Sometimes, it's better not to get your hopes up. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at TV moments that had massive buildup, but ultimately tripped over the finish line… and fell on a landmine.
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00:00All my life I've known one goal, the Iron Throne.
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at TV moments that had massive buildup,
00:08but ultimately tripped over the finish line, and fell on a landmine.
00:12Obviously, there will be spoilers.
00:13That's it.
00:15That's it.
00:17Number 10.
00:18Surviving the Fall.
00:20Sherlock.
00:21A high point of this modern Sherlock Holmes reimagining,
00:23finds our hero backed into the corner, plunging to his apparent doom.
00:27Now stay exactly where you are.
00:30Don't move.
00:30You alright?
00:34Keep your eyes fixed on me.
00:36Please, will you do this for me?
00:38Not even Sherlock can come back from this.
00:40And yet, he does.
00:41While it made for a mic drop of a cliffhanger,
00:43things started to fall apart when the next season tried explaining his miraculous survival.
00:48We're presented with multiple theories,
00:50none of which are especially practical, satisfying, or even conclusive.
00:54Do you honestly believe that if you have enough stupid theories,
00:56it's going to change what really happened?
01:00I believe in Sherlock Holmes.
01:02Yeah, but I won't bring him back.
01:04To a degree, it's fitting that the world's greatest detective would have a secret that's
01:07his and his alone.
01:08It's also not the first time this character has returned from the dead without explanation.
01:12Within this continuity though, it feels like a cop-out that turns Sherlock into
01:15an invincible superhero, removing any stakes.
01:18Before you do anything that you might regret,
01:20one question.
01:21Just let me ask one question.
01:25Are you really going to keep that?
01:27Number 9.
01:28Rachel and Joey get together.
01:30Friends.
01:31Fans reflect on Joey and Rachel's relationship as one of the sitcom's most infamous storylines.
01:36It's just such a romantic place.
01:38That's all.
01:38I just wish I could share it with a guy.
01:44Not Joey.
01:46Not Joey?
01:47No, I was just lost staying after Chandler.
01:50Yeah, right.
01:51Although it was always divisive,
01:53audiences at the time were still interested in seeing where this was all going.
01:56When Joey showed up at Rachel's hotel room in the season 9 finale,
01:59we spent months wondering how this would impact the show's swan song season.
02:03The results were underwhelming.
02:04I can't believe this.
02:06Rachel and Joey?
02:07Rachel and Joey spend two episodes contemplating how Ross will react to this development.
02:11The two make their relationship official in the third episode,
02:14only to realize they're more compatible as just friends.
02:17I love you.
02:20Love you too.
02:23All right, I'm going to bed.
02:24Yeah, me too.
02:27Oh, yeah.
02:30I'm not going anywhere for a while.
02:31While we appreciate that the showrunners finally nipped this romance in the bud,
02:34the fact that it went nowhere makes the journey to this breakup feel pointless.
02:38Number 8.
02:39Pietro's True Identity.
02:41WandaVision.
02:42Arguably the most talked about show that aired during the pandemic,
02:45WandaVision was a communal experience
02:47that united audiences in guessing what would happen next.
02:50Fizz?
02:52What are we doing wrong?
02:54Don't worry, dear.
02:56We'll figure it out.
02:57Our fascination peaked with the arrival of Wanda's late brother Pietro.
03:01Except he wasn't played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
03:03Evan Peters filled the role,
03:05seemingly bridging the MCU with Fox's X-Men series.
03:08This not only suggested that X-Men were now part of the MCU,
03:11but so was the multiverse.
03:13What's the big deal, yo?
03:15Big guy is a conflict.
03:16Twins need a father figure for the night.
03:18Don't sweat it, sis.
03:19I got the old XY chromosome.
03:21Uncle Petey the rescue, huh?
03:23There you go.
03:25Problem solved.
03:26The finale provided the answer we had been awaiting,
03:28and it was a resounding nope.
03:30Turns out that Peters wasn't playing Quicksilver,
03:33but rather a random guy named Ralph Boner.
03:36Not every fan theory needs to pan out,
03:38but when a character exists merely to subvert expectations,
03:41it hurts the rewatch value.
03:43Please, spare my life.
03:45Nice to meet you, Ralph.
03:46Number 7.
03:47Who is Gossip Girl?
03:48Gossip Girl.
03:49For six seasons,
03:51Kristen Bell dished out the dirty laundry
03:53as the voice of the mysterious blogger Gossip Girl.
03:56Gossip Girl here.
03:57Your one and only source into the scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite.
04:01Bell even makes a cameo in the series finale,
04:03literally winking at the camera.
04:04The only thing cringier than this meta moment
04:07is the revelation that Dan Humphrey is Gossip Girl.
04:10In addition to coming out of virtually nowhere
04:12and raising several inconsistencies,
04:14this knowledge paints Dan in an entirely different light.
04:16Within weeks, I was getting dozens of emails
04:19with stories about Upper East Siders,
04:21so I posted them anonymously.
04:23And then,
04:25I got more.
04:26Before long, it was a monster.
04:27Everyone was sending tips.
04:29Dan has spent the past several years
04:30spreading personal information about those he claims to care about.
04:33While Dan explains his motivations for creating Gossip Girl,
04:36his actions sound like something Joe Goldberg would do.
04:39Penn Badgley apparently found his niche playing sociopaths,
04:41but unlike Joe,
04:42Dan is celebrated for his double life.
04:44What do you look so amused for?
04:47It's just that I felt the same way
04:48until I realized that I'm fine with it.
04:51Fine?
04:52He stopped posting.
04:54Number 6.
04:55Flash Sideways Explanation.
04:57Lost.
