We’ve all heard the spiel that closure is important when change happens. Sure, this is mostly in the case of daily life – moving on from a relationship, someone dying, leaving a job. But it should come as no surprise that it’s important for geeks and fandoms as well. 

If there’s one thing geeks do exceedingly well, regardless of what they’re into, it’s being fans. That is pretty much the basis of all geek – being really into something, calling yourself a fan. We devote years (sometimes decades) to single properties, franchises, characters. We feel joy when there’s good news to share in our fandom, whether it be plot points, character progression or extensions of the property. But we can also feel anger or sadness (sometimes to an extreme) when things go wrong. And the worst of those things is an end to our favorite tv show, movie franchise or book series.

But there are times when we’re lucky enough to get some closure so we can move on or at least be satisfied in the knowledge of how things were resolved. One example is Firefly. Yes, this is a big one for fans – only a single season and many fans didn’t even climb on board until after the cancellation. But we did get a movie, Serenity, and though it may not have been everything we wanted, it did tie up a few loose ends. Even better, much like the way Buffy the Vampire Slayer continued in comic form, there were Firefly comics giving us a little more of the story. And now there are novels hitting the shelves.

A more recent example is Timeless. It was because of fan outcry that the show was “uncancelled” after the first season. The second season ended with a huge cliffhanger and it was only afterwards that it was announced the show would not be returning. But, because fans wanted to know how the story ends, producers are actually giving us some closure in the form of a movie that will wrap things up. It remains to be seen how satisfying the conclusion will be (the movie will air in December), but it’s nice that we get a chance to properly say goodbye.