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• The second season finale of Avatar The Last Airbender. Ba Sing Se is taken over, and Aang is killed in the wake of Azula's plan. As intense as that was, the surprise that made it a real wham was Zuko's Face Heel Turn.
  • Also, when Azula's "friends" Ty Lee and Mai betray Azula at the Boiling Rock. Azula, who has used fear to control them without any problems, is suddenly backstabbed by them.
  • "Lake Laogai" also counts. Not only does Jet die, but Appa also came back.
  • "The Day of Black Sun", arguably. Especially the end of the first part where Aang discovers that Ozai has dropped off the radar. Then there's the second part where Zuko finalizes his Heel Face Turn, though that part did take the time to build up a couple of episodes prior.
• Akin to the original series, The Legend of Korra is no slouch when it comes to Whams. "And The Winner Is" features an Equalist terrorist attack on the pro-bending arena and Amon de-bending the Wolfbats, beginning the war between Amon's followers and benders. "The Aftermath" goes even further by revealing that Mr. Sato (Mako and Bolin's sponsor) supplied the Equalists, police chief Lin Beifong resigning to deal with the Equalists outside the law, Asami betraying her father to ally with Korra, and the pro-bending arena being closed.
  • And now we have "When Extremes Meet" as the third Wham Episode in a row. First, Mako, Bolin and Asami all get arrested by Tarrlok. THEN Korra takes on Tarrlok, who reveals he can BLOODBEND, and kidnaps Korra Finally, We see a flashback with the OLD gaang in a courtroom, being bloodbended by a mysterious man known as Yakone, who looks suspiciously similar to Tarrlok. Oh, and it all ends on a Cliff Hanger, where Korra is kidnapped by Tarrlok, who drives her away in the back of a satomobile, telling her she'll never see Republic City again.
  • And if there weren't enough Wham Episodes already, we now also have "Turning the Tides" In a nutshell, Amon attacks the entire city, capturing all of the government except for Tenzin. Lin, Jinora, Ikki, Meelo, and the other White Lotus members fight to protect Air Temple Island, and by the end of the episode, Tenzin and his family as well as Korra and Team Avatar must go into hiding... oh, and Lin makes a Heroic Sacrifice to protect Tenzin's family, losing her bending to Amon. And to finally top it all off, we have a certain General Iroh II leading the United Forces to Republic City to help fight Amon.
  • And finally, the Season Finale (Which also serves as the Series Faux Nale (Warning: Massive Spoilers ahead!)).
    • Part 1: Skeletons in the Closet. The United Forces fleet is ambushed and fails miserably, General Iroh is rescued from certain death by Korra, Tarrlok reveals Amon is his brother Noatak, he reveals Yakone taught Noatak/Amon to bloodbend, and bloodbending is how Amon takes bending away. In a way, Yakone shaped Amon into the man he is, and Tarrlok reveals that he also ended up unwittingly serving the same role Yakone wanted him to.
    • Part 2: Endgame. Amon reveals he captured Tenzin, Pema, and the children, and is about to bloodbend their bending away. Korra and Mako attempt to expose Amon, who calmly shakes off these accusations and takes off his mask, revealing a firebending scar. The crowd is now against Korra. Korra and Mako attack Amon and manage to chase him off. Tenzin escapes while Amon and Mako go to hide. Amon walks right by Korra, then bloodbends her and Mako out into the open. Amon then takes Korra's bending away. He is about to take Mako's away when the Lieutenant attacks him, but he is effortlessly beaten. He is about to take Mako's bending away, but Mako hits him with lightning. He gets Korra out into the hallway, but is stopped. As Amon is about to take Mako's bending away once again, Korra attempts to stop him with bending, but it fails, and suddenly, she airbends. Due to them being in a narrow corridor, Amon can't do much against it, and he gets tossed out of a window. In the water, the scar washes off, revealing makeup. In a rage, he bends a cyclone of water into the air, exposing himself to the people. He then runs for it, escaping from Mako's firebending. He frees Tarrlok and they flee on motorboat. Tarrlok, however, grabs an Equalist glove, opens the fuel tank, and ignites it. Boat explodes, presumably killing both of them. ON A KIDS SHOW. Return to the South Pole, where Korra can't get her bending back. She runs off, following Mako telling her he loves her. She pouts on a cliff, and Tenzin appears behind her, whom she tells to leave. Tenzin is actually Aang, who restores Korra's bending, and gives her the power to energybend. She returns, confesses to Mako, then sometime later, she restores Lin's bending, with Tenzin calling her "Avatar Korra" in congratulations.
  • So to sum it up, six Wham Episodes total, out of 12 in the first season alone. Mike and Bryan really are huge fans of this trope, apparently.
• These were the bread and butter of Transformers: Beast Wars, especially in the second and, to a lesser extent, third seasons.
