manages to cure himself and Lee of the virus, and Lee manages to forgive him for killing Mario, she leaves him again. After Barbara shoots Butch (who is revealed not only to be in a coma, but that his real name is Cyrus Gold), Tabitha returns the favor by killing her. Bruce overcomes the Shaman's brainwashing, and finds out that the Court of Owls was actually being controlled by Ra's al Ghul, who declares that he wants Bruce to become his heir before vanishing. Bruce decides to take up vigilantism, marking him one step closer to becoming the hero we all know and love.
  • Season 4, "No Man's Land": Jeremiah and Ra's al Ghul succeed in their plan to blow up Gotham's bridges, effectively cutting off the city from the rest of the world. Ra's is killed (again), but once again encourages Bruce to become Gotham's dark knight. Penguin helps Tabitha restore Butch back to normal, only to for Penguin to kill Butch in front of Tabitha as revenge for her killing his mother back in Season 2. As the majority of Gotham's civilians are being evacuated, Bruce decides to stay behind to help, and has Alfred leave the city to care for a now-paralyzed Selina. As the gangs and supervillains carve up their territories, Gordon, Bullock, Lucius, and some other members of the GCPD also stay behind to gradually take Gotham back. Gordon has Lucius set up a very familiar spotlight on the roof to act as a symbol of hope, and the episode ends with Bruce and Gordon looking at the light and the future of Gotham.
  • Season 5, "The Beginning": A Distant Finale jumping ahead ten years following the conclusion of the final Story Arc in the previous episode. Bruce returns to Gotham after spending all those years away, and takes up his destined mantle as the city's protector. This includes one last showdown with Jeremiah, who has now completely become The Joker.
• Halo (2022): Season 1 has "Transcendence". While Dr. Halsey escapes UNSC custody and goes on the run, John leads Silver Team in attacking the Covenant's holy planet in order to retrieve the Keystones before they can point the way to the Halo. During the resulting Big Badass Battle Sequence, Makee is killed, and Cortana has to take total control of John's body in order to help the Spartans escape, with it being unclear if this can be undone.
• While Heroes is more of a continuous story, "How To Stop an Exploding Man" probably qualifies as this.
• House season finales usually show something going wrong with the titular character. How he became a cripple (actually the episode before the series finale, much more memorable than the real one), when he got shot, losing all his team, being in an accident, possible brain damage and losing his best friend are some of these.
• House of the Dragon:
  • Season 1: Lucerys dies, and the war between the two factions (the Blacks rallying behind Rhaenyra Targaryen and the Greens rallying behind Aegon II and the Hightowers) competing for the Iron Throne begins.
• All season finales of How I Met Your Mother featured major shakeups to the status quo:
  • Season 1: Ted and Robin get together, while Marshall and Lily break up.
  • Season 2: Marshall and Lily get married, while Ted and Robin reveal that they have already broken up.
  • Season 3: Ted proposes to Stella, Barney realizes he is in love with Robin.
  • Season 4: Barney and Robin get together.
  • Season 5: Marshall and Lily decide to try for a baby, Robin breaks up with Don.
  • Season 6: Lily gets pregnant, Robin realizes she is still in love with Barney, it is revealed that Barney is going to get married in the near future.
  • Season 7: Marshall and Lily's baby, Marvin, is born and it is revealed that Barney marries Robin eventually
  • Seasons 8: Barney and Robin are about to get married, Marshall and Lily are preparing to move to Italy but Marshall accepts a Judge appointment in NYC, it's confirmed that Ted meets the mother while waiting for a train after the wedding and the audience is shown what she looks like for the first time
• Life On Mars came to a head in the first series, but it wasn't the conclusion Sam Tyler thought it would be. Similarly with his spiritual successor, Alex Drake, in Ashes to Ashes (2008).
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power:
  • Season 1: The Numenorians return home, The Stranger defeats the three priestesses of Sauron and learns from them he is one of the Istari, Galadriel learns Halbrand is Sauron, Celebrimbor creates the first rings of power and Sauron returns in Mordor.
• Lost has ended each of its five seasons with a two-hour (in season 1 and 5, this is a two-parter with three hours total) finale. Each has featured simultaneous action on multiple parts of the island, involving all regular characters (in contrast to weekly episodes, which often have multiple characters who do not appear.) Each finale has partially wrapped up that season's focus, setting up the focus of the following season. Each has also featured a "secret scene," referred to by a code word. Only the actors who appear in the scene know its contents:
  • Season 1's "Exodus": "The Bagel": Walt is kidnapped by the Others.
  • Season 2's "Live Together, Die Alone": "The Challah": the island is detected by an Arctic listening station and reported to Penny, the first non-flashback, off-island scene in the series.
  • Season 3's "Through the Looking Glass": "The Rattlesnake in the Mailbox": the flashback is actually a flashforward; Jack and Kate, and possibly others, have left the island.
  • Season 4's "There's No Place Like Home": "The Frozen Donkey Wheel": Locke is finally revealed to be the person inside the coffin.
