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  • Subverted in 24: Michelle Dessler and Tony Almeida were both killed off at different points in the fifth season, so there at least was that somewhat consolation for them. Only it turns out a few seasons later that the latter was still alive, and the resultant death of said spouse has left him crossing the Despair Event Horizon...
  • 9-1-1 has a call involving an elderly gay couple. We first see them reminiscing on their life together, meeting in The '70s, dating through the years, protesting for gay rights, and eventually marrying when it became legal. After the reminiscing, they prepare to go on a day trip together. As they're preparing, the parking brake on their SUV gives out and the vehicle crushes one of them against the gate of their mansion. note  The squad is dispatched, but Buck is unable to save the man's life. The victim's husband asks for a moment alone with him. When Buck goes to check on him, he discovers that the now widowed husband has died as well.
  • American Horror Story: Murder House: The fate of the entire Harmon family. Couple-wise, Ben and Vivien are both finally happy together in death. Tate and Violet might end up this way if she ever comes around to forgiving him. He's willing to wait.
  • Angel:
    • In the series finale, Illyria shapeshifts into Fred and consoles the dying Wesley that she'll be waiting for him. She's lying, and he knows it.
      • At least, that's the official explanation, that Illyria's revival destroyed Fred's soul. But Illyria said it, and no one knows how reliable she is or if she was lying about that.
      • Subverted for sure (of course) in After the Fall, wherein Wesley is stuck working for the Senior Partners in Hell for all eternity.
    • In another episode Angel stakes a female vampire, leaving her longtime lover behind. He's willing to die, but wants to take Angel with him, so he has his heart surgically removed. Apparently, this makes a vampire invincible for a short amount of time, but once that time expires they instantly die.
  • Arrowverse:
    • In the crossover Crisis on Earth-X, Martin Stein is shot, and chooses to accept his death in order to save the life of his second partner, Jefferson Jackson, and reunites with his first partner, Ronnie Raymond (who died in the Season 1 Finale/Season 2 Premiere of The Flash (2014)), in death. This is only enforced when Caitlin Snow, Ronnie's widow, tells Stein at his grave to give his regards to Ronnie for her.
    • The Season 7 finale of Arrow has a twofold example. The Monitor takes Oliver after Mia's birth in order to fulfill Oliver's promise made to him during the previous crossover and to save the multiverse. The Monitor tells him from the get-go that he isn't going to survive the crisis, which will reunite him with his many deceased loved ones, including his parents, his best friend Tommy, and his First Love Laurel, but will separate him from his Second Love and wife, Felicity. In the Flash Forward, after the city is safe and the torch has been passed to the main characters' children, Felicity says good-bye to William and Mia next to Oliver's grave, before the Monitor takes her to be reunited with them as well. The series finale shows Felicity arriving to Oliver's afterlife, which looks like his mother's old office at Queen Consolidated, and being reunited with her husband. On the other hand, Oliver rebooting the universe and creating Earth Prime results in many of his loved ones surviving (except for his father, who had to die in order for Oliver to become the Green Arrow, and the original Laurel, because there can be only one Laurel on Earth Prime and Laurel-2 was already there), so Oliver's funeral is attended by, among others, Moira, Tommy, Quentin, and Emiko.
  • Ashes to Ashes (2008) is an interesting example of this trope, once removed.
    • All of the main characters (excluding Gene) in Ashes to Ashes (2008) forget of their deaths over time while in Gene's purgatory, so that the purgatory seems to be their actual life.
    • Because of this, Chris and Shaz, as well as Gene and Alex (eventually), form romantic relationships in purgatory.
    • Thus, in the big reveal when the characters progress into heaven, Shaz and Chris are together in heaven and Gene and Alex will eventually be reunited in heaven as well. (when Gene is finished being a Psychopomp).
  • The final episode of Autumn In My Heart has the main characters, Yoon Joon-suh and Choi Eun-suh, who started off as siblings but turns out to be Switched at Birth, allowing them to be lovers, only for Eun-suh who spends much of the final chapters suffering from leukemia to succumb from the diesease, with her dying in his arms in the same beach they spend their days as teenagers. While she moved on and told him to continue living his life to the fullest, however in the last episode's final minutes Joon-suh gets hit by a truck. Fans have considered this to be at the very least a Bittersweet Ending, for Joon-suh and Eun-suh can finally be together in heaven.
