The series is ending and everyone is getting ready to leave. Claudia has a talk with Todd about going or not to Juilliard and also tells Ross who urges her to go. Todd tells her that if he got in, he'd go and that she'd have to be out of her mind to give up the chance. Finally, she chooses to leave, and also accepts spending the next three months with him. He says that the distance shouldn't mean a break up (in this case, actually does). Julia gets a job offer for NOW (an internship, with long hours and small pay, that will become a job) in DC and after enumerating all what he knows about living in the East (weather, the people, seasons), Justin offers to move with her by transferring from Yale to Georgetown. She happily accepts and while walking up street in SF (the real SF), he says they should live in a place with a view of a historical landmark of DC. She thinks in how strange it's gonna be to leave her family, and that despite writing each other, in some years she won't know them so well, that she'll keep what she remembers. Julia's line there was perfect and surely applied to what the cast was feeling. Neve and the rest probably had similar feelings, after 6 years of working together, each one would take different roads, and despite the reunions, it's not the same. Their bond is made by the memories of those 6 years. Then, it's obviously rare that Julia just got this chance to leave now, and that Claudia got into Juilliard all the sudden. Lacey renewed for a 7th season, so if things would have been different maybe Claudia'd have stayed one more year at SF. About the future, or where would Claudia and Julia be in 2021, it's really hard to tell. I'd like to believe that Claudia returned, if she couldn't be away in early season 5, she wouldn't accept to stay away from home too many years. If Julia's relationship with Justin lasted or not, and where, would have been good to know. That way, one could say if Julia really recovered from her parents death or not, because in the last 6 years, she always had problems with guys.
Then, the older brother has two problems. First: for some reason, Daphne now doesn't want to take Diana to Texas to live with Luke. Charlie and Kirsten let them crash in their place, and she says she'll be alone the next few days until he finishes selling pieces of the company to the workers, in order to make it smaller. Luke explains this to Daphne and then accompanies Kirsten to get some food for everyone. Daphne tells Charlie that she rejected Luke's possible places in Dallas because she doesn't want to live away from Diana, her friends (?) and, them. She thinks in breaking up as she can't ask Luke to give up his military job, that he loves. Finally, Charlie takes Luke as his new business partner, so Daphne can stay with her boyfriend and Diana in SF (a moment I disliked). About this, I'm not sure if it was a good idea. Luke is giving up a lot, his family, friends, military career and since they have been together just a few months, their relationship still may not work. And if Daphne wasn't fine by living just with Luke during Diana's month in SF, it means she doesn't love him that much. Also, Kirsten, who barely appeared in this part, would agree with Charlie's decision? All the things said in the episode One for the Road were forgotten? I try to imagine Diana's life: living with her mother and Luke, spending time with her father and his wife, besides, her dad and stepdad became partners and good friends? I don't know. I remember what Kirsten and Charlie said in early season 2 (Ready or Not-Falsies): it's easier not to have a separated parent coming and going out all the time, so maybe the best for Diana is to live in Texas with Daphne and Luke, so she can have stability, steadiness in her life. And this would be unfair for Charlie yes (thanks to him Diana is alive), but like Kirsten said before, he created this situation. And since Diana can't live full time with Charlie and Kirsten because Daphne returned in 5x24, well, for me the best solution was what happened in the episode 6x14 One for the road. However, as was written, the life for Diana might be complicated and weird (I know it is for children in similar situations). I seriously doubt Luke would accept changing his whole life just for Daphne. They deserved to be happy in Texas, their homegrown.
