That ending was amazing, truly original. I don't think any television show has gone so far to show you how everything turns out for all the characters. AT first I thought it was kind of gimmicky and a little cute, but then I realized that it was appropriate that the show about death shows you how each character dies, and the age make-up and scenarios for their deaths were all so perfect. Very few, if any, works out art have tied up all the loose ends to this extent. It was an ambitious, gutsy idea on the part of the writers and I'm glad they did it.

The scene where Clare tells her mom that she would stay in LA just for her and Ruth forbids her to stay was for me the most moving of many.

I hate the NY Times. Who really talks (or writes) like this:

Keith's murder seemed stupid. In fact, the whole overwrought montage was at least half ludicrous, and almost half lovely.

But that precious ratio - which recalls the balance of silliness and beauty in Trollope and some of Hardy - has always been the show's strong suit, a 19th-century tone ingeniously invented and confidently maintained over five seasons. It's rare that a sensibility remains so unified and so unshy on a fancy soap opera; melodramatists too often get scared of being called hysterics and betray their genre, blowing it off for dumb stunts or trying, in some 11th hour, to sober up and turn manly.

The NYT can go F itself. A few faults notwithstanding, the finale was brilliant.

Chicago Tribune says Good Riddance.

Now Lauren Ambrose is free to play Karol in the AlarmingNews movie.

haha. i'm with jay

I get that a lot but I have to admit she's a lot cuter.

She is SO NOT cuter than you. You're gorgeous and you have way better skin *spit spit*. You're on crack if you think otherwise. I was sobbing like a baby and have to watch the last 15 minutes again because I fear in my weepiness, I missed things. The reviews I read were right though - it was an amazing finale. One of the best I can remember having seen in a long time.

Also - I have that song from the end montage, let me know if you want it.

I have it. Can't stop listening to it. Cried in the shower this morning thinking about the show and the song and death and everything. So sad it's over and still so stunned at the ending.

Of course you have it - what was I thinking?? :)

Sitting in a meeting and thinking 'I didn't think David would be able to survive 2 weeks without Keith and look, he made it many years'. Sick.

David discovered his inner strength at the end. Billy, on the other hand, probably doesn't last a month after Brenda dies.
I bet Ma Chenoworth would've had a very funny, and incredibly self-absorbed, death.

The show was too soapy the last couple of years, and the penultimate episode was a bit of a drag, but the first three seasons and three of the last four episodes were great. A few comments about the finale:

I was positive that they were going to show Billy and Brenda dying on the same day. I'm glad that they avoided doing that.

As for Keith, a bit heavy handed "you can be in excellent shape, work in an armored car and still die at any time." No vest, Keith? Very sloppy.

I still don't understand how Rico died. It sounded like a gunshot (odd), but it was on a cruise ship. Was it a run-of-the-mill coronary?

102, but no pictures of a family of her own on the walls. Was Ted shooting blanks?

Ted and Claire got together when they were approximately 40. I can see Claire deciding not to have children.

After Ted and Claire's abortion converstaion, we all know his boys can swim.

It's too bad about that NYT piece. Virginia Heffernan is normally a really good TV writer. I don't know why she had to look at this so pretentiously, especially when the normal response of any human would be purely emotional.

ugarte's comment above is exactly right about the quality of the show over time.

A day later the finale still holds up as a masterpiece. One of the best ends to a TV series ever.