This article contains spoilers.
Hilarity ensues as pain, demons, and mistakes are confronted.
But more than anything else, the two women complete opposites are thrown together in a crisis.
And then there are the four adult children of the couples, each with their own baggage.
Both women have now put their relationship with each other before all other relationships in their lives.
And it’s nothing if not deeply satisfying for the viewer.
As life happens, however, things often don’t go as planned.
And who ever really “plans” for illness?
But, sure enough, illness has come for Robert and Sol twice already.
The first time was when Sol was diagnosed and treated surgically for prostate cancer.
Robert was there for him and handled Sol’s resulting sexual performance issues with grace.
Now, it’s Robert’s turn.
Brianna is a powerful force of nature from the first time we see her until the last.
It’s also clear that Brianna is better off as a singleton.
She doesn’t want children.
She doesn’t even want a relationship with Barry’s new daughter.
Despite being played by supermodel Brooklyn Decker, Mallory couldn’t be less glamorous.
And notwithstanding the rapid-fire pregnancies, Mallory’s husband, a handsome surgeon, barely registers.
In fact, we never learn his last name.
In her new role as boss, Mallory glams up considerably, rocking power suits and red lipstick.
But that’s just appearances.
Mallory isn’t particularly good at the job that Brianna once held and which Grace once created.
In fact, in the finale, Mallory gets fired.
This is the recognition from her sister that Mallory has been waiting for for years.
So when Brianna proposes they start their own business, she’s there for it.
Yet Coyote never relapsed not even when his dad came out and married Robert.
As it turns out, Coyote can deal quite effectively with life’s bumps.
The bigger challenge for Coyote is accepting his good fortune.
Nor does it harm his relationship with Jessica.
In other words, Coyote’s sobriety seems safe from even his darkest impulses.
Coyote and Jessica embrace the compromises love requires
Coyote and Jessica get married in the finale.
It’s painful to watch, but its resolution is cathartic.
It feels genuine and perfectly echoes how Coyote has shown he will approach his addiction.
One day at a time forever.
Like Brianna, Bud is good at what he does.
Unlike Brianna, however, Bud hates every minute of it.
And he’s got it, or at least he feels he does.
The day of her fake funeral, Frankie bequeaths precisely that to Bud.
To her credit, when she realizes how miserable Bud actually is, she hands it to him.
All goes well until the businessman insists Grace perform karaoke.
Grace comes to terms with the realization that she is better with Frankie than without her.
When Nick is released to house arrest, it’s too much for Grace, and the marriage ends.
Grace learns of this and sets out to set things right.
However, just as in life, no one can stop time from moving forward.
Your kids no longer need you as much as their kids need them.
Your career is winding down, and not necessarily by choice.
When Brianna cries in the finale, it’s cathartic for her and for us as viewers.
But when Grace and Frankie choose aging over a guaranteed stay in Heaven, it’s everything.
And to have it foisted upon them in this manner seems a grievous wrong.
And yet they roll with it because what else is there to do?
There are new friendships, new romances, revisiting of old friendships and romances.
There are losses, both the ones they expect and the ones they never saw coming.
It probably never will, but that may be the biggest gift of all.
