Taken During the Ending

"The van waits in the driveway, its double doors stand open. The two of them, one on either side now, take me by the elbows to help me in. Whether this is my end or a new beginning I have no way of knowing: I have given myself over into the hands of strangers, because it can't be helped."

—Final lines of The Handmaid's Tale

Taken During the Ending is just when a story is about to end, a character or an object is taken away at the last minute. The reason for them to be taken could be because for a character, maybe they're being abducted for nefarious purposes or they're being rescued at the last minute, and for an object, it's because someone wants to use it later on or to prevent it from being used again. The ending can be seen as either good, bad, or neutral based on what's going on, and if there are plans to expand on what happens afterwards, it will typically end on a Cliffhanger, set up a Sequel Hook, or be explored later down the line.

When a person gets taken away, the situation can be depicted as them either being abducted or rescued. If a character is being abducted in front of their friends, expect their friends to feel helpless as they watch their friend be taken away with nothing they can do to stop it. If they're being rescued, not only does it stop the ending from being a complete downer, but it ensures the audience that their story isn't over yet and it will continue later on. It could be against their will or they could welcome it if it means they can escape their predicament. A character getting arrested and being taken away by law enforcement at the end can also count, too.

The object that's taken at the end may be a MacGuffin and when that object is gone, expect it to set up a Sequel Hook where the plot revolves around trying to get that object back or someone using the object for nefarious purposes again. When a character tries to get rid of a certain object, they carelessly throw it away (in the ocean, a deep hole, off a cliff, etc.) and just turn their back thinking no one will ever find it or mess with it again, until they're proven wrong later on. Or perhaps the object is accidentally left behind or dropped during an intense scene and the other character either forgot about it or they remember it too late. It's important that the object that's being taken is important to the story or at least to someone important. The object will either be a Chekhov's Gun and will come back later on in the next story, or the object will be taken away so no one will use it ever again.

It's important that what happens to the character or object be left ambiguous during the ending because it's unknown what will happen next after it is taken, even if the outcome is implied. For example, if the story just ends with Bob being abducted by a monster, then this trope applies, but if it ends with Bob being abducted by a monster and then we see Bob get eaten, then this doesn't apply. Having the ending stop when the character or object is taken opens up an opportunity for what will happen later on, whether it happens on- or off-screen. When Bob is taken by the monster, it's implied that Bob will be eaten because that's what the monster has been doing during the story, but in the next story, we learn that Bob managed to escape the monster or someone rescued him. Basically, the ending must only show the character or object being taken, not what happens to them afterwards. And while the situation for the character and the object may be different from each other, the idea is still the same, they're being taken away for a purpose and what will happen to them may or may not be explored later on.

The ending doesn't have to show them being physically taken, the actual taking could happen off-screen and then we see the outcome at the end. A character could ask if someone has seen this other character or object and then it cuts to them being in the possession of someone.

The character/object being taken isn't exclusive to being taken away by another character, they could also be taken away by things that are out of their control, like a portal sucking them in, very strong weather to blow them away, or they accidentally stowaway on a moving vessel and it's too late for them to escape as examples since they are technically being taken away by something.

If the person/object being taken at the end of the story doesn't appear ever again in the work/universe, like it's never brought up again or it's completely forgotten, it could be a type of Aborted Arc.

Could overlap with Uncertain Doom if it's uncertain if a character will be killed. Sometimes it may result in a Here We Go Again! or Last-Second Joke Problem. Compare to or contrast with And the Adventure Continues, in which the story ends with the main characters voluntarily setting off for a new adventure. Related to But Now I Must Go.

Can be a form of Happy Ending Override, a Sudden Downer Ending, or a Bolivian Army Ending. See also Your Princess Is in Another Castle!

It's optional, but the example can also apply when the character or object will return or be mentioned in a later episode or sequel.

As this is an Ending Trope, expect unmarked spoilers.

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Character Examples:

Fan Works

• The Desert Storm ends with Ben Naasade (a.k.a a post-Revenge of the Sith Obi-Wan Kenobi who time traveled into the past to his Jedi Apprentice days) being abducted from the hospital by Darth Plagueis after Ben kills Darth Sidious in a vicious duel during Padmé's coronation as Queen of Naboo. The implication is that Plagueis intends to force Ben to become his new Sith Apprentice to replace Sidious.

