Notable series finales (2000s)

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This is a list of notable television programs from the 2000s with series finales.

Contents 1 2000 2 2001 3 2002 4 2003 5 2004 6 2005 7 2006

[edit] 2000

• Beverly Hills 90210 - David and Donna get married.

• Boy Meets World – Cory and Topanga announce their plans to move to New York City (for her internship), while the rest of the gang announces big plans of their own. Jack and Rachael are now working in the Peace Corps, Angela left to go with her father an episode before the series finale, and Shawn and Eric are going with Cory and Topanga to New York while their family stays behind. Cory gives his little brother advice before he goes, and finally gets why the show is called Boy Meets World. Before Cory, Topanga, Shawn, and Eric leave for New York, Mr. Feeny tells them to meet with him at John Adams High, their former high school, in the last classroom they had with Mr. Feeny. Mr. Feeny – who has been there for them all since elementary school – gives them some sage words of advice before all of them emotionally bid farewell and strike out on their own even though he admits no emotional attatchment to his students, but however admit they do, and each of them says goodbye. This episode also replayed clips from the series' past seven seasons. As members of his original class leave him, Mr Feeny gets the final words, "I love you all, class dismissed."
• Cosby - Hilton passes his advice along to Erica and Darien on how to keep the romance alive in marriage.
• Party of Five - The Salingers leave the family home, putting the house up for sale.
• Sliders - The Seer - Rembrandt goes off to his homeworld with a virus to finally defeat the Kromaggs. Diana, Maggie, and Mallory are stranded in a parallel earth where the Sliders are celebrities. Their only hope of finding out what happened to Rembrandt disappears when the Seer dies. The remaining Sliders have no way of knowing whether the Seer's prophecy of their next slide causing their deaths has been changed or not.

[edit] 2001

• 3rd Rock from the Sun - The Thing that Wouldn't Die - The mission to study Earth ends, and the Solomons are forced to return home. Even though Mary has finally discovered the Solomons' secret and actually finds the idea of dating an alien to be kinky, she ultimately can't bring herself to follow them into space, so Dick eases her pain by erasing her memory of him with a karate chop to the head. Later in syndication an extended version was shown with Dick, who couldn't stand the loss of Mary, returning moments later in the nude and abducting the quite alarmed Mary.
• Nash Bridges - Fair Game -Cassidy Bridges decides to leave the San Francisco Police and takes a trip to Paris.
• Star Trek: Voyager - Endgame - The series finale begins more than 10 years in the future. Voyager finally returned to the Alpha Quadrant after a decades-long journey, but many crewmembers (including Chakotay and Seven of Nine) died during the voyage. Admiral Kathryn Janeway makes a bold decision to change the past in an attempt to undo the toll taken on the crew during their arduous journey home. She travels back in time, and provides the present Voyager crew with advanced technology that allows them to combat the Borg, who are in control of an intra-galactic transwarp hub. "Present" Janeway leads the Voyager crew in the assault, and they make use of a transwarp conduit to return home. Meanwhile, Future Janeway stays behind and sacrifices herself to destroy the Borg Queen and transwarp hub. Voyager destroys a final Borg vessel sent to stop them, and is then escorted back to Earth by a Starfleet armada which was assembled to combat a possible Borg invasion.
• Walker, Texas Ranger – The ruthless supervillain Lavocat – whose gang Walker had imprisoned several years earlier for their roles in a bank robbery and Ranger-killing spree – returns to exact his revenge. Lavocat - whom Walker had long assumed had died in a mental hospital - stages a major prison break, in which his criminal associates are freed, and they begin their search for Walker and his partners in Company B. Walker investigates the autopsies of several Rangers, which have been killed in the villain's latest rampage; the shooting style matches Lavocat's shooting style. Walker and Trivtte find a note telling them to dig up the body of C.D. Trivette, and both of them realize that their friend has died. An autopsy determines C.D.'s death to be the result of poisoning. Later, Trivette survives a brutal confrontation with Lavocat, and before long, Walker realizes that his sworn enemy is still alive. Eventually, Walker captures one of the villain's cronies, who immediately lets slip of his boss' whereabouts. Walker eventually gathers a small army of Rangers, which are able to capture all the rest of the bad guys before Walker's one-on-one battle with Lavocat. All this was going on while Walker's pregnant wife, Alex, is about to go into labor (she eventually gives birth to a baby girl, which she names Angela). Also, Trivette proposes marriage to an old flame, and the full story of Hayes Cooper is revealed.
• Xena: Warrior Princess - Xena dies in order to defeat a Japanese demon lord. While she has died before and been brought back to life this time she cannot as that would condemn to eternal torment several thousand souls she killed back when she was still evil. Her partner Gabrielle sails off into the sunset alone to continue the work, although Xena's spirit stands beside her. Almost all of series' re-occurring characters had died prior to the finale and did not make reappearances.

