Uncertain Doom / Live-Action TV

• 24 is infamous for leaving the fate of some of its characters unanswered.
  • In Season 2, Lynn Kresge fell down a flight of stairs, and was last seen being wheeled away in an ambulance after suffering significant injury.
  • In Season 4, Behrooz Araz is last seen being taken away by terrorists during a hostage swap.^note A Deleted Scene would have shown Curtis rescuing him just before he's executed, then bringing him back to CTU, where he learns of his mother's death. This led to anyone who suffered a similarly ambiguous fate to be said to be "Behroozed".
  • Also in the fourth season, John Keeler barely survived a plane crash and was last seen in the hospital. His fate was left open-ended, supposedly because the production team didn't want to show the death of a sitting President in a television series.
  • Season 5 has Evelyn Martin, the aide of First Lady Martha Logan, along with her daughter Amy Martin. The last time the two are seen, Evelyn is recovering from a leg injury in a hotel room when Christopher Henderson bursts in, kills the paramedics treating her, and demands to know where Jack Bauer and Wayne Palmer are. Their fate after this is unconfirmed. While Henderson is ruthless enough to have likely killed them, there is a possibility that they were spared after giving up the information.
  • Season 6 has long-time character (and sitting President) Wayne Palmer collapsing due to injuries sustained after a bomb blast, with his prognosis left up in the air. His fate was never addressed, though there is some debate whether a prop newspaper seen in the Redemption TV movie (which mentions that the character is dead) is canon or not.
• Andor:
  • During the Aldhani heist, Cinta is left holding the commandant's family hostage, with orders to kill the hostages if he attempts to interfere with the heist in any way. While he doesn't, the events that follow and a lack of communication with the rest of the team might lead Cinta to think that he did. Their fate is never seen or discussed, but some fans believe that when Cinta makes her escape from the garrison later she looks sad and regretful, leading to speculation that she went through with killing the hostages.
  • The only way out of the prison on Narkina 5 is to jump into the ocean and swim to the shore. Kino can't swim, and Cassian is knocked into the water before he can figure out a way to help Kino. This means that Kino's likeliest fate is that he either jumped into the sea and drowned or was recaptured (unless he decided to go down fighting rather than be recaptured), and executed for his role in the breakout, but regardless we don't see what became of him. This also applies to most of the prisoners who are shown swimming away from the facility, because while at least hundreds out of the thousands of prisoners made it to the water, at the end of the episode only Cassian and Melshi are shown on the shore together. Other prisoners might have gone in another direction or made it ashore somewhere else, but none of that is shown to the audience. In the following episode Melshi openly wonders if they were the only ones who survived the escape, and the uncertainty motivates him to try to do anything he can to spread news of the prison's conditions to the galaxy.
• Eve from Angel is last seen in the final episode being told by Angel to run as the Wolfram & Hart building collapses. She just asks "Run where?" and she is never seen again.
• Better Call Saul: A non-fatal variant. In the second-last episode of the series, Kim confesses the truth about Howard's death to his widow, Cheryl. Although it's very unlikely she can be prosecuted for covering up his murder, since there is no physical evidence, no body, and no other living witnesses to the crime they could contact, Cheryl could file a civil suit, taking everything Kim has and will ever make in perpetuity, potentially leaving her homeless and penniless, a fate Kim feels like she deserves. Whether or not Cheryl actually does so is left ambiguous, the last episode only goes as far to say that she's "out lawyer shopping", although the fact Kim dragged Howard's name through the mud before his death gives her ample reason go ahead with the lawsuit.
• Black Mirror:
  • From the episode "Hated in the Nation" It's unclear if Scholes' plan killed everyone targeted, given that, if warned, some people may have been able to hide their faces or try and get somewhere the bees wouldn't pursue them. This is especially true of Nick, who, from working on the case, may have had the knowledge and context to do both.
    • Also applies to Scholes himself, who is last seen being followed by Coulson, who sends Parkes a message reading "Got him" — however it's unclear if she intends to kill him or bring him in, although the former is more likely.
