Who wound up being murdered in the denouement of The White Lotus – and which of the show’s pampered sociopaths was the killer? In Severance, did Mark, the hero, decide to ditch his workplace lover for his life and wife in the world outside – and what on earth was up with those goats? While we’re at it, who shot J.R.?
These questions have something in common: viewers had to wait for the answers. In the supreme cliffhanger of television history, in 1980 fans of Dallas endured or enjoyed eight months of speculation before the shooter’s identity was revealed. Visiting Britain during that febrile hiatus (extended by a writers’ strike), Larry Hagman, who played J.R., is said to have been quizzed about the mystery by the Queen Mother.
