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| - A major character gets Put on a Bus. In many cases, we never see them again, except for that one episode where they come back and work with the remaining main characters one more time. This trope is about that episode. This generally works in one of two ways. Either we get to find out what they've been up to, and then they go back to whatever it was, or it's used as a way to advance their plot or character development even though they're no longer on the show--in which case the episode generally ends by putting them on a different, less accessible, bus. Examples of The Bus Came Back include:
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| abstract
| - A major character gets Put on a Bus. In many cases, we never see them again, except for that one episode where they come back and work with the remaining main characters one more time. This trope is about that episode. This generally works in one of two ways. Either we get to find out what they've been up to, and then they go back to whatever it was, or it's used as a way to advance their plot or character development even though they're no longer on the show--in which case the episode generally ends by putting them on a different, less accessible, bus. Compare Back for the Dead, which is the subtrope where the character dies at the end of the return episode; Commuting on a Bus, where a former major character turns into a recurring guest character; and Back for the Finale, where a character returns expressly for a show's final episode. If, on the other hand, a character never comes back even though it'd be easy for the character to return for at least one episode, then it's a Long Bus Trip. Often this is invoked as part of Gondor Calls for Aid, sometimes bringing back former villains to fight against the Big Bad because Even Evil Has Standards. If the returning character suddenly has a new personality than showcased before, it's a case of Not as You Know Them. Not to be mixed up with He's Back, which is when a mainstay character recovers from a personal crisis. Examples of The Bus Came Back include:
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