Everyone gets a finale take
I was going to leave this as a comment on someone else’s finale take post but then couldn’t think which of the many would be best so just made my own.
I think one of the reasons it’s hard to predict what the finale will be is that Jean herself said she was taken aback and initially didn’t like the ending before coming around to the idea and now loving it. Like, what are we supposed to do with that? If Jean herself didn’t see it coming initially then how can we guess hence why I think people are throwing out ideas around a dramatic death (either onstage or off, explicit or only hinted at) and corporate shenanigans (Lipka somehow finding space in the budget to purchase thousands of tickets out of spite).
Obviously the writers could really throw a curve ball but as someone who has watched and loved the show I’d say a death just doesn’t feel like a good or appropriate ending.
There is like a 40-year age gap in what is the closest and most consequential relationship for our two protagonists - we already know that death is going to play a huge part in defining their relationship going forward. We don’t need knocked over the head with that fact by either seeing Deborah die or find out she is terminally ill.
I feel like all the signals this season seem to be prompting both characters to face up to the reality of such a close age gap friendship and to accept it and come to terms with what it means to be close to someone of a different generation with different ideas around success and legacy and what it means to make a difference in the world.
I think they’ll go on a trip. Talk about the future. Set up the Diva and set up Ava on her new show and then that’ll be it. No big fireworks. No massive fall out or dramatic event. Just two friends who have mostly up until now on some level pretended to themselves that they’ll be together for the next 20 or 30 years realising that, no, they won’t. Maybe 10 years if they’re lucky and even then with a lot of changes that they need to accept about the realities of ageing.
So, yeah, maybe a little grim but also just real. And human. So maybe also a little hopeful in its own way.