  • Matt in "White Christmas" may or may not have been killed by that guy at the end who looked like he was about to attack him.
• Breaking Bad:
  • In "Green Light", Walt hears over the car radio that Donald Margolis has been rushed to the hospital after attempting to commit suicide (which isn't too surprising, considering his only daughter died of an overdose and he accidentally caused the deaths of 167 people in a Mid Air Collision). Walt gets uncomfortable (since Donald's daughter dying was partly his fault) and quickly switches it off, so we never find out his ultimate fate.
  • In "I.F.T.", the Cousins are shown menacingly approaching an elderly woman getting into her wheelchair van. It then cuts to them using the van, with its plates removed, to transport their wheelchair-bound uncle. The fate of the woman is never mentioned, but considering previous and later episodes show the Cousins mowing down innocent civilians without a second thought, it doesn't look good (an unused version of the scene in the episode's script more heavily implies that they killed her).
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • The last we see of Eddie (owner of the local Bad Guy Bar), was when he was found beaten and bleeding after being attacked by the Sisterhood of Zhe in "The Zeppo". He is not in season 5 and its unclear if he died or not.
  • In the finale, Amanda falls to the ground a moment after a snapping sound is heard in the background, but it isn't clear whether that sound is her neck snapping or if she's only been momentarily knocked out (some blood on her face could indicate the latter).
  • When the Watchers Council headquarters is blown up, it is a bit ambiguous if this takes place right after Travers' Rousing Speech or a little later, when some of his people might have had time to leave the building.
• The Defenders (2017): The Collapse of Midland Circle leads to a lot of this due to it supposedly being enough to kill everyone who was there, yet Matt Murdock turning up alive later. There are some characters with a higher likelihood of survival than others however.
  • Elektra Natchios is the most likely survivor. She was in the arms of Matt Murdock, the only confirmed survivor, while it happened. She also had the supernatural powers of the Black Sky, which made her ability to physically withstand it much greater than Matt’s. Finally, Matt was brought to a healer by someone unspecified, which almost certainly would have to have been Elektra.
  • Madame Gao is the second-most-likely survivor. She had the supernatural powers that came with being a Finger of the Hand, and was unscathed by the battle beforehand. Not to mention she was there to seek out a death-defying healing substance in the first place.
  • Murakami is the least likely to have survived, as he was already heavily injured to the point of being unable to move and bleeding out of his mouth while it happened. Still, he had the same powers as Madame Gao and was trying to get the same healing substance that she was, so his survival isn’t impossible.
• Doctor Who: "Midnight" uses this to add just a bit more Nightmare Fuel to the ending, because while Sky, the woman possessed by the entity, was thrown out into the killing rays of Midnight's sun, the entity itself could clearly already survive on the surface somehow, so it's unclear if this actually destroyed it. Even the Doctor isn't sure, and taking no chances, he convinces the authorities to seal the entire planet off to prevent anything like this from happening again.
• Game of Thrones universe:
  • Game of Thrones:
    • Syrio Forel. The last we see of him is when he is about to fight Ser Meryn Trant with a broken practice sword. We hear his battle cry and the sounds of a fight before the scene cuts away. Trant appears later, unscathed, but Syrio's fate is never addressed.
    • Daisy, the prostitute that Joffrey forces Ros to torture. It's never stated if she survived the ordeal or not as she's never seen again after the incident.
    • This one is only in the Dance of the Dragons lore found on the Blu-Ray disc. Unlike his book counterpart, Prince Aegon Targaryen (who later became King Aegon III) disappeared during the Dance of the Dragons as his ship fled to the Free Cities. His younger brother Viserys stayed behind and became King Viserys II.
  • House of the Dragon: The ending of "The Green Council" in Season 1 has Larys Strong send his agents to burn down the brothel run by Mysaria. While a pair of hands can be seen banging against the window as the flames engulf it, it's unclear whether it's her or not. It's possible she escaped or wasn't present, but only time will tell.
• Harper's Island: Lucy is last seen still alive, thrashing around while on fire, but isn't engulfed to the point where she couldn't have put out the flames by stopping, dropping and rolling. Even if she did survive the initial fire though, she would have spent days exposed, suffering from her burns, days in which no one found her, making her survival unlikely.
