The biggest payoffs in TV history

When I was a child, my father, brother and I used to go on daily long walks. We would end up at an arcade/ice cream shop, where we had ice cream and played to our hearts’ content.

When we got back, my dad always told us not to drink water immediately. “Get a glass of water, leave it on the counter and wait a minute. It will be the sweetest thing you’ve ever tasted.”

He was right. That was not water. I had tasted the nectar of the gods.

It’s the wait, the anticipation, that makes the payoff sweeter. Here a some long TV payoffs.

Monica’s door – Friends

For eight seasons, one door in Monica’s apartment simply sat there, unexplained. The mysterious green door near the bathroom had been part of the set from the beginning, but nobody seemed to know where it led. At some point, people on the internet noticed and started wondering on forums what could be behind it.

Once the writers noticed, they decided to incorporate it into the plot, although the reveal was fairly benign. In The One with the Secret Closet, it is revealed that the tidy, compulsive Monica used the closet to cram all her junk into.

It was a nice moment and a great wink to the fans.

Who is the mother? – How I Met Your Mother

I know, I know, I’m upset too. But I HAVE to include this one, regardless of my feelings.

The hit series ran for nine seasons, with each episode framed around the title character, Ted, telling his children the story of how he met their mother. The reveal comes in the finale, as he explains how he married Tracy, who he first met at the end of season eight, and then immediately proceeds to upend everything.

It turns out Ted and Tracy had a happy marriage, but she died years earlier. At the urging of his kids, Ted decides to get back together with their Aunt Robin, his longtime on-again, off-again love interest.

The finale received so much backlash from fans that an alternate ending was eventually released, with Ted and Tracy remaining together.

Speaking of fan backlash…

The King of Westeros – Game of Thrones

Who would sit on the Iron Throne?

For eight seasons, the various contenders schemed, murdered, betrayed and started wars to become the ultimate ruler. The whole world was asking who would end up on the throne and, in the end, it was Bran Stark, the Three-Eyed Raven, an outcome almost no one saw coming.

The fan backlash was unlike anything I’ve ever seen, and it is widely regarded as one of the most controversial decisions ever made on a TV show.

The decision to put Bran the Broken on the throne is one we can’t entirely blame on the producers. What most people don’t know is that the series’ creators had been told by book author George RR Martin who would ultimately rule Westeros. Sure, the decisions leading up to the event were questionable, but the broad outcome had been predetermined and was not entirely their invention.

Hank finally realises who Heisenberg is – Breaking Bad

This was a moment years in the making, and yet it still came out of nowhere.

DEA agent Hank Schrader spent years hunting the elusive Heisenberg, the drug kingpin responsible for a massive meth empire, never realising that it was his sickly, timid brother-in-law, Walter White.

When Walter defeats his opponents, becomes filthy rich and gets his family back, everything appears to be heading towards something resembling a happy ending.

Which is exactly when Hank finds out, in the most unlikely way possible: by reading a book while sitting on the toilet.

Watching Hank slowly realise that his beloved brother-in-law is the monster he has been hunting for years is peak TV.

Who is the successor? – Succession

Like How I Met Your Mother, this show’s payoff was built into its very premise.

Media mogul Logan Roy is on his way out, and one of his three children must succeed him. For four seasons, Kendall, Shiv and Roman fight one another, scheme against each other and desperately try to prove that they deserve the throne.

By the series finale, we finally get our answer: none of them.

A last-minute betrayal by Shiv upends Kendall’s carefully laid plans, allowing Shiv’s husband, Tom, to emerge as the company’s CEO.

The final scene, with a broken Kendall sitting on a bench and staring out to sea, realising that all his efforts and his entire life have led to nothing, was the perfect ending to an amazing show.