Today, I’m looking for what you feel was the most “out of nowhere” deus ex machina ending of a TV episode.
Pop Culture Theme Time is a feature where I put a question to you to see what you think about a particular theme. I might later revisit the theme for a future Drawing Crazy Patterns or Top Five.
As you all know, the very IDEA of a “Deus ex machina” ending of a TV episode is that the ending basically comes out of nowhere, but I think that there are basically levels of “nowhere” when you’re talking “out of nowhere,” so I’d like to see what you feel is the MOST out of nowhere deus ex machina ending that you can think of for a TV show.
For me, I’m going with the classic Star Trek episode, “Charlie X,” where a young man has been given god-like powers. The Enterprise crew begins to get tormented by him, while Captain James T. Kirk tries to figure out of a way to stop him. Kirk and his crew try all sorts of plans that all fail until, suddenly, the aliens who gave him his powers show up and take him away, while reverting the damage he caused on the Enterprise.
I think it was a shame that we couldn’t see the Enterprise crew actually solve the problem of Charlie X.
That’s my pick. What’s yours?
And feel free to suggest future Pop Culture Theme Time topics to me at brian@popculturereferences.com!
Twin Peaks – after three seasons of Agent Cooper, Sherrif(s) Truman, Gordon Cole, Albert Rosenblum, Deputies Andy & Hawk and various other good guys trying desperately to solve the problem of Killer BOB, (SPOILER) some random guy who’d barely been on the show strolls in with a magic glove and punches BOB and kills him.
I know it’s a parody of this sort of thing, but I have to go with, “So the children learned to function as a society, and eventually, they were rescued by, ohhh, let’s say…Moe.”
Not exactly the Deus appearing at the end from nowhere to solve the plot, but, I nominate Quantum Leap finale – with its Wizard of Oz ending “You’ve had the power to go home all this time. You just had to discover it for yourself” with that advice being provided by Gd? (so did the evil leaper have the same power – let’s not ask that question!)
And, I think the second Gilligan’s Island movie had a just happened to spot the Castaways plane on radar. Of course, the series had more opposite of deus ex machina as the “out of nowhere” endings were to maintain the problem of keeping them as castaways rather than being rescued.
And while beloved, the endings of Newhart (it was all a dream) and St. Elsewhere (it was all part of an autistic child’s dreams/imagination) kind of qualify. They don’t exactly solve the problem – they just sort of dismiss the problems – and so, are not really deus ex machina.
The season (and at one time the series) finale of “ROSEANNE” at the end of season 9 (“Into That Good Night”). Midway through yet another zany episode from an already absurd season (where the Conners won the lottery, met a prince, and Roseanne knocked off Steven Seagal by taking down a train full of terrorists, for real, in continuity), suddenly Roseanne starts talking in monologue over the action and reveals it has all been a book she wrote in the basement, and the last season was her deliberately shaking things up after Dan died, even if it meant going to absurd places. For good measure certain “revelations” about which characters were gay or which ones actually wed are tacked on at the 11th hour, and then we get a remix of the theme song. It was so bizarre that over a decade later, the 10th season had to “retcon” out all of it, and even several seasons of stuff prior for good measure. Barr’s own conduct getting herself fired from the show, and then the show having to relaunch, helped people forget just how wacky that “final” episode of the 90’s had been.
Cartoons LOVE the “Deus Ex Machina” ending out of nowhere, whether played straight or for laughs (like the Simpsons). But for a good example of one played straight, how about the finale to “Panic in the Sky,” from the second season of “JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED” from 2005? Due to manipulation by Lex Luthor (who was running for President) and Amanda Waller’s federal CADMUS program, the current President and public opinion have shifted away from the superheroes due to an incident with their orbital Watchtower base (which the government didn’t know existed until recently). The main “Leaguers” mostly surrender to the authorities as a display of good faith. Waller summons her army of artificial superhumans, including a clone of Supergirl, to take down the rest of the League at the Watchtower. Eventually it’s revealed that Luthor is playing everyone for suckers. And then when Waller and the League show up to confront him, it turns out he’s been possessed by Brainiac for years, with zero clue or build up. Yes, I know the next episode, “Divided We Fall,” attempts to connect it to, of all things, an episode of Superman from a decade prior, but c’mon, that was what Marvel used to call “a No-Prize.” And then the whole “can superheroes and the government co-exist” debate is ended to fight a giant tentacle robot. And this was once the “grown up” superhero cartoon!
Charlie X and Squire of Gothos both end pretty much the same way.
The worst offender in my opinion as an anime fan, would be the final episode of season 1 of ‘Space Battleship Yamato’ (Star Blazers, stateside).
(Spoiler, obviously) As the Yamato (Argo) is on final approach with the device to clean the earth and restore life to the planet, badly beaten and damaged from the last fights with the remains of the Gamalon Armada, Desslok (the alien general) comes out of warp close enough to hit the Yamato with its main gun (somewhat like the Wave Motion Gun)… Yamato’s shields are down, armor torn up, unable to defend or maneuver.
Desslok’s ship fires its vengeance shot. The beam is rapidly approaching…inside the bridge of the Yamato, a gloved hand reaches out to flip a switch… the hull of the Yamato glitters with a strange energy… the beam strikes! And is absorbed, then suddenly reflected directly back at Desslok’s ship, destroying it.
On the bridge, confusion reins “What just happened??”
The new chief engineer turns from his console to say “I’d been working on a deflector screen most of the way back home. I hadn’t had a chance to test it, that’s why I didn’t say anything… I figured better a gamble than nothing.”
Me: …whut? A deus ex machina?!? You FILTHY CHEATS!!