Scholars Mind

Endings Left Open

I choose to believe. Endings aren’t always clear. In the final episode of Stargate Universe, a starship flies off into the vast emptiness between galaxies, its fate never to be resolved; cancellation left its crew’s future ambiguous. Other works of fiction have ended with more deliberate uncertainty. The Sopranos infamously cut to black; the last chapter of Life of Pi lets us decide whether the main character really made friends with a tiger; Deckard may or may not be a replicant. How important is it that stories end definitively? Can you think of any that should have ended a little earlier—or skipped their epilogues?

Key concepts

Narrative Closure
The satisfying click of a story's loose ends being tied off. People want it badly, which is why refusing it reads as either profound or as a cheat, and almost never as anything in between.

Every work — at a glance

  • The Sopranos — David Chase, HBO (television)

    The finale cuts to black mid-scene, mid-song, with Tony looking up at the diner door. David Chase has never said what happened.

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What to know

  1. 01
    Intent is what separates them. The cut to black and the last chapter of Life of Pi were chosen and mean something; Stargate Universe was cut off by a cancellation. The feeling in the viewer is nearly identical, which is why 'did they mean it?' is the first question worth asking of any unresolved ending.

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Across subjects

Music has the same accident. Schubert stopped after two movements of his B-minor symphony in 1822, lived six more years and never went back; it was premiered in

Theme connection

"Are We There Yet?"

For a story, arriving means ending — and this asks whether a clear destination is what we actually want. One side says an audience gives years of attention and is owed a resolution. The other says life does not resolve, and a tidy ending is the one lie fiction tells for comfort.

Practice — a sample

LITEach ending below is famously ambiguous EXCEPT —

  • A The Sopranos cut-to-black
  • B Stargate's final cliffhanger
  • C The Harry Potter epilogue
  • D Blade Runner's Deckard
  • E Life of Pi's two tales

Sign in to answer and see why each option is right or wrong.

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