It's been eight short weeks since we met our young, starry-eyed ingenues with big art world dreams. After weeks of slap-shots, botched internships, Baby Jane Holzer, and trips to random print fairs, I know we all want "Gallery Girls" to last forever — but, as with all good things, "Gallery Girls," too, must come to an end. At the beginning of this week's season finale, Maggie is poised to get a job at Bernarducci Meisel Gallery. Chantal has skipped off to Paris and taken ill, leaving Claudia alone with American Spirits and mounting utility bills. Faced with the horror of financial independence, Amy has to find a job, and fast. Kerri and Angela are in pretty much the same spot.

Angela Buys a Purse, Claudia Dreams of Arson 

We open on Liz’s jettisoned bfflz — Amy and Maggie — who meet up at the Bluebell Café for a much-needed tete-a-tete. Maggie apologizes to Liz for prematurely judging her. Wounds are licked and tears are shed. Indeed, pretty much every single character cries in this episode — so brace yourself.

The waterworks are also on full blast at the financially insolvent End of Century, which has now received its second and final termination notice from ConEd. Back from her extended vacation in France, Chantal saunters into the store wearing Parisian fur and a cavalier attitude. At her wit’s end, Claudia admits that she’s been looking into subletting the space so she can cash out and pay back her family. Chantal replies, “I’m thinking about moving to Paris, honestly,” in typical let-them-eat-cake fashion. This is followed by the requisite blame game where Laura tells Claudia to “sell a painting” and Claudia tells them to “sell more clothes.” (In Laura and Chantal’s defense, it seems that Claudia has heretofore sold exactly zero paintings).

Now dealer Frank Bernarducci summons Maggie to tell her that he's warming up to the idea of giving her a job. Kind Frank tells her to come in for a test-run the next day and even offers to pay her for her time. (What a concept!) “Thank God, I’m going on up!” murmurs an uncharacterically excited and prematurely smug Maggie. Not so fast! (Honestly, because I know that End of Century is not closed — I've been there! — and, spoiler alert, that Maggie does not get the job, this is the most dreadfully dull episode to recap so far. But it's the last one, so it's all cool.)

Claudia and Angela meet up for drinks at Elsa in the East Village. Angela reveals that she has made "the most important decision of [her] life: I bought a Givenchy bag yesterday. I’m like a real adult now, I’ve got a real adult handbag.”  “If only you had a real adult job!” quipps Claudia. Touché. The question remains how Angela — who works as a waitress in a coffee shop/freelance event photographer and shoplifts from Barneys — can afford a $2,000 purse. Angela’s profundities out of the way, Claudia shifts into gossip mode. She posits that Chantal lied about having an infected lung in order to extend her vacation in Paris.

“I wouldn't put anything past her. I think Chantal is a pathological liar and she doesn't care about anyone else besides herself,” she says, apparently forgetting this shit will be televised. “You just want to make money,” says Angela, “and I think Chantal wants to achieve cult status among real fashionistas.” “She likes to pretend that she’s part of this esoteric project that isn't interested in making any money, and its offensive because I actually have money involved in the gallery and she acts like making that money back isn't a priority,” says Claudia. (This seems like an about-face from the Sucklord episode of a few week's back, wherein Chantal pushed Claudia into turning EOC into a D&D sausagefest to peddle limited-edition rolls of toiler paper to the masses — but I digress.) Claudia waxes romantic about getting a full-time job and watching EOC burn to the ground.

Maggie Breaks Free, Amy Lands the Job  

Meanwhile, Maggie’s tryout at Bernarducci Meisel isn’t going well. Marina Press, the gallery’s assistant director, gives Mags a tour of the gallery’s two concurrent shows: one featuring comic-book inspired paintings by Sharon Moody, and a group show entitled “Stand Still.” Maggie tells the camera that "this art will take a bit of getting used to" because she's been immersed in the autonomous world of Chinese art for the last three years at Eli Klein Fine Arts, which apparently completely sapped her brain of all basic internship knowhow, because — in one of the show's more embarrassing sequences — she can’t remember the names of the artists she has just seen in the Meisel exhibition when asked, can’t find the business card Frank asks her to fetch, and makes a macchiato that Marina deems “weird.” Blissfully unaware of her less-than-sparkling first impression, Maggie says “my family will definitely be excited if I get a paying job, they've wanted me to have that forever. I can't wait to tell Eli that I’m leaving.” 

After a predicable father-daughter powwow at Olive Oil's in Long Island where Kerri complains to her dad about working two jobs (her narrative has literally gone nowhere this whole season — but hey, that's life, even if it's not good television), we cut to Angela, who is dressing for a night of betrayal and partying with Chantal at the Fowler Arts Collective in Greenpoint. “If Claudia is seriously considering leaving EOC, then I feel I have the responsibility to tell my best friend,” she says, and proceeds to dish. She also throws in the bits about Claudia calling Chantal an illness faker and pathological liar, which doesn’t go down so smooth.