TV’s 30+ Best Cliffhangers of All Time From Buffy, Friends, Grey’s Anatomy, Twin Peaks, Severance, Soap and More

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“To be continued…” Do any three words in the English language elicit as big and dramatic a reaction from TV fans as those? We think not.

Done right, a season-ending cliffhangernot only leaves an audience screaming at the screen, it can leave us dangling from the edge of our seats for what seems like — and sometimes is! — an eternity until the beginning of the next season.

ALIAS

Viewers were as stunned as our heroine to find out at the end of Season 2’s finale that, after her fight to the death with Francie’s doppelganger, Sydney was waking up in Hong Kong… and had been missing for two years… and during that time, Vaughn had gotten married! — Charlie Mason

BETTER CALL SAUL

AMC’s Breaking Bad prequel had its share of shocks, but none hit harder than the Season 6 midseason finale, which saw Howard confront Jimmy and Kim about their scamming — only to have murderous cartel thug Lalo march in and kill Howard right in front of them. Thankfully, we only had to wait a couple months to see how Jimmy and Kim made it out of there alive. — Ryan Schwartz

BREAKING BAD

This was not the reading material Hank anticipated when he sat down to relieve himself in the Season 5A finale. Once the DEA agent picked up a copy of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass and saw that it was dedicated to Gale’s “other favorite W.W.,” he knew that his own brother-in-law, Walter White, was meth kingpin Heisenberg!

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER

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As her epitaph read, “She saved the world. A lot.” But the Chosen One never did so more selflessly than at the end of Season 5, when she took a fatal leap into an inter-dimensional portal to prevent hell god Glory’s apocalyptic ritual from being completed. — C.M.

DALLAS

All the world developed big-bang theories about whodunit after J.R. Ewing was shot in the closing moments of the primetime soap’s third season. For the record, it was the villain’s sister-in-law/mistress Kristin Shepard who’d pulled the trigger. (But you knew that!) — C.M.

DEXTER

After Dexter emerged victorious in his battle with the Trinity Killer, he fantasized about a life without his Dark Passenger. Fat chance. In Season 4’s last moments, Dex arrived home to find that the Trinity Killer had murdered his wife Rita before Dexter had finally silenced him. That heartbreaking image of Rita floating in crimson bath water was forever etched into our TV-loving brains. — Nick Caruso

DYNASTY

The primetime soap went as big as its hair and shoulder pads with its Season 5 finale, in which Amanda’s wedding to Moldavia’s Prince Michael was crashed by terrorists. But when the smoke cleared in Season 6’s premiere, the only actual casualties of the massacre turned out to be a couple of relatively minor plus-ones. — C.M.

FELICITY

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In the summer of 1999, our country was bitterly divided: Do you think Felicity went on a road trip with Ben, or to Berlin with Noel? The freshman finale of The WB’s college drama left us dangling, with Felicity getting in a cab headed… somewhere. (We even tried to read her lips!) Four long months later, in the Season 2 premiere, we learned that Felicity chose Ben. Sorry, #TeamNoel. — Dave Nemetz

FRIENDS

“I do… not believe we have to wait until Season 5 to find out what happens next!” cried fans when “The One With Ross’ Wedding” ended with the groom saying “I take thee, Rachel” instead of “I take thee, Emily.” — C.M.

FRINGE

In the Fox drama’s May 2009 Season 1 finale, what was possibly more thrilling than putting a face to the enigmatic William Bell, and having it be of sci-fi icon Leonard Nimoy? How about having Bell play a role in our Olivia’s realization that in the other universe, the Twin Towers are still intact! — Matt Webb Mitovich

GAME OF THRONES

Not only did the HBO drama knock us off our seats by killing off Jon Snow in the last seconds of Season 5, it made us wait until the second episode of Season 6 — nearly a year later! — to reveal that Melisandre would manage to resurrect him! — C.M.

THE GOOD PLACE

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NBC’s divine comedy forked with Eleanor and her pals — oh, and us! — in a big way when it revealed in its Season 1 finale that the Good Place was actually (gasp!) the Bad Place, then let Michael erase that knowledge from their memories! — C.M.

GREY’S ANATOMY

We nearly flatlined right along with Izzie and George when the ABC drama left not one but two of its most beloved young doctors knocking on death’s (elevator) door at the conclusion of Season 5. — C.M.

HACKS

None of Ava and Deborah’s drama could top the Season 3 finale, which saw the young writer blackmailing her boss to secure the head writer position she was initially promised. Ava threatened the comic with a damning bit of info — that Deb had slept with a key network head before landing her hosting gig. The tension was so thick, we’re shocked no one got slapped… again. — Nick Caruso

JANE THE VIRGIN

As Season 4 drew to a close, the titular protagonist arrived at Rafael’s expecting to get a proposal. Instead, she got the shock of her life when her baby daddy revealed that her “late” husband Michael was alive. “Surprise!” said the narrator. “Dios mio!” we replied. — C.M.