[edit] 2002

• Ally McBeal - Ally leaves Boston and the law firm to go to New York and start a life with her newly discovered daughter. Tears are shed and many goodbyes are exchanged between Ally and her friends. Ally concludes that some of the saddest times in her life were also the best.
• Earth: Final Conflict - Final Conflict - Agent Sandoval is fed up with serving the deranged alien overlord Howlyn, but goes after Renee anyway, for personal revenge. Renee and Sandoval have their final showdown, in which Sandoval is killed. As he dies, Sandoval tells Renee that he has no regrets and would gladly do the past 5 years all over again. Meanwhile, Howlyn attempts to activate the Atavus mothership to attack Earth, but his impatience results in the engines overheating and exploding. Howlyn's warriors finally realize what an idiot he is, and their leader fights and kills him, only to be killed by Renee who shows up a few seconds later with a huge energy cannon that conveniently vaporizes the previously invincible Atavus. Howlyn's son vows to return his people to their homeworld, where they won't have to feed on humans. In the end, Howlyn's son, Renee, Liam Kincaid, and Ra'jal (the last Taelon) leave aboard the Taelon mothership to explore the universe together.
• Lexx - Yo Way Yo - As the alien threat reaches the Earth, Stanley, Xev and Kai scramble to find a way to stop it. But with Lexx's health ailing, chances seem slim. As Kai combats the threat, he soon discover that he is returning to life, just as Prince had promised him. Meanwhile, 790 takes advantage of Lexx's senility to trick it into destroying the Earth. After the Lexx destroys the Earth, Kai, Xev and Tweedle finish off the threat to prevent it from destroying the rest of humanity. Prince, Priest and a few others escape the earth on a shuttle. 790 is shot into space, forever mourning Kai's death. Meanwhile, Xev and Stanley discover Lexx's child, which they use to travel once more in search of a safe place to live (and probably some cheap thrills).
• Roswell - Due to Liz's new visions, the FBI finally finds out the kids' secret and the kids make a pact to all go their separate ways after their impending Graduation. Things do not go as planned as the FBI invades their graduation, and Max's graduation speech because a farewell to Roswell and his family. Max eventually sneaks out with the rest of the group. They all meet in the desert, where former nemesis Sheriff Valenti meets them with a van, and the kids drive off into the darkness. The final scene involves Liz's father reading her journal that she kept throughout the series, and a montage of Liz and Max's wedding.
• Spin City - Katlin and Charlie reveal their relationship to everyone in the office after being caught being intimate on a surveillance camera. Carter is given a foster child but is frustated on how Paul is better around the baby then he is until the Mayor offers his help. Note: Originally filmed as a season finale, the producers re-edited the final episode to make it more conclusive after learning the show was canceled.
• The X-Files - Mulder uses a keycard to break into Mount Weather and learns the date of the alien invasion using a misappropriated password. He is attacked by indestructible supersoldier Knowle Rohrer, but manages to fight him off with Krycek's help (one of several visions of dead characters Mulder has during the episode). Mulder is captured and put on trial by the government, and his surviving allies (including Skinner, Scully, Spender, Doggett, Reyes, Marita, and Gibson Praise) come together to testify on his behalf (providing a brief overview of the entire series). The trial is rigged, however, and Mulder is ultimately sentenced to death. Director Kersch has a last minute change of heart, and helps Mulder escape. Meanwhile, Reyes and Doggett return to Washington to discover that the X-Files have been closed once and for all. Mulder and Scully go to a New Mexico pueblo in search of a wise man who knows the final truth. That individual turns out to be Mulder and Scully's old arch-nemesis, Cigarette Smoking Man, who supplied the keycard and password to Mulder so that he could learn the date of the alien invasion. Doggett and Reyes also show up and are confronted by Rohrer, who intends to kill everybody but is destroyed by magnetite in the walls (suggesting there may be hope against the aliens after all). Black helicopters ultimately arrive and vaporize the entire pueblo, including the Cigarette Smoking Man. The agents escape, and Mulder and Scully hold each other and ponder the future.

