There’s something about the words “to be continued” that TV audiences simultaneously love and hate. On one hand, it means the story is going to have at least another hour to unfold its hitherto unexpected complexities before us. On the other hand, it means we have to wait-and when those words show up around the end of May (in the old days before original cable shows, that is), it meant a summer full of anticipation wondering how our heroes were going to make it out of whatever fix they’d found themselves in. So, in celebration of the upcoming month of May, I present to you TV Wasteland’s top ten season-ending cliffhangers as chosen by me with a healthy dose of e-mail from you guys. Spoilers abound, so read at your own risk!

DALLAS “A House Divided” (aired: March 21, 1980) It’s only appropriate that the list begin with the show that essentially created the season-ending cliffhanger. In its third season finale, DALLAS, at that time number five in the ratings, made a narrative move that would find the series becoming the most talked about series on television (it would also be the number one show for three of the next four years). The show’s charismatic anti-hero, J.R. Ewing, while working late in his office, was shot in the chest by an unknown assailant. Over the long hiatus (an SAG strike would prevent the show from premiering until November 7), “Who Shot J.R.?” became one of pop culture’s most enduring slogans finding its way onto talk shows, T-shirts, and everything in between. When the series returned seven months later, J.R. was still alive, but another four weeks would pass before the would-be assassin was revealed as his sister-in-law Kristin.

TWIN PEAKS Episode 107 (aired: May 23, 1990) Just over ten years after J.R. took a hot lead injection, FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper, while investigating the murder of prom queen Laura Palmer in the small logging town of Twin Peaks, Washington, met a similar fate in triplicate. Unwilling merely to copy DALLAS’ beloved shooting, co-creators Mark Frost and David Lynch insured that virtually every other beloved character in the series was equally imperiled in what must be one of the most dire cliffhangers in history. In fact, so many plot threads were left dangling that an entire scene in the following year’s premiere was devoted to sheriff’s secretary Lucy Moran enumerating them in an epic monologue. Suicides, murders, mill fires, heart attacks, and failed shootings aside, the series still hadn’t answered the key question of who killed Laura Palmer leaving audiences eager to reach the second season opener where, alas, very little was settled in a satisfactory manner though all questions would slowly be answered over the following thirteen weeks. Are we noticing a trend? Endanger the lead character and the audience goes nuts...a lesson Michael Piller would employ with devastating effect a few months later on

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION “The Best of Both Worlds” (aired: June 18, 1990) Receiving the lion’s share of votes from those who wrote and posted, this episode clearly caused a lot of sleepless summer nights. After their second season encounter with the unstoppable cybernetic Borg, the crew of the USS Enterprise thought they’d have time to prepare, but the destruction of an outlying colony forces Starfleet into dealing with their worst nightmare a bit ahead of schedule. The brilliance of “The Best of Both Worlds” resided in the element of surprise. There was no precedent for STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION to employ a cliffhanger-up until season three, it had always been a question of the show returning at all. Now, the Borg had kidnapped and assimilated Captain Jean-Luc Picard and used his knowledge to decimate Starfleet’s defenses. As Captain William T. Riker ordered Lieutenant Worf to fire the Enterprise’s experimental weapon on the Borg cube, many a Trek fan tensed in the certainty that the story would not be resolved in the remaining seconds of the hour. A summer of speculation followed with rumors that Patrick Stewart would not return for season four and that the “continuing mission” would never be the same again. Of course, this is STAR TREK we’re talking about, so the status quo eventually found its way back, but the emotional scars would continue to haunt Picard for the rest of his life.

BABYLON 5 “Z’ha’dum” (aired in the US: October 31, 1996) Learning that his wife had met her end at the hands of the mysterious Shadows, Captain John Sheridan promised to journey to their homeworld for revenge. His mentor, the wise Vorlon Kosh had warned him: “If you go to Z’ha’dum, you will die.” Over a season later, B5 fans knew what was coming when the supposedly dead Anna Sheridan arrived on Babylon 5 promising her suddenly less-widowed husband that they could end the Shadow War if he would accompany her back to “Z’ha’dum.” Creator J. Michael Straczynski’s script plays on the audience’s knowledge of the series to build suspense as Sheridan inevitable takes the bait knowing full well that he’s stepping into a trap he cannot escape. In the final moments of the episode Shadow vessels surround the station while Delenn receives a pre-recorded love letter from Sheridan as the latter leaps to his death while nuking the Shadow’s greatest city in a dramatic symphony of sound and picture. Of course, PTEN’s bizarre habit of holding the last four or five episodes of a season over until the start of the next year meant that viewers would witness the results of Sheridan’s sacrifice a mere six days and 23 hours later. Still, the finale managed to once again upturn the table and scatter the cards in new and interesting ways-and if you think Picard had issues after the Borg, Sheridan was never the same again...

