Cliffhanger

A cliffhanger is a plot device in fiction that places a main character in an unresolved, precarious situation—such as a sudden danger, a difficult dilemma, or a shocking revelation—at the conclusion of a narrative installment. The device is designed to incentivize audience retention for subsequent installments. Serialized narratives may conclude with textual cues such as "To Be Continued" or "The End?", and in serialized television, subsequent episodes frequently utilize a recap sequence. Cliffhangers were used as literary devices in several works of the Middle Ages with One Thousand and One Nights ending on a cliffhanger each night. Cliffhangers appeared as an element of the Victorian era serial novel that emerged in the 1840s, with many associating the form with Charles Dickens, a pioneer of the serial publication of narrative fiction. Following the enormous success of Dickens, by the 1860s cliffhanger endings had become a staple part of the sensation serials.