  • Season 5's "The Incident": "The Fork in the Outlet": Ben stabs Jacob and Jacob's nemesis (in the form of Locke) kicks him into a fire.
  • The Grand Finale also had one, but not codenamed: Christian reveals to Jack that they're in Purgatory.
• Despite its slow pace, Mad Men usually ends its seasons with some major plot developments:
  • Season 1: Don's past is revealed, and Peggy is pregnant.
  • Season 2: Sterling-Cooper is bought by another company, Don returns from San Francisco, and now Betty is pregnant.
  • Season 3: The main cast leaves Sterling-Cooper to rot as they form their own company, and Don moves out after getting divorced from Betty.
  • Season 4: Betty and the family moves out, Joan gets promoted and reveals that now she is pregnant, and Don spontaneously proposes to Megan.
  • Season 5: Lane commits suicide, Peggy quits her job, the company gets a new office space, and Don might be cheating on Megan.
  • Season 6: Megan, Pete, and Ted all leave to California, while Don gets fired and shows Sally his old house.
  • Season 7A: Don keeps his job and Roger becomes president, but at the expense of the company merging with the one agency that they didn't want to merge with. Also, Megan breaks up with Don, and Bert Cooper dies.
  • Season 7B: The final episode has Joan start a new company, Betty awaiting her inevitable death, Don presumably returning to advertising, Roger marrying Marie, and Peggy ending up with Stan.
• The Mandalorian tends to end its seasons by tying together pretty much every loose plot thread from their respective seasons:
  • Season 1: Right when Mando starts to warm up to droids, IG-11 sacrifices himself to save him and the Child. Mando's name, backstory, and face are revealed. Moff Gideon has a darksaber. All of the Mandalorians who helped Mando escape are revealed to be either dead or missing. The Armorer tells Mando that he has to bring the Child home, and gives him a jetpack to assist in doing so. Greef and Cara stay behind as Mando leaves to find the Child's home.
  • Season 2: Seriously upping the ante, this finale has Mando defeating Gideon and accidentally winning Bo-Katan's lightsaber, Luke arriving to retrieve Grogu, Mando taking his helmet off in front of everyone, the reveal that Gideon already managed to extract Grogu's blood, and Boba Fett taking Jabba's throne in a setup for his own spinoff.
  • Season 3: The biggest finale yet sees Mando leading an alliance of Mandalorian tribes in a Final Battle against Gideon and his forces during which it's revealed that Gideon's masterplan was to splice Grogu's DNA into clones of himself to create an army of Super Soldiers. In the end, Gideon and his army are wiped out, and the Mandalorians reclaim Mandalore to begin rebuilding their civilization.
• Merlin (2008) aims for at least one iconic moment of Arthurian lore for each season finale.
  • Series 1: Nimueh dies at Merlin's hands.
  • Series 2: Merlin finds his father, masters his Dragonlord abilities, and defeats the dragon.
  • Series 3: Arthur forms the rudimentary Knights of the Round Table and Merlin retrieves Excalibur from the Lady in the Lake.
  • Series 4: Arthur pulls the sword from the stone and marries Guinevere.
  • Series 5: Arthur dies at Mordred's hands.
• Mr. Robot:
  • Season 1: The Five-Nine Hack is executed, crashing the global economy, and Tyrell goes missing. Mr Robot drops all pretense of normalcy and wages war on Elliot, who is regretful of the hack. The Stinger shows Whiterose and Price being in cahoots.
  • Season 2: Angela is corrupted into becoming Whiterose's pawn, Tyrell is not only revealed to be alive but also working with Mr. Robot, Darlene becomes an FBI mole against fsociety. Tyrell shoots Elliot under delusion of working with him as he tries to oppose Stage 2, as The Stinger shows Trenton and Mobley are on the other side of the country with Trenton discussing how to undo Five-Nine, as Leon drives up to them.
  • Season 3: Elliot and Dom learn about Santiago being The Mole, Irving kills Santiago for his multiple failures and assigns Dom as the new mole, Elliot convinces Whiterose of his use as he ships Whiterose's project to Congo, Price reveals himself to be Angela's father, Elliot and Mr. Robot reunite after the latter regrets his role in Stage 2, as he reveals that he has the decryption keys for Five-Nine. Finding this out, Elliot undoes Five-Nine and declares war against the Dark Army, as The Stinger shows Vera is back to cause further trouble for Elliot and his loved ones.
• NCIS:
  • Season 1: Ari, the terrorist from earier in the season, returns and kidnaps Kate.
  • Season 2: In the penultimate episode, Tony is infected with pneumonic plague and almost dies, and then Ari comes back yet again and kills Kate.
  • Season 3: Gibbs is injured in an explosion, causing amnesia, and the rest of the team is forced to work on an assignment without him. Gibbs ends up leaving the NCIS, although not for good
  • Season 4: Tony and his girlfriend are held hostage.
  • Season 5: The last episode of t0he season ends with Director Shepard dead. The first thing the new director does is split up Gibb's team, putting McGee in another place in the building, assigning Tony as Agent Afloat and sending Ziva home to Israel.
