You’ve watched this kind of ending before: Just before a critical event in the story, the screen suddenly cuts to black and the end credits roll. You’re forced to wait until the next part of the story to learn what happens next.
This is a cliffhanger, and it’s become one of the most popular ways to end a story. It raises tension, creates curiosity, and keeps the audience coming back for more.
The Greatest TV Cliffhangers
Done right, a cliffhanger gets the audience speculating about a show’s future events. Done wrong, it destroys the viewers’ immersion, sometimes to the point that they stop watching permanently.
Due to their serial format, tv shows frequently use cliffhangers in between episodes and seasons. Here are some of the best cliffhangers that have appeared on television.
Spoiler Alert! The examples below contain details on critical events for each show.
1. Sherlock
In Season 2’s finale, Sherlock plays a high-stakes game against his arch enemy, Moriarty. Seemingly cornered, he is forced to commit suicide to save the lives of those close to him. He takes a swan dive from the roof of a building to the street below, which his best friend witnesses.
But in the last few minutes of the episode, he’s shown alive and well, watching his own funeral from a distance. How he survived, and why he needed to fake his death, became one of the biggest tv questions at the time—especially when it took 2 years for fans to know the answer.
2. Friends
At the end of season 4, most of the gang travel all the way to London to attend Ross’ wedding to Emily. Everything initially goes well until the wedding vows. While Emily does hers perfectly, Ross mistakenly says Rachel’s name instead of Emily’s.
The episode (and season) ends with the minister asking if they should continue. Viewers only learn about the aftermath months later, when the next season starts.
3. E.R.
It’s midway through season 6 and it’s Valentine’s Day. Everyone is dealing with a mixture of personal issues and medical cases. Doctors John Carter and Lucy Knight, in particular, are dealing with a patient who clearly has mental problems.
When John stops to check in on Lucy and the patient, he’s suddenly stabbed twice in the back. He falls to the floor and finds Lucy already bleeding to death after being attacked by the same patient. The episode ends with both of them powerless to help each other.
4. The Good Place
In the series, humans are either sent to “The Good Place” or “The Bad Place” after death. The amoral and selfish Eleanor Shellstrop is mistakenly sent to the Good Place. To earn her spot, she must learn how to become a better person.
The series finale ends with her and her friends learning that they were in the Bad Place all along, chosen to be tortured psychologically and emotionally until the end of time. The architect of the afterlife erases their memories for them to be tortured again.
5. Breaking Bad
For five and a half seasons, former chemistry teacher Walter White has turned to a life of crime. As”Heisenberg”, he’s ruthlessly taken down any rivals and has managed to become the top narcotics trafficker in the Southwest.
And for five and a half seasons, his brother Hank, a DEA agent, has tirelessly pursued this mysterious drug kingpin on the rise. It’s only in the midseason finale that he realizes who Heisenberg really is. The next episode wasn’t released until almost a year later.
6. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The original Slayer who trained Buffy told her that her gift was “death.” For much of the early seasons, she struggled to learn what this meant. Was it her ability to kill or something else?
It’s during the season 5 finale that she discovers that it’s her own death that’s the gift. She sacrifices herself to close a portal that would have brought the end of the world.
Showrunner Joss Whedon wasn’t sure whether the show was getting another season, so he wrote the season finale as if it was the series finale. The result? One of the most anticipated moments in TV history.
7. Game of Thrones
The war of the Iron Throne rages on and the threat of the White Walkers continues to grow. Political and military movements leave the Stark children in positions of peril.
Sansa escapes from imprisonment after being jailed and raped by Ramsey Bolton. Arya is struck blind after disobeying one of the Faceless Men’s rules.
The biggest cliffhanger of the episode though is with fan favorite, Jon Snow. Having become the Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, he prepares to pursue his claim to the Iron Throne. However, he is betrayed, stabbed multiple times, and left bleeding in the snow by his fellow watchers.
8. Supernatural
Brothers Dean and Sam Winchester are hunters of things that go bump in the night. With their father missing, they go on a cross-country trip, fighting supernatural creatures while searching for clues about their dad.
Eventually, they find their father, discover more about their mother’s death, and the means to get revenge. While talking about their next move, their car is hit by a truck. The season ends with them inside the mangled vehicle, unconscious and bleeding.
