Entertainment

TV Series Finales That We're Still Confused About

It's always sad when television shows shut their doors, even in this age of kickstarting movies and Netflix revivals. A series finale is a hard thing to pull off — one of the best things about television is that in most cases, the ending is not meant to be as finite as a book or a movie. Sometimes, threads are left dangling or a series finale adds a twist that keeps fans talking long after the final credits have rolled. Whether you love to be left hanging or hate it, here are 31 confusing series finales that may or may not ever be resolved.

1. Lost

This show comes first because I have to admit that I love the Lost finale, and the whole "Sideways World" series. It doesn't bother me that not every mystery was solved. The polar bears, by the way, were implied by Dharma experiments and explained fully in the epilogue. Don't come at me with the polar bears!

However, this finale is still confusing. The way that everyone finds themselves after death and moves on together is a beautiful take on the afterlife, but still not easy to wrap your head around.

ABC

2. The Sopranos

Another infamously confusing ending, this is the sudden cut to black heard 'round the world.

HBO

3. Mad Men

Did Don Draper invent the iconic Coke commercial? Did he become the commercial? Unclear.

AMC

4. How I Met Your Mother

The ending betrayed the promise of the pilot, and I'm always going to be confused as to why its big twist needed to happen.

CBS

5. Pushing Daisies

The closing narration of Pushing Daisies neatly wrapped up some loose ends in a general sense, but there are still many unanswered questions about Ned's powers, and what happened after Chuck revealed herself to her aunts.

ABC

6. 30 Rock

How old is Kenneth? Was this whole show technically taking place in the past? So many questions.

NBC

7. Twin Peaks

I mean, did you expect the ending of this show to not be confusing?

ABC

8. Parks & Recreation

Was Leslie Knope the President? Was she?! I need to know!

NBC

9. St. Elsewhere

This is the show that essentially inspired every Lost fan theory and implied that an entire universe of TV series take place in a snow globe. Just thinking about it makes my head hurt.

NBC

10. Dexter

I'm sorry, what? We're supposed to accept that Dexter just becomes a hot lumberjack? Sure...

11. Gilmore Girls

I know that Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life put a new ending on the series that raises new questions, but the Season 7 finale, which was the series finale until now, is still confusing. How are Luke and Lorelai not married? Why is Rory completely unaffected by the fact that Logan proposed to her and then they broke up? (The answer, obviously, is Jess.)

The CW

12. Roseanne

Kind of like Atonement (spoilers for Atonement), the character Roseanne revealed in the finale that the show has been a second fiction, and that in "reality," they never won the lottery, Dan was dead, and a lot of the character dynamics on the show were totally different. Huh?!

ABC

13. Veronica Mars

Sure, we have the movie and some novels now to fill in the gaps. However, the finale left so much up in the air back in 2007. Does Keith become sheriff? Is Veronica really (nope) over Logan? Even knowing the movie happened, the fact that she and Piz didn't immediately break up is baffling.

The CW

14. Weeds

The whole "North Carolina fronts the legal marijuana movement" plot in Weeds Season 8 baffled me, as someone who grew up there. That would never happen. Still, the flash-forward finale is deeply depressing in many ways. While the final shot is lovely, I'll never understand how Shane ended up on such a sad path and how Doug ended up leading a cult.

Showtime

15. The X-Files

Much like Twin Peaks, I ask, what did you expect? Even the new revival series couldn't explain much.

FOX

16. Dollhouse

Dollhouse has two series finales, weirdly enough. The futuristic Season 1 finale "Epitaph One" was written when it looked like the show was canceled. When it was renewed for Season 2, and then canceled again, "Epitaph Two" was written to further tie things up. That said, it never explains that Boyd reveal, and a lot of fates are left unknown. "Epitaph Two" is a beautiful, confusing end to an equally confusing series.

FOX

17. Alias

Is Sydney and Vaughn's daughter being groomed to be an agent?! Is she?!

ABC

18. Sex and the City

Surprise! It was a rom-com all along.

HBO

19. Two and a Half Men

The troubled sitcom broke the fourth wall in the finale, which is always confusing.

CBS

20. True Blood

Who is Sookie's husband? How do they have all these friends? Why do I still care so much? Just some of the questions we were left with after the series ended.

HBO

21. Battlestar Galactica

Way before Westworld, this series finale had fans wondering if we were all really robots IRL.

Syfy

22. Breaking Bad

He died, right? He definitely died? And where is Jesse going?

AMC

23. The Good Wife

Forget the slap, where was Jason?

CBS

24. Cheers

It's only confusing if you believe in love conquering all.

NBC

25. The Office

I genuinely loved the finale, and I know this probably had to do with scheduling, but if the group was reuniting to do bonus features for the documentary DVD, you would think Michael would be in more than just the wedding scenes. A lot of the logistics of this show don't make sense, if you stop to think about it.

NBC

26. Freaks & Geeks

Lindsay becomes a Dead Head? Is there no end to her rebellious whims?

NBC

27. Buffy The Vampire Slayer

It was a triumphant ending for Sunnydale, a confusing ending for Buffy and Spike, and you have to wonder why they didn't think to break the Slayer laws and activate a bunch of girls everywhere before. I guess that's what series finales are for. At least Spike returned in Angel.

UPN

28. Heroes

Just thinking about the Carnival in the final season of Heroes makes me confused and sad, even though Peter and Sylar working together was pretty amazing. Plus, since the episode aired before the show was cancelled, it doesn't really have any traditional series finale elements.

NBC

29. The West Wing

What happened to Mandy? I'm kidding, that unsolved TWW question wasn't important to the series finale. However, if you have a fan theory about the shuttle leak, then the finale rightfully added to your confusion.

NBC

30. Gossip Girl

There's no way it was Dan and that's all I have to say. Absolutely not.

The CW

31. Seinfeld

In the Seinfeld finale, the four friends almost die and then end up in jail. That seems overly dramatic for a show about nothing, don't you think? It's jarring, confusing, and bold — which is all you can ask of a finale, honestly.

NBC
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