  • Season 6: After Tony kills Ziva's boyfriend, Ziva doesn't want to work with Tony anymore since she thinks he did it for the wrong reasons, so she asks Gibbs to choose between her and Tony. Gibbs chooses Tony and leaves Ziva in Israel.
  • Season 7: It turns out Gibbs is guilty of killing the Mexican drug dealer who killed his wife and daughter. The children of the drug dealer, who now run a drug cartel, would very much like to see him punished for it.
• Odd Squad:
  • The Season 1 finale "O is Not For Over", which is a 22-minute Multi-Part Episode, features Olive fulfilling her dream of running her own Odd Squad precinct, being promoted to the Management department by Oprah in place of Orville, Oprah's longtime, now-former opponent in the Jackies. However, her being promoted means that Otto is left behind with a new partner (one that turns out to be the next season's Big Bad, as a matter of fact), and the episode shows how he comes to terms with the change and how he manages to stop Odd Todd, the season's Big Bad and Olive's former partner, for good. By the end of the season, Otto is promoted to the Management department alongside Olive, and the two leave to run their own precinct as co-Directors.
  • The Season 2 finale is comprised of two episodes, "Who is Agent Otis?" and "Odds and Ends", both of which are 22-minute two-parters and are collectively referred to as "Odd Squad: Odds and Ends". It revolves around The Reveal that Otis was a former villain, and features the antagonistic Task Force agents known as the X's attempting to get him fired from Odd Squad under the false belief that he has been coordinating numerous villain break-ins and is still a villain in spite of his obvious Heel–Face Turn. It also has another reveal in the form of Ohlm having pretended to be stupid and giving a big long Motive Rant on his plans for revenge against Odd Squad for not making him the Big O upon graduation from the Odd Squad Academy. It's much darker than the Season 1 finale, but has a neat whammy in the end in the form of Oprah being promoted from the Management department to the Big Office department, where she will rule over all of Odd Squad as the new Big O.
  • Season 3 has a mid-season finale which is a three-parter, comprised of the episodes "16-and-a-Half Blocks", "Follow the Leader", and "End of the Road", with the latter being a 22-minute two-parter episode. This one has The Shadow, now known by her true name of Olizabeth, setting her Evil Plan of releasing oddness into every single Odd Squad precinct's Headquarters via Tube Travel into action with the help of her Villain Network, and the Mobile Unit attempting to stop her while Opal tries to grasp why her younger sister turned evil and attempts to get her to turn to the side of good. Olizabeth does eventually end up redeemed, and leaves Odd Squad to clean up the damage she caused in numerous countries around the world. Opal also ends up leaving the Mobile Unit to go with her sister and make amends with her, something that earns her a lot of shed tears and kind parting words from her teammates.
• Parks and Rec tends to ends its seasons with a slew of major life changes for a lot of the characters:
  • Season 1: Andy removes his cast and has his first rock show since the fall. Ann finally breaks up with Andy, who refuses to leave her house. Leslie realizes she doesn't have feelings for Mark, who promptly falls into The Pit.
  • Season 2: Mark leaves the series forever and gives Leslie his plans for the Pawnee Commons. Leslie keeps trying to do work despite the Parks and Rec department having closed and ends up becoming the new budget manager. Ann kisses Andy to make sure she's over him, resulting in April ditching Andy when he tells her what happened. As for Ann, she was just asked out by Chris. Tom learns Ron is dating Wendy, his ex-wife.
  • Season 3: Lil Sebastian dies. Tom leaves to found a media conglomerate with Jean-Ralphio, Ron learns his first ex-wife is looking for him, and Leslie learns that she has a good chance in running for city council as long as she isn't keeping any secrets (i.e. She has to break up with Ben).
  • Season 4: Leslie wins the election. Ben leaves to DC to get a job as campaign manager, Tom and Ann drunkenly decide to move in together, Andy thinks about becoming an actual police officer, and Chris gets tossed aside by Jennifer Barkley.
  • Season 5: Leslie learns a group of angry citizens wants her to be recalled. Tom learns that someone wants to buy his company, and Andy figures out that Diane is pregnant.
  • Season 6: The Unity Concert and Tom's restaurant are both massive successes. Leslie gets a National Parks job and manages to keep it in Pawnee, but a three-year time skip shows that she is incredibly stressed, albeit successful, at her job.
• Primeval series one ended with the dramatic "Episode 6", and series 2's "Episode 12"/"Episode 13" was even more dramatic.
• Each season finales in Prison Break not only left the audience on a cliffhanger, but effectively wrapped up the then-current premise of the show and introduced the new one: the season one finale has them escaping prison, the second season finale has the protagonist being thrown in a new prison, and so on, so forth.
• Queer as Folk (US):
  • Season 1: Justin is gay-bashed at his senior prom.
  • Season 2: Brian helps Michael and Justin to advertise their new comic book and organizes a huge party at Babylon to launch it for them. Justin leaves Brian for Ethan, whom he's been sleeping with.
