Submitted by wet_bandits23 t3_11vtd3w in television
Stargate SG1’s was fantastic, with Col. O’Neill (“with two L’s”) and Teal’c trapped in the time loop. It’s probably my favorite.
Supernatural’s was hilarious, and the one in the Librarians. Buffy also had one, and Star Trek: TNG.
What time-loop episodes (of any show) is your favorite and why did you like it? Are there any that you hated that you thought could’ve been done better?
God, that episode... Solid all the way through, and then that absolute gut punch of an ending:
> "I am acutely aware that in my thousands of years observing humans, I never used to feel lonely. I have been alone many times. To be candid, I preferred it. But it wasn't until I met this particular team of SHIELD agents that being alone meant... feeling lonely. And I don't care for it. So... I am feeling, as you might expect, some anxiety now."
> “Daisy and I will stay with you to the end.”
> “That’s very kind of you, but… it’s that last part, isn’t it? You can stay with me to the end, but you can’t come with me at the end. I will have to leave you. And I will have to do that alone. And I can’t help wondering - when that happens… will I feel lonely?”
<3 Enoch
RIP Enoch
Enoch was the best.
Episode’s title is ‘As I Have Always Been’.
Great episode, that’s my pick also.
I only saw the title and immediately said "Stargate". I think it's the only one I've actually liked.
Stargate is the clear winner on that one.
"In the middle of my backswing !!"
"It is not only you, O'Niell, who must begin these loops in a great deal of discomfort."
instant cut to Teal'c starting the loop getting smashed in the face by a door
This may be my all time favourite joke in the entire series.
That look on their faces when Daniel suggests they could do anything, and Jack and Teal'c realize that he's right
"Does this look like the face of a crazy man?!"
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Same. I honestly can't think of anything that comes close.
"On the other hand, its kind of an opportunity."
"How's that?"
"Well think about it. If you know in advance that everything was always going to go back to the way it was, then...you could do anything. For as long as you want, without having to worry about consequences."
"...excuse me."
That is the correct answer. "Window of Opportunity" was the best by far. The second would be from the same writers in the series Dark Matter "All the Time in the World"
...l'une des flux antimatière transducteur a été compromise par une défecience dans l'un des accélérateurs de particules.
> ...l'une des flux antimatière transducteur a été compromise par une défecience dans l'un des accélérateurs de particules.
what did you say? ;)
I’m telling you, Teal’c, if we don’t find a way out of this soon I’m gonna lose it. Lose it. It means go crazy. Nuts. Insane. Bonzo. No longer in possession of one’s faculties. Three fries short of a happy meal. WACKO.
Ditto.
Dark Matter had a good groundhog day episode too...
Doctor Who (series 9, Heaven Sent). 12 Monkeys. Also the new Quantum Leap just did an great time loop episode.
Edit: kept messing up the DW episode title, sigh
Doctor Who's Heaven Sent is one of the best episodes of the show, a great watch especially for people who have been following the Doctor's arc for a while. >!It's unfortunate that selling it as "the time loop episode" gives away a bit of the ending!< , but it's still great even when going in with that knowledge.
"Heaven Sent" is interesting in that it is the exact opposite of a time loop! >!In that, time doesn't loop, and it's the Doctor himself that's reset between each 'loop'!<
This tripped me up on first watch, because I thought it was a time loop episode, but realised that that would create some plot holes >!If it was a time loop episode, then everything would reset, and thus the whole point of bashing the diamond wouldn't make sense!<
But it's explicitly not a time loop, and therefore certain observations change between each loop >!(gradually over time, the stars change postions)!< which is how he realises each time he's looping.
You’re correct but I thought it counted enough as one in spirit to throw it on the list!
Quantum Leap’s time loop episode put an interesting new quirk in the premise. It also brought in Robert Picardo (from Star Trek: Voyager and Stargate: Atlantis) playing a character named Woolsey, which was also the name of his Stargate character.
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I love this episode, it's my favorite one, but I think it would be a tough one for a first-timer.
The TNG one (cause and effect) is my personal favorite, and probably a top episode of the entire show for me.
