"A false guarantee that protects us from exactly nothing."
Well, this is it folks, the end of this crazy, wild, ride. When You’re the Worst first started I just enjoyed watching these two broken people find a way to stand each other and say “fuck off” to the rest of the world. But, then, it became something a lot deeper, a brilliant portrayal of depression and how it affects everyone around it, an ode to broken people who are able to find love and understanding in other broken people. I’m still not completely sure I’m emotionally prepared for it but let’s do this.
It appears some of us were so scared about the flashforwards, that any form of happiness shown for our main couple is good enough. Maybe I don’t feel the same way because I knew they were trying to trick us, so my mind wasn’t fully made up about any outcome and I figured they would at least end up together since otherwise the show would’ve been ruined in many people’s eyes. Maybe I’m a bit more critical here and I might be alone in this, but ecstatic is not the emotion that comes to mind while writing about this, I feel that because they were so focused on the shock factor, and trying to confuse us with the flashforwards, they shifted away from the brilliant writing that made me fall in love with this show.
That being said, I’m aware series finales are a tricky thing, it’s hard to satisfy everyone, and it seems this is the closest thing we could get. In comparison, this was definitely one of the best, I want to make clear I have no quarries about the events that were portrayed with Jimmy and Gretchen, just the road they picked this season to get there. I’m happy they chose to be together without getting married; marriage was something both only considered because, for the first time they thought they could actually pull it off with someone, which doesn’t mean they should.
When the wedding day comes, everything seems to be going as expected, with some bumps here and there, until Jimmy realizes Gretchen hired someone to write her vows and all hell breaks loose between them until he confesses he couldn’t honestly write his vows either and he understands maybe they’re not the problem, maybe it’s the institution of marriage that just doesn’t fit them. So, they decide to go get some pancakes and leave everyone else behind and their own preconceived ideas.
This is the best outcome we could realistically imagine for these two but that doesn’t mean I’m not angry about what they did with the rest of the characters. What they did to Edgar and Gretchen’s relationship was horrible. Later, they tried to make it look like he was right about not waiting for them to get married, but that’s not what he said, he didn’t want them to be together anymore, at all. He was waiting outside the wedding venue with a getaway car for god’s sake.
Also not cool, suddenly Paul and Lindsay get a “happy ending” by being remarried? I feel like people have forgotten how bad the Paul/Lindsay relationship was, I mean, she stabbed him for crying out loud, and he was part of a men’s rights group, the fact that it wasn’t addressed again, doesn’t mean he evolved. Also, these last few episodes it looked like Lindsay was truly growing for the first time, and maybe getting close to finding out who she truly was, and they decide to make her go back in time and stay with the most disgusting character ever written? I’m really pissed about that one, it’s like the people that have been there for the protagonists all along were merely an afterthought in this finale.
Anyway, at this wedding, it seems Jimmy and Edgar might make up and it looks like they’re both doing well with their careers. Edgar says perhaps he did what he did because he thought maybe that was the only way to get away from Jimmy to live his own life, which I’m not completely sold on, but okay. Jimmy and Gretchen are still together, that little girl is theirs, Felicity, as we imagined, and flower-girl is now the nanny. We learn they sold the house because it was a death trap for kids, which is why Gretchen was staying at a hotel, and they were betting on whether she could go without alcohol for a month and if she could get some random guy’s number, which explains the other scene we saw. I do hope she went at least eight months without drinking, though.
Later, we see the scene where they are at the diner deciding what their future will look like, Jimmy says marriage is not for them, he proposes they wake up and choose each other every day, not because they signed a contract that guarantees nothing, but because they want to. Gretchen agrees but then she tells Jimmy he should know one day she might just choose to step in front of a train out of nowhere; he says he does, but he’ll move on quickly, another interaction I’m not completely sold on.
I’m not exactly sure how I feel about this; on the one hand, I’m aware this is probably the happiest ending we could expect for these two, one with possible darkness in the future. But I still feel uneasy about the “foreshadowing” here, especially since they went out of their way these past few episodes to show Gretchen as though she was too broken for this life. They never even addressed her fear of failure or her career choice. Is she’s now a stay at home mom? Something about that feels just wrong to me. And this is exactly my point, it seems like they focused so much in confusing us that they forgot to truly tie up the loose ends that to me matter the most, which is personal growth for these characters we fell in love with over these past few years.
Still, I won’t lie, that final montage was pretty sweet, and the happiness and content in their faces when they were sitting there, eating like animals, and feeling like they were both lighter now that they decided not to follow the rest of the world’s rules, that they found someone who shares their view and is simply happy choosing their fate day by day. That is, indeed, the best outcome we could imagine, and wraps up a brilliant story in a way that will allow us to rewatch this show a few times over the years and feel like the whole ride was worth it, to find happiness in the most unexpected of places and turn the world’s expectations away.
Every day, we choose.
What did you think about this ending? Would you re-watch it? Let me know in the comments.