Film — Animation

• Bolt: An Invoked In-Universe example. The producers of the Bolt TV show (which is a show about a superpowered dog who protects his owner Penny from the evil Dr. Calico) have one of the episodes end on a dramatic cliffhanger in order to boost ratings and appeal to a more mature audience. Each episode of the show up to that point saw Bolt and Penny successfully repelling capture attempts from Dr. Calico, but here Penny is taken prisoner. Unfortunately, the titular protagonist doesn't know he's only acting in a show, Bolt believing his master was truly taken prisoner. As a result, the dog escapes his trailer and runs away to “save” his master, putting the rescue-based follow up episode on indefinite hold.
• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ends with Miles Morales arriving at Earth-42 and getting captured by his counterpart there (who became the Prowler) and his uncle. The final shots include Gwen Stacy reuniting with the Spider-Gang to try to find him.

Film — Live-Action

• Back to the Future:
  • Back to the Future: The first film ends with Doc Brown arriving from the year 2015 to bring Marty and his girlfriend, Jennifer, to the future to aid his children, and the sequel continues where this ending left off.
  • Back to the Future Part II: Doc Brown gets struck by lightning while in the Delorean in 1955, making Marty fear he's dead. A letter reveals that Doc was actually taken back to 1885 due to a fluke with the Delorean, leaving Marty to contact 1955 Doc, and Part III finally concludes the story.
• Chinatown: After Evelyn is shot by the police, her father drives away with Katherine, who is both her daughter and her sister. It is implied that he is going to rape Katherine as well.
• Drag Me to Hell: After Christine believes she has beaten the curse that plagues her throughout the film and her life is about to go back to normal, she learns at the end that she failed to beat the curse and because it hasn't been lifted, she's literally Dragged Off to Hell by a bunch of demonic hands as her boyfriend watch helplessly.
• Eternals: After some time has passed after the Eternals stopped the Emergence (where a new Celestial is born inside a planet and will destroy it once it emerges) by having Sersi turn the Celestial, Tiamut, to stone, Arishem arrives to Earth at the end and lifts Sersi and the remaining Eternals on Earth off the planet and into space to talk to them. He tells them because they disobeyed his orders and killed Tiamut, he'll spare the Earth for now but will return for judgement for the planet after he views their memories to see if the humans are worth saving, and then he leaves with the remaining Eternals through a black hole.
• Gremlins (1984): At the end of the movie, Mr. Wing shows up at the Peltzers' house to take Gizmo back to his shop in Chinatown after a Gremlin infestation shows him that they're not responsible enough to take care of the Mogwai.
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Played for Laughs. King Arthur and Sir Bedivere are arrested and taken away by modern-day police on suspicion of murder right in the middle of an epic battle to decide the fate of the Holy Grail, ending the film as an Anti-Climax. (An example of Real Life Writes the Plot, since the reason why Monty Python didn't go through with the whole fight is that they ran out of money and time before they could film the whole battle.)
• [REC]: When Angela and Pablo try to escape, Pablo is attacked by a ghoulish Tristana and he drops his camera. When Angela picks up the camera to use its night vision to see in the dark, she sees Pablo being eaten by the Tristana, and then she's attacked and drops the camera and then is dragged into the darkness. The same ending also happens in the American remake, Quarantine (2008).
• Suicide Squad (2016): After the squad completes their mission and is back in Belle Reve penitentiary, the Joker (who was presumed to be dead) breaks into the prison to rescue Harley.