  • Babylon 5: Although never outright stated, it is heavily implied that John Sheridan and Delenn found each other again Beyond The Rim, which almost begins to make up for the eighty years she had to live without him due to his Living on Borrowed Time and Minbari generally living longer.
  • Bates Motel: Heavily implied, though not outright stated, for Norma and Romero, the latter of whom is killed by Norman while trying to recover Norma's body. His last words to her are to swear that he will always love her, no matter what. Even the title of the official video of the relevant scene makes this trope clear.note 
  • Battlestar Galactica (2003):
    • "I'll see you on the other side, Kara."- Sam Anders (somewhat debatable since it's never actually made clear where Starbuck goes when she vanishes).
    • The Distant Finale shows that Helo and Sharon died and were buried together, along with their daughter Hera.
  • Being Human: "I have to be with my Nina"- George, in ghost form, moments after his death by heroic sacrifice.
    • According to Word of God, Annie and Mitchell are this as well.
    • Similarly, but more explicitly in Being Human (US), Aidan and Sally are this.
  • Played in two ways with Kelly at the end of the Black Mirror episode “San Junipero”. Her body is buried next to her husband of 49 years and their daughter, while her Virtual Ghost is uploaded to San Junipero to spend eternity with her newly “passed over” wife.
  • In the Bones episode "Aliens in a Spaceship", there's a spectacularly sad platonic example. Twin brothers had been sealed in a vat with only 12 hours' worth of air, and there's an unusual amount of blood pooled on the bottom from one of them, caused by a mysterious wound that punctured an artery in his neck. They find out how it happened easily enough (a pen was used) but it takes until the end of the episode to find out why: He killed himself to give his brother the rest of the oxygen.
    • Also, in the episode "The Couple in the Cave", with two skeletal remains found (as the title suggests) in a cave. It turns out that they were pushed from a cliff, with the woman's injuries being far more severe. After getting to the cave, the man could have gone on further to find help and possibly save himself, but he chose to remain with his partner, and she died in his arms before he too succumbed to his injuries.
    • Another case of this in "The Archeologist in the Cocoon". Remains that are thousands of years old are found, and it's revealed that they belong to a family (mother, father, and daughter). The parents were fatally injured in an attack, and they died together, with their young daughter also laying with them. She remained with them and later starved to death, the remains being found laying together thousands of years later.
  • Actually made the subject of a joke in the reunion movie Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis, where Dobie's son stars in a musical School Play version of Romeo and Juliet with a "happy ending", ie, the couple are reunited in this fashion after offing themselves, complete with a cheery here-we-are-in-heaven production number.
  • In Charité at War, Nazi Professor de Crinis and his wife take cyanide capsules when the war is lost and their escape attempt has failed. De Crinis hold his wife's hand as she spasms and rings for air, then swallows his own capsule.
  • Charmed (1998): In "P3 H2O" the Halliwells learn that their late mother Patty was secretly involved with her Whitelighter Sam at the time of her death. Towards the end of the episode, Sam is killed by the same demon that killed Patty and his spirit is seen reuniting with hers, implying they're finally being reunited. Except in season five the sisters learn that the Powers That Be stepped in and made Sam a Whitelighter again shortly afterwards, so he and Patty were still being kept apart.
  • In Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Sabrina is killed in the finale of the fourth season. Nick Scratch, the warlock who loves her more than anything, later dies in an accident in a river. When Sabrina and Nick meet again in the afterlife, she is at first sad that he has also passed away, but he can make her happy again when he says that they are now together forever.
  • Henpecked Husband Jack Duckworth's final scene in Coronation Street featured the return of Vera Duckworth, who had died two years earlier, and they dance away together.
  • Cold Case: In "Best Friends", Billie and Rose were being chased by Rose's insanely possessive brother and ended up facing a dead end where a bridge was out. Rather than let the brother get his hands on Billie, they decide to drive the car off the bridge so they can be together forever — except that Rose doesn't die, and instead spends a lifetime feeling guilty for "betraying" Billie by living. The ending montage also suggests, at least by some interpretations, that Rose has died and reunited with Billie in the afterlife, belatedly fulfilling this trope.
  • Crossing Jordan with a couple that's always arguing about something. Lily and Bug were assigned to their case. The reconstruction has the argument start small (about cat food), slowly mutates into vase throwing, hand-to-hand combat up the stairs, one of them pushing the other over the rails, then falling themselves because of a falling bookshelf. Turns out the bookshelf was falling, and they accidentally died from the fall trying to save each other.
