I don't think that there was an overall moral to the story.
That's what was kind of beautiful about the ending to me.
But I'd be very interested to hear what other fans with stronger opinions either way have to say about the ending. Was Sam right to end it the way he did? Was Gene a good cop? Were any of the other characters going to go on to be great people?
I haven't seen the ending of Season 2 yet, but I think it helps to think of it as being entirely within Sam's mind. Was a Gene a good cop? No, but he was a cop that got the job done and actually made Sam's efforts to tame the wild child nature of the 70's police force mean something - as opposed to all of his hard work in the sterile and procedural 2006 police force that seemed to get him no where in solving crime.
The stories of an underappreciated retail employee.
http://cartjockeyconfessions.wordpress.com
"moral"?
"you a doctor?"