  • Season 3: A good part of the season is devoted to police chief Stockwell's mayoral campain. In the final episode, it's finally the day of the election, and the episode ends with the entirety of Liberty Avenue dancing in the street, celebrating Stockwell's loss.
  • Season 4: The end of the Liberty Ride. Justin gets an offer to move to Los Angeles to work on the movie about Rage. Jenny Rebecca is born.
  • Season 5: Also the Grand Finale. Ben and Michael offers to adopt Hunter. Melanie and Lindsay move to Canada, taking Gus and baby J. R. with them. Justin and Brian are planning their wedding, but in the end decide not to get married after all, so Justin can move to New York to become an artist.
• The first and second series finales of The Sarah Jane Adventures featured returning villains set to give Sarah Jane a rematch.
• Schitt's Creek:
  • Season 1 sees The Roses under the impression they are getting out of town, with Alexis's Love Triangle with Mutt and Ted coming to a head and David inviting Stevie to come with him to New York. Stevie is hurt to discover David wants her to come as a friend, not a girlfriend, and David is distraught by this and the fact that the family did not sell the town. David drives out of town in Roland's truck in a cliffhanger.
  • Season 2 sees Johnny stick up for Roland and Jocelyn to some snooty old friends of his and Moira's, and then the Roses and Schitts crash a party at Mutt's Barn. After saying I love you, the Roses dance as a family to James Morrison's "Precious Love."
  • Season 3 has Johnny selling out the motel out for the first time. Ted plus Moira and the Jazzagals show up to Alexis's graduation and Moira sings to her thrilled daughter. Meanwhile, Patrick takes David out to a birthday dinner date and they share their First Kiss.
  • Season 4 has Jocelyn go into labor as Singles Week begins. Moira drives her to the hospital as Alexis gives a speech about letting go of Ted. Patrick declares his love for David. David talks to Ted about the fear of getting hurt. Afterward, David declares his love to Patrick, and Ted crashes the musical chairs game at Singles Week to declare his love for Alexis. Jocelyn gives birth to Roland Jr.
  • Season 5 sees opening night for Moira's directorial debut, a community theatre production of Cabaret with Stevie and Patrick in the lead roles. Ted and Alexis prepare for their trip to the Galapogos Islands and David plans to announce his engagement to Patrick. Backstage, Moira gives Stevie, who is happy for David but sad that her life is not progressing, a touching pep talk. Stevie sings "Maybe This Time" and gets a standing ovation. The season ends in a cliffhanger as Moira collapses at the opening night party after learning her movie comeback has been shelved.
• Scrubs usually ended each of its seasons with a big event or cliffhanger:
  • Season 1: Jordan spontaneously reveals JD's, Turk's, Elliot's, and Kelso's secrets. Now everyone knows that JD slept with Jordan, Turk knows that Dr Cox has a crush on Carla, Elliot is in love with JD, and Kelso's job opportunity for Cox was all a lie.
  • Season 2: Dr Cox learns that he is Jordan's father, and punches Kelso in the face.
  • Season 3: Turk and Carla get married, and JD breaks up with Elliot.
  • Season 4: JD moves out, Turk and Carla decide to have a kid, Elliot leaves Sacred Heart, and Jordan gets a new job.
  • Season 5: JD's new girlfriend, Kim, and Jordan are both pregnant.
  • Season 6: JD is about to spend the rest of his life with Kim and Elliot is about to get married to Keith, but they realize that they don't want to be with those people anymore, and the episode ends with them about to kiss.
• The Secret Life of the American Teenager is usually just 90% dialogue, but something significant/show-altering always happens in the season finale.
  • Season 1: Amy gives birth to John, and her father and sister move out of the family home.
  • Season 2: Leo and Betty get married, Cindy and Reuben get married, and Adrian finds out she's pregnant. They try to play the last one off as a maybe/maybe not Cliffhanger, but practically every viewer could tell.
  • Season 3: Adrian and Ben's daughter is stillborn and Ricky and Amy have sex for the first time. Well, technically, It's the second time, but the first time they'd done it while being in a committed relationship with each other
• For such an episodic show, Seinfeld ends a surprising amount of its seasons on big cliffhangers:
  • Season 3: Kramer leaves to California.
  • Season 4: Jerry and George successfully air their pilot, only for the show to be canceled.
  • Season 5: George makes a ton of money, while Elaine loses pretty much everything.
  • Season 6: Elaine gets a new job opportunity.
  • Season 7: Susan dies before she and George can marry.
  • Season 8: George injures his leg in an ending that hilariously parodies that of the previous season.
• Smallville also tends to use cliffhangers in its season finales (and in the later seasons, battles with the Big Bad of the season):
  • Season One: "Tempest" - A series of tornadoes hits Smallville, threatening Lana's life; reporter Roger Nixon threatens to expose Clark's secret; Clark's ship activates for the first time.
  • Season Two: "Exodus" - Clark destroys the ship in an attempt to free himself from Jor-El's will, but accidentally causes Martha to miscarry; guilt stricken, Clark starts using red kryptonite and runs away to Metropolis; Lex's plane goes down in the ocean.