  • Doctor Who:
  • Doom Patrol (2019) ends with Rita Farr passing away and reuniting with her lover Malcolm DuPont in the afterlife.
  • The Speculative Documentary by Animal Planet Dragons: A Fantasy Made Real had the body of the mother dragon and the child dragon in the museum together after it was recovered and studied by the scientists.
  • Earth 2100 has Lucy’s parents die together as victims of a flu epidemic in 2050.
  • Eerie, Indiana: In "The Dead Letter", Mary is reunited with the ghost of Tripp McConnell 62 years after his death. The next morning, she dies of heart failure and happily joins Tripp in the afterlife.
  • Forever: This is one of the big reasons Henry wants to find a way to die permanently. After Abigail leaves him because she can't deal with the stares and whispers that come because she's now 64 and he still looks 34, she promises to contact him soon, and then she disappears off the face of the Earth, Henry becomes certain something must have happened to her to prevent her return. He's right. When Henry can't find her after more than a year and Abe urges him to give up, Henry tells their son Abraham he doesn't want to live without her and would kill himself if he were able to make it stick.
    Henry: Try watching as everyone you've ever loved in this world, goes off to another.
  • Forever Knight heavily implied this with Nick and Natalie in the final episode. Natalie decides to take the risk of having sex with Nick, saying she's willing to be with him as a vampire or in death. Unfortunately Nick can't stop drinking and drains Natalie, so he asks LaCroix to stake him. We only see the stake being raised, followed by Cue the Sun, but the implication is obvious.
  • Grey's Anatomy:
    • Mark and Lexie: She dies in the plane crash in the Season 8 finale as he's telling her that he loves her. As he's slipping into a coma (he doesn't actually die until after he wakes up the next season), he says " Lexie's waiting for me... I'll be okay." What makes this moment especially tragic is that they never got to get back together.
    • Another example is in the episode "Sledgehammer" with two girls named Jessica and Aliyah who were in love who decided to commit suicide after Jessica's homophobic mother discovers their relationship and to send Jessica to a gay conversion camp. The girls survive and Jessica's mom still intends to send her to the camp until her dad stands up for her when he sees how happy Jessica is with Aliyah.
  • In a Heroes tie-in, two of Sylar's victims are depicted this way; one of whom lied in order to protect his love's ability. It's quite a Tear Jerker too.
  • Never confirmed in House itself, but Word Of Hugh Laurie is that House definitely didn't see himself living for much longer after Wilson died from cancer.
  • Juken Sentai Gekiranger: When Rio pulls off a Heroic Sacrifice to try and defeat Big Bad Long, Mele, who previously died in his arms protecting the Gekirangers, is waiting for him on the other side, and they walk to the afterlife while Holding Hands.
  • House of the Dragon: Viserys’s last words, muttered as he lies dying from a Leprosy-like disease implies, and Paddy Considine confirms, that he is seeing himself be reunited with his wife Aemma, who died at the start of the season.
Viserys: (Through laboured breathing) My love…
  • Kamen Rider:
    • The Kanzaki siblings in Kamen Rider Ryuki. After rejecting his plans, Yui manages to convince Shiro to end the Rider War and as a result, a new timeline is created where both are deceased. The final shot of the series hammers this home as it is a photograph of both Yui and Shiro as children in positions similar to the ones they have as adults in the original timeline.
    • The Sonozaki family in Kamen Rider Double. Even more of a Tear Jerker because in life they'd grown to hate and manipulate each other, but are seen in the end embracing and wishing Philip well.
    • In Kamen Rider OOO, Gamel's last act before disintegrating into a pile of Medals is to lay a lollipop upon Mezool's last Core Medal as a parting gift to her. He then has a vision of her smiling and thanking him. This could possibly imply that they will be together in some sort of afterlife, since it's later shown that Ankh gained a human soul because he finally felt fulfilled.
  • Kim's Convenience: This is a Discussed Trope when it turns out Mr. Kim sold his wife's grave spot years ago in order to fix the cooler, meaning only his grave spot remains. Mrs. Kim is very unhappy, since the point of reserving both their graves next to each other was so that they can be together "forever and ever in eternity". They eventually compromise and decide to be buried together "bunk-bed style" (aka be buried in the same grave and have whoever dies second be on top of the other).