• Anther good example was The Transformers: The Movie, which killed off a lot of characters, in particular Optimus Prime. Sure, it was to sell toys, but that's still pretty gutsy for an 80s cartoon.
• The finale of Transformers Animated's second season definitely counts, seeing as it confirmed two long-running fan theories, namely that the Autobots' ship was really a dormant Omega Supreme, and that Sari is at least part robot.
  • Following up on this, the three part opening movie for the third season was pretty much a wham episode, not giving us much time to recover from the previous episode as it promptly addressed almost every single problem of the finale, and managed to raise even more questions. It was also significantly darker than most of the series had been so far, namely with a more in-depth look at the unethical methods of the High Command and Blurr being murdered by being crushed into a cube onscreen.
  • After this, the whole series' Wham quotient increases dramatically. The series became noticeably Darker and Edgier and started featuring onscreen character deaths rather than the ambiguous approach used in earlier seasons, along with some rather disturbing material (see: Wasp).
  • Predacons Rising. "Wasp forgive Bumble-bot... But Waspinator NEVER FORGIVE!"
  • The episode where Sari learns that she has no birth certificate, social security number, or anything else to prove that she legally exists.
• Let us not forget Transformers Cybertron's 25th episode. Starscream has over the previous two episodes successfully betrayed Megatron, trapping him, and released an army of ancient Decepticons, forcing the Autobots to retreat to Velocitron to draw him and his forces away from Earth. As they make the retreat, Starscream comes with most of his troops to seize the Omega Lock and Cyber Planet Keys. Optimus blows away all the generics. In desperation Starscream attacks the Autobot army single-handed, until only Optimus and Leobreaker are left. They use Savage Claw Mode and knock out the badly battered Starscream, but he recovers mid-fall and forces Optimus to abandon retrieval of the Lock and Keys by firing a missile at the Autobots' human allies. While Optimus breaks off to intercept it, Starscream grabs the Lock and Keys and escapes. Damn.
  • But Cybertron wasn't done yet, oh no. The episode right after had Hot Shot, Scattershot, and Red Alert brought to the brink of death (fortunately, they upgraded in the following episode, but still.) And then there was episode 47, "Guardian", featuring Vector Prime's heart-breaking Heroic Sacrifice. Arguably episode 46, "Showdown", as well.
• While we're on the subject of the Unicron Trilogy, Transformers Armada's Cramp certainly qualifies. After half a show's worth of playing in the Heel Face Revolving Door Starscream goes out to battle with Megatron and lets himself be killed, just to make Megatron form an alliance with the Autobots.
• In Transformers Prime, "Partners" has Starscream defecting and becoming neutral, but the true Wham Episode in the series is in "One Shall Rise - Part 1": Earth was formed around Unicron.
  • "One Shall Rise - Part 3": Unicron is defeated, but Optimus loses his memories of the Autobot-Decepticon war, and leaves with Megatron.
  • "Crossfire": Airachnid kills Breakdown (whose remains are recovered by MECH), then goes rogue... along with an army of Insecticons.
  • "Triangulation" ends with Starscream keeping the Apex Armor.
  • "Toxicity": Bulkhead is almost killed and likely permanently damaged.
  • "Hard Knocks": The last Iacon relic is... Smokescreen.
  • "Inside Job": Starscream steals the Omega Keys, and returns to Megatron, using them as a "peace offering".
  • "Darkest Hour": Optimus destroys the Omega Lock — and any viable chance of restoring Cybertron — in order to prevent Megatron from cyberforming Earth. However, Megatron retaliates by breaking the masquerade, declaring an all out of invasion of Earth, and launching an all out attack on the Autobase. In the ensuing chaos, Wheeljack is shot down by Starscream while the Autobots and humans are scattered as they evacuate the base, which is then blown up by the Nemesis... with Optimus still in it.
• The second season finale in ReBoot, which kicked off its first real Story Arc with a bang. The finale was set around an invasion by the web and an Enemy Mine situation. But all within the last few moments it ended up with Bob, who is in every regard the most important person on the show, being betrayed by Megabyte and exiled to the web, leaving the Bratty Half-Pint as the designated hero to stop Megabyte. Compounded by the agony of the third season being stuck for so long in Development Hell.
  • Used again early in season 3. Remember that new guy keeping Mainframe safe? Well we can kiss him goodbye too.
  • Sacrifice and a lot of the My Two Bobs arc are pretty whammy themselves.
• Frisky Dingo does these quite a lot. The second season plotline of Xander and Killface running for President took a sudden turn when someone finally pointed out that, since Xander's only 32 and Killface isn't a U.S. citizen, neither of them can actually get elected President. In a rage, Killface cripples Xander, kills his cute animal mascot, and vows to finally destroy the world like he said he would in Season 1.