9. Dallas
J.R. Ewing is an egocentric and manipulative oil baron who never hesitates to step on someone if he can get something worthwhile from it. Throughout the season, he constantly plots to undermine others and build his wealth.
After making so many enemies, one of them finally takes action in the third season finale. Hearing a noise outside of his office, Ewing comes out to take a look and is immediately shot twice. The shooter’s identity isn’t revealed and with so many suspects, viewers were left to wait until the next season for the reveal.
10. The West Wing
The West Wing revolves around the titular part of the White House and the people who frequent it during the fictional presidency of Josiah Bartlet. Personal and political battles ensue as the president and his people go about their duties.
During the first season’s finale, pretty much all of the main cast visit a museum to speak in a town-hall meeting. After they exit the building, multiple gunners begin shooting. The screen goes black and a voice is heard saying, “Who’s been hit?”
11. 24
Jack Bauer has continuously thwarted conspiracies and terrorist plots aimed at the United States of America. As the Counter Terrorist Unit’s most capable agent, he’s fought against many foes from different countries, including China.
At the end of the fifth season, he and his allies manage to oust a high-ranking official for his crimes. But Jack ends up missing. The audience last sees him inside a tanker boat, badly beaten, and on his way to China to be tortured or killed.
12. Dexter
Dexter Morgan leads a secret life as a serial killer who hunts down heinous criminals who escape the criminal justice system. Season four pits him against the Trinity Killer, a murderer who hides behind the facade of a local deacon and charity leader.
In the season finale, Dexter comes home after a showdown with his target and finds the Trinity Killer’s latest victim. His wife lies dead in the bathtub, with his son bawling in a pool of blood on the floor. And of course, the audience had to wait almost a year for the next season.
13. Brooklyn Nine-Nine
In season four, the 99th precinct deals with an incompetent captain, personal drama, racism, and the threat of being closed down. Towards the end, an opportunity to join their idol’s task force comes up and Jake and Rosa compete for a spot.
However, she turns out to be a dirty cop and frames them for a bank robbery. And while they find a potential ally that could help them, he turns out to be a crook too! They’re both sentenced to 15 years in jail, and the camera zooms to a worried Jake blabbering, “cool, cool, cool…”
14. The Walking Dead
Season six finds the main cast working on expanding, securing, and making Alexandria a safe space against walkers and hostile survivors. After a series of crises, they manage to find another community that they ally with.
Unfortunately, this puts them against a large organization of hostile survivors called the Saviors, who manage to destroy Alexandria. The cast is captured by Negan, leader of the Saviors. As punishment for their actions, he bludgeons one of them (who is, of course, not revealed) to death with a wire-wrapped baseball.
15. Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks is a small quiet town in the state of Washington. That is, until the discovery of the naked corpse of homecoming queen Laura Palmer. FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper is sent in to investigate.
The second season sees Agent Cooper still in the midst of his investigation. When his girlfriend is abducted, he travels to the Black Lodge in pursuit. There, he encounters his evil doppelganger. Only one of them comes out of the lodge, swiftly revealed to be his evil counterpart. The episode ends with him smashing his head into a mirror and laughing maniacally.
While most cliffhangers are resolved in a year or two, this one took almost three decades. Due to decreasing viewership, the series was canceled in 1991, only to continue again in 2017.
What is a good cliffhanger?
A good cliffhanger heightens tension and evokes a strong desire to know what’s next. You dangle a scenario that’s just out of reach of your audience’s comprehension, leaving them with a question they’re eager to see answered.
There needs to be a balance between satisfaction and curiosity. Your viewers must feel that the ending is natural; that your characters have achieved or learned something big related to their goal. This leads to speculation on what’s next now that they’re at a critical point of the plot.
Keep in mind though, that cliffhangers are a gamble. There’s always a chance that your viewers won’t like them. Considering that they’re often used to end a story, a badly done cliffhanger might just ruin the immersion for them.
What’s your favorite cliffhanger from television? Share it in the comment section below!
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Cole is a blog writer and aspiring novelist. He has a degree in Communications and is an advocate of media and information literacy and responsible media practices. Aside from his interest in technology, crafts, and food, he’s also your typical science fiction and fantasy junkie, spending most of his free time reading through an ever-growing to-be-read list. It’s either that or procrastinating over actually writing his book. Wish him luck!
