# Best and Worst final episodes. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 20, 2002, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-final-episodes/109920 "2002-05-20T08:12:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2002, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-final-episodes/109920/41 "2002-05-22T02:29:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MyFootsZZZ \* > \*\*Do we really need the spoiler boxes for these?? > Maybe I’m just mad because I don’t know how to do those… > Could anyone relieve me of my rage!? > > PLEASE ☹ \*\* But don’t they look cool? Hell, I don’t mind seeing 'em all over the place. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Green\_Fool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@Mr.Green\_Fool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Green_Fool)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2002, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-final-episodes/109920/42 "2002-05-22T02:54:25Z")
There’s two ways of looking at the Quantam Leap finale. Sam never makes it home-the touching ending. He keeps leaping forever setting things right. An angel helping the world be just a little better. Sam never makes it home-the tragic ending. By saving Al’s first marriage, he deprives himself of Al as his guide and Sam stumbles around forever in other people’s lives never ever understanding his purpose. ---
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2002, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-final-episodes/109920/43 "2002-05-22T02:55:07Z")
Thanks **quar** , appreciate it. ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2002, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-final-episodes/109920/44 "2002-05-22T03:18:30Z")
No one mentioned the finale of Ellen, or whatever Ellen DeGeneris’s first show was called? Now that was a bad ending. Basically, instead of doing a real finale, they did a documentary style retrospective of Ellen’s career, starting with her vaudeville act in the 1930’s, and including other such foolishness. ---
**Author:** ![TheTailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f0a364/32.png) [@TheTailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheTailor)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2002, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-final-episodes/109920/45 "2002-05-22T04:11:16Z")
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge Trek fan, but I have to disagree with the posts so far: TNG- a good story, bringing the Q thread full circle, and making Picard the center of the story was great… But the gaping wide plot holes? If Q hadn’t sent him skipping through time to begin with, the anti-time anomaly would never have opened at all. VOY- While I conced it was a bit contrived, it gave us something Voyager had a lot of trouble doing, and that was generating emotional investment by the audience. The story was rather suspenseful, and you felt for the characters, at least somewhat. DS9- It bowed out in the true spirit of the show. It was open-ended. It wasn’t tied up in a neat little bow with everything solved and concluded. It’s even spawned a continuation through novels, which, if you loved DS9, you should really pick up. This show gets my vote for one of the best final episodes of all time. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2002, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-final-episodes/109920/46 "2002-05-22T05:29:35Z")
In the cooling tower of a nuclear power plant, hot water is piped into the base, and it heats the surrounding air. The air rises through expansion, creating a gigantic updraft which carries the heat in the piping away. Standing inside one of these cooling towers is like being in the maw of a gigantic vacuum cleaner. The last episode of **The X-Files** sucked harder than that. ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2002, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-final-episodes/109920/47 "2002-05-22T06:59:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mr. Green Fool \* > \*\*There’s two ways of looking at the Quantam Leap finale. > > Sam never makes it home-the touching ending. He keeps leaping forever setting things right. An angel helping the world be just a little better. > Sam never makes it home-the tragic ending. By saving Al’s first marriage, he deprives himself of Al as his guide and Sam stumbles around forever in other people’s lives never ever understanding his purpose. \*\* Except that A: Ahere’s no evidence that saving Al’s marriage would deprive Sam of his guidance. Al was a career navy man who oversaw the Quantum Leap project as his main duty as a Navy Admiral. Even with his marriage saved, there’s no reason to believe he wouldn’t continue his Navy career. B: There was an episode in which Sam is deprived of Al’s guidance (Al is convicted of a crime while in the Naval Academy), and he was instantly replaced by another contact, played by Roddy MacDowell. If Al is gone, the timeline changes so that Sam has another contact. C: One of the revelations of the final episode is that Sam can control his own leaping, and has always had this ability, but never knew it. He no longer needs a guide. I also think the finale of _The Prisoner_ is pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2002, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-final-episodes/109920/48 "2002-05-22T09:55:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TheTailor \* > \*\*Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge Trek fan, but I have to disagree with the posts so far: > > TNG- a good story, bringing the Q thread full circle, and making Picard the center of the story was great… But the gaping wide plot holes? If Q hadn’t sent him skipping through time to begin with, the anti-time anomaly would never have opened at all. > \*\* I never viewed it as a plot hole. That’s just Q playing with the humans. ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2002, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-final-episodes/109920/49 "2002-05-22T11:38:27Z")
Yeah. Why must you be so _linear_, TheTailor? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Odieman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a87d85/32.png) [@Odieman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odieman)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2002, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-final-episodes/109920/50 "2002-05-22T13:37:45Z")
Best: St Elsewhere…it was so totally unexpected (the show was the imaginings of an autistic child)\> Worst by a landslide: Seinfeld…a big f you to all it’s loyal fans. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2002, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-final-episodes/109920/51 "2002-05-22T16:15:17Z")
> [@](#): > > No, no. The worst series finale ever was Quantum Leap. I mean, just text on the screen telling us, “Sam never made it home”? What the hell kind of conclusion is that?! The kind that left many, many of us in hopes (some of us still :)) of _Quantum Leap_ movies. That said, like **Mr. Green Fool** said, you can take the notion in a positive light. (But then, I’m the guy who argues that _American Beauty_ has a happy ending, so what can you say?) > [@](#): > > Best: St Elsewhere…it was so totally unexpected (the show was the imaginings of an autistic child)\> I’d have to say _that_ sure as hell deserved a spoiler tag. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-final-episodes/109920.md?page=2)