5 Ambiguous TV Show Endings That Have Really Obvious Answers
While plenty of television series have ended on an ambiguous note, some of these shows had very obvious answers about the fate of its characters.
A lot of TV show endings chose to leave things ambiguous and allowed the viewers to make up their own meaning about what happened to characters next, although some of these had some painfully obvious answers. While it can be frustrating to follow a series for several years only to be confronted with lingering questions after the finale, usually a TV show has given enough hints and clues to the character’s motivations and narrative consequences that it’s easy to figure out what happened next. These assumed endings weren’t necessarily canon, but they’re the go-to explanation for those who paid attention.
Some TV shows were infamous for their ambiguous endings that left viewers scratching their heads at the time of release, but also these were the questions that kept audiences discussing a show years after it had been off the air. For a long time, viewers have debated the answers to questions left by ambiguous finales, and sometimes these questions were even answered in spin-off or sequel series that came later. While lots of TV shows had ambiguous endings, plenty of them had really obvious answers.
5
Dexter (2006 – 2013)
Although Dexter had started a new life, he would be compelled to kill again
The ending of the original run of Dexter left viewers up and arms as many were disappointed with what was termed ‘lumberjack Dexter’ after he faked his death and started a new far away from his old life as a Miami Metro blood splatter analyst. For eight seasons, audiences waited for the serial killer with a code, Dexter Morgan, to be caught and face the consequences of his actions. While many called the ending of Dexter ambiguous and questioned whether he would keep on killing or if those days were now behind him, in reality, the answer was painfully obvious.
Throughout the series run of Dexter, Michael C. Hall expertly portrayed the character’s conflicted nature as he desperately tried to fit in with normal society while also giving in to his “dark passenger” and need to kill. While Dexter did show character growth and a burgeoning sense of morality as the seasons progressed, his need to kill was always there, and even if he could contain it for a short amount of time, he always found an excuse to let it run wild once again.
The inevitable occurred and Dexter was forced to kill again.
The exact consequences of the so-called ambiguous ending of Dexter were left unanswered until the release of the sequel series Dexter: New Blood in 2021. In this series, it was shown that Dexter had successfully suppressed his dark passenger for ten years and was living a new life under the pseudonym of Jeff Lindsay, the real name of the original Dexter author, in the small fictional town of Iron Lake. However, due to the reappearance of Dexter’s son Harrison, the inevitable occurred and Dexter was forced to kill again, showcasing that the original ending was not so ambiguous after all.
4
Mad Men (2007 – 2015)
Yes, Don Draper found meaning, but it was in the power of advertising
Mad Men took viewers on a journey through the 1960s accompanied by the complex advertising executive Don Draper. In the final moments of Mad Men, audiences witnessed Don deep in meditation and, through a subtle smirk, seemingly on the verge of great inspiration, while the iconic Coca-Cola advertisement “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” played in an ambiguous ending that opened the door to many questions. However, when following the narrative throughline of Mad Men, these questions had answers, the most obvious being that Don created the classic Coke ad within the world of the show.
The Mad Men finale was rife with symbols and messaging about the end of the 1960s, the role of advertising in the lives of the public, and whether the message of love, acceptance, and togetherness in the Coke advert was genuine. With Don as the creator of the Coke ad, the ending of Mad Men represented a contradiction, the same one that Don had been struggling with since the very first episode. That contradiction was that advertising may be a fickle attempt to exploit capitalism and sell to the public, but it also represented something deep within the human spirit.
After going through many hardships around his romantic relationships, his failings as a father, and his career struggles, Don stood as a man ready to embrace meaning in the finale of Mad Men. However, that meaning was on his own terms, and the life that he carved out for himself was based on advertising and the power he had to capture and commodify the essence of life’s struggles. Through this realization, Don created the Coke ad, which was both a shameless attempt to sell sugar water and a heartfelt artistic message, a contradiction as complex as Don himself.