  • The Last of Us (2023): When Bill's partner, Frank, (and later in the day, husband) decides to end his life due to a muscular degenerative disorder, Bill secretly puts the pills meant to do the deed in his own wine too. While Frank is initially upset about this, he concedes that it's an incredibly romantic gesture, before Bill wheels him to their bed and they die peacefully in each other's arms.
  • An episode of Legend of the Seeker starts with Richard reading the story of his predecessor, who is said to have done what he was meant to do, but both him and his Confessor (and Love Interest) were mortally wounded and died in each other's arms. Their wizard buried them together in a tomb. By chance, Richard, Kahlan, and Zedd end up finding that tomb, and the ghost of the wizard (Zedd's predecessor) reveals that he made up the story. In fact, the previous Seeker gave in to temptation and slept with his Confessor, resulting in him being confessed (effectively becoming her love slave, whether she wished it or not). He started acting recklessly, and the wizard convinced her to kill herself for the greater good. However, her death did not release the Seeker, who went insane with grief and slaughtered innocents. The wizard was forced to kill him and take the Sword of Truth. He then bound their spirits to their bodies specifically to prevent this trope from coming true (it's never specified why it's necessary, especially since the Underworld is hardly a pleasant place to be). The two spirits end up possessing Richard and Kahlan in order to make this trope true (sort of), but Zedd manages to remove the spell, and their spirits finally depart together.
  • In the Season 3 finale of Legends of Tomorrow, Rip chooses to sacrifice himself to delay Mallus and allow the Waverider to escape. He takes the time drive and overloads it. Just before this happens, he tells Sara that he's looking forward to being reunited with his wife and son, who were murdered by Vandal Savage just prior to the series.
  • In the Leverage series finale, a mostly platonic example occurs with Hardison, Eliot, and Parker. They all get fatally injured and, as they bleed out in their final moments, they grip each other's hands. Hardison even goes out with a smile because Eliot's painstaking last words are to reassure him. Of course, this turns out to be an Invoked Trope since it's all an elaborate Faking the Dead story spun by Unreliable Narrator Nate.
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: In the first season finale Sadoc Burrows receives a fatal stab wound. He tells his companions he's at peace with it, as it means he'll be able to see his late wife again.
  • The two skeletons found in an early Lost episode might be an example, but their past and identity are unknown.
    • It's revealed in "Across the Sea" that Adam and Eve are an adoptive mother and son. The son killed the mother in a rage and was then transformed into a monster by his brother, leaving his body behind. Jacob placed the bodies in the cave together afterwards.
    • Although they're definitely not Adam and Eve, this is played straight in late Season 6 with Sun and Jin.
    • Speaking of Lost, everyone is reunited in the end, after their lives are over. Sniffle.
  • The fifth of the Loving murders, that of Cabot and Isabella Alden, had the elderly couple celebrating their 50th anniversary, lighting the candles given to them as a present, going to bed. . .and never waking up, having been fatally poisoned by the vapors released. Their devastated loved ones consoled themselves with the fact that they could invoke this trope.
  • Downplayed in Lucifer (2016), given that only Chloe is actually dead. Still an example of this trope, as her death and subsequent arrival in Hell is what allows her and Lucifer to be reunited. Even though he isn't dead, he runs and lives in Hell, where humans only go once they die.
    • Played straight by Dan and Charlotte. The Grand Finale confirms that once Dan finally resolves his guilt issues he makes it to Heaven and reunites with Charlotte.
  • Mayday:
    • In the last moments of "Out of Control", an elderly couple reach out to each other and hold hands one last time before Japan Airlines Flight 123's inevitable crash on Mount Takamagahara.
    • In "Fatal Climb", Terri Chung, who liked making friends with fellow passengers in her travels, reaches out to another one seated across the aisle as TAROM Flight 371 nosedives into the ground.
  • Medium does an interesting take on this. The lovers are actually serial killers and one is killed in an accident. When Allison discovers the truth, she tricks the other into getting arrested. After she's executed, their ghosts are reunited. However, he's very mad at her for getting caught so easily and they end up arguing... apparently for eternity.
    • The Series Finale does a Tear Jerker version. Joe dies in a plane crash. Alison dies 41 years later, an old grandmother, and finally gets to see him again.
  • The fate of Tony and Sally on Misfits. Technically, it also applies to Simon and Alisha.
