5 Endings That Didn’t Deliver

Nothing is more disappointing than getting to the end of a riveting tale…only for the ending to completely disappoint. Whether it was too predictable, it came out of nowhere, it doesn’t make sense with the plot, or it just feels unearned, we completely get it. Here are 5 endings that we think failed to stick the landing.

Spoiler Warning

As this article will talk about endings, it goes without saying that there will be spoilers. If you still want to be kept in the dark about some of these endings, feel free to skip.

1. Queen of Tears, KDrama

With a captivating and emotional plot, the stakes were high with this Kdrama, but towards its ending, it suffered from a rushed pacing, unresolved plotlines, and inconsistent character development. It's a weighted story that we never got to unpack, especially with Baek Hyun-Woo’s moral ambiguity and the corporate slush fund’s location. While the finale gave the characters the ending they deserved, viewers felt the disjointed storytelling eventually hollowed out the strong narrative. 

2. Dear Evan Hansen, musical

There’s a lot to talk about when it comes to Dear Evan Hansen, but we’ll get to the point. Throughout the show, we witness how a single lie spun into an entire web. When everything finally unraveled, Evan alienated his peers, destroyed his friendships, and further devastated a grieving family. Although it is possible to heal wounds through the passage of time, it was completely unsatisfying how it seemed that, by the end, Evan was forgiven by the people in his life without showing how he made up for his transgressions.

3. How I Met Your Mother, TV series 

By the ninth and final season, we already knew who the Mother was and that she and Ted will meet at Robin and Barney’s wedding. The problem is, it took an entire weekend spread across 23 episodes for them to meet. But wait, it gets worse. Years pass in a single episode, and we find out that Robin and Barney end up divorced. By the time Ted finishes telling the story of how he met their mother, Tracy, to his children, we find out that she’s been dead for years. Then, the children encourage Ted to go after Robin. What a way to render an entire final season pointless.

4. The Dragon Prince, TV series

The Dragon Prince is an animated TV series, made by the showrunners of ATLA, that offered compelling thematic narratives paired with explorative character arcs bravely diving into darker themes. Unfortunately, the buildup from the six seasons failed to properly land on the last season. Its biggest strength, such as the arcs and journey of the characters, suddenly became its weakness with their individual journey feeling rather confusing than nuanced. An example would be Callum’s internal struggle with his experience in dark magic, which fizzled out throughout the end, leaving it unresolved. Overall, instead of a fuller and filled season finale, we are left with major narrative gaps and unanswered questions. 

5. After the Dark, 2013 film  

Maybe if the ending had been better, this film would have been more popular. Also known as The Philosophers, After the Dark takes place in a college-level philosophy class where the professor asks his students to discuss the well-known bunker dilemma. The film is riveting in its dramatization of each scenario, but in the end, it is revealed that the exercise was a ploy for the professor to punish two of his students, one of whom is his affair partner.

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