HOLLYWOOD—I made it clear last week I still had plenty to say about that unfulfilling series finale for Tyler Perry’s hit series on OWN, “The Haves and the Have Nots.” To say I was disappointed was an understatement. I mean after more than 8 years of dedicating an hour a week to this series every Tuesday night since May 2013, that was the finale loyal viewers received!?
This series became an instant guilty pleasure where the tales and these characters captivated audiences. With that said, the drama between the Young, Harrington and Cryer families was something unlike ever seen on TV and to highlight that was ecstatic to me. I mean Tyler Perry introduced audiences to iconic characters like Hanna Young, Candace Young, Jeffrey Harrington, Katheryn Cryer and the one and only, Veronica Harrington to name a few. None of these characters were one note and that was something I appreciated about this series, however, the finale left me unsatisfied. It just became a bloodbath, all of these iconic characters just died in a rapid sequence in the last 25 minutes of the series and it was just gut-punching, but not in a good way.
Katheryn Cryer being choked to death by the aunt of the little girl that Wyatt killed in season one thanks to Jim trying to scare his wife was brutal. The Ice Queen herself being gunned down by some pathetic hitman was just terrible. This woman has done wicked and I mean beyond wicked things and she gets taken out by gunfire, by people not closet in her orbit? What type of finality is that Mr. Perry? Making matters worse was the fact that the audience didn’t get confirmation it was Veronica who took the bullet. I was under the impression it was her assistant Laura, and I still think it was her.
That woman made people’s lives a living hell and I wanted to see her taken out in a more brutal fashion or at least by Jeffrey or David to say the least. Not to mention the fact that the people who have done bad throughout the series seem to get away without any repercussions, I’m referring to Sandy and Vinny Malone, how about Tanner, Katheryn’s crooked accountants and lawyer, what about Derrick, Laura, her conniving husband, the list goes on? There was no finality with those characters at all. You can’t just throw a ton of new characters at the audience and not expect us to want answers to our questions.
That was the one thing that frustrated me most about the writing for “The Haves and the Have Nots” especially this final season. I mean all of a sudden Benny has a son, the penultimate episode before the series finale!? Not to mention, the audience maybe meets who could be Jeffrey’s father, who had NEVER been talked about up to this point. Well, let me take that back it was teased when David tried to drown Veronica, but never heard of it again until the final 2 episodes of the show. Well Tyler, was that guy Jeffrey’s father or was David the daddy? I think the audience deserves that answer since you decided to put the nugget of doubt out there.
In addition, I was more frustrated about the storyline involving Candace and Charles, the President Elect of the United States. Charles just learned Candace was pregnant and we know he had been keeping an eye on her every move. So I have an issue with him NOT intervening when he knew his lover and the mother of his child was in grave danger, it just did not seem plausible. No clarity for Charles, and what about Landon and Oliver. I mean we knew Oliver had a major secret, he was secretly working with Jim’s henchmen, but who was Oliver’s parents and what big secret did he not want Landon to discover?
See once again we have a bevy of questions we want answers to that were completely overlooked and ignored. On top of that the biggest question that I want answered that annoyed me was what really happened to Amanda Cryer? It was teased back in season four by Jennifer Sallison that she suspected Amanda had been killed. You don’t just drop a bomb like that and never have it answered; it is not fair to the viewers. In addition, what about Celine and her sons? No ending to that story. We know Celine didn’t get the money from Jim so what happened people?
Where are the answers to the backstory between Derrick and Veronica? The audience knows one existed because Mr. Perry teased it and then never followed up with the clarity on that narrative. In addition, what the hell happened to Colby? He got beat up pretty bad, but we know he was not dead, why didn’t he ever arrive at the hospital or Madison and Jeffrey not discover what transpired with his fate?
The way Benny died right after discovering he had a son was beyond bogus, David, Madison and Jeffrey being blown to bits by a bomb that Tanner dropped off was just lackluster and just pure evidence of how stupid Jeffrey truly was, considering he had been so much brighter at the start of the series. I always found it interesting that it seems the interaction between Jeffrey and Candace was non-existent for several seasons. I mean these two were like best buds, hell they were responsible for taking out Quincy and that was a hell of a secret to keep. What about Quita Maxwell? She had major Intel on Veronica Harrington that was never followed up for the audience.
Tyler Perry you had way too many storylines still open and unfinished and you just acted as if there needed to be no conclusion to any of them, that is what frustrates fans of the show. It almost felt like the finale said evil triumphs over good, not the other way around and I don’t think that’s a message many Americans want to see.
I mean the battle between Jim and Hanna was wicked and a ton of fun, but for it to just end with Hanna in a state of shock, it almost reminded me of that terrible ending for your series “If Loving You is Wrong” where Esperanza just unloaded her gun into Eddie, with Natalie and Lushion in shock and the screen goes to black. If you have viewers invested in your series for years, you CANNOT just end them anticlimactic. Fans want finality and above all we want closure, that is the thing that was missing most from that horrendous finale for the “HAHN,” there was no closure.
Tyler Perry you owe your audiences much better than what you have delivered now TWICE for two of your series that came to an end, “If Loving You is Wrong” and “The Haves and the Have Nots.” If there are no plans to deliver a wild, sensational fulfilling finale, than perhaps it’s time to focus more on movies instead of TV shows. I just got hooked on “The Oval” and “Ruthless,” but I don’t have high hopes for either of those shows to deliver a satisfying ending based on what I’ve seen from previous shows of yours. Do better for your fans please do better.
