Hellish run ends in tragic finale (8)
I believe the answer is:
infernal
'hellish' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'run ends in tragic finale' is the wordplay.
'ends' suggests removing the centre.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'tragic' is an anagram indicator.
'run' with its centre taken out is 'rn'.
'finale' with letters rearranged gives 'infeal'.
'rn' placed within 'infeal' is 'INFERNAL'.
(Other definitions for infernal that I've seen before include "To do with hell, or informally detestable" , "To do with hell or informally tiresome" , "Extremely annoying" , "evil here" , "Of hell, or tiresome like a nuisance" .)