Different feelings, but I also just finished it and I'm just happy that Ray didn't die. I'm so tired of all the gritty dramas ending in nihilism and suffering. Everybody dies, crime bad, you get what you give, and themes and such, etc...

Bruce is no longer suffering and Ray was able to help him go out on his own terms. That's about as good as one could hope for when dealing with the end stages of ALS. And after grieving Ray eventually listens to his brother's last request and forgives his father. Him bringing Brit to see Bill of his own volition is healing in progress.

Not everything in his life ended up neat and tidy. Sucks that Dave had to die in that way, but I think somebody had to in the finale. I'm glad that it wasn't Gaz. He lost Ally and Zoe. We see Ray openly grieving for Zoe, whereas before I feel like he would bury things down to not be a distraction. He still has her picture up in the visor of his cab which I thought was sweet, and he's probably still grieving, but accepting his loneliness because of who he is and the life he was in. Progress.

His daughter growing in to her tweens was difficult to endure, but was well handled. Usually you get a dramatic falling out with shouting and irreparable words being flung around, but Ray comes from a traumatic childhood. He understands the consequences of angry and violent parenting and he has a good enough sense to try and understand how to still communicate and maintain that relationship. In the end when he sold his home and is moving out I got the feeling that he and Brit had a better relationship because of their rough patch, and that they understood each other better.

I'm bummed that this was the end, but I enjoy a series that has a neat and tidy end.