Yes! Great episode. The end always makes me question why Frasiers crew never developed Deja vu like the Enterprise crew.
I feel like they did, they just didn't have Data there. Without Data, nothing was able to be fully realized, so it just got brushed off.
because in their era they had real booze to erase the memories
yeah! it was so eerie! it played almost like a horror movie.
This came out before the movie Groundhog Day and was my first introduction to the "time repeating" plot.
One of the greatest Star Trek episodes of all time.
Hey! Feel free to join a new Trek sub, r/Star_Trek_! It was a great episode. Kelsey Grammer guest starred as Captain Morgan Bateson.
That was a great guest character who should have been given a follow up episode. Or really any follow up from a whole crew finding themselves flung into the future.
Yes. It would have been excellent had he been given more screen time. Or a follow up role. Problem becomes crediting the original writes of the episode who created the character.
I just looked and it appears Brannon Braga wrote it. Should have been no problem to have him use his own character in a follow up episode.
I’ve read 2 Star Trek books one was Ship of the Line, and it follows Captain Bateson after he returned to “current” time. I thought it was great.
Shows that had something similar but you wouldn't expect it:
Community - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remedial_Chaos_Theory
Person of Interest - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If-Then-Else
Blindspot (don't @ me) - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7808238/ Everlasting
If-Then-Else is absolutely amazing.
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I love the Buffy one and the supernatural one as well
Wasn't the Supernatural one where they play "Heat of the Moment" every time the loop repeated?
rise and shine sammy!
"No Asia?"
"Yeah, this station sucks!"
Do these tacos taste funny to you?
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The Supernatural one is so good.
There’s two incredible episodes of Fringe that had me crying. One was called “white tulip” And another called “and those we left behind”
Is White Tulip the one with Peter Weller (RoboCop)? That's one of the best of the show.
That’s the one!! Made me cry like a motherfucker
The other is with Steven Root, who always is great.
Steven Root is GOATed, always elevates any show he's in.
I loved White Tulip. Fringe is probably in my top ten shows of all time.
Rewatching it for the first time in 10 years right now with my girlfriend who’s never seen it. My god is it utterly incredible. She loves it too. My favourite thing about it is for such a futuristic forward thinking show with huge ideas - I love seeing what they thought futuristic technology should look like in 2011 and it’s so dated haha.
I just rewatched some S1 Futurama for the first time in a while and the disc based tech is mad. Funny how no-one saw the move away from physical media until it happened.
Also, had the same experience showing Fringe to my wife. All time great show
John Noble should have won an emmy
My favorite Peter Weller performance and my favorite Stephen Root performance, respectively.
White tulip was amazing. One of the best episodes of an amazing show
"White Tulip" would definitely be my pick - phenomenal performances by Weller and Noble.
Supernatural, 3x11, 'Mystery Spot'.
"It was the heat of the moment
Telling me what my heart meant"
Honestly. Love it to pieces. Trickster episodes are such a treat.
Rise and shine sammy
“Do these tacos taste funny to you?”
"Hey Tuesday pig and a poke"
Travelers. Season 2 episode 7. 17 Minutes
Yes! Such a good episode
Came here looking for this, love that show.
This show any good? Looked at IMDB and the concept sounds very interesting.
its awesome. give it a try.
It's good
At times the writing is subpar and at times it gets super corny. That being said it was overall pretty interesting and I really liked a few of the characters. I'd say it's worth a shot
Thanks. I’ll try find some time for it.
X files had a fun one, I remember enjoying the outer limits episode with a time loop too. Just weird to see Kevin Nealon in a non comedy role
>X files
Ya X-Files bank robbery ep was great
That X-Files episode (Drive) was apparently the first time Vince Gilligan worked with Bryan Cranston.
Different episode but both were great!
Ah yes, thank you, it was Monday. I miss the time when all those episodes were free on Prime.
Fun fact: Vince Gilligan wrote "Monday" also.
Misfits had a good one of these its first season
Here's an obscure one: Cloak and Dagger's episode was probably the best one in the show
Underrated show!
