What keeps it from being as twee as Gilmore Girls’ own rainy bon voyage party for Rory Gilmore is that this ersatz wedding is tempered by David’s persistent crankiness that nothing is going according to plan. Thankfully, Patrick had already anticipated that his fiancé might be a little histrionic on his their big day, and arranged for a thoughtful private massage at home. Just how thoughtful, he’ll soon learn…
The wedding both feels like usual series finale fare yet also almost disappointingly understated; the episode clocks in at the usual tight 25 minutes, no super-sized finale here. There are no outrageous twists, nor last-minute chases to the airport. No one’s secretly pregnant or getting paired off before the credits roll. In terms of typical series-finale action, it’s almost, dare we say, anticlimactic—but that’s because the characters all tied off their various loose ends in the preceding episode, “Start Spreading the News.” The series finale delivers what it says on the tin: a heartfelt ceremony, and an even more heartstring-tugging goodbye.
Well, except for one wedding-day shocker: David’s unexpected happy ending, thanks to a misunderstanding with Patrick, an envelope of cash, a vaguely-worded note, and an imaginative masseuse.
This was the one moment that dampened the finale for me. Maybe I’m still emotionally scarred from Six Feet Under’s happy ending subplot. Alternately, I found myself squinting slightly at questions of complete consent, though David clearly enjoyed his “gift.” Most of all, I was briefly gripped with the agonizing worry that after all this—after the kerfuffle with the cottage, which illustrated their different views of home—that this misconstrual would highlight the vast difference between them. How better to have Patrick’s humble views on love and sex clash with David’s cosmopolitan, pansexual, nonmonogamous past than with one groom scandalized and the other… well, definitely not regretting it?
But what soothed my worries and turned this beat around was how David incorporated it into his teary vows, grounding the emotion with a snarky inside joke: “You’re my happy ending.” Gotta love these people for making Roses out of Schitt. What’s more, for a series that has consistently pushed the boundaries of conversations around sexuality, and in doing so proven that these don’t need to be taboo, it’s heartening to see them introduce a sexual dilemma into this wedding day that doesn’t become a late-stage dealbreaker.