Literature

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ends with Charlie, Grandpa Joe, and Willy Wonka picking up Charlie's family to move into the chocolate factory, before the adventure is continued in Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.
• The Handmaid's Tale: The book ends with Offred being ushered into a car. She hopes (but doesn't know) that they're being driven by Nick's allies who will take her and her baby to safety, but they could be Eyes who are taking her to be executed.
• The Lord of the Rings: Each book uses this trope in its own way.
  • At the end of The Fellowship of the Ring, as part of the climactic Breaking the Fellowship, Merry and Pippin are kidnapped by Saruman's Uruk-Hai. Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas spend the next book trying to find them.
  • The Two Towers also ends this way, with Frodo being seemingly killed by Shelob and Sam realizing at the end of the book that he is actually alive and has been taken by Sauron's forces.
  • Finally Frodo, Bilbo and Gandalf are taken into the Gray Havens at the end of The Return of the King in a more peaceful variation of this trope.
• New Jedi Order: At the end of "Star by Star", Jacen is captured by the Yuuzhan Vong, who A: like torturing non-Yuuzhan Vong, B: Despise "Jeedai", C: Have a warmaster with a very personal mad-on for Jacen for costing him a leg, and D: Want to sacrifice Jacen and his sister specifically because they're twins.
• Neil Gaiman's short story "Orange" sees the narrator's younger sister, Lilias, taken by a group of aliens at the end of the story after a substance mistaken for orange dye transforms her into a near godlike being. The narrator and her mother are told Lilias "may" be returned if it's possible.
• Ray Bradbury's short story, "The Pedestrian" Leonard Mead is collected by an unmanned robotic police car after he is discovered walking the streets at night. He is said to be taken to a psychiatric hospital. In the television adaptation, it is a robotic helicopter instead. In either case, Mead's final fate is left undisclosed.
• A Series of Unfortunate Events:
  • At the end of "The Austere Academy", Duncan and Isadora Quadmire have been kidnapped by Count Olaf after he sees through their Baudelaire children's disguises. Before they are taken away, Duncan and Isadora tell the Baudelaire children to look for the letters "V.F.D." in their notebook, but Count Olaf takes the notebook and drives away with the two children.
  • "The Ersatz Elevator", Duncan and Isadora were in a statue of a red herring. They are taken away by Count Olaf once again.
• The Wheel of Time: At the end of Crossroads of Twilight, Egwene, the leader of the rebel Aes Sedai faction, is captured by the Tower Aes Sedai, who have a vested interest in making a public example of her. The next book reveals that she isn't executed or De-Powered, but she isn't rescued until the book after that.

