Spoilers for last night’s finale of Parenthood follow
There were multiple song montages, there were countless family photos, a wedding, a saved business, two babies, a puppy and a death that made me cry my eyes out. Parenthood ended its six season run last night on what I considered a high note. I disagreed with the fact that Zeek died; I felt that he should have been able to spend more time with his great grandson, but we saw it coming and the show handled it well. (Some people disagree, check out this touching editorial on E! about how the family’s grief could have been shown.) I also didn’t think that Julia and Joel should have adopted a baby; they just reunited and their marriage didn’t need the extra stress of a newborn.
Still, it was a satisfying end to a show that somehow came across as genuine and true every week despite its ability to manipulate my emotions. I’ve watched Parenthood from the beginning and I can count on one hand the episodes that didn’t make me cry.
I’m going to quote People here as they have a nice, bullet-point recap of how things ended up for the Bravermans:
Before the wedding, Hank (Ray Romano) paid a visit to Zeek (Craig T. Nelson) to ask for his daughter’s hand in marriage, not knowing Zeek would die shortly after.
“No one has taught me more about unconditional love,” Zeek told Hank about Sarah (Lauren Graham). “She gives her heart to the people she cares about most. I would just ask you to take care of my daughter. You gotta be there for her.”
“It would be my honor to do that,” Hank replied. “I never met anyone like her. I’ll never stop loving her.”
The wedding was picture-perfect – and not just because they had Max (Max Burkholder) as their photographer.
At one point Zeek and Camille (Bonnie Bedelia) admired their family together from the sidelines.
“We did good,” Camille says. “We sure did,” Zeek responds.
A lot of major events went down at the wedding:
The episode ended bittersweetly, beautifully:
After Zeek died in the comfort of his own home, his family scattered his ashes on a baseball field and then played a ball game.
We found out that Amber found a new boyfriend (played by Scott Porter from Friday Night Lights, another project from Parenthood creator Jason Katims). Her ex-boyfriend Ryan (fellow FNL alum Matt Lauria) was still in the picture and helping raise their son Zeek. [Everyone pulls out their tissues.]
Max graduated from Chambers Academy, and Adam (Peter Krause) handed him his diploma after taking Kristina (Monica Potter) up on her offer to replace her as principal.
I referenced the “third act” quote in the title because I honestly thought that Zeek and Camille would get a third act; that Zeek wouldn’t die and that we would get the satisfaction of seeing him raise his great grandson. Of course this didn’t happen, and I felt cheated, like the show had dangled a carrot this episode. His death was foreshadowed for weeks, but I was hoping that they wouldn’t go through with it.
It was nice to see that Amber remarried (I love Scott Porter!) and that everyone sort-of got a happy ending. (Except Zeek, goddamnit.) Also, People didn’t mention that Jasmine was shown pregnant in that end scene at The Lunchenette. Now that I consider it, there were a few too many “extras” at the end. Did we really need to know that Julia and Joel got a puppy for the kids for Christmas? (Update: they also had yet another baby, thanks to Kate and Laurabb for that. I was so busy staring at the puppy I didn’t notice.) Does it matter that Amber’s ex is peacefully co-parenting with her? Did we need to see Max graduate? This was the finale though, and I guess we got the closure we wanted. More than anything, I wanted Zeek to be around. I’m still sad he had to go.
photos credit NBC
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmirJOdxm%2BvzqZmbWhpZ395e8%2BaqZ6mpJ28sLC%2Bn6CnmZyarLixvrCYp6yPqbWqv76tppialZS8tr6%2BrZ%2BiqpSUrqTAvqynqKGcmr%2B0ew%3D%3D