Story structure
Denouement and falling action
The sequence of events between a story's climax and its resolution: the falling action, ending in the untying of the plot.
Falling action is "the sequence of events that take place between a story's climax and resolution." In Freytag's pyramid the five parts run exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and catastrophe or denouement; the falling action is the return or fall in which conflict unwinds after the peak. The denouement, in English since 1705, comes from the French dénouement, from dénouer, "to untie": "the unraveling or untying of the complexities of a plot," where the conflicts resolve and catharsis lands.
Pacing is the craft problem here. Too little falling action and the ending snaps off the moment the climax peaks; too much and the story keeps running after its questions are answered. The denouement is also where a serial pays off what its cliffhangers promised, which is why readers of web serials punish an abrupt ending hardest.