10 Infuriating TV Cliffhangers You Didn't Realise Had Answers

10. Earl Jr.'s Father Is A Random Celebrity & Earl Never Finishes His List - My Name Is Earl

My Name Is Earl's cancellation after its fourth season is especially cruel given that NBC had provisionally already teed the series up for another go-around, before unexpectedly pulling the plug.

Plus, season four ended on a massive cliffhanger, with the revelation that Darnell (Eddie Steeples) isn't the father of Earl Jr. (Trey Carlisle), suggesting that his wife Joy (Jaime Pressly) had another affair.

Oh, and Earl (Jason Lee) never finished atoning for his list of wrongs, so there's that.

Creator Greg Garcia did at least reveal the intended direction for the fifth and final season in a 2013 Reddit AMA.

Though the writers hadn't yet settled on the precise identity of Earl Jr.'s biological father, they planned for it to be someone famous like Dave Chappelle or Lil Jon.

And the kicker about Earl not completing his list? Garcia was actually going to end the show without Earl finishing it anyway. Instead, he'd get stuck on a particularly tough item on the list, before running into someone who'd made their own list with Earl's name on.

Basically, Earl's choice to make a list unknowingly kickstarted a chain reaction of other people creating their own atonement lists, making Earl realise that he's brought some good into the world, at which point he tears up his list and moves on with his life.

Honestly, that sounds like a fantastically fitting end to the show, and it's a damn shame we never got to see it play out.