04:58Lost wasn't the first show to generate fan theories,
05:00but it arguably launched our modern obsession
05:02with overanalyzing serialized drama.
05:04You a priest or something?
05:08Or something.
05:09One of the earliest and most widespread theories suggested
05:11that the characters were all in purgatory.
05:13J.J. Abrams said in 2005,
05:15The purgatory one is a great one.
05:17I love that theory,
05:18but it isn't what it is.
05:20I'd be frustrated if that were the answer, I have to say.
05:22Are you okay?
05:25What is happening to me?
05:27For six seasons,
05:28the showrunners stood by the sentiment
05:30whenever purgatory came up.
05:31The highly anticipated series finale
05:33confirmed once and for all
05:34the island is not purgatory,
05:36but the Flash Sideways universe is.
05:40She said we were leaving.
05:42Not leaving, no.
05:47Moving on.
05:48Although the creators technically weren't lying,
05:50it still felt like the internet beat them
05:52to the punchline six years earlier.
05:54Number 5.
05:56Uncle Charlie's Return,
05:57Two and a Half Men.
05:58There's burning a bridge,
06:00and then there's Charlie Sheen's exit from Two and a Half Men.
06:02Sheen left on such sour terms
06:04that his character was killed off in the season 9 premiere.
06:07I want to thank you all for coming.
06:09I know this is a very sad day for all of us.
06:12Speak for yourself.
06:13This seemed to dash any possibility
06:15that Uncle Charlie would ever return,
06:17outside of appearing as a hallucinated ghost
06:19who looks and sounds like Kathy Bates.
06:21Yeah, the show got progressively dumber.
06:23So you were just screwing with me?
06:25Yep.
06:25As the long-running sitcom reached a series finale,
06:28loyal viewers held on to hope
06:29that Sheen might make a cameo.
06:31The promos hinted at this,
06:32and the finale revolves around
06:34Charlie potentially still being alive.
06:35It builds to an unsatisfying anti-climax
06:38as a Charlie lookalike,
06:40seen only from behind,
06:41rings the doorbell,
06:42and is greeted with a piano from above.
06:49Number 4.
06:50Negan's Decision,
06:51The Walking Dead.
06:52When Negan finally showed up in Season 6,
06:55we thought he might breathe new life
06:56into the aging zombie series.
06:58Pissing our pants yet?
07:05Boy, do I have a feeling we're getting close.
07:09Instead, he killed it
07:10along with a fan-favorite character.
07:12In a cliffhanger ending,
07:13Negan beats an unknown victim to death,
07:16leaving every viewer frustrated.
07:17Granted, cliffhangers are inherently frustrating,
07:20but this one came off as especially manipulative.
07:23We were willing to give The Walking Dead
07:24one last chance in the Season 7 premiere,
07:26but the big reveal only enraged fans further.
07:40Negan executes two characters,
07:42Abraham,
07:43and more controversially,
07:44Glenn,
07:45who inexplicably survived one walker attack,
07:47only to get killed off anyway.
07:49While Glenn died under similar circumstances in the comics,
07:52throwing in Abraham's death
07:53was a cheap way of subverting expectations.
08:02Patrick McGougan created this cult series
08:05and played the titular prisoner,
08:06who's given the name Number 6.
08:13Wrapping up after just 17 episodes,
08:15the show had audiences hooked
08:16with its overarching mystery,
08:18which left much to be desired.
08:19Part of that's because
08:20McGougan didn't have every detail figured out
08:23heading into the finale,
08:24namely the identity of the unseen Number 1.
08:40Removing his mask,
08:42Number 1 is revealed to be a reflection of Number 6.
08:44McGougan saw Number 1 as Number 6's alter ego.
08:47Audiences, meanwhile,
08:48envisioned Number 1 as a James Bond-esque villain.
08:51According to McGougan,
08:52viewers were so upset
08:54that it nearly triggered a riot,
08:55sending him into hiding for two weeks.
08:57McGougan is just lucky
08:58this aired before the social media era.
09:04When a show revolves around a mystery,
09:06having an endgame usually helps out.
09:08In the case of How I Met Your Mother,
09:10planning ahead derailed the series.
09:14By season 2,
09:15the creators had committed to ending the series
09:17with the mother's death
09:18and Ted rekindling his feelings for Robin.
09:20They even shot footage with Ted's children.
09:22This made sense then
09:23because we had grown to like Ted and Robin as a couple,
09:26knowing virtually nothing about the mother.
09:34By the final season, though,
09:36we had fallen in love with the mother.
09:38Ted and Robin were an afterthought.
09:39Although only one script was shot,
09:41the showrunners edited an alternate ending
09:43that felt more appropriate.
09:44Alas, they stuck to their guns
09:46and the results were legendarily disappointing.
09:49Aw, for f***'s sake.
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10:16We feel bad constantly dumping on season 8
10:18as it did feature some great performances
10:20and epic set pieces.
10:25Yet it's astonishing
10:27how many character arcs they botched.
10:29The Night King finally arrives
10:30only to be swiftly defeated by Arya.
10:32Daenerys makes it to King's Landing
10:34where she suddenly turns mad,
10:35almost as suddenly as Jon Snow decides to kill the woman he loves.
10:44Sure, we got Cleganebowl,
10:46but it was shallow fan service in a season
10:48that otherwise didn't give a crap
10:50about what viewers thought.
10:51Oh, and as for who gets to sit on the Iron Throne,
10:54well, nobody since it burned.
10:56But since the Seven Kingdoms need a leader,
10:58let's go with Bronn.
10:59Wheel of Fortune feels more planned out than this.
11:05Which hyped moment left you
11:07throwing your TV out the window?
11:08Let us know in the comments.
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