If you would like to read my review of the last episode, click here.
Synopsis: Stella and Wes find themselves defending their relationship after Stella puts details about their life on social media; Peter realizes who he wants to be with; Aiden refuses to give up on his dream. (TVGuide)
Writers: Erin Cardillo & Richard Keith
Director: John T. Kretchmer
Rating: TV-PG
Running Time: 45mins
Airs: Thursdays at 10pm on Bravo (Canada)/Fridays at 9pm on The CW (United States)
A beautiful ending to a beautiful series. It will definitely be sad to see it go so soon as it is still unbelievable that Life Sentence will not live to see another day. It has been such a truly lovely and inspiring story and yet so simple at its core. Lucy Hale has done so much justice to the character of Stella and this show will truly be missed.
In the series finale, things come to a beautiful, yet heartbreaking end as Stella and Wes try to figure out the future of their marriage. With Peter recovering from his heart attack and surgery, the family comes together to help him through the process. Upon returning home, he tells the family he wants to get Ida back, and break up with Gina. He realizes how much he truly loves her and wants to create a new future together.
In an effort to plan his proposal, he gets the family’s help to throw a party at Aiden and Wes’ bar to surprise Ida. While it doesn’t go exactly as planned, Ida does agree to go on a date with him. She doesn’t want to repeat marriage, because they’ve already tried that, and there is no point in trying something again and again. This is a rather beautiful moment because it also helps a struggling and confused Stella figure out what she really wants for her future. But, more on that in a bit.
Dr. Grant professed his love for Stella last week and this further complicates Stella’s thought process about what she wants. She loves Wes but Dr. Grant’s confession throws her for a loop. He decides to tell her is he moving away to Papa New Guinea and asks her to join him. It’s a rather bold request to make to a married woman, but he believes she is living in her past, and needs to live for the future.
Meanwhile, Aiden and Wes are still trying to find an investor for the bar after the Pippa fiasco. Wes finds a potential buyer but Aiden is not ready to give up on the bar just yet. He decides to ask Marlene to invest but when she goes into labor, things don’t turn out as he intended. Instead, he finds a silent investor in Stella’s boss from the coffee shop who decides to help after hearing Aiden’s pitch to Marlene.
There are a lot of flashbacks in the series finale involving Stella and Wes’ relationship, and we see one particular one where Stella makes a video asking people to marry her husband after she died. She recorded this video on her wedding day, and it resurfaces when its posted on social media (because eight months have passed, and that was around the time she would have lived until if the trial didn’t happen). The video essentially goes viral so she decides to make another alongside Wes letting people know she is alive and well, and they are happy together, sort of. While Wes conveys what their future would look like together, Stella remains mum and begins getting criticism from those that say she may not really be into the relationship.
And then comes the saddening part of the series finale–Wes and Stella’s breakup. After seeing Ida and Peter speak at the bar, both Wes and Stella realize that they need to break up and that the best thing for both of them would be to let the other do what they need–namely Stella who imagines a huge future ahead of her. But what was great about the finale is that Stella didn’t go running into Dr. Grant’s arms, as we might have expected. Instead, she goes to the airport to thank him for making her realize what she wants. She is going to live life on her own terms, and find happiness within herself before deciding to settle down with anyone else. Rather beautiful, isn’t it?
This was an enjoyable finale that still managed to get a perfect ending that gives everyone what they want, but not exactly what they expected. It’s a perfect ending to a cute, lovable series, and it will truly be missed. Thank you, Life Sentence for teaching us to be ourselves, live life to the fullest, and always be true to ourselves.
Score: 8/10
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