Finished that theme, Bailey finally got what he wanted since season 2. He wants to leave taking Kimball's offer and talks to Victor about how to handle this situation with Owen. Victor says that he should talk to Owen and listen what he wants. He does, but obviously Owen doesn't want to leave SF, and would like Bailey to stay. Bailey says he'll have Charlie, Claudia and Julia to help him with assignments (Kirsten too!, degree in Child Psychology!!, Owen's true adoptive mother!!, why he didn't mention her?), but Owen doesn't want to listen. Then, Bailey talks to Joe in the restaurant, who says that he had chances to have another life, but he chose to stay, to help Nick with Salinger's and the family. Joe tells him that there are other persons to take care of Owen, implying Charlie and his wife, so if he has a great chance like this, he should take it. Bailey tells Charlie about Kimball's offer, and Charlie gets mad for lying about thinking in their partnership. Also, he recalls that Bailey put the family against him to take Owen away, so now he won't easily pretend that nothing happened, raising a child is a lifetime commitment and parents give up things all the time (with this implies what he gave up by staying in the house). Later, Bailey asks Kimball if there's something closer, but the man says that there's no place closer, the best chance is Wharton at Philadelphia, so he shouldn't reject the offer. He goes again to talk to his brother in the apartment, and tells that he feels angered and frustrated because finally he knows what he wants for his life, finally he found a meaning in a career, and Charlie won't let him have it. He says that he recognizes his mistake in taking Owen away but now he has to watch him living all his dreams, Kirsten, their kids, his designing job, while he can't have what he wants. Bailey begs him to help him so he won't resent and hate him, because he already is. This makes Charlie understand which is the right thing to do, so he goes with Diana to pick up Owen from school, replacing Victor (finally! Owen has his "father" again), and tells him about the change. Charlie says that he and Kirsten will have a baby so they'll need help with Diana too. He says that Diana wants him, and Owen happily accepts living with them, saying he'd be like Charlie, the "older brother" who takes care of his siblings. Then, when Charlie tells Bailey that he can leave for college, his brother gives him an emotive strong hug, thanking him. The three scenes between the brothers today were great, and that hug, proved to be one of the best moments they shared, considering the many fights they had during the series. Here there's another link to the episode Falsies, Bailey knew he had to leave (far away from SF) but during the last four seasons, he always had reasons to stay. And in season 5, he probably thought that marrying Sarah, working in the restaurant and having Owen would be all his life. But Sarah, being smarter than him, knew that they were too young to live like a thirty-forty something married couple. Victor didn't know this because he got introduced in this season, but Joe, who really knows that Owen didn't belong to Bailey, made him see how his life should be. A chance of a lifetime, that's what it is. And yes, taking Owen away from Charlie was a mistake but now that Bailey realized what he had to do, so the youngest brother will be where he always should've been: with Charlie and Kirsten as his parents (reference to Episode Falsies, again). I wish there was a scene with Charlie and Kirsten talking about Owen and how they regained his custody. Like I said, Kirsten had barely one scene in this first part, so it would have been nice to see her reaction while learning that she and Charlie will be again in charge of Owen, considering their significant past as the kid's adoptive parents. Besides, how Owen would adapt to this new life with his "true parents"? In late season 5, Social Services and Kirsten said that taking Owen away from Charlie would do damage, so how was Owen affected during seasons 5-6? That's a theme that Amy and Christopher wanted to deal with in a hypothetical season 7. I read that with Bailey and Julia out as regulars, they wanted to focus on Owen, Charlie and Kirsten's family, besides Claudia. Matthew renewed, probably because Charlie finally was allowed to be a man of his age, and it's obvious that Paula renewed too. So a season 7 could have treated the family in a stable way, finally adding Owen as a regular. Leaving that aside, seems that three Salingers are leaving to the east coast. But I think that when Bailey finishes college he will return to SF, he told Joe that he could be a consultant to business in trouble. Still, there are some doubts. Bailey has on his record a DUI, does it interfere in any future job despite having a degree? And when Joe gets too old to retire from Salinger's, when Heart Congestive Failure forces him to stop working again, who's gonna manage the restaurant? What if Bailey relapses in college? Those are some of the few unsolved issues the series left. Bailey may know what he wants but his future remains unclear. He's an alcoholic and his life was never easy, so would have been good to see how he really managed to overcome college again without drinking. For all these reasons, and for past seasons, I'd have wanted to see Bailey ending the series working at Salinger's. That way, his arc would be more complete.
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