Oprah's Final Show: "Until We Meet Again"

By Chuck Sudo in Arts & Entertainment on May 25, 2011 4:00PM

For her final show in syndication today, Oprah Winfrey brought things back full circle. The Big O showed the uncanny ability to connect with her audience that's followed her for a quarter-century, with liberal doses of the spiritualist pablum that makes Winfrey an easy target for parody and criticism.

Winfrey is at her best when she's showing her audience the way to a destination, rather than preaching. She interspersed her final message of "finding your calling" with clips of shows over the years where she showed that she definitely found hers. But the clips were too few to offset what became a passive lecture by Winfrey that her audience should not hang on her every word. The irony was thicker than the storm clouds outside. the show came to an awkward halt as Oprah talked about how she knew she was special from the moment the "teeny little sperm of Vernon Winfrey" (right now someone has formed a band called "The Teeny Little Sperm of Vernon Winfrey") met "the egg of Vernita Lee."

Ultimately, Winfrey's final show was like listening to a parent offer a child advice upon leaving home for the first time. It's an apt analogy: who knows how many in Winfrey's audience will be able to follow her to her cable network? "My wish for all of you is that you carry whatever you're supposed to be doing and stop wasting time," Winfrey said, adding, "Don't wait for anyone to fix you or complete you."

At the end of the hour, Oprah stopped short of saying this was the end. "You and this show have been the great love of my life," she said. "I won't say goodbye. I will say, 'until we meet again. To God be the glory.'"