I got to this post late, but I clicked on it just to make sure that someone mentioned Cloak and Dagger. That was a criminally underrated show in general, and episode 1x07 was my top time loop in a TV show.
12 Monkeys Season 2 episode 8 "Lullaby"
This. I usually hate groundhog days episodes. But that was really good. And for movies a Edge of Tomorrow m
Absolutely my favorite episode of the entire show. There is just so much power behind that twist. Adds depth to the story so far, is a fucking awesome reveal, and makes me tear up every time.
Not a "time-loop" episode in the strictest sense, but...
Person of Interest, If-Then-Else.
The portion of this with the summarized dialog was maybe the funniest thing the show ever did, and in one of its more grim episodes.
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This was my first thought. Amazing episode.
Lots of great ones have already been mentioned. I'd say the best one that hasn't been is the one from Legends of Tomorrow.
The scene where she realizes that Amaya and Nate are not only sleeping together but actively using their powers while they do it has to be a top 5 arrowverse moment.
Been there, done that, episode of Xena the Warrior Princess.
Xena killing Joxer and going back to sleep was dark comedy gold.
Rise and shine everybody. Rise and shine
>Xena
Had to scroll way too far for this. Such a good episode.
Russian Doll
The Agents Of SHIELD one was absolutely fantastic, and pretty funny. It knows its audience, knows the audience knows these episodes, and does things a bit differently or amusingly.
But I quite like Red Dwarf's riff on them in Future Echoes. Only the second episode ever, it takes the concept - seeing the future - and makes it immediate. Rather than experiencing the future all as one before returning to the start, the episode says "here's a quick bit of the future, now here you are again experiencing it from the start - and nothing you do will change the outcome".
This is best illustrated by Lister finding the Cat with a broken tooth in a "future echo'". He doesn't know what caused it, but decides he can change the future by preventing the Cat from breaking his tooth. Realising the Cat is about to try eating his robot goldfish and breaking his tooth on that, Lister wrestles the robot goldfish away from the Cat, and in the struggle breaks the Cat's tooth.
I'm gonna eat you little fishy
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.- S7.E9: As I Have Always Been.
12 Monkeys - S2.E8: Lullaby.
Dark Matter - S3.E4: All the Time in the World.
Glad someone else remembers Dark Matter - the fucking hilarious scene where he figures that he should learn another language and use that to convince everyone else, then they end up singing on one of the much later loops.
It`s still sad that Dark Matter was canceled :(
I think its better with more context, longer version
And to the handful that still remember the show, "How many time loops would you guess Three had to go through before he could learn what he learned?"
Agents of shield 7x09 As I Have Always Been
Not exactly a timeloop, but Community's Remedial Chaos Theory resets each timeline. Fantastic episode.
Every episode of season 1 of Russian Doll.
The Librarians has a really good episode where the team is stuck in video game and only Ezekiel Jones remembers each time they respawn.
It was fantastic. A great showcase of Ezekiel Jones.
I like the one from the Magicians
If anything, that's under selling it quite a bit, considering that >!they reveal that the entire show up to that point was one pass through a time loop!< and >!they later contact people from earlier loops and get stuck in an earlier loop for a while.!< They go deeper into the concept than I can remember seeing anywhere else.
I agree with Stargate. Such a great episode I’ve watched a million times.
The other that comes to mind is TNG’s Cause and Effect.
American Dad
Their Christmas episodes are always fire.
Came here to mention this one, I can't remember the name but it was one of the more recent Christmas episodes. It's impressive how fresh new episodes of that show can still be.
Yule. Tide. Repeat
Yes, this is one of my favorite Christmas episodes on a show with a LOT of great Christmas episodes.
Does Person of Interest's If-Then-Else count? If so, that.
If not, my #2 would be Fringe's White Tulip.
A Year of Hell from ST Voyager
The only problem I had with Year of Hell is that Janeway sent all her people out into the quadrant with the specs for temporal shielding. So all those shuttlecraft, escape pods, etc, wouldn’t have been subject to the final destruction of the time ship, and the shockwave righting everything wouldn’t have effected them.
