‘NCIS,’ ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ & More Finale Cliffhangers We Can’t Stop Thinking About
With season finales tend to come major episodes for our favorite shows — and ones that sometimes leave characters’ lives hanging in the balance.
Such is the case once again at the end of the 2022-2023 season, with at least four finales (The Equalizer, FBI: International, Grey’s Anatomy, and Station 19) ending with the fates of quite a few characters up in the air. Will someone burn to death (not on Station 19)? Meanwhile, one CBS drama (CSI: Vegas) may have had one of its own commit the exact crime we’re used to seeing him investigate, while another (NCIS) has set up an agent to do possibly do just that after the screen faded to black.
For those and more finales that left us with cliffhangers that we won’t be able to stop thinking about until our favorite shows return, scroll down.
9-1-1: Lone Star
It seemed like the Fox first responder drama’s finale was going to be all about the joy surrounding T.K. (Ronen Rubinstein) and Carlos’ (Rafael Silva) wedding, only for the first part to throw a major (tragic) curveball. Ahead of the event, Carlos’ father Gabriel (Benito Martinez) was shot and killed, and while his son thought he’d tracked down the man responsible, he was wrong. Gabriel’s killer is still out there, and after seeing how far Carlos was willing to go… we can’t help but be a bit concerned where that might take him in Season 5, even if the grief won’t be as fresh. “Carlos is not the same since his father’s murder and will do whatever it takes to get an answer, some answer, any sort of answer, and he will take the path necessary to [do so],” Silva told us.
Chicago Fire
Let’s start with the potentially happy news: Casey (Jesse Spencer) returned to Chicago for the threat that had him and Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) working with Homeland Security, found out about his ex-girlfriend Brett (Kara Killmer) trying to (eventually) adopt a baby, went all in on supporting her, found out she and her boyfriend broke up, and ended the Season 11 finale with a proposal! Will she say yes?
Now for the potentially tragic: As part of the aforementioned threat, 51 responded to an incident at a substation and came under fire from a sniper. Mouch (Christian Stolte) was injured (not shot, as they initially thought, but he had to have shrapnel removed), and as Herrmann (David Eigenberg), who’d been told he’d “experience great pain very soon” by a psychic, visited him in the hospital, he started bleeding a lot. Last we saw him, Herrmann was calling for a doctor. Mouch can’t die, right?!
Chicago P.D.
The Season 10 finale wrapped up Ruzek’s (Patrick John Flueger) undercover assignment, but the officer’s life was hanging in the balance at the end of it. Yes, Intelligence did take down white supremacist Richard Beck, but not before his grandson shot Ruzek; the kid’s mother left him there to bleed out because she wanted to protect her son. It wasn’t looking good by the time Ruzek was able to call Burgess (Marina Squerciati) and he got to the hospital, and last we heard, he was in surgery.
CSI: Vegas
Josh (Matt Lauria) was determined to find out who killed his mom in the Season 2 finale, but he still managed to be in control while manipulating a man he thought only knew information, Kahn (Shane Callahan). But then he found out that Kahn was the one to kill her — and his body was found by the team. The episode ended with Serena (Ariana Guerra) cuffing Josh. But did he kill Kahn? Was he just there and Trey (Daniel Di Tomasso) did it? Did he not know? Lauria wouldn’t say when we spoke with him, but did admit that Josh finding out Kahn killed his mom “absolutely” could have driven him over the edge.
“[The] measured part and self-mastery part of Josh is the one who devised the blood gimmick, but then something breaks and something snaps. You’re suddenly looking in the face of your mother’s murderer,” he explained. “I think at the end when I accept the handcuffs, I know there’s no use in fighting it. It’s the only way it can be. And so regardless of what may have transpired, it’s an inevitability. But yeah, I definitely think absolutely, no question. I could have done it.”
The Equalizer
When the CIA past came back to painfully attack for Robyn (Queen Latifah) and Fisk (Donal Logue), it made for a Season 3 finale filled with truth serums, hits, and more — and everyone on her team left in a powerless situation. Someone Robyn thought had died forced her to watch as the room where Mel (Liza Lapira), Harry (Adam Goldberg), and Dante (Tory Kittles) were being held began to burn — and as a failed attempt already showed, it seemed impossible she’d be able to help them. Will they all survive, or is the team about to suffer a major loss?
FBI: International
The Fly Team was able to secure a missile before it could be sold and had the arms broker in custody, ready for a transfer when everything went sideways in the Season 2 finale. Something seemed off to Raines (Carter Redwood), outside the office on watch, about a van that passed him. He asked the others to check CCTV for the first level for a delivery, but Scott (Luke Kleintank) said that floor had been vacant for months … only someone had: The van’s driver was the buyer’s bodyguard. Raines ran back to the office, where everyone — Scott, Jamie (Heida Reed), Vo (Vinessa Vidotto), Smitty (Eva-Jane Willis), Powell (Greg Hovanessian), and the broker — was just about to start moving. But then a bomb went off, taking out at least the first floor of the building where their HQ are … and leaving Raines seemingly (only? hopefully?) unconscious and everyone’s fate up in the air.
Fire Country
Just as it looked like Bode (Max Thieriot) would be getting out, everything went sideways before his parole hearing and he instead ended the Season 1 finale not even at Three Rock but back in prison! Upon finding out that he was the reason Freddy’s (W. Tre Davis) wrongful conviction case was being held up, Mel, from the state attorney’s office gave him an ultimatum: If he skirted justice at the hearing, he’d be keeping Freddy’s case in limbo. If he accepted blame, her investigation ended and Freddy was free. Bode chose the latter. What’s it going to take to get him back at Three Rock and his name cleared?
Bode’s parents Vince (Billy Burke) and Sharon (Diane Farr) were divided on the matter, with her refusing to pull any more strings to help him. “We try to put that in every scene to make sure we choose each other. The end of the season is ‘I’m not choosing this version of you.’ They have to figure out if they will or they won’t,” Farr told us.
Grey's Anatomy
For most of the Season 19 finale, Teddy (Kim Raver) just seemingly really needed to get to the dentist. But just as Sam (Sam Page) needed her to operate on him, she collapsed in the OR. When Owen (Kevin McKidd) got there, Adams (Niko Terho) and Griffith (Alexis Floyd) had opened up Sam and Yasuda (Midori Francis) was using the defibrillator on Teddy. Is the hospital about to lose another doctor?
NCIS
A brief stay in prison undercover led Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) to spot a man from his past (Al Sapienza), whom an 18-year-old inmate informed him was his mother’s boyfriend and possibly the reason for his troubles since he’d been framed for fraud. Once out of prison, he left his sister a voicemail: “I found him. You know who I’m talking about. The bastard’s still alive, and he’s still doing it.” The Season 20 finale ended with Torres waiting for that man when he got home — he called the agent “Nicky” and said he thought about him, his mom, and his sister — and, gun in hand, telling him he wanted what he “always” did: “To watch you die.” What is Torres going to do?!
Station 19
In the ballroom floor’s collapse in the Season 6 finale, Jack (Grey Damon) did hit his head but with the other injuries (and deaths), that took a backseat… until the end of the episode. He said he just had a headache, but Andy (Jaina Lee Ortiz) worried if he had another concussion — and then he collapsed. Will he survive?
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