• Justice League episode "A Better World" starts off looking like a Batman Cold Open with Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman fighting their way past Mooks to stop a Big Bad. It's Lex Luthor. No surprise there. But Lex taunts Superman about Supe's complicity in Lex's crimes because Supe always holds the Hero Ball like he's got crazy glue on his palms. Then come the 'whams': (1) Superman murders Lex Luthor; (2) he's glad he did it; (3) the camera pans out the window to reveal that Superman just killed the President of the United States; (4) then the JLA takes over the entire planet! Thank heaven it was an alternate reality. Until they figured out how to come to our world and do the exact same thing.
  • The 3-part episode ending season 2, "Starcrossed", turns out to be a Wham Episode too. Hawkgirl is The Mole for the Thanagarian Empire, and always has been. She helps them take over the planet. She turns against her own people when she realizes they will destroy her adopted home and helps the Justice League prevail. But the JL satellite is destroyed in the process, and Hawkgirl quits the League before finding out if she had been expelled from the team.
    • In the following season, she finds out Superman gave the deciding vote to keep Hawkgirl in the League, noting he believes in second chances.
  • Let's not forget the Justice League Unlimited episodes that dealt with the Cadmus Arc. About half of seasons one and two to be exact.
    • Culminating in the episode "Question Authority" which had six Wham moments topping each other! Luthor finding out his cancer had gone into remission, The Question finding out the secret of the Justice Lords, The Question deciding to avert fate by killing Luthor so that Superman couldn't, Luthor issuing a Curb-Stomp Battle on the Question and revealing his Presidential campaign was a lie, Superman finding out his old ally Professor Hamilton had volunteered for Cadmus, and Captain Atom showing up at the last moment revealing he has orders to stop Superman from rescuing the Question.
    • The arc had one more Wham to go; in the last few moments of "Panic In The Sky", we discover that the true Man Behind the Man isn't Luthor, but actually Brainiac, who was fused into Luthor's body.
• Dragon Booster's plot changed significantly when Armaggedon showed up in talking amulet form, promising power for Moordryd, the antagonist, which led to him becoming the Shadow Booster and ultimately rebelling against his father. This had far more impact than Mortis revealing that he is Connor, Artha and Lance's dad, and not as dead as they thought. The lack of impact for the latter event was because the fandom had assumed that for months.
• The first season finale of Teen Titans puts the every previous Story Arc episode in a whole new context when Slade reveals that all the villainous plans he set up were just tests of Robin's skill, who he wants to serve as his new apprentice. And is willing to kill all of Robin's friends to make it happen.
  • "Birthmark" from Season Four has Slade coming back from dead, and revealing that Raven is going to end the world.
  • Then there's the fourth season finale, where Raven voluntarily brings the world to an end. For a while. Seeing that Slade is a charred skeleton beneath his mask was just gravy.
• The Danny Phantom Season Two finale, "Kindred Spirits". For two seasons Vlad has mustered all his energy and strength to make Danny his son. Then we find out in "KS" that he had prepared a back-up plan to complete a perfect clone of him as a substitute (incidentally, that's also why Vlad gave Valerie her first ghost hunting suit) on the off-shot that the real Danny never will come to his side. Shit happens and one Villainous Breakdown later, Vlad changes his mind about the boy; that little bastard is DEAD MEAT.
  • The season one episode "Public Enemies" also falls under this, as it rather drastically changed the status quo. Before, ghosts were not widely recognized or even known, and so Danny Phantom flew (no pun intended) under the radar. All of a sudden, ghosts become a recognized enemy across the entire city that need to be fought against, and not only that, but Danny Phantom becomes the number one enemy after being framed for kidnapping the mayor! And all orchestrated spectacularly by Walker, whose bastardry will never again be understated.
  • The Ultimate Enemy. Dear God, The Ultimate Enemy. Danny's life has been going fine until he decides to cheat on the CAT. One small mistake, and everything goes downhill. His friends and family end up dying horribly in an explosion, and with no place to go, he ends up in Wisconsin living with Vlad. The guilt and sadness eats away at the poor kid to the point where he begs Vlad to remove his humanity, allowing him to rid himself of his emotions. Well, that backfires. Horribly. Danny's ghost half rips out Vlad's ghost half and fuses with it, creating a sociopathic monster that destroys most of the earth. The Reset Button got hit, of course, but the whole plot of the episode is just disturbing. Wham Episode, indeed.
• The Season 1 finale of Star Wars: The Clone Wars not only introduced an original character, Cad Bane, who immediately comes across as a Badass and unlike most villains thus far succeeds in his mission, nearly wiping out a room full of Senates and an unarmed Skywalker in the process but fueled the launch of Season 2 which in two episodes is already Darker and Edgier than almost everything the first season had to offer.
  • Also worth noting is various episodes in the series achieved this status by totally reversing the "kiddie" status some of the earlier episodes gave the show. It is likely different for every viewer, but most agree that "Rookies" was the one that paved way for the more mature episodes to come later in the series.