So there would be duplicates of half the crew out there.
My gripe with “Year of Hell” is my general gripe with the series, even though one may chalk it up to it being a product of the times.
The “Year of Hell” should have taken about 26 episodes, not two.
You must enjoy the newer trek shows then?
I recognize that some have their flaws, but generally, yes. I like that storylines can be drawn out through multiple episodes and balanced with single-episode stories. Being less episodic is not a source of newer Trek’s problems.
Interesting. For me the only newer trek I enjoy is SNW, but I think just I find constant cliffhangers too stressful. Each to their own!
no no the problem with that is when the premise is stretched too thin it becomes unbearable because every episode ends on a cliffhanger because there's no resolution so it's a 'blue balls' situation.
Then you never go back and rewatch it because you can't just pick out one favourite episode - you have to watch the full season to get the payoff.
The mentioned “cause and effect” episode from TNG is probably the best. I can’t believe I’m about to recommend something from Star Trek Discovery but “Magic to Make the Sanest Man go Mad” is actually a really good spin on a similar concept.
There's an episode in the new Twilight Zone series where a woman finds out that a dude who seemingly knows everything about her is trapped in a time loop. She proceeds to beat his ass up after not taking no for an answer. There's more to it but I don't wanna give everything away. A very decent twist on the old concept.
This episode was GREAT.
Was going to bring this up. I think it's a very unique take on the "same day" genre as the perspective mostly comes second hand.
The Stargate Universe time loop episode was fantastic as well
I forgot about Stargate Universe. They do something unique and unsettling, which I haven't seen in any other time loop story: >!They come up with a plan to fix everything, but the plan fails, and then the episode ends. Everything is back to normal for the next episode, so they must have figured it out eventually, but we never see them succeed.!<
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: "Endless Eight" episodes.
Eight of the 28 episodes of the series are each mostly the same as the other seven, with slight differences, until the time loop is broken in the eighth episode. Thankfully, the repetitive episodes came in the second season.
They aired one after the other, in their regular weekly timeslot, so I can only imagine how frustrated viewers were as it first aired, wondering why this episode is pretty much the same as the last, and the one before that...
That sounds like a giant waste of time for the viewer.
It is, but it is insane that they actually made it like that. Think about if something similar would come out today. Imagine watching it weekly, most people would stop watching after 3 episodes. The rage on the internet, it would be hilarious.
Doctor Who
>!Heaven Sent!<
If-Then-Else from Person of Interest. Perfect hour of TV.
I still remember the "Point of Salvation" -------> >!"Oh, like a save point!"!< aha moment when I watched that episode of The Librarians and got to the twist.
I really enjoyed Lost Girl's version of this.
Yule. Tide. Repeat. -American dad
Stargate is the best one. Legends of Tomorrow and ST:TNG were great. Russian Doll season 1 was very good. The Flash just did one and it was mediocre.
Discovery season 1 had a good one, with the villain in control of the loop. Also my favorite Discovery episode
First episode of Dirk Gently!
Not a show but love how Palm Springs did it
Technically a movie of a TV show (of a manga), but Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer. I love how the uneasy sense of broken logic slowly creeps in as the characters gradually realise they’re trapped in a time loop.
I had completely forgotten about that one! Mamoru Oshii is great
Future man.
Never finished the show but "I'm fucking you with your own dick!" is one of the greatest lines ever.
Tales from the Walking Dead had one. I liked it because it replayed several different examples from Day 1 of the outbreak.
I get it people are sick of zombie apocalypse shows, but we have very little that spend time in the initial craziness.
LEGION
Supernatural Season 3 episode 11 Mystery Spot
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Charmed has an outstanding Groundhog Day episode called "Deja Vu All Over Again". Season 1 episode 22. So well done.
Surprised at the Buffy mentions on here. It was only a couple minutes of Groundhog-ness...That's the power of Buffy though. Endlessly iconic.
AoS
They go all the way,
it's the same over and over.
There are real consequences.
It's funny.
They do the intro credits more than once
Heaven Sent from Dr Who is best example of this. It is also one of the best stories from the franchise overall.