[edit] 2003

• Brookside – Drug dealer Jack Michaelson gets killed by a number of regular characters, who had been at the receiving end of his vile ways in previous episodes, an idea subtly suggested by Barry Grant, who makes a return to the Close along with Lindsey Corkhill. The final shots show Jimmy Corkhill adding a 'd' to the street sign, so that it read 'Brookside Closed'.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Chosen - Buffy leads her alliance of friends and former foes for one final assault on the Hellmouth and The First Evil's army of enhanced vampires. In the final confrontation with the First Evil, Buffy learns that she can 'activate' each of the hundreds of girls with the potential to become Slayers, creating a small army of Slayers. As a result, she no longer has to be the only active Slayer, allowing her to realize her dream of a somewhat normal life. This act tilts the balance of power drastically back towards Good, allowing the First Evil's assault to be defeated. The First Evil cannot be destroyed, but it is unlikely to be active for some time. The Hellmouth is sealed once and for all, destroying the town of Sunnydale, leaving only a crater behind. A couple of important characters died in the final assault on the Hellmouth (Anya gets stabbed by one of the Bringers while protecting Andrew, and Spike sacrifices himself to seal the Hellmouth although he is resurrected 19 days later on spinoff Angel via the same amulet that "killed" him), but a surprising number survive to move on to new things.
• Courage the Cowardly Dog - We finally find out what happens to Courage's parents, how Courage met Muriel, and where his parents are when it all happened.
• Dawson's Creek - Jen dies, leaving her daughter to be raised by Jack and his boyfriend - Pacey's cop brother, who turned out to be gay after all. Joey takes Pacey back to New York with her, leaving Dawson back in LA producing his autobiographical series, "The Creek".
• Just Shoot Me! - The series finale centers on a send-off for retiring Jack, whose staffers share memories, shed tears and pay affectionate tribute. Finch puts his feelings into rap, while Nina likens Jack to---what else?---"a perfect glass of Scotch."
• Made In Canada - Alan sells Pyramid to a dairy farmer with a burgoning cable empire. Despite Alan's insistence that nothing will change, the new owner fires Richard and Veronica (who then decide go into production for themselves with the intent to make quality programming), and promotes Victor to CEO. Victor then fires Alan. Richard's clsoing narration informs us that Victor would successfully run Pyramid for the next 5 years, before taking early retirement; Wanda then taking over Pyramid; Alan would win a Gemini for the controversial Prom Night at Horny High: The Next Generation, and that Richard and Veronica, despite failing to produce any quality shows, have made millions off Robot Slaughter. They also had a baby, named Victor. Richard ends the series (sitting next to Veronica; with baby in lap) by explaining, as he did at the beginning of the first episode, "I work in television. I can get behind anything," and then saying, for the last time, one of the series' trademark closing lines, "I think that went well."
• The Office (UK) - The docusoap crew return to Wernham Hogg to catch up with the staff, and arrange to fly Dawn and her domineering boyfriend Lee over from America for a Christmas reunion with the employees. Dawn has given up her dream to be an illustrator but looks forward to catching up with her secret crush Tim, who feels the same. David, now a Z-list celebrity, keeps showing up at the office and the boss, Neil, bans him from the Christmas dinner. However, he finds himself getting on very well with his blind date Carol at the subsequent party and finally tells Finch to "fuck off". Lee tells Dawn that they must leave for their flight back to the United States the next day. In the taxi, Dawn opens her Christmas gift from Tim: a box of oil paints with the message "Never give up". Dawn quietly returns to the office and kisses Tim. Posing for a group photo with everyone, David genuinely makes people laugh.
• Oz - The series-long rivalry between inmates Beecher and Schillinger comes to an end when Keller contrives to have Beecher kill Schillinger by substituting a prop dagger with a real one during a prison production of "Macbeth". When Beecher confronts Keller, Keller reminds Beecher that he loves him and kills himself by falling backwards over the upstairs railing and landing on the main OZ floor below. The series ends with Beecher in protective custody (from the Aryans, for Schillinger's death), and the prison being evacuated after an unknown chemical attack.
• Touched by an Angel - I Will Walk With You - Monica has her final assignment which will lead to her promotion taking over Tess' position.
• Sabrina, the Teenage Witch - Sarbina prepares for her marriage to Aaron, but has trouble keeping on track. She begins to feel better when her mother and Aunt Hilda arrive. Doubt comes and gives Sabrina her soul stone. She gets Aaron's and discovers they don't fit; therefore, they are not soul mates. Sabrina then leaves Aaron at the altar and runs into Harvey. After sharing a kiss, they throw their soul stones into the air. Their soul stones do indeed match, but they have already driven off on a motorcycle and don't notice.