  • Season Three: "Covenant" - Lionel is arrested and sent to prison; Pete and Lana both leave Smallville; Lex is poisoned; Chloe's house is bombed; Jonathan is placed in a coma; Clark is taken by Jor-El to prepare for his destiny.
  • Season Four: "Commencement" - A second meteor shower hits Smallville; a black Kryptonian ship arrives; Clark gathers the Stones of Power and is transported to the Arctic.
  • Season Five: "Vessel" - Brainiac unleashes a computer virus that shuts down the world's power; Chloe and Lionel are attacked by a mob; Zod possesses Lex and sends Clark to the Phantom Zone.
  • Season Six: "Phantom" - Clark reveals his powers to Lana, whose car is bombed; Lex is arrested for Lana's murder; the last Phantom copies Clark's body and becomes Bizarro.
  • Season Seven: "Arctic" - Brainiac sends Kara to the Phantom Zone; Chloe is arrested by the DDS; Clark and Lex confront each other in the Fortress, which is destroyed.
  • Season Eight: "Doomsday" - Clark confronts Doomsday; Lois is teleported to the future; Clark abandons his human emotions; Zod returns.
  • Season Nine: "Salvation" - Zod's army makes its move to conquer Earth; Zod and Clark engage in an epic final fight.
  • Season Ten: "Finale" - Clark confronts Darkseid and embraces his destiny.
• The Sopranos:
  • Season 1: After surviving an assassination attempt, Tony learns that Junior and Livia were behind it. Tony tells Melfi to move out until the whole thing settles over, and opens up about seeing a psychologist to everyone. Before Tony can do resolve the situation, however, Junior is arrested and Livia has a stroke. Also, Artie learns that Tony caused the fire at the restaurant and briefly holds him at gunpoint.
  • Season 2: After a series of fever dreams caused by food poisoning, Tony realizes that Pussy is a rat, so he kills him. Also, Meadow graduates high school, Tony gets briefly arrested after trying to screw over Livia again, and Chris learns that he's going to be a "made man".
  • Season 3: Jackie Jr is killed for his actions in the previous episode, causing Meadow to snap and run out on her family. Anthony Jr is expelled, but gets out of going to military school when he has a panic attack. Adriana gets an FBI friend. After a failed negotiation with Ralphie, Paulie tells Johnny Sack that he's getting fed up with Tony.
  • Season 4: Irina tells Carmela that Tony had an affair with both her and her cousin. This causes Carmela to kick Tony out of the house and tell him about her almost having an affair with Furio. They decide to separate. Other plot points are resolved such as Junior winning his trial, Chris getting out of rehab, and Carmine decides to negotiate with Tony.
  • Season 5: With Carmine's clan having harmed several people close to Tony, he's forced to kill Tony B to negotiate. After finishing the negotiations with Johnny Sack, the latter is suddenly arrested by the FBI.
• Stargate:
  • Stargate SG-1 often has a huge, dramatic season finale, ending on a cliffhanger. In fact, of the ten seasons only season 5 and 7 aren't cliffhangers if we don't count the series finale.
  • Stargate Atlantis had every single season finale being a cliffhanger:
    • Season 1, The Siege: Atlantis coming under siege from two Hives... until the Daedalus fights them off
    • Season 2, Allies: two Hives are on the way to Earth... until the Daedalus and the Orion stop them
    • Season 3, First Strike: Atlantis is stuck in space with critical power levels... until they steal a ZPM from the Asurans
    • Season 4, The Last Man: Sheppard travels 48000 years into the future... then the team recovers Teyla
    • Season 5, Enemy at the Gate: Atlantis fights off a Super-Hive and makes an emergency landing on Earth
• One of the most famous season finales is the third season finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which is also a Cliffhanger. Riker gives orders to fire on Picard's ship.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager had a stardate system that corresponded to the season, meaning that many of the important events in the season finales (and season premieres) tended to happen right around the same time of the year: Wolf 359, the Klingon Civil War, first contact with the Jem'Hadar, the Klingon invasion of Cardassia, the Dominion taking control of Deep Space Nine, the invasion of Species 8472, the first invasion of the Chin'toka system, the final battle of the Dominion War, and so forth. (Not to mention all of the other major personal events that tend to go on right around this time too!) Rule #1 of the Star Trek universe: celebrate New Year's Eve in a isolated, quiet part of the galaxy, well away from everyone!
• Supernatural always has huge season finales where all the events and issues in the season come to a head.
  • The first had Devil's Trap - Meg gets killed. We meet Bobby for the first time. All but one of the bullets from The Colt get used. John is possessed, pins them both to the wall and tortures Dean. And the Impala gets totaled, leaving all three men unconscious and bloody.