KNOTS LANDING

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The Dallas spinoff’s nail-biter of a Season 5 finale not only brought to a head the explosive Wolfbridge Group story arc, it left Karen knocking on heaven’s door after taking a bullet meant for Gary, and Abby being kidnapped by her villainous former partner in crime, Mark St. Claire. — C.M.

LOST

Our heads spun when the trippy ABC drama’s Season 3 finale revealed that the flashbacks in “Through the Looking Glass” were actually — whoa — flash-forwards. — C.M.

MARVEL’S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.

We were well prepared for the MCU-adjacent ABC series’ Season 6 finale to set up its farewell run. But nothing could have prepared us for 1) Gemma saying she “can’t know” where an MIA Fitz is; 2) the final season being set in 1931; and 3) LMD Coulson! — M.W.M.

MELROSE PLACE

Kimberly Shaw’s mental unraveling peaked at the end of Season 3, paving the way for a literally explosive cliffhanger. Fueled by jealousy and hatred, Kimberly rigged the entire apartment complex to go kablooey. While we didn’t see the bomb’s destruction until Season 4, the finale ended with a detonator and a promise: “It’s not what it looks like… it’s worse!” — N.C.

NCIS

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In one of TV’s most brutal death scenes, the sniper shot that took out Special Agent Caitlin Todd — mere seconds after a Kevlar vest saved her from a point-blank pistol — left fans shook and wondering how Season 3 would pick up the pieces. Of their hearts. — M.W.M.

SEVERANCE

The Apple TV+ thriller’s freshman run wrapped up with a killer twist: Mark and his pals were able to switch back to their Innie selves in the outside world, where Mark discovered that his dead wife Gemma — was actually Lumon wellness counselor Ms. Casey! He yelled out, “She’s alive!”… only to cruelly switch back to his Outie self. (And then we had to wait three years to find out what happened next.) — D.N.

SHERLOCK

Sure, “The Reichenbach Fall,” with which the PBS/Masterpiece drama ended Season 2, let us know that the great detective hadn’t really committed suicide. But it dropped nary a clue about how he’d survived or would reclaim his life! — C.M.

THE SIMPSONS

The animated series hit the bull’s eye when it aimed to create some hoopla — much like “Who shot J.R.?” — at the end of Season 6. All summer long, fans waited and speculated before learning that miserly Mr. Burns had been gunned down by little Maggie while taking candy from the baby. — C.M.

SOAP

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Though a fifth season of the soap-opera spoof was planned, ABC washed its hands of it after Season 4, leaving us to wonder whether trouble magnet Jessica Tate had survived her close encounter with a Communist firing squad until an episode of spinoff Benson two years later. — C.M.

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION

Trekkers lost theiractualminds when Season 3 left off with Captain Picard having been assimilated into the Borg’shivemind. As if those straits weren’t dire enough, “The Best of Both Worlds” concluded with Riker ordering Worf to fire on the enemy. — C.M.

SUCCESSION

Kendall Roy was often a punching bag for his tyrannical dad Logan on HBO’s corporate drama, but at the end of Season 2, he decided to punch back, going to the press with evidence of a massive scandal that threatened Logan’s status as CEO. Would Kendall’s ploy work? Would his siblings take his side? What did Logan’s wry smile mean? We wouldn’t know until Season 3 debuted two years later. — D.N.

SUPERNATURAL

With 15 seasons under its belt, the WB/CW drama gave us plenty of chilling cliffhangers to choose from; our favorite, though, was the introduction of Demon Dean (or “Deanmon”) in the closing seconds of Season 9. Resurrected by the Mark of Cain, a previously very dead Dean Winchester was brought back as the very thing he and Sam had spent years hunting, and the reveal of Dean’s coal-black demon eyes set viewers up for a painfully long summer hiatus. — Rebecca Luther

TWIN PEAKS

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The Season 2 and then-series finale left viewers shocked and uncomfortable as humanly possible, trapping Dale Cooper in the supernatural black lodge while his bloody evil doppelganger headbutted mirrors in the real world. But hey, at least there was time to theorize — it took 26 years to find out what happens next inTwin Peaks: The Return! — Jason Averett

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES

Every so often, a TV show will introduce a twist so crazy that you can’t help but wonder where things could possibly go from there. For The Vampire Diaries, that twist came in the closing moments of the Season 3 finale, when Nina Dobrev’s Elena woke up in the hospital… as a vampire! The episode ended with Elena gasping herself back to life, which is pretty much how the show’s fans spent their entire summer as they waited to see what would happen next. — Andy Swift

THE WALKING DEAD

The Season 6 finale proved to be as polarizing as Negan, the Big Bad that it introduced. Was it cruel or brilliant of the AMC drama to make us wait all summer to discover whom he’d whacked with his “vampire bat,” Lucille? Our take: It was a little of both. — C.M.

THE WEST WING

“Who’s been hit? Who’s been hit?” asked a Secret Service agent over the radio after the NBC drama went out with a bang — several, actually — at the end of its freshman season. Come fall, we learned that President Bartlet and Josh had both been shot. — C.M.

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