[edit] 2004

• Angel - Not Fade Away - Team Angel (including Angel's long-time nemesis Lindsey) plans to defy the Senior Partners by destroying the Circle of the Black Thorn, their prime operatives on Earth. Each Team Angel member is assigned a Black Thorn member to assassinate, while Angel gets into a final bang-up showdown with Hamilton, the Senior Partners' liaison. The team succeeds, but Wesley dies on his mission and Lindsey is killed by Lorne to prevent him from taking the Black Thorn's place. Angel's son Connor shows up at the last minute to help Angel battle Hamilton, and the Wolfram and Hart building crumbles to dust after Hamilton is killed. However, this act of defiance angers the Senior Partners, who finally send their full might against Angel and Co. The final scene is Angel, Spike, Ilyria, and a mortally wounded Gunn about to fight what appears to be a hopeless battle against a massive army of hellspawn, plus assorted giants and one flying dragon. Despite the overwhelming odds, Angel seems hopeful, and his final words (and the final words of the series) are "let's go to work". On the plus side, Lorne, weary of all of the violence, had told Angel he would not be at the final battle, and survives. And Angel lives on through his son Connor.
• The Drew Carey Show - Kellie accepts Drew's marriage proposal and they marry a few seconds before the birth of their baby. The show ends with Drew playing pool in the rain, mirroring the first episode. Then, Drew thanks the audience, saying it has been fun, and then hugs the current cast on the set. Then a montage is shown of the cast actually interacting with people in Cleveland, set to "You Can Still Rock in America" by Night Ranger.
• Farscape - Crichton and the crew of Moya discovers that the Scarrans are preparing an invasion of defenseless Earth. Crichton rejects Scorpius' offer of a Peacekeeper alliance and uses his wormhole knowledge to seal up the wormhole leading to Earth forever, holding one last conversation with his father while standing on the moon. A Scarran scout ship heading towards Earth is destroyed as the wormhole tears itself apart. Moya sets down in an ocean on an alien world, and Crichton proposes marriage to Aeryn, who accepts. However, in the last few seconds of the episode, a strange alien craft appears, identifies the pair as "intruders" and reduces them to dust. Although the series ends on a cliffhanger, after several years it finally receives a more concrete resolution to the various plotlines in Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars.
• Frasier - Ronnie and Martin wed, despite a series of hilarious screw-ups by the Crane brothers during the wedding preparations. Niles worries that his and Daphne's child will take after her loutish brothers rather than his more refined side of the family, but ultimately decides to accept the child for who he is. Daphne gives birth to a son, David Crane. Roz gets promoted to station manager of KACL. With Martin having moved out and Niles and Daphne busy with their baby, Frasier, who started the series desperate for peace and quiet in his apartment now finds himself incredibly lonely and accepts a new radio job in San Francisco. After telling his family and friends how much they mean to him and presenting his final show for KACL, we see Frasier aboard an airplane flying to Chicago to catch his new love. The story is somewhat open ended.
• Friends - The Last One - Ross wants to be with Rachel, but she still wants to go to Paris. He tries to tell her about his feelings, but Gunther beats him to it. Rachel leaves for the airport, and Ross decides to catch her at the gate. Meanwhile, Erica turns out to be carrying twins: a boy and a girl. Chandler and Monica name the girl Erica, after her surrogate mother, and the boy Jack, after Monica's father. Mike tells Phoebe that he wants to have babies. Joey buys Monica and Chandler a housewarming present: Chick Jr. and Duck Jr. Ross and Phoebe chase Rachel to the airport, but end up at the wrong one. They narrowly make it to the right airport, where Ross declares his love for Rachel, but she gets on the plane anyway. A dejected Ross returns home, where he finds a message on his answering machine, revealing that Rachel got off the plane, just as the real thing shows up behind him. They decide to be together. Meanwhile, Chandler and Monica finish packing for their move to the suburbs, and Joey loses Chick Jr. and Duck Jr. in the foosball table, which Joey and Chandler have to subsequently dismantle. The episode ends with the friends standing in Monica and Chandler's empty apartment. They put their keys to the apartment on the side in the kitchen. The final dialogue features Rachel saying, "Do you want to go and get some coffee?" leading Chandler to remark, "Sure, where?" The last shot is a pan across Monica's apartment - poignantly shown empty for the only time during the series' ten year run - and ends on the picture frame on the door.
• The Practice – Cheers (a.k.a. Adjourned: Series Finale) - Eugene is seated as a superior court judge, Jimmy and Jamie start a neighborhood law firm of their own with Lenny Pescatore, Eleanor takes time off to become a full-time mother, and the firm founded by Bobby Donnell closes permanently. Alan and Tara are firmly established at the law firm of Crane, Poole & Schmidt, setting the stage for the spinoff, Boston Legal.
• Sex and the City – An American Girl in Paris: Parts Une and Deux - In Paris with Petrovsky, Carrie comes to realize that his work will always come first and that she misses her friends. Back in New York, Samantha is depressed about the effect of the chemotherapy on her libido and tells Smith he can have sex with someone else while on location filming a movie in Canada. Miranda and Steve realize that his mother's mental capacities have taken a serious decline and that she can no longer live alone, so they have her move in with them. After their attempt to arrange an open adoption with a couple from North Carolina falls through because the woman has found out she will be having a daughter, Charlotte and Harry get referred a Chinese orphan girl to adopt. After sending her unbloomed flowers at work, Smith comes home in the middle of the night and tells Samantha he forgot to tell her he loved her on the phone. She tells him not to have sex until he gets back. Carrie finally confronts Petrovsky and after he accidentally slaps her, she goes looking for a hotel room, only to find Big there in the lobby. After talking him out of attacking Petrovsky, they return to New York where she is reunited with her friends. She concludes that happiness in love means that you have to love yourself and find someone who loves that self as much as you do. In the last scene, she is walking along a street when Big calls and the caller ID on her cellphone at long last reveals his name: John.
• Soul Food: The Series – Don't Think This Hasn't Been Fabulous - Maxine and Kenny pick up Kelly from her boarding school, where she has flourished academically. Stopping at a hotel casino along the way, Kenny loses bundles of his newly-acquired fortune, which Maxine later wins back. Having been released from the hospital, Lem insists on going to his grocery store, despite Bird's objections. The two arrive to discover that the store has been vandalized. Overwhelmed by recent events, Lem collapses into tears and sobs uncontrollably. Bird comforts and encourages him, and later the entire family (including the children) pitch in to repair and restock the store, ensuring that it will open as scheduled. Bird and Lem recommit themselves to each other, and promise to put their recent marital problems behind them. Teri accepts a position as managing partner of the Atlanta office of Burke Willis (which is to be renamed Burke, Willis & Joseph), and makes preparations to leave Chicago permanently. Upon learning that Teri is in Atlanta, Damon flies there from San Francisco and makes a last-ditch effort at reconciliation, but is gently rejected. Later upon reflection, Teri decides to turn down the new position in Atlanta and resigns from the law firm altogether, believing that she has nothing left to prove professionally. When she later discovers that Damon is in Chicago speaking at a youth group banquet, Teri rushes there and reconciles with him. Soon thereafter, the two are finally married in a small ceremony attended by the Joseph family, Damon's foster son Mandel, and Teri's secretary Gloria. After one last visit from the spirit of Big Mama, Ahmad (the series' occasional narrator) recounts future events: Teri and Damon adopt Mandel. The three settle in Los Angeles, where Teri becomes the head of the local branch of the ACLU. Bird gives birth to a girl. Lem's grocery store prospers and puts the local supermarket out of business, allowing his family to move into a huge new home. Having sold his towing company, Kenny starts a classic car restoration business. Maxine gives birth to twins, and opens an outreach center for women in transition, using the Joseph family home vacated by Bird and Lem. Kelly, once hindered by a learning disability, continues to prosper in school. Finally, in homage to the original film from 1997, Ahmad speculates that he might someday write a movie about his family's experiences.

