John F. Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Bessette: The gritty reality behind the Love Story series finale

John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette became an overnight phenomenon after premiering on Hulu in February, shocking the world with its raw retelling of the couple’s brutal, beautiful, and heartbreaking romance.

It should be no surprise that for a show that gripped us from the start—opening with Carolyn (Sarah Pidgeon) and John (Paul Anthony Kelly) boarding the plane alongside Carolyn’s younger sister, Lauren (Sydney Lemmon)—the ending would be just as haunting as the beginning.

In reality, the eight episodes leading up to the finale, “Search and Rescue,” showcased the attraction, love, and struggle between the “Heir to Camelot” and the Calvin Klein publicist.

However, it wasn’t until the final moments that we understood just how gritty the series would ultimately get. We shouldn’t have been surprised; Constance Zimmer, who plays Carolyn’s mother, warned us herself.

“I think we all know what’s coming. It’s just how we’re telling it,” the actress told DECIDER, noting that the conclusion would be “very, very difficult for everybody to watch.”

Perhaps, like John and Carolyn, we still had our rose-colored glasses on? Now that we’ve reached the end of the FX series, here is a breakdown of what just happened.