The few good things about the finale [spoilers]

So like, overall this was just not a great episode of TV. While I'm not going to say this was as bad as the GoT finale, it still brought the same energy of "we've gotta tie up plot threads as economically as possible, so just bring everyone to the same place" which just doesn't do great service to the characters involved. However, I did find some elements of the episode to still be satisfying/enjoyable. Seeing Homelander lose his powers and beg for his life was satisfying. I don't think it was necessarily *good* writing but I did want to see it really bad and the episode delivered. I know it's cheating because dogs are an instant emotional hook, but seeing Terror dead did make me sad. Butcher committing suicide-by-Hughie was actually a well-written ending for his character. The flashback to his brother's face and hesitation on the trigger made it clear it *was* in fact a suicide, the fact that killing Homelander did nothing to assuage a lifetime of built-up guilt made his motivations for killing himself believable, and abusing Hughie's desire to do good to traumatize his friend was stunningly selfish which is consistent for his character. Butcher is the character who doesn't learn anything or have an arc because his rage prevented any of that, and I think that's a strength of the writing: not everyone actually learns from their experiences. IMO that's about it, but I'd love to see if anyone else actually brought anything good out of this trainwreck finale of a trainwreck of a season.