[edit] 2005

• Andromeda – The Heart of the Journey" - The crew escape their dimensional prison and return to the known universe, just in time to confront the Nietzschean fleet as it begins its invasion of the Commonwealth. After an extensive battle, the Nietzcheans are eventually convinced to stand down. The Spirit of the Abyss shows up, but is finally defeated. Surprisingly, everyone survives.
• Everybody Loves Raymond – Finale - Raymond undergoes minor surgery, but seems to go into a coma, causing all his family members to gather around him and fear he may die. It all turns out to be a big misunderstanding, however, and Raymond is fine. Ray starts to ponder his own mortality, but that doesn't last very long. The show ends with the entire family arguing around the dinner table, as they always have.
• Grounded for Life - Hello Goodbye - Claudia, who is 9 months pregnant, goes into labour at Lily's graduation ceremony, which ruins her and Sean's eleborate senior prank plan and Lily makes an embrassment of herself. In the end, the Finnerty's have a baby girl, Rose (later named Grace after everyone associates it with Titanic).
• JAG - Fair Winds and Following Seas - Harm and Mac are told by the general that they have been promoted and assigned to new posts: Harm in London and Mac in San Diego. They are told that they can choose from the JAG staff who they want to go with them. Meanwhile Lt. Vukovic is sent to work on a case involving an underage 16 year old marine who's father died in combat 2 years earlier. In the end the young marine is sent home with an honorary status and told that he can join the marines when he comes of age. Harm offers Bud the chance to go with him to London as his assistant. Bud jumps at the chance. However after a discussion with Harriet they decide that it would be best to stay where they are so Bud declines Harm's offer. Then Harm and Mac finally confront their feelings for each other that they've been avoiding for the past 9 years. They decide to get married. They meet the whole gang at the bar. For the marriage to work however one of them will have to give up their military career and go with the other. Since they can't decide, Bud pulls out the JAG coin that Admiral Chedwiggen gave him when he retired and proposes a coin toss. Mac chooses tails and flips the coin. The final shot is the group looking up at the coin as it spins, and as it fades to black, the coin is left on a black screen, and the coin simply says: "JAG 1995-2005".
• NYPD Blue - Andy Sipowicz takes over as squad commander and takes the heat from his superiors as he and the detectives press ahead with an investigation of a wealthy and well-connected man for the murder of a prostitute. Greg drops by briefly. Lieutenant Bale stops by to get his things and he tells Andy that he'll be a good squad commander. The rich man gets arrested. Andy gets yelled at by the chief of police who says that if he screws up one more time, he'll "regret it". At the end of the episode Andy is shown sitting at his desk going through paperwork, finally content and happy with his life, as the squad members come one by one telling to congratulate him on his new position and say goodbye. The camera, focused on Andy, slowly moves out from his desk through the empty squadroom and out of the door. Then the screen fades to black, showing that life has not ended at the 15th precinct; we just won't get to visit every week.
• Queer as Folk (US TV series) - Episode 513. Justin and Brian, after becoming engaged, decide to call the marriage off, and Justin goes off to college. Ted's new beau is revealed to be somewhat of a schizophrenic, and returns to his first love(in the series), Blake. Emmett, who was dating the recently outed football player, dumps him and continues looking for the right guy. (requesting a deeper summary of this episode)
• Six Feet Under - Everyone's Waiting. Brenda gives birth to a premature baby girl, Willa, two months early. Willa's premature arrival (and Nate's negativity) raise Brenda's fears about the future of her daughter's health. However, Willa makes wonderful advances in the next few weeks and is soon allowed home. Ruth gives Maya, whom she had been looking after since Nate's death, back to Brenda, and promises to help Brenda raise her two children. Ruth becomes deeply depressed after handing over Maya and fully realising Nate's death. She gains some comfort after learning from Maggie that Nate was happy the last night he was alive. Federico makes a down payment on a mortuary of his own and asks David and Brenda to buy him out. David refuses to sell the business, then relents and puts the home on the market. Keith then proposes for David, himself and their sons to purchase both Federico and Brenda's quarters of the business and move into the funeral home. Ruth moves out of the funeral home and in with her sister Sarah. Claire accepts a job as a photographer's assistant in New York City. However, she later learns that following a company restructure, her job no longer exists. With Nate's urgings, she decides to head to New York anyway. At Claire's farewell dinner, the extended family reminisce on the last five years and make a toast to Nate, at last achieving a level of normalcy and non-dysfunction. As Claire begins her cross-country journey, the series closes with a montage (set to Sia's "Breathe Me") showing the future marriages of David & Keith and Claire & Ted, and the future deaths of each of the main characters. Claire is destined to live until age 102, dying surrounded by photographs depicting a full and happy life (reminiscent of the character Rose DeWitt Bukater from the film Titanic).
• Star Trek: Enterprise – "These Are the Voyages..." - The series finale is set six years after the two-part episodes preceding it, and is in fact a holodeck re-creation of "historic events" in which Commander Riker and Counselor Troi of the Enterprise-D are taking part (concurrently with the seventh-season Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "The Pegasus"). Inside the re-creation, the original Enterprise crew get together to witness the decommission of Enterprise and the formation of the United Federation of Planets. We learn that Trip and T'pol broke off their relationship shortly after the events of the previous episode. Before going their separate ways, the Enterprise crew embarks on one last mission: to save the daughter of their ally and former nemesis Shran from a group of criminals, who chase and board Enterprise after a ground skirmish. Trip sacrifices himself to stop them by causing an explosion in one of the ship's relay rooms. Enterprise ends with Captain Archer about to give his historic speech that will bring the Federation together, and Captains Kirk, Picard, and Archer giving spliced-together portions of their famous opening "...to boldly go where no man/one has gone before" monologues, arranged so that Picard would begin his version; continuing in reverse chronological order (of the Star Trek universe) with Kirk, then ending with Archer, the screen showing shots of the ships they respectively captained in order.

