I'm willing to be surprised, but honestly, any kind of ending that says all the rest wasn't real, or was a dream is probably even worse than the story as it is if the surviving girl can't stand the feeling of guilt and suicides, while Liam dies of cancer in the next episode. I mean, the darkest most unpleasant and unpleasing ending imaginable would still be better than that unimaginative cop-out bullshine.
Come on guys, at least think before some of these ideas.
If this were all a dream within the original coma then he is imagining the very existence of Melissa and Rena, whom he never met until after recovering and getting to know Megan. He doesn't even meet Leah until coming out of the coma.
If this were a delusion from going into madness at the death of the girl in the fire, then Liam already has cancer that isn't responding to treatment, and a girl he loved already died in the fire to cause the delusion.
If it is an act, well, how come he never did acting in his life before meeting Megan and her sweetalking him into it? That would make the entire story a part of the fiction, including himself and his experience prior to the 'act'. He wouldn't be a retired stockbroker who met a girl, but an actor, and again, none of the characters would be real, this time including Liam (the friend of the now fictional stockbroker who is really an actor).
This is why it is always best to stick to what you know. Just like any other form of lying, the best fiction is that based on truth. The further you deviate from things you actually know about from experience, the more likely you've left massive holes in the story that don't make sense.
Plots don't have to be extreme to be entertaining. In fact, going for extreme stories (and dark ones) is one of the tell-tale signs of a newbie storyteller. The parts of this story that make it good are almost entirely based on observation of truth and real life. We identify with Liam because we all have experienced at least one friend like him in some way, and that original scene with Liam in the bar saying "Drink! Drink! Drink" reminded us of a real person.
Every flaw in this storyline has been where it tried to go dark.
The robbery at the start that was so brief, detail-less, and meaningless none of us took it as a sign that the storyline would have more (as someone told me Doc expected). It had no pacing, no suspense, no depth, and thus, no meaning apart from some way to bring two strangers together with a common event.
Dick came across as some petty dick. So when he later is showing a few signs that he's actually abusive and dangerous, again, it was thrown away and his lack of depth meant we saw him as no real threat.
When we confront Peter, somehow our character is utterly unmoved by Peter flashing that gun, so that you may have even chosen to beat the crap out of him, taking on an armed bad-guy because he called our buddy names...
Seriously, every single one of those dark events was so poorly handled, the characters so flat and meaningless... Not a shred of the clever writing and pacing the author has for conversations with Liam. None of the clever borrowing from movies to set up scenes like the transition where Liam is saying he's a responsible driver, and the very next second we see him speeding like a lunatic, huge grin on his face, and the wonderful varied reactions of all the others in the car.
Doc writes great characters, and great slice of life scenes.
He handles Liam's cancer, unpleasant as it is, wonderfully well, over time. He foreshadows even the selling of Liam's stuff with Liam not letting people into his apartment (twice) with time for that to sink in, time for you to wonder. The same with Liam revealing he has cancer in the first place - there's good pacing between the scene where he's told he's not responding to drugs, a scene later where we know he has something to tell the MC but defers it, and later, well paced, the final discussion at the lakeside.
Now compare that to any of the violent stuff. There he has no pacing at all, no build-up, and so ultimately, the events have no weight.
