15 Wild TV Cliffhangers That Made Viewers Wait Years To Find Out What The Hell Happened
I don't know about y'all, but I absolutely HATE that there are years between TV seasons now, which means that when there's a cliffhanger, we literally have to wait until we're in a new stage of our lives to figure out how it ended. Personally, I am currently hung up on that Severance finale.
But rest assured, in a few years time, I will be seated on the couch eagerly anticipating what happens in Season 2 of Severance — just like I was for all of these cliffhangers.
Nickelodeon
Here are 15 absolutely infuriating cliffhangers after which people had to wait years to find out what the hell happened:
1.One that personally tortured me was when Sherlock was revealed to be alive in the last moments of Season 2 of Sherlock in early 2012...
...And then we didn't get Season 3 until 2014. We had to wait TWO WHOLE YEARS to find out a) how Sherlock had survived (actually, we technically never did, we were only presented with a few scenarios...which I am still angry about), and b) to see if John and Sherlock would be reunited.
2.And of course, we have to talk about the Season 1 cliffhanger too, where Moriarty is about to kill John and Sherlock, and Sherlock is about to shoot a bomb to blow them all up.
The Season 1 finale aired in 2010, and Season 2 didn't pick up until 2012...showing that Moriarty received a call (soon revealed to be from Irene Adler) that caused him to leave, letting Sherlock and John go.
3.Hopper's death at the end of Season 3 of Stranger Things seemed pretty darn final — until the after-credits scene, when we got a hint he might actually be alive in a Russian prison...
...And then had to wait two years to find out if he actually was. I mean, technically we got an answer a bit earlier from this teaser, but still!!!
4.You tends to wrap up storylines pretty nicely at the end of each season, with one notable exception: when Candace showed up at the very end of Season 1. Yep, the same Candace we thought Joe had killed!
While the break wasn't as long as some on this list, we still had to wait over a year to find out what had happened. Turns out, Candace was back for revenge (naturally), which is why Joe had to flee to LA.
5.The Umbrella Academy's first season ended with a MAJOR cliffhanger — the world literally ended, and our heroes got out just in time...but to where, we didn't know.
We had to wait a year and a half to discover that the Umbrellas had all been separated (except for Ben and Klaus, of course, since Ben was just a ghost only Klaus could see) — and had ended up dropped in different years of the '60s.
6.Everything seemed resolved at the end of that season...until the final moments, when the Umbrellas walked into the Umbrella Academy to see a) their father was still alive, b) he didn't recognize them, c) the Umbrella Academy was now the "Sparrow" Academy, and d) Ben was alive and a Sparrow.
Season 3 quickly revealed that by meeting with their father in the past, they'd changed the future and created a timeline where Hargreeves adopted different children (except for Ben), and Ben never died...instead, growing up to be a total asshole. But we had to wait TWO YEARS to get this answer!!!
7.Dallas ran for 14 seasons from 1978–1991, and became one of the most popular shows of all time — well known for its cliffhangers (the most memorable being "who shot JR?"). It decided to end the show the same way, with JR about to shoot himself — the episode ends with a shot and Bobby running into JR's room with an expression of shock.
The cliffhanger wasn't resolved until late 1996, when reunion film Dallas: J.R. Returns aired on CBS. The TV movie revealed that JR had just shot at the mirror and was still alive. JR even returned in a second reunion film and a 2012 revival of the series.
8.ALF was similarly popular in the '80s, though not as well-known for cliffhangers...still, it decided to end its series with a big one: ALF being captured by the US Air Force.
The finale aired in 1990, and viewers got absolutely no resolution to this major cliffhanger until a made-for-TV movie in 1996 called Project ALF, which followed ALF as a prisoner (albeit a cushy one). By the end of the film, he actually becomes an ambassador to Earth. This TV finale was disappointing to many, not only because it came so late, but also because the Tanners — the other main characters of the sitcom — weren't even in the film.
9.Westworld Season 1 went out with a bang — literally. Dolores shot and killed her creator, Dr. Ford, and the other board members. And she wasn't the only one to leave things on a dramatic note — we were left not knowing for sure if Stubbs or the Man in Black survived, and we also saw Maeve change her mind about escaping and go back for her daughter.
Westworld's finale aired in 2016 – and Season 2 didn't pick up where things left off until 2018, 16 months later, showing Delores now going around killing guests.
10.Better Call Saul Season 3 ended with Chuck kicking a lantern onto the floor and his house beginning to go up in flames...and then we didn't figure out what happened for over a year, when Season 4 finally revealed that Chuck had died.
11.Breaking Bad also ended its third season with a cliffhanger — whether or not Jesse killed Gale (though this is contested by series creator Vince Gilligan, who meant for the murder to be clear...but admitted that the whole episode was riddled with open ends, such as Walt's life being in the balance). We don't get confirmation Gale has died — or a resolution to Walt being held at the laundromat about to be killed — until over a year later, in 2011.
12.The Boys Season 1 ended with the shocking reveal that Billy's wife Becca — along with her son with Homelander, Ryan — was actually alive. And Homelander now knew about it!
13.We then had to wait over a year to see how Billy got out of that one, and even longer to get Becca and Ryan's full story. And then at the end of that season, we got yet another cliffhanger, again in the last few moments — this time, that Victoria Neuman was the head-exploder from the season...right before Hughie asks her for a job.
14.This one *might* be cheating, because if you don't read comics, you never got any resolution...but no one can deny that Angel's series finale ended on possibly the biggest cliffhanger any TV show has ever had. Los Angeles is being sent straight to hell, Gunn is badly injured, Wes is dead, and the rest of the characters are facing an army of monsters and villains, including a literal dragon. And then the show just ends!!!!
This was in 2004, and fans got absolutely no resolution until Angel: After the Fall was released in 2007. In case you don't know, those comics revealed that Gunn had become a vampire, Wes was stuck working for Wolfram and Hart in the afterlife, and Angel had actually befriended the dragon he fought.
Also, in case you're as distraught over Fred's death a few episodes earlier as I was, I am happy to tell you that Fred and Illyria eventually separate and Fred comes back!!! The same can't be said for Cordy, though — from what I read, she appears in a vision to Angel once and that's about it.
15.And finally, we'd be remiss not to mention what is possibly the longest fans have ever waited for a resolution — I am referring, of course, to Twin Peaks, which ended with a major cliffhanger in 1991 that was not picked up again until the third season in 2017, 26 years later. The Season 2 finale in 1991 ended with the reveal that it was Cooper's doppelgänger controlled by BOB, not Cooper, who had come back from the Black Lodge.
Season 3, which aired in 2017, revealed that Cooper was still stuck in the Black Lodge and his doppelgänger (with BOB within him) had been living in his place the whole time.
