Instead of Daniel picturing himself in the field with Chloe and her baby, perhaps it should've been something simpler like meeting her for coffee. He'd be optimistic about the future, and having expectations while still keeping them to a realistic level.
Reported for doody.
I think the final scene was sort of the snow globe from St. Elsewhere. In Daniel's mind (although I hope it comes true for him).
shareIt worked for me.
This is his ultimate dream, perhaps. Warm sunshine and acceptance. Belonging. I hope that's not an unrealistic expectation for anyone.
Look, no slam on Chloe here, but I don't want to end the series on a scene in a coffee shop with her making witty, snarky, and vague joking comments while Daniel struggles to keep up with her. Chloe is super verbal, Daniel is not. I want the series to end in silence, with image.
I don't struggle with a lack of subtlety in that scene, it seemed rather simple to me.
I understand. There is a certain over-the-top quality to the image, so it as a creative choice it carries a risk. But in my view it does completely fit what the character would visualize, given the context. He visualizes this way because he wants to, and perhaps because he needs to.
Consider the context:
One, his visualization is a payoff of the lesson he learned in evening group we witnessed earlier.
The setup in group is that Daniel asks, "Is that as good as it gets? Is that all we should hope for?" To which Pickles responds, "You hope for something better, right? You hope for something different, something more. That's not a bad thing, you know? When's the last time you felt disappointment, 'cause you hoped for something?"
The payoff is daring to dream. Daring to hope for something "as good as it gets." A "simpler" picture with "realistic expectations" would not be choosing to risk disappointment by hoping "for something different, something more."
Two, Daniel's conscious picturing is also a deliberate reversal of the last image of the last episode, where he lay in bed listening to his own narration, visualizing being brutalized in prison as part of his PTSD therapy. This in turn was a follow-up to the same final overhead image in a previous episode as he was tormented by his roommate's self-pleasuring, which had triggered the memory of being tormented by Wendell Jelks, who'd used sex as a weapon.
So in the final scene of this matching sequence, and of the series, Daniel's willingness and ability to instead imagine "as good as it gets" indicates his determination to have more in life than "all we should hope for," a.k.a. a "realistic level." It indicates not simply that his spirit is unbroken, but that it is in fact vigorous and life-affirming.
I think part of the problem with this image is Chloe, who was conceived as too amenable to start with. Had this character been more complex, had there been more edge to her and the relationship, this exact same final image would have carried over that feeling, and been endowed with a subtle tension.
"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson
It's a daydream in which Daniel has been healed enough to participate in caring for someone else, rather than needing other people's care just to survive. It's also the higher expectations Mr. Pickle mentioned as a source of optimism. It worked for me.
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Agree with this, except I have no problem with Daniel's final daydream being of Chloe with child. It does not matter if Daniel ever sees her again; what's important is his ability to dream of a better future. Just like it didn't matter if his daydream of being with Tawney in the season three finale ever happened or if he ever drove to New York City in a Cadillac with Kerwin.
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They showed us Chloe, and it was indicated that's whom Daniel was thinking about.
But I see Chloe as more of a representation of hope for Daniel. Not specifically those two ending up together.
Like dying Juliet's last words to sawyer.
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