  • The villains that paved the way for Cad Bane in the Ryloth Trilogy weren't too stupid either, but they each had a fundamental weakness the commander of the blockade did not expect Anakin's suicide run because of his pride, the droid in Innocents of Ryloth did not perceive the Twi'leks themselves as threats until they were ripping him apart, and Emir Tambor stalled long enough for Mace Windu to capture him because of his greed. Unlike these villains Cad Bane's only weakness seems to be that nobody else is as badass as he is.
  • Season 3's Mortis trilogy, for our two main characters:
    • Anakin Skywalker realizes the burden on his shoulders as The Chosen One, which was something he previously dismissed as a myth. He also witnesses both himself and Ahsoka turn to the dark side, and will most likely do whatever it takes to stop that from happening. Well, regarding himself turning evil, yeah, about that...
    • Ahsoka Tano sees a vision of her future self telling her to stay away from Anakin. The Son also tries to convince Ahsoka about something similar, that Anakin wouldn't rescue her when she was held captive. Through "Sithsoka", she also reveals her subconscious fears and resentments: her frustration towards Anakin's criticality and dissatisfaction.
  • The 4-part Umbara arc in season 4 is one of these (especially since it started right after the Lighter and Softer episodes focused on the Droids), in particular the episode Carnage of Krell.
  • If that doesn't do the job, at the end of season 4, Darth Maul is back and pissed off, and soon enough becomes one of the villains in season 5. And to show how mad he is, especially at Obi-Wan for slicing him in two, he says he'll slaughter a village unless Obi-Wan comes to him. And : Obi-Wan does come on over, only to find out Darth Maul slaughtered the entire village anyway.. Holy. SHIT.
    • Even before that, the Nightsisters trilogy in Season 3. Dooku abandoning Ventress pretty much takes the cake, though many other moments qualify.
  • The Season 5 finale throws one hell of a curveball at us. Ahsoka's name has been cleared, the High Council welcome her back to the Jedi Order, offering to promote her to Knight. We think we're being set up for our little Jedi to take the next step up the ranks... "I'm sorry, Master. I'm not coming back". Ahsoka's faith in the Order has been utterly shattered by them refusing to have faith in her innocence. In response, she leaves the Jedi Order.
• Code Lyoko has one in the Season 2 finale, where Aelita's memory is drained, and XANA escapes the confines of Lyoko. Followed by Franz returning Aelita's memory, which almost totally deletes him.
  • Then there's the Season 3 finale, which has William becoming The Dragon for XANA.
• So far, Metalocalypse has three: the season one finale, where Dethklok's concert is attacked, the season two finale, where they get attacked again, with the result that their home is burning to the ground and their manager is dying from his injuries, and the season three premiere, where the manager reveals that he had faked his death.
  • Make that four, with the season 03 finale "Doublebookedklok." Let's count the whams, shall we? Offdensen witnessed Selatcia's Mind Rape of General Crozier in the season 02 finale and may have been affected by it somehow, particularly in relation to Selatcia. The Tribunal are highly suspicious of Offdensen and suspect he has knowledge of their mysterious Falconback Project. And finally, Offdensen is keeping Edgar Jomfru tucked away in Mordhaus and is possibly using him in order to spy on or make plans for the Falconback Project.
  • Season 4 had three whams IN A ROW! In Dethdinner, Pickles announces he's quitting the band after getting fed up with Nathan's bullshit. Then, Breakup Klok had Mr. Salacia reveal his true form on Dethklok's final concert, and kills their producer Roy Cornickelson. Finally, Church of the Black Klok revealed how Ofdensen survived, that Dethklok are part of a prophecy where they are the Chosen Ones, why Nathan destroyed the record (a prophet that guided him) and Cornickelson's funeral is attacked by the Revengencers with Abigail and Toki getting kidnapped (the latter by former Dethklok member Magnus Hammersmith). Holy shit.
• In "Dye! Dye! My Darling", the season 4 finale of Daria, tensions between Daria, her best friend Jane and Jane's boyfriend Tom came to a boiling point. The scene where Tom and Daria agree that they can't stab Jane in the back then immediately spontaneously kiss in his car was enough to induce Spit Takes in the audience (a lot of whom declared the series "Ruined FOREVER!" as a result). The episode and thus the season ended with Jane and Tom splitting up, Daria and Jane agreeing they could still be friends but needed to spend some time apart from each other, and with Daria's phone ringing and her answering it to hear "Daria? It's Tom..."
• In Iron Man: Armored Adventures, the first season finale is this trope incarnate pretty much from start to finish. Everything that could've gone wrong has done so by the end of it.
• Episode 35 of The Secret Saturdays, "And Your Enemies Closer". Argost turns out to be a Cryptid himself, the Yeti that killed Drew and Doyle's parents, kidnaps Zak, kills Zak's Mirror Universe counterpart by using the Flute of Gilgamesh to steal his Kur powers; which leaves him with the power to raise a army of Cryptids. Naturally, the Holy Shit Quotient was through the roof.