Live-Action TV

• The Stinger in the second-season finale of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has Leopold Fitz accidentally pop the latch on the container holding an alien stone while awkwardly asking Jemma Simmons out on a date. After he leaves, it liquifies, knocks the door open, then captures her.
• ALF: The series finale ends with ALF being separated from the Tanners and taken away by the government to be experimented on. This was supposed to be set up for a fifth and final season, but the show wasn't renewed. A made-for-TV movie produced years later saw ALF escape thanks to the help of a pair of government agents, then flee across the country before finding a spaceship filled with his friends from his home planet, which turned out not to have been destroyed after all.
• Babylon 5: Garabaldi is in a fighter trying to defend the station in the season 3 episode "Z’Ha’Dum". His fighter gets swallowed by a Shadow ship and he is taken to be brainwashed.
• Devious Maids:
  • Season 1 ends with Flora's murderer being punished and all seeming well...until Peri hears the declaration of love between Rosie and Spence. She reports Rosie to ICE and the season ends with Rosie being dragged off by Oppressive Immigration Enforcement. It gets Handwaved at the start of Season 2 when Rosie gets six months' leave to remain, and then marries Spence, making her a U.S. citizen.
  • After Zoila's aborted wedding to Javier in Season 3, Bianca comes back to the Stappords to take her things and is kidnapped. The bad guys claim that she went home, and Taylor and Marisol struggle to figure out what happened to her. Though she returns later in the season, where it's revealed that she was kidnapped and then murdered (but it was made to look like a suicide) by the season's Big Bad.
• Game of Thrones: In Season 5 "High Sparrow", Tyrion and Varys hang out at a brothel which coincidentally Jorah is staying at. While Tyrion goes off on his own to relieve himself, Jorah follows him to get a good look at his face, and once he recognizes he's Tyrion Lannister, he kidnaps him to take him to Daenerys.
• Gotham Knights (2023): The season finale ends with Turner Hayes going back into Wayne Tower to retrieve Bruce Wayne's journals, and getting ambushed and kidnapped by assassins on the way out.
• The Haunting Hour:
  • In Season 1 "A Creature Was Stirring", Timmy and his family have to deal with a Krampus-like monster that's terrorizing them on Christmas. After the monster burns their house to the ground and the family are able to escape, they're just happy that they're all together. At the end of the episode, later that night, an SUV limo drives up to the burned house and the limo window rolls down to reveal Santa Claus, who summons the monster back to him and drops a letter on the ground revealing it belonged to Timmy, who wished his family would get along again, and Santa granted his wish by sending the monster to terrorize the family into doing so.
  • In Season 1 "Game Over", Kelly and his friends are pulled into a video game and must beat the final boss, the Game Master, to escape. After they beat the Game Master, Kelly ends up becoming the new Game Master and he's trapped in the video game while his friends are free to leave and he can only leave when someone else beats him. The episode ends with an unnamed boy playing the same video game, where a hand pulls him into the game when he accepts the Game Master's challenge.
  • In Season 1 "Catching Cold", Marty tries to catch the Kreemy Kold ice cream truck so he can eat more of its ice cream and finally stops it using spike strip to pop its tires. After entering the ice cream truck to get the ice cream, he meets an adult man named Jimmy Jefferies, who was also obsessed with catching the truck when he was a kid and reveals he was trapped inside the truck for 30 years and has been waiting for someone to catch the truck so he can finally leave. After Jimmy leaves the truck, the truck traps Marty inside, reinflates its popped tires, and drives off with Marty trapped inside until the next kid tries to catch it again.
• NUMB3RS:
  • At the end of the third season premiere, Megan is taken hostage by Crystal Hoyle after a date with Larry, which sets up the next episode, events that also influence the rest of the season, especially with Don's actions when trying to get her back.
  • At the end of the fifth season episode "Greatest Hits", Amita is kidnapped when she and Charlie are preparing to leave CalSci for the night, which leads to the fifth season finale where the team faces off against a cult that is holding Amita.
• Once Upon a Time: Season 2 ends with Henry getting kidnapped by Greg and Tamara to Neverland (which, unlike in its source material, is said to be a nightmarish place run by a tyrant Pan). After a season of infighting among the adult characters, it's a big deal that they band together to save Henry by all going to Neverland after him.
• Power Rangers RPM: In the episode 'Beyond a Doubt,'enemy-turned-ally Teneya 7 spends the entire episode under scrutiny from the Rangers, who are suspicious as to whether she's actually helping them or tricking them. After sneaking into Venjix's palace to get codes to help them disable one of his attack bots, Teneya manages to gain their trust. But as they return victorious from defeating the attack bot, Teneya gets captured by one of Venjix's generals, who had discovered her treachery. He teleports her away before the Rangers can catch up to her, and she ends up getting brainwashed.
• Severance (2022): Helly gets tackled and dragged offstage at the end of Season 1 in the middle of the Eagan gala. This also happens more metaphorically to Mark and Irving, as Dylan is freeing their Innies, and when Mr. Milchick tackles him, their "outies" are allowed to take over again and the innies go back into essential hibernation.
• The X-Files: Scully herself is taken in the final moments of Season 2's "Duane Berry", kidnapped by the titular person of interest; this sets off a several-episode-long story arc, as Scully is abducted by aliens and is missing for the next several episodes.
• War of the Worlds (1988): in "Feedeth among the Lillies", the team conducts psychological evaluations of people who claim they'd been experimented on by aliens. After a woman's interviews with the team, the aliens return to kidnap her. The episode ends with Harrison's voice-over that she was never heard from again and he's certain they have her.
  • In "Unto us a child is born", a pregnant woman gives birth after being taken over by an alien. The baby grows into a hybrid toddler in hours and everyone chases after it, but it dies and its body melts away revealing a normal human baby. The baby is turned over to its grandparents who are revealed at the end to be aliens as well.
• Yellowjackets: Season 1 ends with Natalie, about to commit suicide, being kidnapped from her motel room. It turns out to be at Lottie's behest, and Natalie spends the whole of Season 2 at Lottie's (now called Charlotte's) compound.

