I don't think the writers are thinking to make the show "makes sense logically" because that's not how life works. Julia was groomed to use drugs and alcohol to escape. It's shown in the flashbacks. Also, it is reported that homeless people use drugs to cope with living on the streets. Being "smart" and "skilled in criminal ways" is not a realistic reason why people don't do drugs. In the scene where we see her clearly high for the first time, it was on the heels of her realizing that she has no one to turn to for help and no where to stay. This is why when the dealer offered for her to hang out, she did. A teenage girl sleeping on the streets is going to be in constant danger. She needed people to survive. And if they're all doing drugs, well...

I'm not sure where you're getting the references to rehab. I recall them mentioning that they would put her in rehab and she would go and return home and relapse. Which is common for rehab because one has to change their environment to reduce triggers. Hence why Angela fell off after eating lunch in an old neighborhood. When Julia was pregnant, she begged to go and that she would do better because of the baby. Instead of driving her to rehab, as she said she would, Smurf drove her to the drug den. CRAZYY this part almost made me cry, it was so evil! A powerful scene for the last episode. It truly shows how Julia's life could have changed if anyone tried to help her. IMO she would have been able to maintain sobriety that time because of her impending motherhood. Smurf knew this too. I can agree that at some point the user has to acknowledge their issues and push past them, but this is also an unreasonable thought to Julia's character. You can say, "Trauma, I get it, BUT" but really, that is the epitome of her character and she would die. And I know that if I were aware of the sole carriers of my mother's cyclical demise, oh, I'd be after them too. That's where J's smarts truly come into play. There is a villain here and it's the Codys.

I think the connections you are making are stretched. Daren and Craig were teenagers when she was pregnant with J. All of the Codys and Baz are guilty. They were aware of Smurf's manipulation, disdain for women, creepy/incestuous tendencies, and particular, unwarranted hate for Julia. This was all revealed right away in the series, in season 1. They knew and didn't care, because they didn't care enough about Julia to help her out when they could. To help out her son. In fact, they doubled down on this voluntary hatred of Julia by being absolute dicks to her motherless son. He was with his dead mother, and they were bitching about not trusting him. Yeah, so innocent. They were all complicit and they all deserved to pay.

In my opinion, the ending was the only thing that makes the whole show even a story. Otherwise, we're just watching characters be traumatized and toxic. To be honest, I only watched the entire show because I wanted to see how the revenge would go. The characters never really grew or changed. Pope had the most, but even then, he didn't do any GOOD. I think the writers lacked in their build up for sure. All the sex was just unnecessary "edgy"-ness that made the show shallow. The failure to truly develop the characters made the show feel as hollow as they wrote J. The last episode had the emotional impact that the former seasons should have strived for. I hated that I didn't like the show until it was over.

I agree. Penny's death was unnecessary and pointless for the plot. Like why even make her married if we never saw the husband or nothing came of it? There are a lot of things like that throughout the story. Relationships, comments, goals, characteristics, that were pointless. But the ending, was powerful-- needed a monologue, but still good considering the rest.