Charlie Harper lives... until he doesn't.

In the "Two and a Half Men" series finale, Charlie Sheen's character wreaked havoc without ever showing his face on screen.

His wife Rose revealed to his family and friends that Charlie never actually died on the train tracks in Paris four years ago. She has been keeping him in a makeshift dungeon in her basement in Sherman Oaks, Calif.

Charlie figured out a way to escape and started harassing his brother Alan (Jon Cryer), mother Evelyn (Holland Taylor) and the owner of his house, Walden Schmidt (Ashton Kutcher), who he never met. He also collected a $2.5 million royalties check and paid back all the women he had humiliated in his life.

When they learned of Charlie's escape, Alan and Walden went straight to the police (special guest star Arnold Schwarzenegger) so they could track down Charlie before he returned to exact his revenge.

They soon receive a call from the police that a man matching Charlie's description has been brought into custody. Alan and Walden celebrated with Berta (Conchata Ferrell) on the back deck, but soon saw a helicopter approaching with a baby grand piano hanging below it.

It almost looked like Charlie Sheen would make his triumphant return. The camera panned up on the back of a man who looked like Sheen, but before he could show his face, the piano dropped on him.

The camera pulled out to show creator Chuck Lorre sitting on set and uttered the final word of the series, a favorite of Mr. Sheen's - "Winning." And then a piano fell on top of him, too.

"Two and Half Men" ended after 12 seasons and 262 episodes. The show collected nine Emmy wins, including two for Cryer - one in the Supporting Actor's category and the other for Lead Actor.