[edit] 2006

This year features many series finales from The WB and UPN networks in the United States, as these network shut down this year, and only a few shows from the network went on to the new network, The CW.

• Alias - Reprisal and All the Time in the World - Sydney and Jack confront Sloane within Rambaldi's tomb, where Sloane activates "Horizon", Rambaldi's endgame, which is revealed to be the secret of Immortality. In the ensuing gunfight, Sloane mortally wounds Jack, and as a result is shot to pieces by Sydney. However, Sloane resurrects as an immortal through the power of Rambaldi's device. A dying Jack sacrifices himself by detonating a pack of explosives, sealing the cave and entombing Sloane alive forever as punishment for all the pain he's caused Sydney over all the years. Meanwhile, Sydney travels to Hong Kong, where Irina has the last remaining piece of Horizon and intends to make herself immortal then destroy Washington D.C. and London. A final battle ensues between mother and daughter, and Irina ultimately plunges to her death through a glass skylight when she attempts to retrieve the Horizon instead of accepting her daughter's attempt to rescue her. The show ends several years later; Sydney and Vaughn are married and have a second child, named Jack in honor of her father. It is hinted that Sydney's daughter, Isabelle, has her abilities. As for the supporting characters, Dixon becomes head of the CIA, Marshall and Carrie have four kids, Rachel continues working as an agent, and Sark escapes to cause more mischief another day.

• Arrested Development - "Development Arrested (aka "Harboring Resentment")" - Now that George Sr. has been cleared of all misdoings, Michael can finally become CEO of Bluth Company. To celebrate this, the Bluths finally hold the party on a boat as they attempted to do in the pilot. Before this happens:
  • Michael must convince the other Bluths not to sell out their shares to Stan Sitwell: after a series of compromises on Michael's part (which were driven by Lucille, who George reveals drove him to fiscal impropriety), Lucille proposes that the company pay them not to sell for 10 years
  • After being found out as a 16-year-old film executive, Maeby must get releases from the family so that a series can be made about her career
  • George Michael reveals his relationship with Maeby to Michael, who, in another compromise, then tries to fix him up with Ann, who is revealed to dating Gob; after this is revealed, George Michael kicks Gob out of his boat house
  • It is revealed that Frozen Bananas were in fact conceived by an immigrant Korean vendor; When the Bluths stole his idea for their much better marketed stand, the vendor went bankrupt and had to go back to Korea, where his business failed, due in no small part to his re-locating to the DMZ
  • After Lindsey finds out she was adopted from Sitwell (and is 40, 3 years older than she believed), she tries to marry Michael, who declines (citing a lack of interest in older women)

At the party, Maybe and Lucille get their repective tasks done, when Lucille tells Maeby to take her sale papers and offer the other family members $30,000 for signing. Michael gives a tearful speech (tearful, the narrator implies, because he is going to be with the rest of his family for a long time) about togetherness. This speech causes Lucille to feel that she had made a mistake in letting Michael run the company. Lucille decides to sell the company to Sitwell at 12% percent above the market value with Lindsey thrown in, despite her being 40.

And then, the SEC, still on the boats that they displayed in the first episode, pull up to the boat, apparently for Lucille. Annyong returns to reveal that his actual name is Hel-loh ("One Day"), and that he was, in fact, the grandson of the aformentioned Korean vendor. All this time he was spying on the Bluths so that he could enact his revenge. Lucille decides then to drop anchor, unfortunately causing Buster to fall off the boat. Buster is forced to confront his two biggest fears: water and the seal who bit his hand off in Season 2. After finding out George Micheal's whereabouts from Gob, Michael catches up with George Michael on Gob's boat and reveals that since Lindsey was adopted, Maeby and George Michael aren't cousins. However, Michael thinks George Michael should not date Maeby because, even though they may not be blood relatives, they are still family. Michael decides to leave the Bluths helpless to their fate once again, and he and George Michael decide to take the boat and $500,000 in casher's checks to George's safehouse in Cabo.

