The Final Episode Moment

As you may know, How I Met Your Mother's final episode is less than a week away. (Unless you're reading this from the future. Hello to the world of the future! Do we have hover boards yet?) Final episodes are a bittersweet experience, especially if you've been watching the show since the beginning. You're sad to say goodbye, but if done right, you leave with a wonderful sense of closure.

One factor of a good final episode is that moment, the Final Episode Moment, that can't occur in any episode except the series finale. It's a moment that signals a definite end to one story, and perhaps the beginning of another one. It's a moment the show's been building towards, even if you didn't realize it. It could be something out of left field, something completely surreal, or even fourth wall breaking. There's no one rule for what makes a good Final Episode Moment, only that we know it when we see it.

So as we anticipate the Final Episode Moment of How I Met Your Mother, here's a list of eight other shows that had fantastic Final Episode Moments.(And sorry, Breaking Bad isn't on the list. Not because it didn't have a great final episode, but I'm still catching up and haven't seen the ending. My apologies, internet.)

Oh, yeah, spoiler warning.

What an atheist taught me about faith

Every geek has their own favorite science-fiction franchise. It could be Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, or even a franchise that doesn't have "star" in the title. These franchises are more than just escapist fantasy, we connect with them on every major level, watch them over and over, and talk about them nonstop to anyone who will listen, and others who don't want to but we just won't shut up about it. For me, that franchise is Babylon 5.

The show itself is still one of my favorites. It came out when I was in high school and ended when I was in college, and years later watching it takes me right back to that time. I had my whole future ahead of me. I didn't know what I wanted to be, I just wanted to make something of myself and put my mark on the world. Watching that show inspired me, and it still does to this day. True, the show itself is excellent, and I plan to keep watching it for the rest of my life. But the source of my inspiration is not actually the show, it's the writer, J. Michael Straczynski. (Or JMS for short.)

Sleeping in Light

Jeff Conaway died a while back.

It got me thinking about the role I remember him most for. Many remember him from Grease, but for me, he'll always be Zack Allen on Babylon 5. And that brings me to one of the finest final episodes ever made: Babylon 5's Sleeping in Light.

While other epic science fiction shows have tried, and failed, to deliver the goods in their final episodes, Babylon 5 figured it out back in 1998. This was thanks in part to J. Michael Straczynski, the writer behind it all. JMS (as he often goes by) didn't simply make it up as he went along, he already had the endgame in mind, which is one of the reasons why the Babylon 5 series finale still holds up.

The basic rundown of the finale is this: (SPOILER ALERT)