I’ve watched shows, movies, read comics or listened to podcasts where there is a lot of build up around a mystery, only for the end to be lackluster. In these the journey itself was more riveting than where we ended up. What are some instances where the answer lived up to the hype?
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell comes to mind. A Jesuit priest is the only survivor of a first-contact flight to an alien world and returns horribly disfigured in mind and body and refuses to talk about what happened. We slowly learn what happened to everyone as the story unfolds. Great SF novel and not religious, although it explores religion.