This list was originally published on May 24, 2019. It has been updated to include additional episodes.
Right now, students are donning their caps and gowns and graduating from high schools all over the country. It’s a pretty stressful time but an exciting one — it signals not only their major achievement of managing to get through the hell that is high school, but the start of a new chapter in their lives.
To that end, it’s a pretty common device in TV shows. It’s the culmination of all the events to that point and a way to show our characters’ growth — and their panic over what could possibly be next. Teen shows in particular build toward that big day, which will either signal the end of the show entirely or the dawn of a new (and almost always inferior) college-set era. Graduation episodes involve big stakes, high-emotion speeches, and new beginnings — so grab your tissues and settle in for some drama (probably), some death (possibly!), and some diplomas (certainly).
Never one to go by the book, Riverdale places its high-school graduation not as the season finale but as the … third episode of the fifth season. Of course, it had to be then, to accommodate the mid-season seven-year time jump. While it’s hard to believe these crazy kids got any schoolwork done at all between the murders and whatever, they’re graduating (well, most of them; sorry, Archie) and heading out into the big, wide world. There’s plenty of drama: Cheryl opts to skip college, Betty confesses to kissing Archie, and Jughead moves out. Archie, who flunked his senior year, is allowed to walk with his class and is also inexplicably asked to perform a cover of Green Day’s “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life).” What a great setup for what will surely be a very sane and stable adulthood for the gang.
Blair and friends think that they’re going to be safe from the hawklike oversight of Gossip Girl after graduation. After all, the secret blogger doesn’t write about college students … right? In the aftermath of Serena’s arrest, the teens are keen for some privacy. However, immediately after the graduation ceremony, there’s a Gossip Girl blast crowning Nate as Class Whore, Dan as the Ultimate Insider, Chuck as Class Coward, Blair as Class Weakling, and Serena as Irrelevant. Ouch. They make it their mission to unmask Gossip Girl and put an end to her tyranny, but it doesn’t go quite as planned. Jenny is crowned as the new queen of Constance, and the older girls and boys settle into their future lives — ones that are still overcast by the black cloud of Gossip Girl. Congrats, I guess? xoxo!
The McKinley High Class of 2012 is graduating, which means eight members of New Directions are moving on to … well, new directions. Will gives the gang one last assignment — to sing good-bye songs to each other, which he kicks off with “Forever Young.” Of course, pretty much everyone has plans to move on to bright futures in show business. While some people’s dreams come true, Kurt and Finn get rejected from their dream schools, so Rachel, who got into NYADA, decides to defer for a year so she can wait for the other two to start their New York lives together. Except Finn is joining the army — Why is someone always joining the army? — and he decides to dramatically cancel his and Rachel’s wedding so that she can chase her dreams. Will and the Glee Club meet Finn and Rachel on the train platform to say farewell, where obviously Rachel belts out “Roots Before Branches” as she boards the train for her new life.
Through its four-season run, The O.C. managed to celebrate (or desecrate) every single holiday or occasion imaginable. Graduation day is no exception, and in “The Graduation,” the drama is ramped up as Seth admits to his parents that he started the Newport Group fire and Volchok and Ryan’s feud escalates. Marissa decided to join her dad in Hawaii after graduation, so the gang has one last hurrah at the model home before saying good-bye (not knowing that it’s forever). Ryan drives Marissa to the airport, but a furious Volchok tries to run them off the road — accidentally killing Marissa, who Ryan carries (in those big strong arms) as Jeff Buckley plays, the car fire rages, and thousands of teenage hearts break across America. Now, let’s hope your graduation day is far less eventful.
Of course, nothing could ever run smoothly in Mystic Falls, not even graduation day. Here, Mystic Falls High School is teeming with ghosts attempting to settle old scores. Yes, ghosts! As Elena, Stefan, Caroline, Bonnie, and Matt gather for the ceremony, the spirits converge, and help comes from an unlikely source in Klaus, who also gives Caroline an unexpected present. He gives Tyler his freedom, allowing him to come back to Mystic Falls and be with her. There’s more death, drama, and turns, with Stefan turning out to be Silas’s doppelgänger, Bonnie giving her life to save Jeremy, and Silas dropping Stefan in a lake. But with the ghosts gone, the gang manage to have a real, heartfelt graduation scene fit for any normal teens … so if they can do it, you certainly can.