• Blue Heelers - Ex-Constable Adam Cooper returns to Mt. Thomas and makes criminal accusations against Tom Croydon regarding the selling of an illegal weapon. The future doesn't look bright, and the officers at Mt. Thomas find out Tom Croydon is standing down and that the station is shutting down. Tom Croydon also makes friends with a dying cancer patient Gina who dies near the end of the episode. The rest of the station still have hope, and in the end they convince Adam Cooper to admit to a murder and withdraw the accusations. The station is kept open and the final scene is inside the station, Kelly and Joss running around like children and Tom Croydon looking on, it then went onto a video montage highlighting past moments in the show.

• Charmed - "Forever Charmed" - At the end of the longest-running show with all female leads, Piper Halliwell has just got her husband Leo Wyatt back from the Angel of Destiny. However, in the process, two families were ripped apart, Piper's (her sisters Phoebe Halliwell and Paige Matthews died) and Billie Jenkins's (her sister Christy Jenkins died while attempting to kill Phoebe, Piper, and Paige). In a desperate attempt to save their families, they both attempt time-travel. During the way, Piper meets her mother, Patricia Halliwell and her grandmother Penelope Halliwell, as well as older versions of herself and Leo. She also meets her sons from the future Wyatt Halliwell and Chris Halliwell when they come to the present. Billie finally realizes the error of her ways and murders her sister before they could murder her. The past is changed and Phoebe and Paige are saved. Phoebe learns that her forbidden love with Coop was never really forbidden. At the end, we see how their lives end up, and the series ends with an elderly Piper and Leo telling their story to their grand-daughter. As with every season, the final shot of the show is the front door of the Halliwell family home closing.

• Everwood - Foreverwood Parts 1 and 2 - Edna is distraught after her husband's death, and plans to leave Everwood. She is prevented from doing this by Harold and Rose, who adopt the infant of a distraught patient of Harold. Nina finds the ring that Andy secretly hides for his possible proposal to her. Jake learns of this, and also learns that his love, Nina, still has feelings for Andy. Jake then leaves Nina to move to California. Hannah is accepted into Notre Dame, but plans to stay in Everwood and go to Everwood Community College to keep in touch with her friends there. Andy then finally proposes to Nina, in the exact spot where they first met, and Nina accepts. Finally, Amy rents a ferris wheel and plants it outside of Ephram's apartment, in reference to her first ferris wheel ride with Ephram, as Amy and Ephram finally reunite.

• Malcolm in the Middle - Graduation - In the series finale, the fates of the main characters get resolved. Dewey and Jamie continue on the tradition of causing mischief at home. Reese and Craig becoming roommates, where Reese shows his more caring side while Craig finally found a friend who listens to him. Francis continues to argue with Lois about how he is living his life, but secretly has gotten his life together. Lois becomes pregnant to Hal's dismay. Malcolm goes to study at Harvard realizing no matter how much he achieves, his childhood was preparation for the hardships he will face in the real world and that Lois expects him to be President...

• Phil of the Future - Back to the Future - (not the movie) - Phil and Keely get voted cutest couple. Because of this, they decide to be a couple. However, Pim discovers that Lloyd has fixed the time machine but has chosen not to tell the family due to their happiness in the current century. Eventually Phil tells Keely that he is leaving. Also, they cannot travel back in time because of a new law in 2121. The entire family, including Pim, individually choose to destroy the time engine, but Phil stops them because he knows they belong in the future. The Diffy's leave, but Phil begs to go back for five minutes to properly say good-bye to Keely. He kisses her and then returns to the time machine. After a while, the family realizes that they have left Curtis back in the present, and Lloyd reluctantly throws the time machine into reverse to pick him up.

• Still Standing - Still Graduating - When Brian graduates high school, he plans to move out and Bill and Judy plan to expand their bedroom into his. However, Brian gets the impression they've split and have become swingers. (When this episode was written it was unsure whether or not the series would return for a 5th season so this episode was made to work as a series finale for the show.

• The Red Green Show - "Do As I Do" - It is the day of Harold's wedding to Bonnie, which coincidentially falls on the day of the 300th episode of the show. Due to the a fire destroying the church (conveniently located below a welding shop) where the event was scheduled, and the scheduled minister collecting the insurance on said church and moving to Tahiti, the wedding is performed at the lodge with Red (by the powers granted him as lodge leader) presiding. After the wedding, Bonnie and Harold agree that Harold can still make visits to the lodge, including attending the last lodge meeting on the show (featuring a "revised man's prayer" expressing mild discontent in the successful change promised in the orginial prayer).

On the other show segments:

• Red shows creative uses for a pasta maker.
• On the last Possum Lodge Word Game, Dalton correctly guesses the word "finale"; when Red asks him for a word that would symbolize the last episode of the show, Dalton comes up with "Finally!"
• On the last Handyman's Corner, Red fails to start his otherwise fully realized concept for a perpetual motion machine.
• On the last Adventures with Bill, Bill and Red look back at previous adventures, and then Bill says goodbye and introduces his new girlfriend, a nurse. Red remarks on the narration that Bill is going off on "The biggest adventure of his life."
• Red's last monologue is about the hardships involved with saying goodbye.