• Total Drama Action's episode "Top Dog" qualifies. While we all knew that Duncan and Beth would be the final two, nobody expected both Courtney and Owen's elimination, nor the breakup of Duncan and Courtney due to the former voting out the latter.
  • That was nothing compared to Total Drama World Tour's finale. Basically Alejandro confessed his love for Heather, but she rejected him in favor of the million dollars. However, Gollum Ezekiel showed up, took the money, and plunged into Mt. Doom a volcano, essentially making the whole season pointless. The cast then fled Hawaii, ending up in the water as rocks came at them; Ezekiel was shot out of the volcano and landed on Chris's boat, sinking it; the show went to static as a giant flaming rock was about to hit Heather; and, in The Stinger, it was shown that Alejandro, (who had been trampled by the escaping campers) was placed in the Drama Machine, a'la Darth Vader. While the last part was most likely a joke, this was a pretty dark finale for a show that's usually known for using Rule of Funny to the extreme.
  • The tiebreaker challenge in that same episode also qualifies as several people were expecting Cody to win, not get swatted aside like a fly by Alejandro.
  • Before that was I See London, combined with Genre Shift. First, we saw what happens if you're left in a cargo hold for too long without civilization. Then we find out Noah's Obfuscating Stupidity, the biggest fan-favorite getting voted out due to it. Finally, there's Duncan's return and the Duncan/Gwen kiss, which completed the shift.
  • The finale of the fourth season, Total Drama Revenge of the Island, has a wham episode in regards to one character. It's revealed that Scott, the generally disliked antagonist has been reduced to a vegetative state with a robot body, unable to talk or walk. He can only express "yes" or "no" through blinking lights. Worse, the other characters laugh at this state! While the season as a whole was darker and edgier than the other three, the true whaminess comes from Scott's fate.
  • And before that, we had the episode "The Enchanted Franken-Forest", which featured, quite possibly, the most shocking elimination in the entire series. Zoey, who had been portrayed as the season's protagonist up to this point, is unceremoniously eliminated by Lighting, also breaking the tradition of the finalists being opposing genders.
• Spider-Man: The Animated Series "Turning Point." The Green Goblin learns Spider-Man's true identity and proceeds to wreak havoc on his life. Mary Jane is supposedly killed in the ensuing bridge battle. The viewers know that she survived, but she fell through a time-dilation accelerator portal - leaving her lost in a void and quite a Tear Jerker for poor Peter's reactions.
  • Followed up down the line by Mary Jane, quite some time after her mysterious return from this, was revealed to have Hydro-Man's powers. As your mouth is still hanging open from that, we find out why - she's a clone made by Miles Warren, and adding the (also a clone) Hydro Man's power to turn to water and put himself back together helped keep her stable. Unfortunately, it's not perfect, and she does die when her body eventually degenerated, with Peter just as helpless to do anything about it as before.
• The series finale of The Spectacular Spider Man reveals that Norman Osborn was the only Green Goblin, even during season one - he'd framed Harry for his crimes and the Norman we saw when "Harry" was elsewhere as the Goblin was in fact the Chameleon. What about the time Harry had the injury the Goblin had sustained? Norman broke his own son's leg. Oh, and you know how in most continuities, Norman is driven nuts or given a Split Personality by his strength enhancers? Well, not so in this one. Harry's overdose made him the perfect patsy, but Norman, using a much more controlled release, was one hundred percent himself, and did all of this with an unaltered mind. Dude.
• "Helga on the Couch" from Hey Arnold!. Helga gets sent to a child psychologist, where the truth comes out about why she acts the way she does...it involves inattentive parents, and a sister whose standards she'd never be able to reach in her parents' eyes.
• The Venture Brothers ended its first season on a traditional episode. But, it turns out this [adult swim] show doesn't make use of Negative Continuity, and in the first episode of season two, we find out that the titular brothers are still dead and that the Monarch's still in jail.
  • Then there's Brock suddenly up and quitting as he couldn't take the weirdness anymore at the end of Season 3. That episode also included the death of 24 and the obliteration of all of Hank and Dean's spare clones.
    • The season four premiere makes it even Wamier—Sgt. Hatred is the new Venture bodyguard, HELPeR is now THE WALKING EYE!, Hunter was The Mole in the Blackhearts organization and brings Brock into SPHINX, which is now operating on the side of good, and the Brothers' looks have changed for the first time ever—Hank grows his hair out and starts donning Brock's old jacket, while Dean now has a wispy little mustache.
  • The season 04 finale "Operation P.R.O.M": General Treister retires and leaves Colonel Gathers in charge of OSI. Molotov Cocktease was the rookie SPHINX agent seen in the background of previous episodes. She steals Monstroso back from them, claiming that he is her lover. When Brock corners her in a stolen limo on the edge of a cliff, he threatens to let Monstroso fall to his death. Molotov knocks Brock off of the hood of the limo willingly and the car falls and explodes with them both inside.
