This is definitely what I didn't want, but I can work with it, although that may be because I was expecting something worse. (I don't know what. Just worse.) Peter mentions in his conversation with Mozzie that all the Panthers are only now rounded up, so I can figure that Neal stayed hidden as long as he needed to. Is it a narrative cheat? Oh, yeah, no argument. But I can rationalize it as not being needlessly cruel.

And I figure Neal could still stop commuting crime. Faking one's death isn't illegal, which is what can be proven Neal did, and while the paperwork would be messy, his contract did say he'd go free if the Panthers were caught. Which is not me defending the ending exactly. It's more that I don't think fix-its will be hard. I could easily write Neal trying some heists before coming back, but eventually deciding it's not what he wants. Or, while he wants it, he wants New York more.

I have some optimism about what could be. And, really, as soon as we learned the baby was a boy, I knew he would be named Neal, so I didn't really have a reaction to that.

(I made my mother watch the episode first, then tell me if I would hate it. What she said gave me an idea of what might happen. So I was a bit prepared.)