History Main / CliffhangerCopout

*** Season 6 premiere: [[spoiler: [[AvertedTrope Garcia, Clementine, and Kimball are all dead.]]]]

*** Season 6 premiere: [[AvertedTrope Garcia, Clementine, and Kimball are all dead.]]

** Well, lets be honest though; Peter at that point was so haxxed that Hiro did'nt have much of a chance in a fight. A lot of people probably realised that the cliffhanger was'nt setting up an epic fight between a guy with a sword and a guy with an [[HealingFactor Accelerated Healing Factor]], SuperStrength, {{Flight}}, {{Invisibility}}, Telekinesis and the ability to turn into a ''nuclear weapon''.

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Can be frequently be observed in old [[FilmSerial Film Serials]] of the 1940s and the like before television, as the quote at the top of the page might suggest.

* ''The Purple Monster Strikes'' (Republic, 1945) has quite a few of these, but the most insulting is the cliffhanger in which: A bomb is wired to an electric eye in a doorway, with the LoveInterest tied up inside. TheHero arrives, and we ''clearly see him'' step into the electric eye, which triggers the 5-second timer and the building blows up. In the next episode, we're shown that the DistressedDamsel manages to ''warn'' the Hero ''just before'' he steps into the electric eye, and he then ''jumps over it''. A moment later, once safely out of the building, he turns and shoots a {{Mook}} back in the building, and ''he'' falls into the electric eye and sets off the bomb. Cop out, indeed.

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* Issue 24 of {{Runaways}}. The kids have finally dragged Chase back, they've beaten their foes once and for all, and they're tired and weary as they arrive home... To find Iron Man and a bunch of mooks waiting. In Issue 25, they begin by... Meeting with the Kingpin.

* The ''{{Batman}}'' [[FilmSerial cliffhanger serials]] of the 1940s were very much guilty of this time and time again. For instance, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7SyRZlsbP8 Chapter 13, "Eight Steps Down,"]] ends with Batman stuck in a DeathTrap where spiked walls are closing in on him which is cut away from just before the walls are about to crush our hero with no hope in sight for rescue. Then, the beginning of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muRg_TGzCqs Chapter 14, "The Executioner Strikes,"]] shows Robin appearing ''much earlier'' during the same scene with more than enough time to slip Batman a crowbar to brace the walls moving in. In turn, the conclusion of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tld8Tm9mt8 Chapter 14]] shows Batman locked in a box and dropped in an alligator pit only for [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbCRVZCCC_g the next chapter]] to show that Robin managed to break Batman free in secret much earlier and replace him with a hapless [[{{Mooks}} mook]].

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* A season finale of ThirdRockFromTheSun involved Harry being kidnapped by a deranged man played by Phil Hartman. By the time the next season started, [[RealLifeWritesThePlot Phil wasn't with us anymore.]] The show had no choice but to gloss over the circumstances of Harry's kidnapping with no real resolution.

-> ''"The bad guy stuck him in a car on a mountain road and knocked him out and welded the door shut and tore out the brakes and started him to his death, and he woke up and tried to steer and tried to get out, but the car went off a cliff before he could escape! And it crashed and burned, and I was so upset and excited, and the next week, you better believe I was first in line. And they always start with the end of the last week. And there was Rocketman, trying to get out, and here comes the cliff, and just before the car went off the cliff, he jumped free! And all the kids cheered! But I didn't cheer. I stood right up and started shouting, 'This isn't what happened last week! Have you all got amnesia? They just cheated us! This isn't fair! '''HE DIDN'T GET OUT OF THE COCK-A-DOODIE CAR!''''"''

* This was so common in the ''UnderseaKingdom'' serial that TheOtherWiki [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undersea_Kingdom#Cliffhangers keeps a list of these.]] When [[MST3K Joel and the Bots]] watched the first two chapters in the serial where the cliffhanger saw Crash and Billy trapped on top of a cliff while it collapses underneath them from missile fire and the following installment shows Crash and Billy climbing back down from the cliff before the collapse. This prompted Tom Servo to [[ShoutOut reference]] the line from ''{{Misery}}'', "How did they get off the cock-a-doodie cliff? This is ''wrong!''"

* This was so common in the ''UnderseaKingdom'' serial that TheOtherWiki [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undersea_Kingdom#Cliffhangers keeps a list of them.]] When [[MST3K Joel and the Bots]] watched the first two chapters in the serial where the cliffhanger saw Crash and Billy trapped on top of a cliff while it collapses underneath them from missile fire and the following installment shows Crash and Billy climbing back down from the cliff before the collapse. This prompted Tom Servo to [[ShoutOut reference]] the line from ''{{Misery}}'', "How did they get off the cock-a-doodie cliff? This is ''wrong!''"

* Episode Two in the first season of ''TwinPeaks'' ends with Agent Cooper having a dream from which he learns the identity of [[MysteryArc who killed Laura Palmer]]. Cooper immediately wakes up from the dream to call up Sheriff Truman that he knows who the murderer is but teases that the answer could "wait 'till morning." Come the next episode that takes place that following morning, Cooper recaps all the events from the dream that ended with Laura Palmer whispering the name of her killer in his ear. Then, once he's asked who the killer is, Cooper nonchalantly responds "I don't remember."

* ''RockyAndBullwinkle'' did this all the time, but let's face it, any continuity on those shows was [[RuleOfFunny purely by accident]].

* A number of cliffhangers on ''{{Heroes}}'' would pique viewers' interest that one thing would happen and then would give them something entirely different. The episode "Truth & Consequences" from Volume 2, for example, ends with Hiro charging at Peter, who refuses to believe Hiro's claims that Adam Monroe is dangerous and is even willing to protect him, suggesting that the two characters were going to fight each other. The beginning of the following episode, "Powerless," shows Hiro, after his charge, deciding to just teleport around Peter and try and talk to him some more to convince him that Adam is evil.
* The original ''DoctorWho'' programme did this many times. The most famous is probably from "Dragonfire," in which The Doctor dangles himself over a precipice because the episode was coming to an end, and just...climbs out of it next episode.

* The season 2 finale of ''RedDwarf'' ended with [[MrSeahorse Lister becoming pregnant]], this was briefly explained in the season 3 premier as part of a wall of UnreadablyFastText. Season 6 ended with the entire crew aboard Starbug as it was destroyed by their future selves, a quick gag at the beginning of season 7 reveals that this caused a paradox that hit the ResetButton.

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