Gilmore Girls, so completely oriented around Rory’s education as it is, has three entire graduation episodes. However, not all of them are for Rory: Her Chilton graduation is in season three, while Lorelai’s own graduation is in the season-two episode ,“Lorelai’s Graduation Day,” and, much later, Rory finally graduates from Yale in “Unto the Breach,” an episode that sees her turning down Logan’s proposal. But the best among them may be “Those Are Strings, Pinocchio”: Rory graduates from Chilton, but, realizing she didn’t get financial aid for Yale, has to go to her grandparents to ask for money. This obviously displeases Lorelai, but luckily, Rory has an emotional speech prepared as valedictorian that melts Lorelai’s heart. She praises her mother, saying: “My mother never gave me any idea that I couldn’t do whatever I wanted to do or be whomever I wanted to be.” Don’t forget: If you piss off your own mom on graduation day, you can probably soften her with a speech.
Throughout much of the series, Dawson’s Creek was leading to a pivotal moment: graduation, after which everyone goes to college and far inferior seasons of the show. In this episode, the gang gather for a ceremony run-through while Pacey worries that he won’t graduate at all and freaks out over his last final — resulting in him walking out of the test. Joey attempts to help Pacey, who doesn’t want to think about the future, which is pretty relatable. Meanwhile, valedictorian Joey is panicking herself over her speech, but while failing to write it, Joey gets a surprise gift from her late mother in the form of a letter about how proud her mom is of her, which Dawson reads to her. The letter inspires Joey to write a heartbreaking, meaningful speech that she reads at graduation, and we say good-bye to the students as we know them.
A great deal of Alex’s narrative in Modern Family has been centred on her educational achievements, and it all culminated with “See You Next Fall.” She’s struggling with the pressures of being valedictorian. Haley admonishes Alex off having written a speech that highlights her outsider status, reminding her that “everyone’s got their stuff” and she shouldn’t be so judgmental. The family almost don’t make it to graduation, but Alex finally does give her big speech, but with some new edits: Inspired by Haley, she says “everybody’s got their … stuff … whether you’re popular, or a drama geek, or a cheerleader, or a nerd like me. We all have our insecurities; we’re all just trying to figure out who we are.” This shows real growth for Alex — and if you’re valedictorian giving a speech soon, you may or may not want to take some cues.
In the third season, the Scoobies are working on both prepping for graduation and bringing down the evil mayor who has his own big plans on graduation day. Everyone gets a bit dark: Buffy stabs Faith while Giles attempts to stab the mayor, but their efforts are fruitless, and the mayor transforms into a demon. Bloodshed ensues! They all sit around after the battle, and Oz notes that they survived high school — a big achievement for any student anywhere, let alone these students.
While we weren’t quite at dog-eating-heart-transplant yet, by season four, One Tree Hill was well and truly into the swing of the chaos and melodrama that would come to define it. Lucas shoots a gun at his father, and his mom collapses in pain — which turns out to be eclampsia. Everyone argues about the gun, but they try to take their minds off it with blissful thoughts of graduation, with pregnant valedictorian Haley even attempting to write her graduation speech in the hospital as she also prepares for a life as a mother. Nathan, devastatingly, almost has to face a future without basketball (I know!), but Whitey offers him an opportunity to play for him on his college basketball team. Haley delivers her speech but also begins to experience pain and goes into labor at the podium. That’s one way to make a dramatic exit.
In all of these episodes, there’s always a stark divide between how the smarter kids spend their graduation day lead-up, and how the … academically challenged do. In “Graduation,” Zack is panicking that he won’t graduate at all, and discovers that he needs just one more credit in order to seal the deal. Elsewhere, the smart kids have it out when Jessie expects to be named valedictorian … but Screech, with slightly higher grades, ends up getting the honor instead. However, ever the golden heart, Screech tells Mr. Belding that it just isn’t as important to him and abdicates the title. Jessie, unaware, starts to get a bit big for her boots, but Lisa lets her in on the truth, leading to Jessie finding a way to honor Screech at the ceremony. It’s a gentle reminder that high school was actually all about the friends you made (and also your grades).
Naturally, Malcolm is valedictorian in this episode, as all good sitcom geniuses tend to be. In this, the last Malcolm in the Middle episode ever, Malcolm has been accepted into Harvard — but Hal is worried that they won’t have enough money to pay for it, a relatable reality for so many families. But when Malcolm gets offered a dream job in lieu of college, Lois turns it down, telling him that she and the family had expected him to go to college — and eventually become president. “Of the United States!” she adds. She wants him to “struggle in order to understand, represent, and empathize with families like his own so that he can be one of the best presidents in American history.” Three months later, we see her plan in action: It’s revealed that Malcolm does go to Harvard, while working part time as a janitor (also at Harvard) to fund his studies. It’s a representation of the balance poor, smart kids everywhere have to attempt, and it’s the closest thing to a happy ending Malcolm in the Middle was ever going to get.
