History Main / WhatNowEnding

[[folder:Comicbooks]]
* ''LeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' ended Volume 2 with two main characters dead, one character quitting in outrage at a morally dodgy solution to the BigBad, and the remaining two characters in an awkward state of post-romance and deciding to go their separate ways.

* ''Series/{{Torchwood}}:

* ''Series/TheSarahConnorChronicles'' second season ends with one of these, which is made even worse since the series has been ScrewedByTheNetwork.

* {{Police Procedural}}s, such as ''LawAndOrder'' and ''{{CSI}}'' tend to have these.

* Not a season finale, but ''WesternAnimation/AvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'' ends its Secret Invasion arc with [[spoiler: the Avengers preventing Queen Veranke from taking over the Earth, then left to reflect on what they've lost during the invasion: Black Panther ''still'' feels too wary of an alien among the team to return to America. The Skrulls had Hulk jailed for a crime he didn't commit. One of the invaders framed Captain America, on international television, of supporting a surrender to the Skrulls. Finally, Lord knows how many aliens still need capturing...]]

* ''Series/TheOthers'' ended its first and only season with the entire cast apparently dead thanks to the machinations of an evil force. A cryptic comment by Einer as he dies points to the possibility that, had the series been renewed, the whole thing might have turned out to be a [[ThantosGambit complex]] [[MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning plan]].

* ''Film/ZeroDarkThirty''. Maya finally gets Osama bin Laden, but she's literally spent much of her adult life (so far) pursuing one man in a decade long search that saw several of her friends killed, involved ''very'' questionable ethics, and bad intelligence that lead nowhere. It's played with a bit literally, when the C-130 pilot in charge of transporting her asks where she wants to go. She can't answer.

[[folder:Film]]

* The LiveActionAdaptation of ''{{Devilman}}'' ends with [[spoiler:both hero and villain dying]]... ''after'' the ApocalypseHow. [[KillEmAll Cue the last two living named characters]] climbing to the surface, surrounded by SceneryGorn.
* The ending of ''[[WesternAnimation/NIne 9]]'' combines this with a slight {{Gainax Ending}}. The Fabrication Machine has been destroyed for good, and the souls of the deceased stitchpunks have been freed, and have brought rain with microbes in it, and... the survivors are left standing there in the rain. 7 wonders about the future, and 9 makes a vague comment about it.

* The last scene of ''FindingNemo'' shows Gill and the other aquarium fish [[spoiler:successfully escaping through the window and across the street in plastic bags as they had originally planned. However, they realize that they [[DidntThinkThisThrough have no plan for getting out of the plastic bags]], leaving them [[FridgeHorror stuck in there, floating around in the harbor]], prompting one of them to ask "Now what?".]]

[[folder:Videogames]]

* ''TheXFiles'' ended its fifth season with the titular department closed and Mulder and Scully reassigned. TheMovie picked up with this, ending when Mulder and Scully's adventure leads to the re-opening of the X-files, but, surprisingly, when the sixth season starts, though the department is open, Mulder and Scully haven't been returned to it.

* The season 5 finale of ''HighlanderTheSeries'' ends with [[spoiler: Richie [[DroppedABridgeOnHim dead at Duncan's hand]], and Duncan abandoning his katana and walking off into the night.]]
* ''TheWire'' season 3: Stringer is dead, Avon Barksdale along with the rest of his crew other than Bodie and Slim Charles are in prison, [=McNulty=] decides to quit Major Case Squad and become a beat cop, Colvin is forced to retire and Hamsterdam is torn down.
* ''{{Smallville}}'' season 2: While this is very much a CliffHanger for Lex, for Clark it's a "What Now?" Ending to a T - he's [[spoiler: destroyed his only link to Jor-El, directly causing his mother to lose her baby]], alienated Lana and Chloe, and is in so much emotional turmoil that he ends the season riding away from [[CityOfAdventure Smallville]] [[NotHimself self-medicated]] on [[GRatedDrug Red Kryptonite]]. The next season premiere picks up months later.
* ''TheSarahConnorChronicles'' second season ends with one of these, which is made even worse since the series has been ScrewedByTheNetwork.
* ''Series/{{Torchwood}}: Children of Earth'' has [[spoiler:a major character dead, Torchwood non-existent and Jack having left Earth]].

* Much like the Captain Power example above, SpaceAboveAndBeyond ended its first and only season with two members of the 58th squadron safe and sound, two more in the cockpit of a transport falling toward a planet with one of them already unconscious from a head wound, and the fifth one most definitely dead after the wreck of a destroyed enemy fighter hits him head on. Meanwhile, Earth's attempt to strike the enemy homeworld ended in disastrous failure, and we've just learned that their genocidal war might have been provoked by a human corporation that knowingly treaded all over their holy ground. With or without a second season, it was decidedly downbeat and any sense of victory was pretty small-scale.

* ''{{Friends}}'' had its second season conclude with Monica breaking up with Richard while Chandler gets back together with Janice after falling in love with her for real, with the following season picked up a few months later. Notably for being the only time a What Now? conclusion was used rather than an outright cliffhanger that had to be immediately resolved next season.
* ''{{Frasier}}'' had its fifth season end with Frasier accidentally getting the entire staff at the radio station he worked for fired.