• Family Guy had "And Then There Were Fewer". TV anchorwoman Diane Simmons is being replaced by a younger woman (she just turned 40) and at the same time stood up by her new love interest James Woods...so she concocts an elaborate scheme to kill James and frame co-anchor Tom Tucker for the murder. When things don't quite go just as planned, James and semi-regular cast member Mrs. Goldman are Killed Off for Real, as well as Jillian's husband seen only once before, Quagmire's current girlfriend, and James' second girlfriend. Then Diane almost kills Lois after Lois figures things out, and is turn killed by Stewie (who claims to be the only one who can kill Lois). Tom meanwhile is successfully framed and sent to prison.
  • By the next episode Tom's out of prison and James Woods has been brought back from the dead, but all the other changes so far seem to have stuck.
  • It's not the only Family Guy episode to be a Wham Episode. It's simply titled "Brian and Stewie". The Cold Opening and lack of cutaway gags is a giveaway that something is going to go down. Basically it's about Brian and Stewie locked in a bank vault over a weekend. It had the usual Family Guy antics, including Brian eating Stewie's poop, Stewie drunkenly piercing his ear, and a gun from Brian's safety deposit box ricocheting around the room. It eventually dies down and we're wondering what's about to happen next, then Stewie asks why Brian has a gun. He tells him that it's in case he ever decided to commit suicide as he cannot find a purpose in life, the alcohol meant to be his last drink. Stewie is horrified and admits that Brian is his best friend, and sometimes making another person happy is enough.
  • "Screams of Silence: The Story of Brenda Q." a Darker and Edgier Very Special Episode that dealt with Domestic Abuse in a straight and serious way. Here, Quagmire tries to help his sister overcome domestic abuse and rub out her abusive boyfriend in a confrontation that takes a turn for the worse.
• Of all shows from of all studios, Filmation's 1987 cartoon Bravestarr has a Wham Episode dealing with drug abuse, but it refuses to do with it what Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue did—sugarcoat it. The episode "The Price" deals with a kid who is turned onto a topical controlled substance called Spin. The perps are caught but the tag is tainted: The boy is found in his treehouse, dead of a Spin overdose. The episode ends with the boy's mother in agonized hysteria, with the final "pro-social message" scene showing Bravestarr laying a wreath at the boy's grave.
• Sym-Bionic Titan: "A Family Crisis". Octus is Killed Off for Real by an energy-absorbing monster. Lance and Ilana are unable to use Titan.
  • Before that, "The Fortress of Deception". Other people know about Lance, Ilana, and Octus's secret. Such as government agencies.
• Episode 12, "Homefront", of Young Justice could be considered this. It has several revelations. Cheshire is Artemis' sister, their mother was in jail, the conformation that their father is the Sportsmaster, the team almost dying, Red Tornado potentially betraying everyone. Artemis finally in school, two Batgirls popping up, Robin showing up in school and heavily implying that he's figured out Artemis' secrets...
  • Episode 21, "Image," reveals that Miss Martian is a horrible alien moster and her personality and appearance in her human form are based on a character from a sitcom she watched on Mars.
  • Episode 25, "Usual Suspects." Holy crap. The long-running plot threads about Artemis, Miss Martian, and Superboy are finally resolved, which is great. But then we find out that Red Arrow has been The Mole all along, has infected the entire Justice League with Starro chips, and has turned the Watchtower over to Vandal frickin' Savage. Aster re-dis'd, Robin.
  • "Happy New Year", the first episode of Season 2. Three words: Five Years Later. We've got about six new team members, Robin is now Nightwing, M'gann and Connor have broken up, Artemis, Wally and Aqualad are all noticebly missing...oh, and the Earth is being invaded. That too.
  • "Alienated": Aqualad is evil!
  • "Salvage": Roy and Jade got married, and have a daughter.
  • "Depths": Artemis dies... but then she doesn't! Aqualad isn't really evil, he's just The Mole under deep cover - and only Artemis, Wally, Dick and Kaldur know! M'gann and Superboy broke up because she tried to erase his memory of being mad at her for manipulating people's minds!
  • "Darkest": Aqualad attacks Mount Justice, threatening to blow it up with a deadman switch if the heroes try to retaliate. Thanks to the Scarab (or perhaps not), it's revealed that Aqualad is bluffing. And then, when he leaves, to maintain his cover, he has Tigress (a disguised Artemis) blow up Mount Justice anyway. Wally, tired of all the potential casualties and the destruction of Mount Justice, starts calling out Nightwing and brings up the possibility that Aqualad might actually not be on their side after all. Oh, and Impulse and Blue Beetle were also captured, being taken to wherever Lagoon Boy and the other hostages are being held by The Light for their associate. The episode ends with Aqualad being accepted into The Light, poised to meet their associate.
