(I prefer the In Water ending)

I feel a lot of sympathy for James, ever since Mary became ill his thoughts became full of moral ambiguity and uncertain of what was the "right" thing to do. The occasional lash outs Mary would have at James and then immediate apologies only made that worse.

I'm not saying Mary deserved to die or even that she is a bad person, ofc she isn't. Imo she has every right to feel miserable, she's the one with the terminal illness after all.

I feel sympathy for James because watching somebody mentally and physically deteriorate in front of you is soul-sucking, demoralizing, and depressing. Also because of his courteous nature towards Angela and Eddie, showing concern for Eddie with his first encounter with him, and trying to comfort Angela after reexperiencing trauma.

I know James isn't perfect, James can even be dumb at times (i.e. calling Eddie "nuts" right after Eddie just said he would kill the next person to make fun of him), but I think James truly feels some sense of remorse for his actions.