"What Now?" Ending: Difference between revisions

If the [[Five-Man Band]] is broken up, or the hero leaves the [[City of Adventure]], or the wife of the protagonist leaves him, that's a [[What Now? Ending]].

 

{{examples}}

 

** The fifth season ended with Buffy dead.

** The sixth season ended with a Prophecy Twist across both Angel and Buffy.

*** Of course, Buffy's easy smile in answer to that question implied that it is not always a bad thing to lack an immediate threat.

** Heck, even the [[Musical Episode]] ends with the song "Where Do We Go From Here?"

** The third season ended with Angel trapped at the bottom of the ocean, Cordelia being taken off to a higher plane of existence, Wesley in exile, Lorne moving to Vegas Baby, and only two characters left back at HQ, completely unaware of what's happened to Angel and Cordy.

** The fourth season ended with Angel and company taking over the LA branch of [[Big Bad]] Wolfram and Hart.

* ''[[24]]'', by its nature, is quite heavy on these.

* ''[[Sliders]]'' ended with Rembrandt sliding alone to his homeworld, despite a (very accurate) seer's warning that doing so would be fatal. The others are left standing there, asking, "Now what do we do?"

* ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' has had four of these so far.

** In the second season finale, House gets shot, {{spoiler|and discovers that as a result of a coma induced in order to allow him to heal, his chronic pain is gone. While that turns out to be a hallucination, he does, at the end of the episode, decide to try to fix his leg from the method suggested in the hallucination.}} It works, for a while.

** In the fourth season finale, {{spoiler|Wilson's girlfriend dies as an indirect result of House's destructive behavior, and <s>Dr. Hadley</s> Thirteen finds out she ''does'' have the gene for Huntington's Disease.}}

** In the ''fifth'' season finale, {{spoiler|House finally kicked the pill habit and scored with Cuddy, only to discover that it was all a hallucination. He ends the season in a psychiatric hospital.}}

** Season three ended with the revelation that there are Changeling spies everywhere.

** Season four ended with the revelation that the Klingon chancellor was a changeling spy. {{spoiler|He wasn't. The real spy was his right-hand man, General Martok.}}

** Season six ended with [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|Jadzia Dax dead]] and [[Ten-Minute Retirement|Sisko leaving the station]].

** The last season ended with the crew going their separate ways (and occasionally ascending to a higher plane of existence).

* ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' second season ends with one of these, which is made even worse since the series has been [[Screwed by the Network|screwed by the network.]]

* ''[[Torchwood]]: Children of Earth'' has {{spoiler|A major character dead, Torchwood non-existent and Jack having left Earth}}.

* ''[[Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future]]'' is the quintessential example, as Season One (the [[Cut Short|only season it had before cancellation]]) ended with the [[Anyone Can Die|death]] of [[Dying Declaration of Love|Jeniffer "Pilot" Chase]] after she [[Heroic Sacrifice|self-destructed the Powerbase's reactor]], both to keep the base's sensitive information from falling into Lord Dread's hands, and [[Taking You with Me|to destroy Blastarr]]. The [[Five-Man Band]] was effectively broken up, leaving Power, Hawk, Tank, and Scout destitute and hopeless in the wilderness.

* Much like the Captain Power example above, [[Space: Above and Beyond]] ended its first and only season with two members of the 58th squadron safe and sound, two more in the cockpit of a transport falling toward a planet with one of them already unconscious from a head wound, and the fifth one most definitely dead after the wreck of a destroyed enemy fighter hits him head on. Meanwhile, Earth's attempt to strike the enemy homeworld ended in disastrous failure, and we've just learned that their genocidal war might have been provoked by a human corporation that knowingly treaded all over their holy ground. With or without a second season, it was decidedly downbeat and any sense of victory was pretty small-scale.

* ''[[The Others (TV series)|The Others]]'' ended its first and only season with the entire cast apparently dead thanks to the machinations of an evil force. A cryptic comment by Einer as he dies points to the possibility that, had the series been renewed, the whole thing might have turned out to be a [[Thantos Gambit|complex]] [[My Death Is Just the Beginning|plan]].

* This is how season 2 of ''[[Phil of the Future]]'' ended...''[[Left Hanging|forever]]''. Phil's family {{spoiler|goes back to the future, right after [[Last-Minute Hookup|he and Keely finally admit their feelings for each other]]. Problem was, they left [[Team Pet|Curtis]] back in the 21st century.}} Obviously this was meant to pick up in season 3, or a movie, or ''something'', but no. There was [[No Ending]].

* ''[[Veronica Mars]]'' ends it's third season on an abnormally frustrating note. It's obvious that the writers assumed there was going to be a fourth season to make everything better.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** Season 1:{{spoiler|Dean and Hank are killed}} (in the second season premiere {{spoiler|they come back for far from the first time}})

** Season 3: {{spoiler|Cocktease's group of assasins suceeded in [[Batman Gambit|their plan]] to have Brock kill their competition. Brock lost his mullet and resigned from both the O.S.I. and being a bodyguard. Also [[Mauve Shirt|Number 24]] died}}.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==