10 Best TV Pilot Cliffhangers Ever

HBO’s sci-fi western thriller set an incredibly high bar for itself during its 2017 debut. Based on the pulpy Michael Crichton film of the same name, the show explored grandiose questions of philosophical reality, the human mind and the nature of life itself.

Throughout the show’s pilot episode we’re introduced to our main players; mastermind engineer Dr Ford played by the towering Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris’ mysterious Man in Black and our nominal android protagonist Dolores - brought to life by a layered performance from Evan Rachel Wood.

The series - and this first episode in particular - didn’t shy away from the awful things wealthy patrons of the park got up to when “liberated” from traditional morality.

Trigger warning from here.

We see many characters, but Dolores in particular, experience brutal torture, murder and sexual assault over and over again at the hands of the park’s guests.

We learn from the park’s staff that the ‘hosts’, as the androids are so named, are incapable of violence against guests or any other living creature. This stipulation is, predictably, thrown into question at the episode's conclusion, when Dolores casually swats a fly on her arm. It’s clear to the audience that Dolores, and possibly many other hosts, are waking up.