* ''VideoGame/HaloReach'' first ends like this with Noble 6 shooting down the Covenant cruiser from the ground and watching the Pillar of Autumn escape into space, leaving him/her presumably the last living human on Reach. It's then subverted with a PlayableEpilogue as TheStinger, in which [[spoiler:you are swarmed by an endless horde of enemies to fight to the last bullet.]]

* The ''[[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick Order of the Stick]]'' Azure City arc, whose end will presumably be the end of the third compilation book, [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0484.html ended]] with [[spoiler: Azure City taken over by hobgoblins, the Order of The Stick broken, and their leader dead.]]

* ''VideoGame/Prototype2'' - After [[spoiler:Heller consumes Alex, uses CutscenePowerToTheMax to purge the Red Zone of all viral influence, and fully reunites with his daughter]], Dana stares across the ruined New York skyline at the sunrise and asks "What do we do now?"

* ''Webcomic/ElectricWonderland'' ends "Into Thin Aerynn", the last story released in the series before Peter Paltridge's Summer 2013 hiatus from Website/PlatypusComix comics, like so. [[spoiler: Even though the staff of the ''Nettropolis Free Press'' gets [[MagicalGirl Aerynn]] back, it still seems uncertain how much time they have left until she gets arrested. [[TheLeader Trawn]] has to bear the guilt of acting secretive towards one friend ([[ActionGirl Natasha]]) to ensure the safety of another (Aerynn). Natasha might also have to toss Trawn in jail if she ever finds her harboring a criminal. Plus, it seems possible that the animosity between Aerynn and [[SourSupporter NJ]] has finally started cooling down after her return.]]

* The first season of ''BurnNotice'' ends with Michael boarding a truck that will supposedly take him to meet the people who burned him.

* Season 5 of ''Series/{{Stargate SG-1}}'' ended with Daniel Jackson dead (and [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascended]]), the Tok'ra devastated and scattered, Thor's mind trapped in the controlling computer of Anubis's abandoned mothership, and Anubis himself rapidly gaining power and influence. But at least Earth and the SGC weren't in any immediate danger. The "mood of despair" was even more obvious at the conclusion of the two-parter "Summit/Last Stand" in the latter half of the season, but it wasn't the season finale.

* ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' infamously ended its third season with the Command Center annihilated, the Rangers without their powers and helpless against the bad guys.[[hottip:*:Luckily, that little crisis was resolved next season at the start of ''Series/PowerRangersZeo'', when the Rangers got new powers to fight evil.]]

* ''Webcomic/ElectricWonderland'' ends "Into Thin Aerynn", likely the last story released before Peter Paltridge's Summer 2013 hiatus from Website/PlatypusComix comics, like so. [[spoiler: Even though the staff of the ''Nettropolis Free Press'' gets [[MagicalGirl Aerynn]] back, it still seems uncertain how much time they have left until she gets arrested. [[TheLeader Trawn]] has to bear the guilt of acting secretive towards one friend ([[ActionGirl Natasha]]) to ensure the safety of another (Aerynn). Natasha might also have to toss Trawn in jail if she ever finds her harboring a criminal. Plus, it seems possible that the animosity between Aerynn and [[SourSupporter NJ]] has finally started cooling down after her return.]]

* ''Series/{{House}}'' has had four of these so far.

** In the latest ('''[[Administrivia/ExamplesAreNotRecent Which one???]]''') Season Finale, [[spoiler:House drives his car through Cuddy's house, Cuddy is appying for a restraining order against him, and House is hiding from the police on some undisclosed Carribean Island.]]

* ''Webcomic/ElectricWonderland'' ends "Into Thin Aerynn", likely the last story released before Peter Paltridge's Summer 2013 hiatus from updating his flagship comics, like so. [[spoiler: Even though the staff of the ''Nettropolis Free Press'' gets [[MagicalGirl Aerynn]] back, it still seems uncertain how much time they have left until she gets arrested. [[TheLeader Trawn]] has to bear the guilt of acting secretive towards one friend ([[ActionGirl Natasha]]) to ensure the safety of another (Aerynn). Natasha might also have to toss Trawn in jail if she ever finds her harboring a criminal. Plus, it seems possible that the animosity between Aerynn and [[SourSupporter NJ]] has finally started cooling down after her return.]]

* ''Webcomic/ElectricWonderland'' ends "Into Thin Aerynn", likely the last story Peter Paltridge will release in this series before his Summer 2013 hiatus from updating his flagship comics, like so. [[spoiler: Even though the staff of the ''Nettropolis Free Press'' gets [[MagicalGirl Aerynn]] back, it still seems uncertain how much time they have left until she gets arrested. [[TheLeader Trawn]] has to bear the guilt of acting secretive towards one friend ([[ActionGirl Natasha]]) to ensure the safety of another (Aerynn). Natasha might also have to toss Trawn in jail if she ever finds her harboring a criminal. Plus, it seems possible that the animosity between Aerynn and [[SourSupporter NJ]] has finally started cooling down after her return.]]

* Not a season finale, but ''[[WesternAnimation/AvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes]]'' ends its Secret Invasion arc with [[spoiler: the Avengers preventing Queen Veranke from taking over the Earth, then left to reflect on what they've lost during the invasion: Black Panther ''still'' feels too wary of an alien among the team to return to America. The Skrulls had Hulk jailed for a crime he didn't commit. One of the invaders framed Captain America, on international television, of supporting a surrender to the Skrulls. Finally, Lord knows how many aliens still need capturing...]]