# Worst final episodes **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 31, 2016, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-final-episodes/764562 "2016-08-31T14:11:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-final-episodes/764562/41 "2016-08-31T22:19:58Z")
> [@Lochdale](#): > > Sam was controlling his own leaps and kept doing it because he was an altruistic guy. That’s just who the character was and that’s why he could never leap home. That goes without saying. My point is, altruistic or not, how did he choose where and when (and whom) to leap to? Or when to leap out? (Regarding the latter question, I’m mainly thinking of episodes like “How the Tess Was Won,” when he didn’t leap after successfully matching up the vet and the cowgirl, because he had one other task that Ziggy didn’t predict; and “Honeymoon Express,” when he didn’t leap after saving his bride’s life, because his real purpose was to make sure she passed the bar exam.) ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-final-episodes/764562/42 "2016-08-31T22:37:58Z")
The first final episode of Magnum was pretty good (for a finale). Magnum dies, show over, but he gets to go out doing one final good thing. And Higgins is still yelling at him! The second final episode tied up a bunch of loose ends, but left more hanging. Plus the stupid slapstick wedding of Rick and some bimbo. While Magnum’s finale(s) were not as bad as some of these mentioned, they should have just ended the show with Limbo. ---
**Author:** ![black\_rainbow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d26b3c/32.png) [@black\_rainbow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/black_rainbow)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-final-episodes/764562/43 "2016-08-31T23:01:55Z")
Mad about you. I hate that Paul and Jamie got divorced. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-final-episodes/764562/44 "2016-08-31T23:15:45Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > Those two are in my bottom ten, too…Which happens to be the number of episodes I skipped when rewatching recently - the two I mentioned, those two, Charlie X, The Empath, Friday’s Child, And the Children Shall Lead, and Elaan of Troyius…so my bottom ten annoy me so much I couldn’t even sit through them again. \<\_\< But…but…_Friday’s Child_ had Julie Newmar in it, so it can’t be all bad. And it had one of Bones’s best lines: “I’m a doctor, not an escalator!” ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-final-episodes/764562/45 "2016-08-31T23:25:34Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > A bit unfair, as the final episode of _St. Elsewhere_ was in 1988. The dream thing hadn’t been done to death at that time, and when it was done, it was like\* Dallas\*, a big fat reset button that allowed the show to escape from its own problem. “It was all a dream” was hackneyed and clichéd by 1900. People were advising writers to avoid it when I started writing in 1981. That said, the ending of _St. Elsewhere_ is not “It was all a dream.” ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-final-episodes/764562/46 "2016-08-31T23:52:19Z")
> [@black\_rainbow](#): > > Mad about you. I hate that Paul and Jamie got divorced. Not to mention that thanks to her Idiot Sister, Jamie gets Paul to have a vasectomy, then get it reversed, then reverses the reverse…something like six times. :smack: I’m reminded of when Helen Hunt won the Best Actress Oscar for _As Good As It Gets_, during the post-ceremony press conference, some reporter asks her if the cancellation of MAY was due to the quality of the writing in the last season. She stares at the guy for five cringe-worthy seconds, then sets phasers on Snark and shoots: "Well, y’know, I had a hand in the writing in the final season, so _maybe I’m the reason the show tanked!!"_ Little defensive there, Hel? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-final-episodes/764562/47 "2016-08-31T23:58:34Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > And I think Battlestar Galactica’s final episode is a masterpiece. When Brother Cavil, the antagonist throughout pretty much the entire series, just decided to suck on a handgun, I just threw up my hands in my living room and went, “Oh, c’mon.” Seriously, if that has to be the end of all Brother Cavils, at least let him try to take Adama out, something, something IN CHARACTER. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2016, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-final-episodes/764562/48 "2016-09-01T00:04:34Z")
_Dinosaurs._ Armageddon actually comes. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2016, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-final-episodes/764562/49 "2016-09-01T00:34:09Z")
The final episode of _The Big Bang Theory_ was bit of a let-down. I mean, the series had been in serious decline for several seasons, sharks lying about everywhere, but they there were still possibilities. It was just sad. What? ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2016, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-final-episodes/764562/50 "2016-09-01T01:04:12Z")
Agree about Quantum Leap. So Sam just keeps leaping forever after fixing the life of the one person he cares about, Al? What about HIS WIFE? When does he go back and fix her life so she never met the selfish prick who abandoned her to hop through time forever? ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2016, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-final-episodes/764562/51 "2016-09-01T01:09:17Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > The final episode of _The Big Bang Theory_ was bit of a let-down. I mean, the series had been in serious decline for several seasons, sharks lying about everywhere, but they there were still possibilities. It was just sad. > > What? Maybe a woosh but big bang theory is still ongoing. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2016, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-final-episodes/764562/52 "2016-09-01T01:21:19Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > She should have just shot Stroh as well. Would have saved us all his story arc angst, and also save us Other Sharon, aka Rusty’s drug-addicted “mom”. Who, for some unfathomable reason, Rader wants Rusty to spend more time with, and help her raise her baby! Like Rusty had such a good childhood, yea, he knows how to raise a kid. > > They should just called major Crimes “The Rusty Show”. Rusty is Raydor’s Kitty. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2016, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-final-episodes/764562/53 "2016-09-01T13:45:28Z")