• Homicide: Life on the Street: Det. Douglas Jones is last seen being taken to the hospital in an ambulance after being shot by his wife, with a paramedic saying he was in critical condition. It's left ambiguous if he died or not; he never appears again, but Pembleton doesn't mention him as one of the dead members of the unit in the Grand Finale.
• Celeborn's fate in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power in quite the mystery. Galadriel mentions that he has been missing for centuries, since the last war against Morgoth. Dead or alive, nobody knows where are his whereabouts.
• Monarch: Legacy of Monsters: The Mother Longlegs and the Mantleclaw who fight each-other in the very first scene of the series. They're last seen toppling off a ledge into the seas around Skull Island while grappling each-other, which saves Bill Randa's bacon who was caught in the crossfire, but it's unknown if they died in a Mutual Kill via drowning or mauling each-other underwater, or if one or both of them survived and swam ashore. Note that the Mantleclaw is basically a giant rock crab, and it lives on Skull Island's coastline, making its survival in the sea likely if the Mother Longlegs didn't maul it to death.
• Murdoch Mysteries: In "The Ghost of Queen's Park," Lorraine probably won't face the noose (or any charges) because the deaths she caused were unforeseeable. But due to her exposure to radium, she's suffering from some Ominous Hair Loss, although it's unclear just how sick she is.
• Our Flag Means Death: Though we never see a body, Lucius is thrown overboard in the season finale, and he isn't accounted for before the credits roll.
• Person of Interest:
  • It's not certain if Reese killed Andrew Benton, Peter Arndt or the bounty hunter responsible for a man he was protecting in Season 2 dying. In each case, Reese is last seen confronting the man, alone, with some frightening and threatening dialogue, and Peter at least is said to have disappeared afterwards. However one episode implies that Reese may have sent at least one of them to be locked in up in a Mexican prison while Impersonating an Officer.
  • Mayor Thompson from "M.I.A" decides to stay in town to "quit her job" after Samaritan's plans are foiled again.
• Princess Agents: The series ends with Chu Qiao and Yuwen Yue falling through the ice and sinking in a frozen lake. Yuwen Yue pushes Chu Qiao away and sinks deeper while Chu Qiao floats closer to the surface. It's possible both of them survive, but there's no official confirmation either way.
• Red Dwarf: With Word of God confirming that the Rimmer seen from "Back To Earth" onwards is the one who left to become Ace in Series VII, this makes the nanobot-created Rimmer (introduced in Series VIII) an example of this, since he's last seen trapped on a self-destructing Red Dwarf and hallucinating Death itself. This also extends to the nanobot-created crew introduced that series as well, since they're last seen fleeing the ship in Blue Midgets and Starbugs.
• Rome. Pompey is murdered in front of his family. Whether or not they were also killed is never made clear.
• The last time Doug Murphy is seen in Scrubs is being locked in a morgue drawer. After this, he disappears and no mention is made of it.
• Seven Star Fighting God Guyferd: Masato is last seen holding up a pillar so Gou can pass through, and Gou is last seen destroying the Gaia Net. We don't see what happens to the explosion, and Gou's friends choose to cling to the possibility he survived, but the last shot in the series is of Gou and Masato walking towards the sun and looking back.
• Someday or One Day: The real Wang Quan Sheng attempts suicide, but thanks to Li Zi Wei's consciousness entering his physical form, his body survives but no mention is made of his soul remaining trapped in the body unlike the explicit scenes of Chen Yun Ru stuck inside her own body while Huang Yu Xuan is controlling her and Xie Zhong Ru's voice interrupting Xie Zhi Qi. In the final episode when Zhi Qi's wrongdoing is undone, preventing Yun Ru and Zi Wei's deaths, no mention is made of what happened to Quan Sheng.
• Infamously, the final scene of The Sopranos ended with a mysterious Smash to Black. Many fans believe this, along with various other contextual clues, was meant to imply Tony's death in a hit, but it's unclear from the canon material, and debate among the fans has raged on over the years.