After the meeting, Red narrates an epilogue describing how the characters changed after the episode:

• Mike became a cop. With Mike getting a real job, the crime rate in Possum Lake plummets to zero.
• Dalton agrees to renew his wedding vows.
• Ed becomes an animal-rights activist.
• Hap claims to have been appointed ambassador to Guam.
• Edgar had not been seen after a particularly extreme explosion.
• Bonnie and Harold have two kids.
• Winston becomes an investigator of government corruption, a subject that, Red remarks, Winston knows well.

Red remarks that he has not changed at all. However, the last shot of The Red Green Show is that of Red in a tuxedo.

• That '70s Show - That '70s Finale - The episode takes place on December 31, 1979. After her father announces that he is moving to Florida, Donna Pinciotti decides she needs to make a life for herself, so she decides to start college in January. Fez and Jackie Burkhart decided in the previous episode to be girlfriend and boyfriend and in this episode, attempt to kiss for the first time. However, they are unable to kiss because the circumstances do not seem right. Eventually, they kiss on the water tower. Michael Kelso returns to Point Place for New Years Eve. He finds Fez and Steven Hyde on the water tower. They all decide to jump off one last time during the 1970s but Hyde and Fez trick Kelso into jumping alone. Kitty Forman and Red Forman had been planning to move to Florida just like their neighbor Bob Pinciotti, but Kitty did not want to leave her home so Red and Kitty decided to stay in Wisconsin. Eric Forman, who had been in Africa during the show's final season, returned to Point Place for a visit. He showed up sometime after 11:22pm but before midnight. He found Donna sitting on the car and both talked about how sad they were that their relationship did not work out, then however, the share a passionate kiss. The episode ended with the group of friends getting high one last time and a countdown to midnight. The licence plate displayed at the end of the episode which reveals the year the episode takes place showed the date to be 1980.

• The West Wing - Tomorrow - In the final hours of the Bartlet administation, Jed resolves a jurisdictional crisis involving a train wreck on the Vermont-New Hampshire border, and pardons Toby with less than a half hour to go until he must leave the White House to attend the Santos inauguration. It is revealed that Charlie will be attending law school at Georgetown University Law Center, prompting Jed to give Charlie a paperback copy of the Constitution that Jed got from his dad back during Jed's high school years. Matt Santos is inaugurated President (series creator and ex-show runner Aaron Sorkin has a non-speaking cameo) as moving people arrive at the White House. Various Bartlet staff meet with their incoming Santos counerparts as Josh, Donna and Sam enter the West Wing for the first time as members of the Santos administration. After a meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Santos wonders, "What's Next?", before he and Helen head to the Inaugural balls. On Jed's plane ride home to New Hampshire, Jed opens a gift from Leo's daughter: the "Bartlet for America" napkin Leo drew to convince Jed to run for president. After this, when asked about any thoughts on Jed's mind by Abbey, Jed replies, "Tomorrow."

• What I Like About You - Finally - A SWAT team puts the spa on lockdown because police are searching for two escaped convicts just hours before Vic and Val's wedding. Val and Holly later break out of the spa on horseback over to the church but their horse trots off while the two are taking a picture. Holly and Val end up fighting but realize that they are going to miss each other now that Val and Vic are getting married. Lauren and Tina arrive just before Val and Holly arrive in the nick of time before Vic tries to tell everyone in the hall to go home and she and Vic get married. Val finds it is a traditional wedding and not the Star Wars wedding she didn't want. Gary gets emotional because he's losing one of his best friends since Vince is moving to Chicago. Gary tells Holly that Vince knows about Robyn. Vince decides not to go on the plane to Chicago and surprises Holly at the wedding reception and the two get back together. Gary and Tina share a kiss in the middle of Tina's song at the reception. Holly and Val share one last moment together before the show ends, and finally ending it with a hug saying "I still love you."

• Will & Grace - Finale - After Grace has a nightmare about how miserable her life would be if she raised her child with Will (in the dream, Karen is married to Rosario, and Jack is married to Kevin Bacon), Grace reunites with Leo, and the show forwards ahead to two years later, when Leo and Grace are raising their daughter, Laila, and Will and Vince are raising their adopted son, Ben. Will and Grace (who haven't talked since the birth of Grace's baby) reunite thanks to a plan hatched by Jack and Karen, but they fail to rekindle their friendship. Meanwhile, Karen goes broke after her divorce from Stanley, so she has Jack move in with Beverley Leslie and become the beneficiary of his wealth. Beverley dies shortly thereafter, when he is blown away by a gust of wind on his balcony, and Jack inherits Beverley's fortune. Jack and Karen move into Karen's mansion and live together for the rest of their lives, with Rosario as their maid. Meanwhile, 16 years in the future, Ben and Laila are starting college and coincidentally are moving into dorm rooms across the hall from one another's. They become friends, and Will and Grace are reunited as they help their kids move in. The show forwards ahead another 4 years or so, when Ben and Laila are about to be married, an event that has rekindled the pair's friendship. They decide to meet up at the bar at which they had gotten together after Grace ran out on her wedding to Danny in the series premiere; Jack and Karen join them as they toast their future in the show's final scene.