It's a glitch that pops up every now and then, very frustrating but rare in my experience. It hasn't happened to me for a few months. It's sometimes known as the "wave 8 glitch," because that's when it happens. It can also happen with other challenge waves like checkpoint race.
An ex-popcap employee admitted once on the reddit that it was basically his fault, lol. Something goes wrong with the counter that keeps track of the number of enemies.
The suicide option is the only way to finish the game. If you're playing solo ops, you're out of luck, since you can't talk the AI into killing themselves.