  • The second had All Hell Breaks Loose - Sam and the other psychic children get kidnapped by Azazel and then he dies in Dean's arms at the end of the first half. Dean, driven over the edge of emotional endurance, makes a Deal with the Devil to bring him back, doesn't actually want to tell him and has a year to live. Azazel pins Dean to a grave, Sam to a tree (sensing a pattern here?) and Sam learns that he was dead. With a little help from John, they manage to kill him but are told by Bobby that the war's just begun.
  • And the third had shout-outs all over the place, fanservice with the boys singing Bon Jovi, pure Nightmare Fuel with Lilith and a massive Downer Ending with Dean getting torn apart by hellhounds while Sam watches, Sam sobbing while he cradles Dean's dead body and Dean in hell screaming for Sam to help him.
  • Serial Escalation means nothing when it comes to season finales here. Season Four's finale reveals the entire series has been planned by the start by Azazel and Lucifer. The angels reveal one of the most foolish ideas in the series, Ruby is outed as The Mole and is killed, and Lilith is killed. The only problem is, that was part of the plan too. Lilith's death releases Lucifer, and the screen fades to white, as the Light Bringer comes...
  • And then, in Season Five's finale: Sam allows Lucifer to possess him, then regains control long enough to jump into Hell, taking Michael with him. Then Dean gives up hunting to live a normal life, and it's implied that the Prophet Chuck is actually God
  • And in the Season Six finale: Castiel absorbs all the souls in Purgatory, kills Raphael, and declares himself the new God, demanding the brothers and Bobby to kneel down before him.
  • Season Seven ends with: Sam and Dean teaming up with Broken!Castiel, Meg, and Crowley to take down the leader of the Leviathans, Dick. With Castiel's help, Dean manages to kill Dick, but in the process the two of them are sent to Purgatory, where they are trapped with the souls of every dead monster (and Leviathan). Meanwhile, back on Earth, Crowley betrays Sam, leaving him to take care of the remaining Leviathans, while kidnapping Meg and the newest Prophet of the Lord, Kevin, in what appears to be an attempt to become the new Big Bad.
  • Season Eight: The Winchesters try to purify Crowley as the last trial to seal the gates of Hell, but Dean talks Sam out of it when he realizes that doing so would kill Sam in the process; despite stopping, however, Sam is still left crippled with pain. Meanwhile, Naomi has a Heel Realization, only to be killed by Metatron, who reveals that the other "trials" he's had Castiel undertaking won't seal off the now corrupt Heaven, but are actually components of a spell to banish all angels, as petty revenge for being cast out himself. The last scene is of the angels falling to Earth as their wings burn off.
  • Season Nine: Gadreel sacrifices himself to give Castiel a chance to turn Metatron's followers on him, defeating and imprisoning him. However, he fails to do this before Metatron fatally stabs Dean. And then, Dean's exposure to the Mark of Cain and the First Blade brings him back... as a demon.
  • Season Ten: Dean makes a deal with Death to remove himself (and the Mark of Cain) from the world, in exchange for killing Sam, but at the last minute Dean kills Death instead. Meanwhile, Rowena casts the spell to remove the Mark, only to then run off with the Book of Damned after hexing Castiel to attack a defenseless Crowley. Oh, and removing the Mark? Breaks the seal on The Darkness, an entity God locked away at the dawn of time.
  • Season Eleven: As God/Chuck lays mortally wounded by Amara, Dean attempts to carry a soul bomb to kill her; however, he instead decides to talk her into a Heel Realization, causing her to make amends with her brother and heal him. Before the pair then move on, they resurrect Mary Winchester as Dean's reward. Meanwhile, an agent of the British branch of the Men of Letters arrives to arrest the Winchesters for all the damage they've inadvertently caused over the years, and apparently shoots Sam.
  • Season Twelve: As Lucifer's Nephilhim baby is on the verge of being born, the Winchesters, Castiel, and Crowley work together to seal him away in a post-apocalyptic Alternate Universe that the Nephilhim opened a portal to. Crowley performs a Heroic Sacrifice to power the spell, but before it's finished, Lucifer kills Castiel, and as he's being sealed, drags Mary through the portal with him. Meanwhile, the Nephilhim is born, already an adult.
  • Season Thirteen: Lucifer steals most, if not all, of Jack's grace and plans to destroy the universe. Left with no other way to stop him, Dean lets himself be possessed by Michael, and together, they manage to finally kill Lucifer for good. However, Michael then reneges on his promise to relinquish control, taking over Dean completely and leaving to carry out his own plans.
  • Season Fourteen: God/Chuck returns to help Team Free Will deal with a now totally unhinged and soulless Jack, who has become a threat to all reality, providing them with a means of killing Jack and telling them they have no choice but to use it. At the last minute, Dean refuses... at which point God reveals that he's an utter sociopath who views the Winchesters' struggles as his entertainment. When they refuse to keep playing along with his script, he kills Jack himself before bringing a permanent night and unleashing all the souls in Hell, including several past monsters of the week and a zombie horde that overruns the Winchesters and Castiel in the final moments of the episode.
  • Season Fifteen: The Grand Finale of the show, it's actually more of a subdued Dénouement Episode, as the previous episode was the one where the Winchesters defeated Chuck for good. The actual finale then merely ties up some remaining plot threads, and ends with the brothers reunited in Heaven.