The Sopranos last episode was brilliant. I truly don’t understand the hatred. Seinfeld, on the other hand. . … ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2016, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-final-episodes/764562/54 "2016-09-01T13:54:39Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > Agree about Quantum Leap. So Sam just keeps leaping forever after fixing the life of the one person he cares about, Al? > What about HIS WIFE? When does he go back and fix her life so she never met the selfish prick who abandoned her to hop through time forever? “God” told him that everything up to that point had essentially been training, and he was now ready to take on the (much more difficult) real work. And, gave him the option of going home, or going on. He either continues to fix lives and history, or died trying. I don’t have a problem with that ending, even if it was Brother D-Day playing God. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2016, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-final-episodes/764562/55 "2016-09-01T14:39:31Z")
NO one has mentioned the last episode of “True Blood”??? The last season, all the episodes were just awful. The last episode was truly despicable. I won’t give any details in case someone wants to watch it and be surprised, but…I didn’t feel any emotion over what happened. None. And the last scene - WTH, who WAS that guy? I suppose not germaine to the story which went ahead a couple of years?..the best thing about it was a Led Zep song, ‘Thank You’. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2016, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-final-episodes/764562/56 "2016-09-01T14:54:39Z")
It’s kind of hilarious that Bakula-headlined projects made the shortlist twice. (And, yes, while plenty has been said so far about QUANTUM LEAP, it’s true that ENTERPRISE got a lot better in its final season before that wretched finale.) ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2016, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-final-episodes/764562/57 "2016-09-01T15:03:09Z")
It’s a murkier question, but I wonder how many series have been started with any kind of ending at all in mind? And of those that perhaps had a conclusion sketched out, how many made it to the goal, either at all or without changes? There aren’t many _Babylon 5_’s out there, which reportedly was sold on the strength of its final scenes (“And now we’ll spend five years getting there” JMS reportedly said.) I’m not even sure shows with an obvious ending like ST:V had one in mind at the beginning. Even shows that plan to build to a fixed ending over four or five years often blow it; see _Battlestar Galactica_. Most shows can’t handle more than a season arc and one ep or a mini-arc that sets up the next season. Many of those don’t even try. So there’s either no final episode worthy of the name, or it’s something cobbled together in a panic and you end up with a… _Sopranos_, or _Friends_, or _St. Elsewhere_, or even a _BSG_. If not a \*Prisoner \*because the adults have left and the inmates are running the asylum. ETA: I thought I had a closing point to make, but I was wrong. CUE THE MONKEYS AND THE SHAVING CREAM! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2016, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-final-episodes/764562/58 "2016-09-01T15:10:08Z")
The problem with the final episode of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER – uh, spoilers, I guess? Kinda figure that’d be implied in this thread – is that they _obviously_ had the finale planned from way back when they had the kids film it, because they weren’t going to still _be_ kids years and years and years later when he finally finished telling the story and they can finally tell him what they think of it. Which means, to use that ending, they couldn’t ask during the last season _hey, should we rethink this? This would’ve been great if we’d been cancelled in another season, but now we’re at a place where – no? We’re sticking with the footage we filmed way back when? Uh, okay._ ---
**Author:** ![Greathouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greathouse/32/2992_2.png) [@Greathouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greathouse)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2016, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-final-episodes/764562/59 "2016-09-01T15:20:53Z")
I felt completely let down and pissed off by the way Mad Men ended. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2016, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-final-episodes/764562/60 "2016-09-01T15:48:48Z")
> [@Greathouse](#): > > I felt completely let down and pissed off by the way Mad Men ended. Eh? Mad Men is on my list of one of the best final episodes. Then again, I kind of like Seinfeld’s finale. But I also saw it as the creators being somewhat horrified that people were idolizing the characters (and I know plenty of people who did back in the 90s) when they were the most self-centered, shallowest group of people ever. The finale was, in part I think, to hammer home, these aren’t good people (kind of like what the creators of the Sopranos had to do with Tony in the last season)! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-final-episodes/764562.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-final-episodes/764562.md?page=4)