The 12 Best 'Accidental' Finales From This Truncated TV Season

Slightly shorter can sometimes turn out to be sweeter, a dozen TV series learned this spring as their pandemic-paused runs came to an early close.

When production in Hollywood, Vancouver, Atlanta et al shut down in mid-March, it meant that many dramas and comedies came up short of their planned episode counts — sometimes by several episodes, though in some cases just one shy of the finish line. As such, the typical result was a "finale" that perhaps didn't end with the biggest possible narrative bang, but instead played as what it was: a regular ol', late-season episode.

But in some select cases, shows lucked out, either due to meaningful plot movement, bravura performances and/or a significantly twisty final sequence. (Or, in at least one example, by pulling off an impressive "shot-at-home" episode.)

We went into this extremely unusual "finale" season with tempered expectations, but the 12 shows below impressed us quite a bit with final episodes that made you go, "Know what? That would have been plenty satisfying if it was a planned season finale."

Review our picks below and then hit the Comments to sing the praises of the season "faux-nales" that you thought were unexpectedly solid.

"Dancing at Los Angeles" (Season 1, Episode 21 out of a planned 22)

This one is admittedly graded on a bit of a curve, given that it was quite ambitiously prepped and shot under socially distance circumstances, with the cast all recording their scenes from their real-life homes. Still, the production and editing was slick, the case that Judge Carmichael remotely presided over raised some fascinating legal issues, and the movement we got on the Mark/Amy romance was no less than sweetly charming for such a sex-ay couple.

"O, Mouse!" (Season 1, Episode 20 out of a planned 22)

So. Batwoman. Yeah. Um.... Before the real-life drama hit, the freshman Arrowverse series actually closed out Season 1 with a lot of big happenings — from Alice and Mouse reaching an impasse about the long game, to Commander Kane taking his beef with the Bat a step too far. The stakes were drastically raised on both counts, for sure. At that point, the season-ending reveal that Tommy aka Hush now looks like Bruce Wayne (!) was icing on the cake, leaving us to wonder how Kate will eventually, and played by whomever, react to her cousin's "return."

"The Kazanjian Brothers" (Season 7, Episode 19 out of a planned 22)

This particular finale was a tall order: Not only did The Blacklist lose three episodes of Season 7, but the show only had a few weeks to cobble together a finale that melded live-action scenes with graphic novel-style animation. And though the animation was admittedly imperfect, Episode 19 still drove the story to an intriguing, cliffhanger-y conclusion: Liz made the drastic decision to embrace her dark side and align with Katarina Rostova, while Red's health issues worsened — two satisfying, if worrying, twists that set up Season 8 nicely.

"Family Secrets" (Season 10, Episode 19 out of a planned 22)

Being at its core a family drama, Blue Bloods finds its best moments in those that affect one, some or all of the Reagans. Its finales have rarely been about explodey, "Who died?!" cliffhangers. Viewers this year got a finale that kinda sneaked up on you, starting with Sean yammering about some "DNA match" he came across online, before revealing that, whoa, there's another Reagan out there — and damn if he isn't a chip off the law-enforcing block. Take Eddie's attachment to an abandoned baby (and the feelings it sparked within her), and add the new family member's arrival for Sunday dinner, and you had a tasty meal of comfort food.

"Silence of the Night" (Season 7, Episode 20 out of a planned 22)

Although the NBC drama was forced to end its season before its planned murder twist, the show still went out on a very strong note, with one of its best cases. Because the investigation heavily involved Atwater, who was caught in a moral dilemma after the murder of the racist cop who had profiled him, the stakes were high and the personal connection was richly complicated. Plus, the episode-ending shot of Atwater surrounded by threatening police squad cars made for an appropriately dramatic conclusion to the season.

"Put On a Happy Face" (Season 16, Episode 21 out of a planned 25)

If we hadn't known better, we'd have sworn that the ABC drama's eventful stand-in finale had been intended to be the real one. Not only did it reveal (and remove!) the cause of Richard's decline, it ushered into the world Amelia and Link's healthy baby boy and left us with a doozy of a cliffhanger: Would Owen forgive fiancée Teddy, whom he stood up on their wedding day after getting an earful of her "goodbye tryst" with Tom?

"The Things We Have to Lose" (Season 21, Episode 20 out of a planned 24)

Call it prosecutorial kismet, but the hour that closed SVU's history-making season wound up serving as a fitting bookend: the start of the trial of Sir Tobias Moore, the media mogul arrested for sexual assault and harassment in that season's premiere. The ersatz finale also provided closure on three other cases from earlier in the season, gave Carisi his first shot as sole ADA in the courtroom and set up a small but timely cliffhanger: What will the fallout from Fin's close-range killing of a convicted (and released) domestic abuser look like?

"The Clue in the Captain's Painting" (Season 1, Episode 18 out of a planned 22)

The Drew Crew may still be in the Aglaeca's swampy crosshairs, but The CW drama's freshman finale managed to wrap several other storylines — including the reveal of Owen's killer — while introducing enough new twists to keep us guessing all summer (and beyond). But what really sealed the deal was the chilling final portent of Nancy's lifeless body at the base of that cliff, a full-circle callback to Lucy Sable's death in the pilot.

"The Arizona" (Season 17, Episode 20 out of a planned 24)

You had to suspect that NCIS had something special planned for a guest star the caliber of Christopher Lloyd, but few could have anticipated just how powerful and heartbreaking his performance as a self-proclaimed Pearl Harbor survivor would be. (Ergo, his Performer of the Week kudos!) Even more affecting was how his Joe Smith drew in Gibbs, sparking one of Mark Harmon's very best performances. Capping the solid finale was that penultimate scene between Gibbs and McGee, where the former opened up about his own wartime experience like seldom before.

"Immortal Kombat" (Season 5, Episode 19 out of a planned 20)

Save for the Girl of Steel's long-awaited showdown with Lex Luthor, this emotional, action-packed hour gave us everything we could have asked from a finale: an explosive battle against Leviathan, an official vigilante suit (or at least a first draft) for Alex, a life-or-death cliffhanger for Brainy, and an excuse for Andrea to get back into Acrata mode. Most importantly, it gave Kara and Lena the perfect opportunity to repair their fractured relationship. Now if only we could borrow the Legion's time machine and jump ahead to 2021.

"The Tower" (Season 10, Episode 15 out of a planned 16)

The AMC drama's intended finale (which will eventually air as a standalone) promises to be an action-packed affair that returns Lauren Cohan to the fold as Maggie just in time for our heroes to take on Beta and his horde of "guardians." But Season 10's penultimate episode was a fine substitute, one that built dread with every step that Alpha's unhinged henchman took until he'd reached the hospital in which the good guys were hiding.

"A Secret Letter and a Lowly Disc of Processed Meat" (Season 3, Episode 21 out of a planned 22)

Though we didn't get to see Sheldon graduate from high school (his Medford High commencement will have to wait until the fall... or whenever the show is able to go back into production), the Big Bang Theory prequel capped Year 3 with a satisfying sense of forward momentum. George and Mary's fight about whether or not to let Sheldon attend college lent itself to some terrific emotional beats, as Mary in particular struggled with letting the boy genius grow up too fast. The episode also included not one, but two nods to BBT, beginning with Sheldon making spaghetti with cut-up hotdogs, then filming a video presentation that looked an awful lot like "Fun With Flags."