(SPOILER ALERT : The thing in the title. )

That stands for The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, of course. That’s what ended last Thursday.

For various reasons, some practical and some, I am sure, emotional, my roomies and I didn’t end up watching the final episode of the Daily Show With Jon Stewart until tonight, the Monday after.

I wasn’t looking forward to it. I get super emotional during the final episodes of shows I like. The final episode of Cheers damned near killed me with the verklemt. Final episode of Night Court was even worse. Hell, I even remember being traumatized (in a good way…. hell. a great way) by the final episodes of M*A*S*H and All In The Family.

So I knew that watching the episode would be rough going. That doesn’t mean I anticipated being miserable the whole time, or even part of the time. It just means that I know I would be going through crate upon crate of feels, and for better and for extremely worse, I barely go through a box a week normally.

Really should seek out catharsis catalysts more often. I am so bound up and frozen inside. I always end up stronger and happier as a result. Spring can’t come soon enough in this cold and lonely heart of mine.

Anyhow, I went in to the episode expecting a hell of a lot of emotions. And I was not disappointed. Seeing all the correspondents come back (and I mean all, even Michael Che), hearing him give an awesome speech about bullshit, and holy shit, the power of Bruce Springsteen is not diminished … it brought up a lot of emotions in me.

But the amazing thing is, there was very little sadness. I suppose that’s obvious in retrospect. It’s a comedy show,after all. And Jon is not the sort of person to wallow in bittersweet tears. So there wasn’t going to be heartbreaking montages or some melodramatic turning off of the studio lights.

For one thing, the show isn’t ending. Technically.

But like I said before, as much as Jon, being a Sagittarius, doesn’t like responsibility and is uncomfortable with open and non-ironic shows of emotion, he was still a huge part of many people’s lives and we will miss him so very much.

We never asked your permission before we fell in love with you, Jon. And we’re not asking for your permission to go right on doing it no matter what.

We love you and we’ll miss you. Man up and handle it, you magnificent bastard.

My Moon sign is Sagittarius, so I grok not wanting responsibility. Even when I have been the guy in charge, something in me inherently resisted the idea of being the “authority”. I don’t really believe in authority in the formal sense. I am far more comfortable when everything is loose and relaxed and only minimally hierarchical. Responsibility is so restrictive. Why can’t people just get along and be cool?

But the Sun always rules, and my Sun sign is Taurus, and we bovines have very, very deep feelings about responsibility. When you have the power, you have the responsibility, and whether or not you asked for it, wanted it, or like it is immaterial.

You have the baby. Your job is to see that the baby is taken care of. It doesn’t matter whose baby it is, it doesn’t matter whether or not you ever wanted to be in charge of a baby, it doesn’t even matter if you just plain hate babies.

Well, okay, that matters because it probably means you are a horrible, horrible person, but still.

So while I have a natural aversion to responsibility, if I end up with it, I will execute it with care, caution, and diligence.

And, of course, humor, wit, and wackiness. I mean, you might as well have fun.

So anyhoo, I enjoyed the final episode and it didn’t make me sad. In fact, I am rather amazed at its ability to be both an extremely appropriate and wonderful sendoff while also continuing to be funny and soul satisfying as well.

I feel like I got a lot of necessary catharsis from the episode itself. I am not claiming that I am not sad about Jon Stewart leaving TDS, and I can only imagine it will get a lot worse once the residual levels of Jon Stewart have completely left my bloodstream and I start hankering for a fix of JS, knowing it will never again come.

But I feel like the nature and execution of the final episode was so positive and loving and wonderful and life-affirming (yes, I went there) that it will make the grief more tolerable. It is a magnificent last impression for a show that has been the same for almost seventeen years, and if you have to go, going out on the highest note you can is the best way to go, every time.

I will do my best to leave space in my heart for Trevor Noah, even though he will face the same challenge as Larry Wilmore (replacing a beloved figure and the inevitable backlash that creates) times a million and ten. I have stuck with Larry even though I miss Stephen Colbert something fierce (as shown by the childlike joy I felt seeing him in the last ep), and I am sure I will hang in there with Trevor Noah as well.

But it will never be the same. It can’t be. You can’t go home again, there will never be another Casablanca, and The Daily Show With Jon Stewart was something unique and special, a melding of man and (production) machine, and while it’s always possible that the Trevor Noah version will be as good, it can never, ever, ever be the same.

And that’s okay. At this point in my life, I have outlived a lot of show I loved, and came to the conclusion that instead of mourning the episodes that never will be, we should be glad that the vast and mysterious monster known as Television gave us so much of the episodes that were. The episodes we still have, and will always have.

You can’t go home again. But you can visit, and remember.

And that is, more or less, enough.

I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.