Video Games

• Call of Duty: Ghosts: Right at the very end of the game, Rorke (somehow) turns up alive after being shot point blank and falling into the ocean to capture Logan, expressing his intention to torture him into killing his fellow Ghosts. This was to set up for a sequel, but due to Ghosts' poor reception and performance, Infinity Ward took the series in a different direction with the next game, leaving the Ghosts storyline abandoned with no conclusion.
• The End Times: Vermintide: The DLC "Waylaid!" adds a level as a Sequel Hook: having survived his Disney Villain Death in the core game's finale, the villain springs a trap that drops the heroes through a mysterious portal. Vermintide II begins with the heroes escaping captivity in his lair.
• Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two: Prescott is kidnapped by the Petes at the end of the game for their own plans.
• Grimms Notes: At the end of the "Wonderland Story Zone" chapter (or episode 11 of the anime), Alice gets kidnapped by the Jabberwock at the last minute and taken somewhere else. The next chapter focuses on the party looking for Alice and dealing with the Jabberwock later on.
• Portal originally ended with the player, and the Companion Cube, dumped in the middle of a field after making their escape. When the sequel was announced, the ending was changed to add an unseen Party Escort Bot, who thanks you for "assuming the party escort submission position" and drags you back into the facility in order to set up the events of Portal 2.
• Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction: While Ratchet, Clank, and their allies celebrate after defeating Emperor Tachyon, the Zoni shows up, who Clank can only see until they make themselves visible to everyone, to take Clank away because they believe he's ready to learn his true purpose. Ratchet tries to stop them, but the Zoni's powers prevent him from interfering as they travel to another dimension. The next two games, Quest for Booty and A Crack in Time, would continue the story on from this revelation.
• Quest for Glory:
  • Quest for Glory III: At the end of the game, the Hero is teleported away by sinister forces, which leads to...
  • Quest for Glory IV: Where after the Hero is at a small ceremony thanking him for his service to Mordavia, the wizard Erasmus finally discovers his location and teleports him to his next adventure, as they too need heroes.

Western Animation

• American Dad!:
  • In Season 9's Naked to the Limit, One More Time just as it seems like Roger is about to go back to his home planet to protect his alien identity after Jeff finds out the truth, he shoves Jeff into the ship's tractor beam causing him to be abducted. It takes until the aptly-named Holy Shit, Jeff's Back! in season 12 for him to return to Earth (with extra complications arising from those escapades).
  • In Season 12 "CIAPow", at the end of the episode, after Stan and his co-workers are thrown into a Thailand prison again for trying to steal the King of Thailand's inhaler again, Deputy Bullock, whose body is now cybernetic and has robotic spider legs, breaks into their prison cell to rescue them and lets them ride on his spider legs as they escape.
• The Cuphead Show!: At the end of "The Devil's Pitchfork", the Devil calls Cuphead's bluff (Cuphead had claimed there's nothing the Devil could take from him that he cares about) and abducts Mugman.

  The Devil: Say Goodbye to Cuphead.
  Mugman: Goodbye to Cuphead.
  The Hellevator lowers into the ground and vanishes
  Cuphead: ...Mugman?

• Harley Quinn (2019): In Season 1 "You're a Damn Good Cop, Jim Gordon", when Harley and her crew try to retrieve Clayface's hand from Jim Gordon at Gotham PD, they try to sneak King Shark in but the police immediately tranquilize him and then send him to prison in a matter of seconds. At the end of the episode, after Cowlhead updates his review on Harley's crew and mentions Harley left behind another member of her crew again, Harley realizes she forgot King Shark is still in prison and they break into his prison cell to rescue him.
• My Adventures with Superman: In Season 1 "You Will Believe a Man Can Lie", because Clark and Lois had some issues to deal with, they completely forgot to meet up with Jimmy for his camping trip. After four hours of waiting for Clark and Lois to show up, Jimmy decides to go on the trip alone, but he soon gets kidnapped by a gorilla in the woods.
• Steven Universe:
  • The penultimate episode of Season 1, "The Return", ends with the Crystal Gems taken prisoner by Jasper and Peridot, the former planning on taking them back to Homeworld. The season finale, "Jail Break", deals with them breaking out.
  • "Jail Break" ends with Lapis kidnapping Jasper and dragging them both into the depths of the ocean, after briefly fooling Jasper into thinking she was going to help her against the Crystal Gems.
  • "Back To The Moon": After shooting the Ruby Squad out of the moonbase's door, Eyeball grabs onto Steven and pulls him out with them, the episode ending in his perspective as he's pulled further and further away from the rest of the Gems.
  • "Steven's Dream" ends with Blue Diamond kidnapping Steven's father Greg to take him to the Human Zoo, Steven trying and failing to stop her.
  • "I Am My Mom" concludes with Steven turning himself in to Aquamarine and Topaz in an effort to save his friends, Aquamarine's ship flying off just as the episode ends.
  • "Legs From Here to Homeworld": The episode ends with White Diamond taking Steven and putting him into Pink Diamond's old room. This is only temporary, however, and he's reunited with the rest of the group in the following episode.