Remedial Chaos Theory.
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It’s not exactly Groundhog Day style but Remember Me - Star Trek: TNG
There’s an intro which shows Dr. Crusher get caught up in a warp bubble but the first time I watched it, I missed that part. All I saw was people disappearing off the Enterprise over and over with no one but Crusher remembering they even existed. It was such a “what-the-hell-is-going-on” moment for me!
Not TV, but the film Run Lola Run is a fantastic time loop film
I enjoyed the one in DC's Legends of Tomorrow. RIP
Person Of Interest Episode If Else Then
The series Daybreak was great
So good. Lost fans boycotted it because they didn’t know what a midseason break was.
33 minutes from Battlestar Galactica.
I know it doesn't really count, as it isn't a timeloop perse, but it was such a great (re)introduction to the concept of a fleet of refugees being hunted by calculating relentless robots.
Oh, and basically the entire series of Westworld. The timeloop is an essential part of the series on multiple levels.
Eureka season 3 episode 4 I Do Over
its one of my favourite time loop episodes and has such a sad ending
American Dad "Yule. Tide. Repeat."
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higurashi was fkn sick
was just about to comment the same - higurashi when they cry(2006 version) is a fantastic and top tier horror/mystery anime
Not a TV show but “The Causality of the Sabzeruz Festival” Genshin Impact.
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Well you basically already listed most of my favorites, except for the first episode of Bravest Warriors, a web show by Pendleton Ward. I love it because at the beginning of the episode they find themselves from the previous time loop dead on the floor, so they try prevent that from happening, >!but at the end of the episode they die anyway in the same way next to their other dead selves, time loops back and when the next version of them sees two other versions already dead they say nope and just leave without fixing the time loop. Because even when knowing they were gonna die they couldn't stop it, so obviously they couldn't do it, better to just give up and dip.!<
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Xena! Community!
Sealab 2021 - Lost in Time
“Mystery Spot” , Supernatural. Dark humour at its absolute best. The writers were on their A game for that episode!
Eureka season 3 episode 4 I Do Over
its one of my favourite time loop episodes and has such a sad ending
In the Heat of the moment
Does "My butterfly" from Scrubs count?
Basically the same day plays out differently because a butterfly landed on a different random person's chest. You see how each effect impacted the diagnosis of the same patient (on where lots goes wrong, one where lots goes right) but in the end the patient dies in both stories either way. Showing that even if you can do everything right, things can still go bad.
Supernatural-Mystery Spot.
The Endles Eight for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
Russian Doll's first season.
I enjoyed the Supernatural one to the point I had Heat of the Moment as my morning alarm on my phone for years.
One I didn't see mentioned is Eureka with the episode in season 3. That one had some pretty big consequences in the long run.
Tales of the Walking Dead episode “Blair, Gina,”
It put a fresh and thoughtful look at the 'groundhog day' premise. I felt like I was watching the idea for the first time, and it seamlessly meshed into established Walking Dead canon.
And that's all bullshit. It was a "hey let's do groundhog day" with no concern for making sense, explaining why, no concern for the utter rejection of established universe, nope... It was basically a "very special episode of Blossom" where Blossom gets pregnant, had an abortion, and it's just never mentioned again.
Dark Matter is probably my favorite one, but I really want to check out Supernatural, there's just SO many episodes.
For any gamers in here you must play Outer Wilds.
I'd say the two best I know are Star Trek Discovery's "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad" and Agents of SHIELD's "As I Have Always Been."
Unlike so many other shows doing this trope, neither of them wastes the viewer's time walking you through the same events slowly getting you into the idea. They know the viewer isn't stupid, and they trust that you're going to follow along, allowing them to dive right into the plot. They also take great advantage of NOT showing every single loop, allowing them to move the plot forward faster and make the most out of the episode's length.
Community - Remedial Chaos Theory (S03E04) has to be up there
Rick & Morty - A Rickle in Time
DUNG_INSPECTOR t1_jcus0qy wrote
Agents of SHIELD had a good one in the last season.