Top 10 Ambiguous TV Endings Explained

#10: Did Eleven Survive Her Final Sacrifice?

“Stranger Things” (2016-25)

Fans spent almost a decade following this 80’s-themed cosmic horror show and in season 5 the story finally wrapped up. But while the finale was meant to provide closure one thing still remains a mystery: what happened to Eleven? She got caught up in the destruction of the Upside Down but what happened next? Did she pay the ultimate sacrifice or did she survive? “Stranger Things” leaves her fate open-ended, meaning what happened is up to interpretation. It’s an interesting yet equally frustrating decision, and many fans had bones to pick with the finale. In fact, this led to Conformity Gate, a theory that an extra episode was waiting to be released. Evidently though, this wasn’t the case, and our looming questions still remain unanswered.

#9: Will Humanity Repeat Its Cycle?

“Battlestar Galactica” (2004-09)

Everything revolves around Starbuck. No, not “Starbucks” the coffee juggernaut, “Starbuck” as in Kara Thrace. She becomes humanity’s last saving grace in their attempt to survive despite all the odds. The series ends with the last survivors finding a prehistoric version of Earth thanks to Starbuck and choosing to give up their technology to instead live amongst the primitive humans. It’s widely been considered that the role of Starbuck was to be that of an angel, getting humanity to where they needed to be. The show also asks if humanity is forced to repeat its mistakes when it comes to technological dependence. Ultimately it’s one of the final key ideas that the audience is left to sit with as the show finally closes.

#8: What’s up With That Cliffhanger?

“Hannibal” (2013-15)

You’ve heard the phrase “it’s a dog-eat-dog world”, but “Hannibal” is a “man-eat-man” world. In the end we see the death of Francis Dolarhyde at the hands of Hannibal and Will Graham. But not long afterwards, Will forces himself and Hannibal off the cliff they’re on. It leaves their fates on a literal cliffhanger. Showrunner Bryan Fuller later gave thoughts. He explained that Will’s actions allowed these two co-dependent men to be together in a way that prevents further deaths. The finale also shows a post-credit scene of Bedelia Du Maurier preparing to eat her own leg, which is all kinds of nasty. But besides being nightmare fuel it also suggests that she’s waiting for Hannibal and Will. Whether her guests actually arrive remains unseen.

#7: Don Draper’s Enlightenment… or Another Ad Pitch?

“Mad Men” (2007-15)

Most if not all people hate ads with a burning passion, but a select few out there not only appreciate advertisements but also see beauty in them. In the show “Mad Men” that special crop of people are advertising executives like Don Draper. The ending sees Don meditating after leaving his career behind. The man who was roped in so many vices has now found inner peace. At least that’s what we assumed. The finale actually later segues away from Don and into a Coca Cola commercial. Did Don ditch meditation and go back to making ads like this one? It’s a very clear blurring of the lines that’s going on here. A show all about advertisements ending with an ad? Yeah, seems pretty fitting!

#6: Were They Dead All Along?

“Lost” (2004-10)

We have to go back…to the finale of “Lost” because fans are still scratching their heads 16 years after the conclusion. In the end Jack Shephard dies on the island, but his death is synced up with the flash-sideways, an alternate timeline where the Oceanic Airlines plane crash never happened. The flash-sideways are then revealed as basically a spiritual waiting room. Jack reunites with everyone in a church and they’re met by a white light, presumably sending them into Heaven. It’s not a bad ending, but many thought this meant the characters were dead the entire time. They weren’t in purgatory for 6 seasons, but perhaps the flash-sideways was a temporary purgatory. Look, “Lost” asked many interesting questions but unfortunately not every answer was well-received.

#5: Who Was Number One?

“The Prisoner” (1967-68)

This 1-season series is about a man named Number 6 who’s trapped in a bizarre remote village. There’s also a villain called Number 1 and if you’re thinking this show is obsessed with numbers you’re right. Anyways, in the finale “Fall Out”, Number 6 has a stare down with Number 1 and tries uncovering who 1 is. The villain is then revealed to actually be Number 6. Wait, what? Are we dealing with clones? Timeline variants? Someone with an unhealthy plastic surgery obsession? It’s a peculiar twist! The series creator/lead star Patrick McGoohan explained that he wanted to show that we’re all prisoners to ourselves and that freedom isn’t as real as we think. However, the execution left a sour taste in fans’ mouths.

#4: Did Tommy Make It All Up?

“St. Elsewhere” (1982-88)

When is a medical drama not a medical drama? When it’s “St. Elsewhere” apparently. That’s because not all is as it seems with this series. On the surface it looks like a standard hospital procedural with the only noteworthy detail being that it kickstarted Denzel Washington's career. However, the show’s finale threw everything we knew into question. Dr. Westphall and his son Tommy look at snow outside of Dr. Auschlander’s office. Then we pivot to the hospital, but we then discover that it’s actually stuck in a snow globe that Tommy has. We also learn that Westphall isn’t actually a doctor! The implication here is that the entire show was from Tommy’s imagination. Is your head hurting? Don’t worry, our heads are hurting too!

#3: Was Nora Telling the Truth?

“The Leftovers” (2014-17)

What happens after 2% of the world’s population disappears? How are people supposed to pick up the pieces of their life and move on? Those are questions that “The Leftovers” tackles. It’s a slow burn of a series about grieving that picks up some steam in its finale “The Book of Nora”. When an older Nora resurfaces she tells Kevin she went to a special dimension where the departed now live. It’s a statement that could be met with skepticism, but Kevin actually believes her, and the two share a heartfelt reunion. We don’t know if Nora is right, but it doesn’t actually matter. Kevin wants to believe that she’s being honest, so he chooses to live in that hopeful headspace. Ignorance is ultimately bliss.

#2: What Happens to Tony?

“The Sopranos” (1999-2007)

This finale is unique because it's not about what happens but about what doesn’t happen that everyone can’t stop talking about. With the finale, “Made in America”, mobster Tony Soprano sits in a diner with his family and listens to music as he waits for his daughter to join them. All the while we get glimpses of some potentially shady characters walking into the diner. There’s this whole feeling of tension that lingers with each passing second. And at the very end we get a closeup of Tony’s face and…nothing. Just a fade to black, that’s how the show ends. Was Tony going to get killed or did he live to eat gabagool another day? We’re still wondering that very same question years later.

#1: What Is This Reality?

“Twin Peaks: The Return” (2017)

In “Twin Peaks: The Return” fans hoping for answers about what everything was about were left out of luck. Our iconic FBI agent Dale Cooper time travels, finds a woman who looks like Laura Palmer named Carrie, asks what year it is, and then we end with horrifying screaming. Besides time travel it’s widely assumed that dimension-hopping occurred in this finale. The show’s co-creator Mark Frost later compared Cooper’s story to Orpheus. Orpheus tries getting his wife Eurydice back from the underworld only for chaos to ensue. At the end of the day David Lynch’s surrealist drama was never going to have its answers be easy to find. In fact, this franchise is the posterboy for ambiguity. But it’s not the destination, it’s the journey.

Are there any baffling TV show endings we missed? Spread the confusion down in the comments!