Object Examples:

Film — Live-Action

• Fear Street: During the mid-credit scene, while the camera goes through the tunnels of the witch's mark, it stops at the Ritual Site where the book that Solomon Goode used to summon the Devil still remains. After the camera remains on the book for a few seconds, someone off-screen steals it.
• Flash Gordon (1980). Emperor Ming has a glowing ring that can activate his weaponry and vaporize people. At the end of the movie, Ming uses it on himself and is sucked into the ring. The ring falls to the ground. At the end of the end credits, a gloved hand picks up the ring and takes it away.
• Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday: After Jason is Dragged Off to Hell by a bunch of demonic hands during the film's climax, all that remains of him is his signature mask, until Freddy Krueger's clawed hand reaches out of the ground and drags it under as well, setting the stage for a future soon-to-be confrontation between the two.
• Raiders of the Lost Ark: The titular Ark is sealed away in a government warehouse at the end of the film, among a myriad of other wooden crates. A brief glimpse of it appears during the opening scene of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
• The Sorcerer's Apprentice: Horvath swipes his hat in the end credits scene as a Sequel Hook. Since the film never got a sequel, this became an Aborted Arc.
• Tamara: The titular Tamara finds a magic book she plans to use to cast a love spell on a male teacher she has a crush on, but, after she dies, the spell resurrects her and gives her mind control abilities. She then uses her newfound powers to manipulate her former school bullies, including Kisha, a bulimic girl. At the climax of the film, the male teacher jumps off the school roof and takes Tamara with him, killing themselves and supposedly ending her curse. However, in the last scene of the movie, we can see Kisha's arms reaching into the teacher's car where the spell book was, and takes it with her. Roll credits.

Live-Action TV

• CSI: NY: In "Sex, Lies and Silicone," while investigating the murder of a business consultant, the team finds a flash drive of hers which contains information that could derail the careers of quite a few high-profile executives and politicians. The very last scene of the episode, immediately after the case's box of material is placed in the evidence locker, shows two unidentified people's hands. One removes the flash drive and gives it to the other. Once the theft is discovered, the powerful people whose names are on the drive (including the Chief of Detectives) are all desperate for it to be found before they're exposed. A few episodes later, the property clerk is killed because he's the one who handed it over. Who ended up with it isn't revealed until the end of the season... when it gets stolen again. This time, it's never recovered.
• House of Cards (UK): At the end of the first series, after Urquhart has thrown Mattie to her death, an unknown person picks up the tape recorder on which, unknown to Urquhart, she was recording their conversation.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: In the season 6 finale "Tears Of The Prophets", Sisko is badly shaken by Jadzia's death that he departs Deep Space Nine to go home to New Orleans on Earth. Kira's shocked when she sees that Sisko had taken his prized baseball with him, in contrast to the season 5 finale "Call To Arms", where he left the baseball behind indicating that he would return, thus suggesting here that Sisko may not return to the station.
• The X-Files: In the Pilot, an implant removed from an alien abductee is taken from Scully and stored somewhere in the Pentagon. These implants pop back up in the two-part Season 5 opener, Redux, and may have cured Scully of her cancer.

Theatre

• In SQS Episode 3: Romeo in the Darkness, the story revolves around the main characters' adventures with a cursed book that they found in an old antique shop, and a vampire named Romeo. The characters realize Romeo isn't evil, and decide to help him. At the very end, he comes into their dorm in the modern, mundane world, and takes the book, replacing it with a rose.