  • And its follow up episode, "Before the Dawn". On the plus side, all the hostages are saved, we discover who the main villains are, and we're introduced to who will one day be a Batgirl and Static. On the negative side, said villains are going the Villain with Good Publicity route, we discover that Blue Beetle was "the biggest Big Bad ever" in the future, and M'gann mind-rapes Kaldur into a drooling heap before realising he was Good All Along. Then followed by an unexpected 3 month hiatus.
  • Summit. In order:
    • Ra's al Ghul figures out about Artemis's illusion, and reveals her and Aqualad. Deathstroke shoots Artemis and Aqualad.
    • While Aqualad is dying in his father's arms, he activates a holographic message that reveals how the Reach have actually been manipulated by the Light from the very beginning.
    • Once Savage reveals that the Light have the crystal key, Aqualad and Artemis reveal themselves to be perfectly fine, and their "deaths" were an illusion created by M'gann, who had been in disguise as Deathstroke the whole time!
    • The rest of the team arrive on the scene.
    • Black Beetle, fed up with everything, stabs Ra's al Ghul in the chest.
    • Blue Beetle pins the Ambassador and Scientist. Black Beetle declares himself free of the Ambassador's command, but frees the Scientist and takes her with him.
    • The Brain and Black Manta are ultimately taken out for the count, meaning the Light have been effectively split in two.
    • The Light Boom Tubes onto the War World, takes out the Reach AND the Justice Leaguers, and proceeds to fly it off to an unknown destination.
    • Black Beetle decides to destroy the evidence of the Reach's tampering by destroying the Earth.
  • "Endgame": Black Beetle's scarab is destroyed by Blue, leaving him powerless. Kid Flash apparently fades out of existence as he, Flash and Impulse stop the final phase of Black Beetle's plan to destroy Earth. Lex Luthor has been appointed Secretary General of the UN due to his part in stopping Black Beetle's plan. Nightwing decides he needs to take a break from the Team. And finally, Vandal Savage flies the War World to Apokolips where he meets with Darkseid (and G. Gordon Godfrey), shakes his hand and remarks "Business as usual". And not long before this, it was announced that the show was cancelled.
• Episode 26 of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated What happens is we find out Fred's father, Mayor Fred Jones Sr., is the Freak of Crystal Cove, the Big Bad responsible for making the original Mystery Inc go away in the first place, and when Judy and Brad came back, we find out that Fred Jones Sr. stole their son and said he'd take care of them to make sure they never came back, Fred breaks off his engagement with Daphne to go off to search for his identity, Shaggy is being sent to Military school, Scooby being sent to a farm (with ominous implications), Daphne blames Velma for hiding Angel Dynamite's identity for causing all this, and Velma ends up alone. Oh, and Pericles has two of the pieces for searching for the Treasure of Crystal Cove. Fred then says this line when this all unravels.
  Fred: Mystery Inc is dead.
  • Episode 37 has the gang and Angel Dynamite (a.k.a. original Mystery Inc. member Cassidy Williams) traveling with Tom, Tubb, their pet seal Scooby in their Moby Dick submarine to the underwater cove where the original settlement of Crystal Cove is submerged. They are attacked by German robots being assembled by Professor Pericles, and as they are unable to escape in their sub due to a mechanical claw holding the sub's tail. Cassidy stays behind to release the sub as Pericles has set off explosions within the cove. The gang escapes, but it appears that Cassidy did not survive as Scooby the seal recovers her damaged diving helmet. (Series producer Tony Cervone confirmed that Cassidy died.)
• Episode 23, "The Devourer", of Monster Allergy has many revelations. Jeremy is placed under Magnacat's mind control after he is caught spying on the meeting between the Gorkas and Dark Phantoms; under his influence, he sabotaged Zick's teleskates that teleports him in Magnacat's hideout instead of Bibbur-Si to warn Timothy of the evil alliance. Zick has lost his powers including his ability to see monsters because his Dom energy is absorbed by the Dom Devourer, but the bright side is Elena, his best friend who can't see monsters, can finally see monsters. Hurray!
• Huntik: Secrets & Seekers would have one: Zhalia is The Mole for the Organization!
• The Easter special episode of Davey and Goliath where Davey's grandmother dies.
• The season 2 finale and the season 3 premiere of X-Men: Evolution. For the first two seasons, the show was mostly light, at least when compared to other superhero cartoons. But starting with the end of season 2, the mutants are finally exposed to the world (when before they were hiding themselves) and the show starts going into Darker and Edgier storylines with themes about discrimination, along with the X-Men starting to face larger threats.
• Kung Fu Panda 2. Unlike the first film, characters die and are actually confirmed dead, unlike any of the possible "deaths" of the first film. Not only that, the threat they face is greater, and we start to learn about a young Po's tragic past.
• In ThunderCats (2011) "Between Brothers." Cheetara and Tygra kiss, Grune is sucked into the Astral Plain, and Panthro loses both arms.
