''Tell Me You Love Me'': Reunited, and It Feels So Ambiguous

What a relief then that Katie and Dave barreled out of their tunnel of darkness. The two took their newly separated friend to Jamie's restaurant, the Mix — which is really a hammy, dumb name for the place our couples intersect — where Katie gave our twentysomething couple quite the once-over. First, she shyly checked out Hugo, unsure if he would see her as a comely cougar or a scrim of a woman in a turtleneck sweater. After they paid their check, she looked at Jamie with curious sorrow. Poor Katie, so unsure of her place in the world. (The scene was well acted on all parts, and I admire what the writers were going for. But Katie's prolonged examination of a younger woman, looking for remnants of her own lost youth, felt a little too stagy and forced.)

Katie finally melted down at May's. She's old. She's unmoored. She can't blame the kids for their nonexistent sex life. They simply don't know each other anymore. In one of the best lines of the series, May talked her down from the ledge. ''A therapist can turn a light on,'' she cooed. ''The trick now is not to be so stunned by the glare that you want to turn it off.'' Back at home, Katie swore again that she wished she'd never forced them into therapy and then dared Dave to finally up and leave her. But when she stormed off to the numbing comfort of the fridge — the light from the opened door a nice play on May's wise warning — he stormed after her and planted a wet one on her mouth. No more talking for these two. She followed him back into the bedroom and dared to whip off her T-shirt. (So there is an actress left in Hollywood with a real body? Hats off to you, Ally Walker.) She climbed up on Dave, and he forced her hand down her pants. It was her job to tend to her body, and he would take care of his own needs. The scene was long, too long probably, and maybe even too realistic. Those squawks will echo in my head for a while. But it also left me in tears to see these two fall into each other's arms and rejoice at their breakthrough while Janis Joplin hallelujah'd in the background. It's a wonderful thing to compare Dave's shameful masturbation scene at the season's beginning with the couple's triumphant diddle in the finale. She earned that orgasm.

And now, tender hearts, an idea for the second season. By all means, bring back formidable May. But how about throwing mysterious Bella (what is cooking underneath her roiling surface?), Mason, and Palek's mother into her office. This way we can keep tabs on our initial couples — Carolyn, get help! — while moving forward into new territory. Or is the wiser move to start over altogether, jettisoning all but May?

What did you all think of the finale? How long do you give Hugo and Jamie's marriage? Was that a tearful last moment together for Carolyn and Palek, or the mournful first day of the rest of their lives? What did you think of Katie and Dave's reunion? Would you tune in for a second season? And how would you cast May's next waiting room?