Spoilers

In the wistful heartbreaking final hour of Amazon’s Daisy Jones and the Six, the series finally lived up to its source material. The magic finally arrived. For nine episodes, save for a few memorable moments here and there, all I wanted to do was get through it. In the finale, I didn’t want it to end. I want a “Where are they now?” episode, or a second season. I want all those years following their last concert to be filled in. I want to see Eddie struggle in his shitty band, Graham raise his family, Karen succeed in her career, and I want to see what members of the band came to Warren’s wedding. I want to find out what happens to Daisy and Billy in the future. I want to know what Rod Reyes’ “story for another day” is all about.

For a series that had a hard time holding my interest for much of its runtime, it hit hard in the end. I don’t think it would’ve quite worked as a movie, but as a five or six-episode series with better music? It could’ve gone down as one of the better shows of the year. But as it stands, the one song, the last performance, that final episode: It won’t soon be forgotten.

The final episode is brimming with melodrama. It opens during their last concert in Chicago, and it cuts back and forth between that concert footage and the events of that day. Karen had gotten an abortion, and she and Graham broke up. Eddie more or less confessed to Billy that he’d slept with his wife, Camila. Camila was poised to leave Billy because she knew he was in love with Daisy. Daisy was shattered and abusing drugs again because she knew that Billy would never choose her over Camila. Billy fell off the wagon, and after failing to convince Camila to stay, he tried to make it work with Daisy. He wanted them to be broken together, and that’s when Daisy realized that she no longer wanted to be broken and that, with Billy, it was all she’d ever be.

That meant leaving the band. It meant that Billy needed to clean up his act and win back Camila. And he would, and he’d become a good husband and a good father to his daughter who, it turns out, is the documentarian behind this project. I’d forgotten that from the novel, and it hit hard again, as did the revelation that Billy and Camila had a terrific marriage and that she was the love of his life until she passed away (Graham’s “… I can’t” may have been the hardest moment of the episode). Camila had one last message for her husband and Daisy from beyond the grave. She and Billy’s daughter showed footage of her telling Billy to go find Daisy because, after all those years, they could be each other’s light (and Camila Morrone was low-key the MVP of the whole show).

The finale works itself up into such an intense and toxic stew the sweetness of the last 7 or 8 minutes and the gut punch of Camila’s death hits like a freight train, combined with the knowledge that dissolving the band the morning after the Chicago concert was probably the best thing that could happen for all of their lives. Another day, another week, and at least one person doesn’t survive, if not two. It’s just too bad that Warren didn’t get to continue his rock ‘n roll dreams, although he did get to continue drumming for Daisy. Eddie, on the other hand, can eat shit. Still, I don’t ever recall a show this average ending on such a high note. Daisy Jones and the Six: Mediocre series, phenomenal finale. Tell all your friends.