  • That is nothing compared to "What Lies Above Part 2.'' After all the time we've grown to love Pumyra and her relationship with Lion-O, she turns out to be working for Mumm-Ra. She helps him get the Tech Stone and Avista makes a crash landing. The one good thing to come out of it is all of the Thunder Cats' friends uniting to help in his fight.
• The 26th (and final) episode of Season One of The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, "A Day Unlike Any Other" concludes with the Avengers saving Asgard and, by extension, the world from Loki. However... Captain America has been replaced with a Skrull agent by the end of the episode, setting up next season.
  • The next season has "Who Can You Trust?" Nick Fury learns that one of the Avengers is really a Skrull. The viewers have known which Avenger the Skrull replaced since the first season ended^note see the entry above, so the shock value derives more from seeing the Avengers' dependability give way to paranoia, which even drives three heroes into quitting the team. By the time the episode ends, the Avengers consist of half as many heroes as in the first season, and Captain America takes the leadership position Iron Man renounced. Finally, the viewers learn that the queen of the Skrulls has made her way to Earth, disguised as one of Nick Fury's agents, Mockingbird.
• In the third season of Archer, the former Woobie, Barry, is now a cyborg, and plots an elaborate revenge against Sterling Archer. It's all pretty funny, until Barry cruelly murders the man who may or may not be Sterling's father, right after they were reunited, and disposes of the body so he'll never be able to do a DNA test and know for sure.
• The Christmas Episode (And Series Finale) of Nickelodeon's Doug, "Doug's Christmas Story", was very different from the show's usual Sweet Dreams Fuel. It starts when Porkchop bites Beebe's leg to get her away from thin ice, but he's blamed for attacking her and is sent to the pound, where if he's not proven innocent, will be put to sleep.
• The Recess episode "The Biggest Trouble Ever", which is about the gang accidentally breaking a statue of the town's founder, are branded criminals and are nearly transferred to six seperate schools.
• Codename Kids Next Door had Operation G.R.O.W.U.P., the 1st season finale which set the stage for the show's eventual Cerebus Syndrome.
• Moral Orel season 2 finale, Nature. Clay takes Orel into a forest for hunting where his behavior suddenly gets tensed of getting drunk, berating him, shooting him in the leg, and refusing to heal his leg. This results in season 3 being changed from light to dark.
• El Manana, Gorillaz' music video in which Moe Noodle apparently DIES. Also the Plastic Beach interviews which show Murdoc to now be mentally and physically abusing 2D quite horribly.
• April 1, 2012. [adult swim] was expected to, as always, show The Room on April Fools day. They did not.
  • TOM: Oh hi, Adult Swim!
• Where's Perry? Part 1 ends with Phineas, Ferb, and their friends falling down a deep gorge, Jeremy apparently breaking up with Candace, Perry, and this is the clincher, suddenly vanishing after being hit by several inators at the same time and Linda and Lawrence without dinner reservations.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
  • Lesson Zero shook up the status quo by allowing the other main characters to write friendship letters to Princess Celestia and thereby shifted the show's overall focus slightly away from Twilight.
  • Magical Mystery Cure. Twilight becomes an alicorn. Wham.
• Robot Chicken
  • Fight Club Paradise begins with the Robot Chicken escaping from the Mad Scientist's laboratory, and ends with him getting revenge on the Mad Scientist after he abducts and tortures his wife.
• Courage the Cowardly Dog's series finale. "Perfect" is more or less of what you want to make of it, but "Remembrance of Courage Past" was the most serious episode throuhout the entire series, included the worst Jerkass villain, and was a major Tear Jerker. Why? Because we find out what happened to Courage's parents and their current whereabouts
• Gravity Falls:
  • The Hand That Rocks The Mabel - There is a prequel to Dipper's book, and Gideon has it.
  • Little Dipper - Gideon doesn't just want vengeance against the Pines, he wants the Shack itself. There's something hidden in it.
• Motorcity: The first episode of the two-part season finale "Vega" is this: Mike asks Julie to lead the burners if "something should happen to him" even though Julie already told Kane she would take over if something were to happen to him, the Duke betrayed the Burners and helped Kane capture Mike, and now Mike is in jail, will be executed and Motorcity is in chaos.
• Adventure Time has enough to get its own page, but some of the most noteworthy ones are "Holly Jolly Secrets" and "I Remember You", "Lady and Peebles", and the three-part "The Lich", "Finn the Human", and "Jake the Dog".
• Sponge Bob Square Pants has the episode "Have You Seen This Snail?". Beginning because the 98% of the episode is Tear Jerker, something very unusual in a cartoon like this. Then we have Granny, a villain with no comedic qualities in villainy, killing snail pets to eat, and tries to do the same with Gary.
• The Batman has the season 1 finale, "The Clayface of Tragedy" with Ethan Bennett being Clayface.