3
Seinfeld (1989 – 1998)
No matter where they were, the Seinfeld gang remained the same
Some hated the Seinfeld finale and some thought it was great, but one thing was for certain, and that’s that many were confused by what they perceived as an ambiguous ending. With Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer sat in a prison cell, the cast of Seinfeld found themselves finally paying for all their awful behavior over the past nine seasons, as various people from their lives came out of the woodwork to testify against them. An uncharacteristically odd ending, the finale stayed true to the show’s ‘no hugging, no learning’ mantra.
As the gang fell victim to ‘The Good Samaritan’ law, which insisted they had a duty to help those in need, the finale of Seinfeld saw them put on trial and jailed for a year for all of their unethical behavior throughout the show. The ending felt ambiguous because it strayed from the normal logic of the series and entered the realm of the fantastical. However, the ethos of Seinfeld being a ‘show about nothing’ meant it could not have ended any other way. Instead, for Jerry and Elaine to get together in the end would have felt ridiculous.
The lingering question and ambiguity were related to how the group would spend their time in prison, and the final moments gave the answer, by discussing inane everyday mundanities, like how to use their phone call or how high a button should be placed on a shirt. The ending of Seinfeld proved that no matter their circumstances, this particular group of people would remain the same, the self-absorbed and egotistical characters that they always were. This was compounded by the finale’s last moments, which showed Jerry could even continue his standup career in prison.
2
Breaking Bad (2008 – 2013)
Walter White died, but on his own terms
Breaking Bad had what many considered to be the perfect finale as mild-mannered chemistry teacher turned drug kingpin Walter White tied up all the loose ends in his tragic story. After admitting to his wife Skyler that he cooked meth for himself, terrifying his old business partners Elliot and Gretchen into providing his money to Walt Jr., and even freeing Jesse Pinkman from the clutches of Nazis, Walter went out in a blaze of glory that some considered ambiguous. As the man known as Heisenberg lay wounded on a meth lab floor, some still questioned whether he lived or died.
The answer to this question was painfully obvious and, after all that came before, no other answer than Walt died made any narrative sense. As Walter started to bleed out from a gunshot wound and Badfinger’s “Baby Blue” played over the closing credits, the story of Heisenberg came to a complete end as Walt, while not receiving a happy ending, managed to leave on his own terms. Theories about him surviving, escaping, and continuing to cook meth missed the entire point of the ending as Walter had finally made peace with the criminal life he chose to live.
The series creator Vince Gillian later confirmed that Walter had died.
While some viewers still felt this story was ambiguous, the series creator Vince Gillian later confirmed that Walter had died, and this was made canon through the sequel movie El Camino and the prequel series Better Call Saul. El Camino even outrightly confirmed that Walter died in the lab through a news report that stated, “White was found dead late Tuesday at the scene of a gang massacre.” It doesn’t get any more unambiguous than that, although the legacy of Heisenberg’s drug empire would surely live on as an Albuquerque legend for generations to come.
1
The Sopranos (1999 – 2007)
Tony will be killed, either in the diner or elsewhere
The most famous ambiguous ending of all time has to be the cut-to-black conclusion of The Sopranos. As one of the most acclaimed series ever produced and one of the first shows within the Golden Age of Television, the ending of The Sopranos divided viewers as many were unsatisfied by the ambiguity of the fate of Tony Soprano, who sat in a diner with his family as an unnerving tension continued to build. While many have outlined the clues that Tony Soprano died in the finale, for others it was not so clear-cut.
The real answer to the question of Tony’s fate was that it didn’t matter, as, due to his criminal life as a mob boss, he was living on borrowed time. Whether Tony was shot by the guy in the members’ jacket, had a hit put on him by his own men, or even taken out by a rival gang, was inconsequential, as no matter what, he would meet a violent end, just as all other mob bosses eventually did. The ambiguity of the ending was the entire point, as it hammered home the uneasy feeling that Tony was never safe.
As the series cut-to-black and Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” played over the closing credits, many audience members were understandably frustrated, as there was an assumption that the finale would tie up all the loose ends of The Sopranos. In the 17 years that The Sopranos has been off the air, many other shows have utilized similarly ambiguous endings, and it’s now not such a shock as it was back then. With the power of hindsight, the ambiguous ending of The Sopranos has an obvious answer, because even if Tony did not die in the diner, his days were numbered.