Shortland Street seems to have followed in the footsteps of many of TV's most popular shows, getting incredibly dark in its season finale.
The long-running Kiwi soap came to an end tonight, casting its traditionally "good" characters into moral ambiguity and rounding off a dramatic season with an affair, a domestic violence-related death, a madman with a gun, a car accident and multiple murders all in one action-packed episode.
Leanne accidentally got knocked unconscious at the staff Christmas party. Photo / TVNZ
On the lighter side, the staff Christmas party took place featuring a song from Ruby (JJ Fong) a rap performance from Leroy (Lionel Wellington) and Leanne (Jennifer Ludlam) getting punched in the face (by accident).
However, that's also where Nicole seemed to commit to her affair with Ruby, kissing her before leading her away and leaving Vinnie inside, totally clueless.
Nicole and Ruby take their affair to the next level. Photo / TVNZ
Meanwhile, Trina died as a result of Hayden's handiwork but Hayden blamed TK for "letting her die". He tracked him down and kidnapped Kylie to lure him out and the trio got stuck in a violent struggle.
TK took a bullet to the shoulder and Hayden shot his own colleague dead in cold blood. Eventually, TK managed to drown Hayden in a nearby lake, despite Kylie's desperate pleas for him to stop.
TK finds himself in a grave with one of Hayden's victims. Photo / TVNZ
Before the episode aired, creator Maxine Fleming had warned that one of the storylines involved "one of our core cast characters doing something fairly shocking".
She said: "I don't think we've done anything quite like that before in terms of the extreme that that character goes to". And, indeed, it's a dark turn for TK, whose future now looks incredibly bleak.
Hayden takes Kylie captive to get to TK. Photo / TVNZ
But those weren't the only deaths on the show as, in a bid to find safety, Ali, Lucy and Glen hit the road but were run off it by Detective Cochrane, who it seems is also working for the same boss as Hayden.
He doused Glen's crashed car in petrol and set it alight saying "the boss doesn't like loose ends", with Glen and Lucy still inside. Ali, who was thrown from the car when they were run off the road, managed to pull Lucy from the wreckage but Glen perished.
Ali rushes to help Glen and Lucy escape. Photo / TVNZ
And Shortland Street didn't hold back on his death either, showing a scene of Glen screaming in pain as he burned to death.
Unless Shortland Street pulls a Game of Thrones and starts bringing people back to life, it's safe to assume Glen, Hayden and Trina are all done for, so there's no "who will survive?" cliffhanger this season.
But the question now is who's the "boss" pulling all the strings and if Cochrane's in their pocket, just how far does their reach extend? More importantly, what's going to happen to Lucy once this boss finds out she survived?
Glen (played by William Wallace) met his untimely end in the 2016 season finale. Photo / TVNZ
Fleming promises the revelation of Cochrane's criminal side "will have a huge impact on the hospital in the next few months".
"We've got a whole new story rising out of all this drama and a new character, a new villain if you like, is on the way to wreak havoc in Shortland Street."
One things for sure, Shorty fans are going to have a lot to talk about before the show returns in 2017.