Video Games

• Command & Conquer: Tiberian Series: The final mission of Kane's Wrath concludes with the near-extinct Brotherhood launching a last-ditch attempt to steal the Tacitus, the primary McGuffin of the previous game. The Brotherhood's possession of the Tacitus then sets the stage for the the next game...not that it ended up mattering.
• Croc 2: After Croc is reunited with his family in the game's normal ending, Baron Dante steals several of their eggs and the credits roll. The eggs are recovered when the game is beaten 100%.
• Diablo IV: In the final act, Neyrelle chooses to use the blue soulstone to capture Mephisto instead of Lilith, and the Player Character tells her to take the stone to Lorath while you hold Lilith off. After the fight, you return to Lorath who tells you that he never saw Neyrelle. Afterwards, you find a letter left by her explaining that she fled with the stone and doesn't want you to follow her. The last we see of her, she's aboard a ship holding the stone with Mephisto's spirit guiding her.
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: The College of Winterhold questline centers around an object of unknown origin or purpose called the Eye of Magnus that is found by the Dragonborn and Tolfdir beneath a ruin, which is then taken back to the College for study. Shortly after discovery and throughout the quest, a member of an equally-unknown organization called the Psijic Order reaches out to the Dragonborn to warn them of the great deal of trouble the Eye represents. A Thalmor representative to the college named Ancano takes an interest in the Eye and seeks to understand and control it for the Thalmor to use, leading the College to try and defeat him despite him being amplified by the Eye's tremendous power, which the Dragonborn and Tolfdir are able to do but at the cost of the Archmage's and Mirabelle Ervine's lives. Following this, the Psijic Order arrive to take the Eye somewhere it can be safely contained, implied to be completely outside of the playable plane of reality.
• Kingdom Rush: Happens twice in a row in this series. The Stinger of the first Kingdom Rush has the scepter of Vez'nan being taken by an unknown figure. In the next game, Kingdom Rush Frontiers, it's revealed that the person who took the scepter was Lord Malagar, a former servant of Vez'nan who became the new villain. After attempting to summon Umbra to use their power to conquer Linirea, but failing, the scepter is left lying about at the end of a game, and a new mysterious figure takes the gem from the scepter.
• After defeating the Final Boss of La-Mulana, Lemeza obtains the Treasure of La-Mulana, and goes on a victory march during the credits...only for his father Shorn to snatch it away from him at the last second.
• Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks: After Liu Kang and Kung Lao destroy Shao Kahn, Earthrealm and Outworld celebrate their combined victory. Within the crowd however, Quan Chi is seen retrieving Shinnok's amulet, which was in Kahn's possession for some reason...

Western Animation

• Arthur: At the end of "Emily Shallows a Horse", Emily tells D.W. the truth that she didn't own a rubber ball she found and was forgiven. After Emily and D.W. abandon the rubber ball on their preschool playground, James picks it up, puts it in his pants' pocket, and walks away.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender: In Season 1 "Imprisoned", after Team Avatar helps motivate the earthbenders to fight back against the Fire Nation and they all escape from the prison they're in, Katara realizes her necklace, that belonged to her mother, is gone. After the end of the episode, Zuko is seen at the prison and he finds Katara's necklace and holds on to it. Zuko would show Katara her necklace again in "The Waterbending Scroll" and she would finally get her necklace back in "Bato of the Water Tribe".
• Codename: Kids Next Door In Season 1 "Operation: C.A.B.L.E.-T.V.", after Sector V stops Mr. B from turning everyone into babies using his Age Cigar, Numbuh One takes the cigar and throws it out the window, believing it's no concern to them. Unfortunately, the Delightful Children From Down The Lane find the cigar on the ground, pick it up and start laughing evilly once it's in their hands. They would later use the cigar during the Season One finale.
• Recess: In Season 2 "The Game", everyone at the school becomes obsessed with a tile game called Ajimbo and it causes everyone to stop playing on the playground and only focus on playing the game. After everyone breaks out of the game's "spell", all the game pieces are thrown in the incinerator, but Gus finds one last game piece in his pocket. After T.J. throws the last piece over the fence, the game piece is found by two kids from another school who picks it up and are inspired to buy more game pieces.
• The Secret Saturdays: In Season 2 "The Legend of Garuda", when the Saturdays, the Secret Scientists, and the Nagas temporarily team up to stop Gokul from killing Zak to kill Kur by using the Flute of Gilgamesh for his ritual, they succeed in stopping Gokul but he escapes and they believe he took the flute with him. After everyone part ways, it turns out the flute was left behind at the ritual site and Argo shows up at the end to take the flute for himself. He would later use the flute in "And Your Enemies Closer".
• Spider-Man: The Animated Series: During the two-parter "The Return of Hydro-Man", Peter Parker marries Mary Jane Watson, a clone of her, in fact, who dissolves at the end of the arc. Also during the end of the arc, Professor Miles Warren finds a piece of Spider-Man's uniform (possibly containing his genetic material). In-universe, the thread is not explored further in that reality, but it does get a follow-up during "Spider-Wars", as the backstory of the Spider-Carnage and Scarlet Spider, alternate versions of the "main" Spider-Man.
• The Star Darlings web episode "The Power of Twelve" ends with Rancora's pendant flying away on its own to parts unknown, presumably to restore her power.
• Time Warp Trio: At the end of one episode, Joe builds a box and puts The Book in it so no one can mess with it. It is taken away by Fred's older brother.

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