THE X-FILES “Gethsemane” (aired: May 18, 1997) Making a break from the third season ending trend established by DALLAS, TREK, and B5, I’ve selected the fourth season finale of THE X-FILES from the numerous nominations offered via e-mail. While the first three years offered up no shortage of gasps from those viewers who watched the original airings, season four was hard to beat with Mulder’s crusade seemingly revealed to be an elaborate hoax designed to draw attention to more sinister, though Earthbound, plots. Elegantly framed by Agent Scully’s testimony to a senate committee, the episode achieved a moment of sublime perfection when Scully revealed to the assembled legislators that Agent Fox Mulder had taken his own life. Sure, we knew that there was a movie filming that summer between seasons. We also knew that David Duchovny was starring in the flick, but this was THE X-FILES and anything was possible (well, anything but a solid eighth season, but that’s an argument for another time). For all we knew, the Mulder of the movie, and season five, might be a clone, an alien hybrid, a ghost, or even a memory in Scully’s head. Whatever the case, “Gethsemane” shook up the show’s universe more than any of the finales before or after and capped a classic season.

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER “Becoming Part 2” (aired: May 19, 1998) Joss Whedon is not known for his gut-wrenching cliffhangers. In fact, Whedon was often wary of the concept fearing that an unexpected cancellation might cheat the audience out of a resolution (surely no one would prematurely cancel a Joss Whedon series-that’s just unheard of, right?). Thus, each season of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER tried to manage some form of closure. “Becoming Part 2” has closure. It has Buffy’s mother learning her daughter’s secret. It has Buffy saving the world from being sucked into hell. It has Buffy skewering the love of her life even as he regains his soul and is sacrificed to save mankind. Yeah-it has narrative closure, but the emotional scars took a long time to heal and I, for one, had serious withdrawals after the loss of Spike and Drusilla.

THE WEST WING “What Kind of Day Has it Been?” (aired: May 17, 2000) Continuing the theme of ending seasons with gunfire, THE WEST WING took a slightly different tact then its predecessors. While other shows have been keen to shoot a principal character for cliffhanger purposes, Aaron Sorkin rained a hail of bullets on the White House staff leaving the audience to wonder which of the dozen characters took the hit. Of course, the gunfire came unexpectedly at the end of an episode where other crises had held the viewers attention only to be resolved thus lulling the fans into a sense of security before pulling the trigger. That Sorkin-he’s a sneaky one.

FARSCAPE “Die Me, Dichotomy” (aired: January 26, 2001) Let me just say that Claudia Black’s Aeryn Sun is probably in the top ten TV characters of all time as far as I’m concerned. And David Kemper...killed her. Not only that, but the frelling piece of dren had Crichton effectively pull the trigger. Sure, we got Aeryn back the next year, but that was just...mean. Next to “The Best of Both Worlds,” a non-scientific poll would suggest that most of you felt the same way about this hour of space-based sadism.

ALIAS “The Telling” (aired: May 4, 2003) Keen to cap its remarkable second season with something as breathtaking as the mid-season re-creation of the series, the writers of ALIAS took the unprecedented step of flashing forward two years into the future to find an amnesiac Sidney Bristow alone in a Hong Kong alley only to discover that she’s been presumed dead and that her lover Michael Vaughn is married. “The Telling” seemed set to start ALIAS on a third season likely to equal the foregoing in daring and innovation. Unfortunately, the first half of year three seemed to wander and squandered much of the drama built in the finale.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA “Lay Down Your Burdens Part 2” (aired: March 10, 2006) Apparently, flashforwards are the new black. Three years after ALIAS made a two-year jump, Ronald D. Moore’s re-imagining of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA has attempted the same feat finding the newly elected President Baltar decreeing that the surviving citizens of the 12 colonies shall colonize New Kobol. One year later, two Battlestars orbit the world while primitive cities filled with disease fester on the surface. Under Baltar’s inept leadership, mankind rots, but the Cylons have arrived to shepherd them along...

Of course, we won’t know if GALACTICA handles its leap better than ALIAS until the series returns in October, but I have no doubt that Moore and company will come up with something very interesting indeed. That’s all for this week-feel free to write me at wastelandjason@hotmail.com and come back next time for ten shows that left you cliffhanging...forever.