Ever wondered how HBO’s Carnivale was meant to end? How about Journeyman on NBC? Or Reaper on the WB? The sad fact is many genre shows can have both critical acclaim and a loyal fanbase but just not meet the network’s needs when it comes to overall ratings. We, the viewers, have plenty of recent shows that ended before intended. Sometimes we’re really lucky and they get a second chance like Futurama’s upcoming season on Comedy Central or Firefly getting its Serenity movie to wrap things up. Most of the time, it’s just over and everyone involved moves on. However, the people that make the shows are still around and are usually happy to explain what their plans were, if their show were to have continued. Below, I’ve compiled summaries of shows including Journeyman, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Reaper, and Carnivale and how their writers intended to end them, in the hopes of delivering some closure to anyone who still wonders about it.

JOURNEYMAN

Kevin Falls created Journeyman about time-travelling journalist Dan Vasser. The show lasted just 13 episodes but in an interview with Aint-It-Cool-News, Falls revealed where the show was headed:

Dan and his wife, Katie, were going to separate.  Jack (Dan’s brother) and Dan were going to live together and then Dan and Katie would get back together.

Livia (Dan’s time traveling ex-fiancée from 1948) was slated to die in episode 20. Dan was going to go back in time and save her in 21. In episode 22, Dan would come back to his house in the present and find someone else would be living there. Katie (his wife) and Zack (his son) would be gone and this time Dan would have no idea how to get his family back.

Ultimately, many of the people who Dan saved from the past were going to come together in a “Rube Goldberg-inspired climax” to play a part in saving Dan and his family in the present.

The show would eventually reveal that a massive organization was sending Dan and other travelers through time, with the intention of doing good.

Livia’s original goal was to get Katie and Dan together, but then the writers felt that Livia was keeping some secret from Dan that was huge and tragic.

Livia only went forward in time and Dan backward because they each had a specific and separate purpose.  One of the side affects was the fact that Dan and Livia would never be able to live in the same time.

Eventually, Dan would have encountered an elderly Livia in his present.

REAPER

Reaper was a modest hit on the CW, following slacker Sam catching escaped souls for the Devil. Creators Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters revealed to cliqueclack.com their plans for the show.

Short-term, they would have given Andi a job at the DMV with Gladys the demon. Sam’s friends, Sock and Ben, would always be normal humans – Sam’s moral compass and tether to the real world.

Long-term, the revelation of who Sam’s father was would have been proven to be his father that raised him, not the Devil. The premise was that his father was a demon who made a deal with the Devil to be able to marry Sam’s mother because they were in love. Sam’s father was not a demon because of this deal, but also not quite human, which is why he couldn’t die.

This is also why Sam was considered so special by the Devil. His powers came from the fact that he was part demon and was something special. The Devil tricked him into becoming a servant so that he could try to corrupt Sam because he was afraid of Sam’s potential.

Ultimately, the writing duo say they intended to end the show on a happy ending with Sam getting out of his contract and getting the girl.

TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES

Show creator Josh Friedman has repeatedly declined to speak about his plans for a third season of Terminator, saying he prefers the audience to create their own ending. But in an interview with io9.com, star Thomas Dekker revealed what he had been told about the plan.

The show ended with John Connor leaping forward to the Future War without his mother. According to Dekker, he would have met a future version of Sarah who had survived Judgement Day. He also said that his character of John Connor would have found himself torn between Alison, the human who his Terminator bodyguard Cameron was based on, and the actual robot version of Cameron.

A new character to the show would have been Danny Dyson, the son of Miles from the second movie, who was originally responsible for building Skynet.

More information came from James Middleton, one of the producers on the show. In an interview with SciFiWire.com, he said John Connor erased his existence from history by leaping into the future. This helps back up what Dekker said about the show.

CARNIVALE

Carnivale was a very ambitious HBO show set in the Depression-era Dustbowl, and followed Ben Hawkins, an avatar of Light and Brother Justin, an avatar of Dark, as they exhibited supernatural abilities and moved towards an inevitable confrontation between good and evil. The show was announced by creator Daniel Knauf as having a five-year plan but only lasted two.

A quick jump to wikipedia helps to reveal some of the plans, with links to many different interviews of Knauf and other writers.

Jonesy would not have died from Sofie’s gunshot and the third season was going to begin with him playing Major League Baseball and still being married to Libby. Sofie would be revealed to be something called the Omega, and she does bring her father, Justin, back to life, but still has some good in her. The third season would have centered on her internal battle between good and evil.

Justin would be alive, but have an inoperable chunk of shrapnel near his heart, from the anointed blade in the season two finale. He would have been weakened and his sister Iris and daughter Sofie would vie for control of his organization. Eventually, Justin would marry Sofie and possibly have a child.

Meanwhile, Ben’s wounds from the finale would require constant mending and he would lose some of his Vitae Divina powers. Ben would change and become similar to Management, but remain in love with Sofie, and their ultimate fates together would be uncertain.

Hmmm. With vague answers like that, maybe it wasn’t such a bad time to end the show.