The biggest question facing most of humanity after, “What’s for dinner?” is, of course, “What happens after you die?” Don’t worry, gang… As usual, television has you covered, with various views of the afterlife – Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, and everything in between – often on display.

Please note that nearly every item on this list consists of some sort of spoiler; sometimes for an episode of a show, and often for the end of a series. So tread carefully: we don’t want any of you to kill us and send us to, well, wherever we’re going to go when we die. Probably Blogger’s Hell, we’re guessing. Anyway, here’s ten things that (might) happen to you after you die:

10. Dead Like Me
Strictly speaking, we don’t know what the exact look and feel of the afterlife is from this series about the Reapers who usher souls into their deathly reward. However, we do know that the recently deceased see whatever they want (i.e., will entice them) the most. So a kid sees a carnival, or someone working for MTV Geek would see a big stack of comic books. Point is, that may be your eternal reward, but even the Reapers don’t know for sure.

9. Futurama
If you’re a robot, keep reading. If not? Ignore this one. In Futurama, there’s been a number of iterations of the afterlife, including a sentient planet/universe voiced by David Cross who created our idea of Heaven so it could date all of humanity. But for robots, there’s a clear afterlife: either you’re going to Robot Heaven, which looks like Heaven via Apple; or Robot Hell, to work for the Robot Devil forever. Or if you’re Bender “Bending” Rodriguez, you get to come and go as you please.

8. Xena: Warrior Princess
The first straight up interpretation of Heaven and Hell we’ve encountered yet, in Xena: Warrior Princess (and by extension, Hercules: The Legendary Journies) there’s Olympus and Hades, of course. But there’s also Heaven and Hell exactly how you picture them, as introduced in the well regarded fifth season premiere, which found Xena and her lady-friend Gabrielle fighting demons and angels alike.

7. Stargate (Universe and SG1)
There’s been two potential outlets for afterlife in the Stargate universes… In SG-1, after Daniel Jackson dies he ends up in the Astral Diner, a halfway point between “Ascension” and life, taken from his memories. We imagine you’d end up in a different diner. Meanwhile, on Stargate Universe, the crew-members of the Destiny are able to input the brainwaves of two of their dead crew into the ship’s computer, creating a virtual ship for them to live in until they could find new bodies. They got erased instead. Oops.

6. LOST
Major spoilers for the last season of LOST here, but it turns out that when you die, you end up in a sort of Transitory Purgatory with all the people who were most important to you in life. And when you’re all ready to move on – meaning you realize you’re dead, found your true love, and accepted your mistakes – you all head to a church and have a patented montage sequence. Except Ben Linus.

5. Buffy The Vampire Slayer
On Buffy (as well as its spin-off, Angel), there’s multiple Hell Dimensions you can end up in after you die, being tortured by demons for all eternity. Heaven, on the other hand? A warm, white place where you just feel happy… Unless you’re Cordelia Chase, in which case you get super bored.

4. Being Human
We haven’t seen Heaven or Hell on the UK version of this show (or the American, though that could change with the upcoming season). We do know that when you’re ready to move on, having finished everything you feel you need to finish on Earth, a door appears for you. That door leads to a hallway – Purgatory – where there’s more doors, each leading to a scene from your life you either regret or remember fondly, while you wait to move on some more. Also the hallways maybe connect somehow? Unclear.

3. Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes
Major spoilers on, again! For most of the running time of Life on Mars – the BBC version, we don’t talk about the American versions insane “Gene Hunt” ending here – we wondered whether Sam Tyler was in a coma, crazy, or back in time. We didn’t get a conclusive answer, but we did in the sequel series Ashes to Ashes: when you die, you end up in a transitory Limbo (kind of like on LOST) which is either the 1970s or 1980s depending. Oh, also, you have to be a police officer.

2. Supernatural
The Winchester Boys on Supernatural have died so many times, they’re giving South Park’s Kenny a run for his money. And each time, they’ve either gone to Heaven or Hell. In Hell? You get horribly tortured for eternity, on a sped up timeline (one year in Hell is approximately 40-50 years Earth time) until you agree to become a torturer yourself, turning slowly into a Demon. In Heaven, you get to live in whatever place you were happiest… But like Buffy’s Heaven, it can get a little boring being all alone for the rest of time.

1. Star Trek: Voyager
Guess what Klingon Hell is in the Star Trek Universe? No, seriously, guess. Ready? It’s The Voyager, as revealed in the 1999 episode “Barge of the Dead.” At least, it is for B’Elanna Torres, who nearly dies, and finds out she’ll have to live out the rest of eternity on the deck of the Voyager. That's right: even the CHARACTERS on Voyager thought the show was like being stuck in Hell. Interestingly, the episode was written by Ronald D. Moore, writer of similar afterlife musing on Battlestar Galactica, and Bryan Fuller, who created Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies. Dudes like death, I guess.

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