• Each series of Torchwood ends on something game-changing, like a departure or even a death. In Torchwood: Miracle Day's "The Blood Line", the finale ended on the death of Esther and the resurrection and immortality of Rex.
• Van Helsing (2016):
  • Season 1, "It Begins": Vanessa is captured by Dmitri, who reveals her Secret Legacy to her via Evil Gloating. She escapes during a resistance attack on his citadel, and finds during her rampage that her daughter has become a vampire. In The Stinger, it's shown that the assumed dead Axel has also become a vampire.
  • Season 2, "Black Days": Scarlett and Abagail pursue Dmitri, Scab and Ivory to the hidden prison of the Elder. After an intense fight, Abagail is forced to unlock the Elder's cell at the cost of her own life. Magically bound to serve the Van Helsings, the Elder kills Dmitri, then travels to the Blak-Tek facility and revives Vanessa with a bite, causing her eyes to turn red.
  • Season 3, "Birth Ritual": Julius and Doc lead the defenders of the Denver safe zone in counter-attacking against the Daywalkers. Vanessa, Scarlett, Axel, and Sam all arrive at the Hall, where the Oracle reveals her intention to create a new Elder. Sam kills Mohammed to prove his worthiness, while Scarlett kills herself to snap Vanessa out of her bloodlust; Axel swears revenge on Vanessa for this. The Oracle turns Sam into the new Elder, and he fights Vanessa. During the fight, some of her blood spills on the body of her ancestor Lily, reviving her to join in the fight.
  • Season 4, "The Beholder": Julius and Axel go in search of Doc at the mysterious Sunshine Unit, but are exposed to something which nullifies their Healing Factors and seemingly starts killing them. Flashbacks reveal what happened when Jack and Violet went into the Dark Realm: Dracula mentally manipulated Jack until she was able to knock them both out and escape into the real world disguised as Jack. In the present, she kills and replaces the President, before freeing Bathory and leaving for the safe zone, with Violet and Ivory being gunned down when they try to stop her. Jack is shown trapped in a coffin in the Dark Realm.
  • Season 5, "Novissima Solis": Vanessa, Jack, and Violet storm the White House to confront Dracula in the Final Battle. Ultimately, the Dark One's essence is pulled out of her and absorbed by Vanessa, who goes into a coma to contain it. Afterwards, society starts to rebuild, and things come full circle as Axel takes watch over Vanessa's body while her spirit reunites with Dylan and Susan.
• The Walking Dead (2010):
  • Season 1, "TS-19": The survivors take shelter in the CDC, only to realize just how far spread and devastating the Zombie Apocalypse is. Then they have to flee before the building explodes.
  • Season 2, "Beside The Dying Fire": A herd of walkers overruns Hershel's farm, killing Jimmy and Patricia in the process. Andrea is separated from the group in the chaos, but is rescued by Michonne. Rick tells the rest of the group what he learned at the CDC (that everyone is infected already), and then announces that the group's not a democracy anymore.
  • Season 3, "Welcome To The Tombs": The Governor leaves Andrea to die, and leads a full assault on the prison. After this is driven back, he snaps and kills most of his people, and then drives off. Afterwards, the prison survivors accept the remainder of the Woodbury group into their new community.
  • Season 4, "A": Rick, Carl, Michonne, and Daryl face off with the Claimers. Afterwards, they arrive at Terminus and are reunited with the other survivors from the prison, only to be taken prisoner.
  • Season 5, "Conquer": Morgan saves Daryl and Aaron from a trap set by the Wolves, and they head back to Alexandria, where the rest of the group is trying to convince the community to let them stay. After Rick makes his case, a drunken Pete arrives and kills Reg, after which Deanna orders Rick to kill him.
  • Season 6, "Last Day on Earth": While Morgan keeps searching for Carol, the rest of the group tries to get Maggie to medical help in the Hilltop. However, they are terrorized by the Saviors, who drive them towards a confrontation with Negan, who kills one of the group as a warning as the screen goes to black.
  • Season 7, "The First Day of the Rest of Your Life": Alexandria tries to set a trap for the Saviors with help from the Scavengers, only for the latter to betray them. Rick and the others get a chance to fight back when Sasha, who was being held captive by Negan, commits suicide and turns, taking Negan by surprise. The Saviors regain the upper hand afterwards, only for Hilltop and the Kingdom to arrive and drive the Saviors back. Both sides then prepare for war.
  • Season 8, "Wrath": The Alexandria-Hilltop-Kingdom alliance, joined at the last minute by Oceanside, have their Final Battle with the Saviors. Thanks to Eugene's sabotage, the Saviors are overwhelmed. Rick beats Negan in a personal brawl, but lets him live as a prisoner. Afterwards, the communities work to rebuild.