• The Sopranos: Infamously, the series ended on a very abrupt Smash to Black as Tony looked up at someone walking into the diner, which many viewers have interpreted as Tony being suddenly shot dead by a hitman. Word of God has variously hinted that this probably happened (including referring to it as a "death scene" in a 2019 interview, before subsequently backtracking), but refuses to give a definitive answer.
• Squid Game: Most of the VIPs are a Karma Houdini who leave the island. The only one who seems to have gotten comeuppance is VIP Number 4 who has tried to molest one of the workers who unfortunately for him turned to be a cop in disguise and far stronger than him, and crushed his genitals and put him at gunpoint and knocked him out. Later, when another worker found the VIP unconscious and unmasked, he said he was fine. However, the VIP 4 never returns afterwards, even long after he should theoretically regain consciousness. It seems likely that Deathly Unmasking rule applies to VIPs as much as it does to the guards, so he was likely executed. And also, it's slightly possible that the cop disguised as a guard actually killed the VIP and the guard said he was "fine" to avoid creating panic for other VIPs.
• Stargate SG-1: Robert Kinsey, long-time political enemy of the Stargate Program, was last seen having become host to a Goa'uld on a ship that was subsequently destroyed by the Prometheus. It was set up in a manner that made it possible Kinsey was able to teleport to safety before the destruction, but it was never explicitly confirmed either way.
• Stargate Atlantis; Lt Ford, who went rogue during Season 2 and was last seen on an exploding Wraith ship. He was never explicitly confirmed to be dead, and Shepherd even lampshades that such scenarios are survivable (with many characters on the show having survived similar incidents multiple times), but he never appeared in the series again.
  • Ultimately resolved in the spin-off novels, where he was revealed to have been rescued by the Travellers, taken through withdrawal from the enzyme, and become a key threat to the Wraith; a new treaty between Atlantis and the Wraith allows Sheppard to take Ford back to Earth on condition that he never return to Pegasus.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation: Geordi's mother. She was last seen on a ship called the Hera, which disappeared, but there were no bodies or debris found. In "Interface", in which she disappears, Geordi thinks he's seen her, but it turns out to be an alien, so he gives up. While the books explain what happened to her, they're non-canon, so it's still a mystery.
• Star Trek: Discovery: Tarka has a plan to use the explosion of Book's ship (which he's aboard) to power a device that will beam him not just to safety but to the alternate universe he has been trying to get to all season, to be with his ambiguously platonic life partner Oros. It's deliberately left ambiguous whether or not he succeeds (possibly as a way for the show to skirt Bury Your Gays yet again).
• In Supernatural, Archangel Gabriel is believed to be killed by Lucifer in "Hammer of the Gods" (S05, Ep19), but seemingly returns to aid Castiel in "Meta Fiction" (S09, Ep18). However, Castiel realizes that Gabriel is only an illusion. Castiel asks this Gabriel if he is really dead, but he only receives an eyebrow raise with a smirk as an answer. A definitive answer is finally provided in Season 11, when his death is confirmed by God.
  • Even the literal word of God is shown to be wrong in Season 13 when Gabriel is shown to be alive and well, having faked his death in Season 5. Then a few episodes later, he's killed AGAIN. It seems to be the real deal this time, but given that he's already cheated death at least once, who knows if he's still out there?
• True Detective: In Season 1, Hart and Cohle watch a video of the evil cult doing something to a 10-year-old girl named Marie Fontenot. It's never directly stated whether the tape shows Marie being raped, killed, tortured, or some combination of the three, but whatever was on the tape horrifies both detectives.
• White Lotus Quentin's friend who jumps off the boat could be an example of this. It's unclear how far he was from the coast. If he was a decent swimmer, he might have been able to make it to the beach or get the attention of a nearby boat.
• The end of Season 2 of X Company finds Mirri is acting as a sniper, picking off German soldiers from a nearby tower. The last shot of her has her facing down the barrel of a rifle, looking rather sheepish. However, since Mirri is pretty much an all around badass Action Girl, it's not unreasonable to wonder if she got away.