  • Moon Lovers: Wang Eun and Soon-deok die within minutes of each other.
  • In the series finale of Once Upon a Time, Rumplestiltskin pulls out his own heart and crushes it to destroy his Wish Realm alternate self, but sacrifices himself as well. At the end of the act, he is finally reunited in heaven with Belle.
  • In The Princess Wei Young, Chang Ru accidentally kills Tuoba Yu then commits suicide to be with him.
  • In the series finale of the BBC's Robin Hood, Robin is mortally wounded by a poisoned dagger and stumbles into Sherwood Forest. As he dies, an apparition of Marian appears, and the couple are last seen embracing and laughing in the forest.
  • Zigzagged in Rome. On hearing that Cleopatra has committed suicide, Marc Antony has Vorenus help him fall on his sword. To Vorenus' unconcealed contempt, Cleopatra then turns up very much alive. However, on meeting Octavian, Cleopatra realises she can't influence him as she did Julius Caesar or Antony, and so poisons herself next to Antony's body and uses her last strength to die holding Antony's hand.
    Cleopatra: [sobbing and talking to Antony's corpse] I'm sorry, my love. I was hungry to live...but you were right about that boy; he's a monster! He only wants me alive so he can parade me in chains for a mob to spit on!
  • In "Knight of Shadows", the first-season Halloween episode of SeaQuest DSV, the crew of the SeaQuest solves a hundred-year-old murder mystery on a sunken liner, allowing the spirits of the ship's engineer and a passenger to finally reunite. Even better, they forgive the spirit of the ship's Captain (who murdered the engineer out of jealousy), who joins them in the afterlife.
  • Supernatural:
    • An early episode involves the brothers hunting an angry spirit who is trying to kill her grand-niece so she will have a companion in death. Instead, the ghost's now-elderly sister offers to join her in death as a ghost and the two haunt a hotel together in death.
    • In Season 10, Castiel confirms that Jimmy Novak, the original owner of his vessel, died when Raphael smited him in Season 4 and is in Heaven. He's soon joined by his wife Amelia, who had been held prisoner by an evil angel and died as she was being rescued.
    • The Series Finale shows Sam and Dean, having died decades apart, reuniting in Heaven. They also get to see other loved ones, since Jack has made it so everyone, not just soul mates, can see each other in Heaven.
  • A variant in Torchwood: Jack and Ianto die from an alien virus within moments of each other and the camera zooms out to show their bodies still with their arms around each other. Unfortunately, Jack can't just stay dead.
  • Episode 4x22 from The Vampire Diaries gives us Bonnie and Jeremy reuniting on the other side, and possibly reconciling. They do hug, and it's a Tear Jerker.
  • Word of Honor: Gu Xiang and Cao Weining. They die close together — on their wedding day, no less — and Wen Kexing places their bodies beside each other and covers them with one of the wedding decorations.
  • The latest version of Wuthering Heights shows Heathcliff and Cathy together looking down from an upstairs window as Cathy II departs to start her new life.
  • The X-Files:
    • "Field Trip" has a nasty variation on this: a pair of skeletons are found lying in a field. It turns out to be the skeletons of a married couple that were captured by a carnivorous fungus. The organism gave off hallucinogens that made the couple believe that they were lying down and cuddling in their own bed.
    • "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas":
      • The ghosts Maurice and Lyda died via Suicide Pact and are together in the afterlife.
      • The ghosts try to get Mulder and Scully to re-enact their deaths. They invoke the illusion of the bodies lying together with corpses that remind Mulder and Scully under the floorboards.
      • It is implied that the ghosts drove other couples to suicide. They were people who lived in their Haunted House.
      • Nearly played straight with Mulder and Scully who appear to have shot each other so that they need not face their lonely lives. However, they recognize that it is a trick and they flee from the house.
    • In "The Field Where I Died", it is revealed that Mulder and Scully have been closely tied in previous incarnations already. They were family, True Companions or Band of Brothers, but never lovers. The memories are revealed through one character's split personality when she channels her various lives, and through Mulder's hypnosis.
  • You (2018): Despite the tenuous and somewhat manipulative nature of their romantic relationship during Season 2, it’s made abundantly clear that Candace Stone and Forty Quinn did deeply care for each other and want to be together. Unsurprisingly, they are each killed an episode apart at the end of the season.


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