It’s a wrap: Five signs of a good ending

1. Don’t expect me to explain everything to you. The best endings leave something to the imagination. They let you fill in some of the blanks for yourself. That’s why the best novels stay with you over time.

2. Not everything has to be neatly tied up in a little bow. Narrative cleanup can be selfdefeating. Worse, it can detract from the main story. We know that — spoiler alert! — Walter White dies at the end of Breaking Bad. We don’t need to go home with Jesse Pinkman to see if he lives happily ever after.

3. Don’t worry, I’m not going to leave you hanging. The Sopranos famously ended in mid-sentence, or mid-scene to be more exact. And while some found that satisfying — it worked for me — in hindsight the subsequent mishegas may have been more trouble than it was worth. A good ending answers questions. Maybe not all the questions, but certainly the big ones. 4. The hero/anti-hero doesn’t have to live happily ever after, or at all. Dexter’s sudden, disorienting “I’m a lumberjack and I’m OK” ending felt tagged on, almost as if it was an afterthought. The Shield on the other hand — Vic Mackey is sentenced to a lifelong desk job — felt both surprising and organic to the story. House also had a fine ending, with Dr. House faking his death, assuming a false identity and hitting the road on his beloved motorcycle.

5. A good ending asks new questions. So Rust Cohle and Marty Hart get their man, or not. Now what? Where do they do from here? True Detective has been designed as a self-contained story; next season will revolve around new characters in a new story, much as American Horror Story has done. Even so, viewers will wonder what happens to Cohle and Hart now, just as they wonder how Vic Mackey adjusted to his desk job, or what happened to Dr. House the moment he hit the road on his chopper, Easy Riderstyle. Sequel?