  • Season 9, "The Storm": Following the Whisperers' massacre in the previous episode, there's a Time Skip, during which winter arrives and the Kingdom's failing infrastructure collapses completely. As a blizzard hits, they're forced to evacuate to Hilltop. The remaining community survivors plan to eventually fight back against the Whisperers. In the final scene, a stranger's voice starts speaking over the long-distance CB radio.
  • Season 10, "Here's Negan": Negan's Start of Darkness episode, explaining who he was before the Zombie Apocalypse, and how the loss of his wife started him on his path towards becoming the leader of the Saviors.^note Originally, the season was supposed to end with the Final Battle with the Whisperers, but production delays caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic changed the schedule.
  • Season 11, "Rest in Peace": As the Commonwealth is overwhelmed by a horde of variant walkers, the Coalition members ally with Mercer's rebel troopers to overthrow Governor Milton and destroy the horde. One year later, Ezekiel is now leading the Commonwealth, while Hilltop and Alexandria have been fully rebuilt. Maggie begins planning expeditions to explore the world, Daryl goes looking for Rick and Michonne, and Michonne is shown still looking for Rick, who is trying to escape his captors.
• The West Wing always rained down the shock and awe for their season finales:
  • Season 1: two gunmen open fire on the ropeline where the president is shaking hands with supporters, multiple hit the ground, and in the complete chaos, neither the viewers nor the characters are sure of "who's been hit".
  • Season 2: Bartlet decides after much debating that yes, he will run for a second term.
  • Season 3: Bartlet orders a successful assassination of a terrorism sponsor, Agent Donovan is fatally shot.
  • Season 4: Bartlet invokes the 25th Amendment in light of his daughter's kidnapping and gives power over to the Speaker of the House, Toby and Andy's children are born.
• White Collar Is pretty much the master of season finales (and mid-season finales for that matter)
  • Season 1 went into hiatus with suggesting that Peter was the bad man behind the curtain and ended with Neal's watching the love of his life getting blown up
  • Season 2 went into hiatus with Mozzie getting shot and ended with the reveal that Neal somehow acquired the treasure
  • Season 3 went into hiatus with Mozzie supposedly leaving New York with the treasure and Elizabeth being kidnapped by Keller and closed with Neal being forced to cut his anklet and leave New York
  • Season 4 did offer the weakest hiatus so far with The reveal that Sam was Neal's father and ended with Peter being arrested for a murder Neal's father is responsible for.
• Wynonna Earp:
  • Season 1, "I Walk The Line": As Doc and Dolls fight their way through the revenants to get the cure for the poison Bobo gave the town, Wynonna faces off with Bobo and Willa for the fate of everything inside the Ghost River Triangle.
  • Season 2, "I Hope You Dance": As Wynonna goes into labor, she and her allies have to deal with the Widows, their released husband, and a resurrected Bobo.
  • Season 3, "War Paint": Wynonna, allied with the remaining revenants, faces off with Bulshar to finally break the Earp Curse.
• Z Nation has a tendency to use Cliffhangers:
  • Season 1, "Doctor of the Dead". In an underground lab in Colorado, the Operation Bitemark team meet the Mad Scientist inadvertently responsible for the Zombie Apocalypse. In the shootout that ensues, Doc is shot, Cassandra becomes a zombie blend and goes berserk, and a mutating Murphy flees. However, he doesn't bother with the decontamination protocols, triggering a failsafe — nukes are launched at various locations around the world, including the lab and Camp Northern Lights.
  • Season 2, "All Good Things Must Come To An End". The team hand Murphy over to the CDC lab in California, and then has a final showdown with La Reina and the Zeroes. Meanwhile, Murphy discovers the "CDC lab" on the submarine is actually working for an enclave of the super-rich called Zona, who wish to keep the zombie cure for themselves. Murphy snaps from this, turns Dr. Merch and several crew members into mind controlled blends and flees, scuttling the sub with 10K seemingly still onboard. The others watch on helplessly, and are suddenly surrounded by an Asian paramilitary group.
  • Season 3, "Everybody Dies In The End". Doc and Addie reunite with the rest of the team to rescue Lucy from the Man before he can hand her over to Zona. In the ensuing fight, Murphy is shot (the bullet passing through him into Warren), Addie tackles the Man off of a cliff, and Lucy and 5K jump after them. Then a Zona ship shows up and fires on the rest of the group with a Wave-Motion Gun.
  • Season 4, "The Black Rainbow". The team intercepts Zona's attempt to unleash Black Rainbow and replace it with a cure for the zombie virus, only to find that they've been duped into releasing the real Black Rainbow. Murphy, Doc, 10K and Sarge are left to watch as it spreads toward them, while Warren is trapped in the crashing delivery drone.
  • Season 5, "The End of Everything". The team launch a plan to expose how Estes and Pandora had framed the Talkers for the attacks on the survivor colonies in order to seize power. After a Final Battle that sees Pandora killed and Estes arrested, and Warren discovering she's a Talker, the colonies vote to accept the proposed constitution and unite as Newmerica. Meanwhile, Murphy eats the deceased Sun Mei's brain and appears to have an epiphany about the cure for the zombie plague.

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