Personally, I think season-ending major-character-death cliffhangers are
dumb. If the show does continue, then the explanation for the outcome is
usually lame; if it doesn't continue, then it just leaves everyone
unhappy and wondering about it. Remember all the fuss over "who shot
J.R."? Suppose the show hadn't continued? People would have gone ape.
I prefer the more upbeat cliffhanger, where our heroes head off on
another important mission. If the show isn't renewed, then we can
imagine that they're still out there somewhere, doing whatever it was.
If it is renewed, then we can go ahead and see the mission they started
on. Or, if someone disappeared in the off-season, we can have a time-gap
and a lot of verbal byplay about What Happened to Willy and We'll Never
Let That Happen Again.
Ernest