Feud: Capote vs The Swans

I guess the ashes were meant as a reminder of what it all comes down to anyway, all our earthly tempests in teapots, but, as you said, it's oddly disturbing too, knowing his remains fell into unknown hands. 

I too am ambivalent about the necessity of the last episode, which couldn't ever resolve the question of whether there was a manuscript, of what it may have consisted, and what may have happened to it if it had existed. I think it would have been better to leave the mystery alive instead of trying to wrestle it into submission with such wild speculation. If the intent was to show Truman trying to restore their dignity and reputations, and thus his own conscience, I hardly think positing a murderous Lee Radziwill would have been the way to go about it.

One thing I'm curious about is why Murphy resisted even a mention of Harper Lee, let alone a characterization. If the mother was there, why not Harper, since they apparently had a rivalry and falling-out of their own? Murphy wasn't averse to plumbing Truman's history through his mother, so why not some history from such an early intimate as Lee; he must have at least considered it. The figure of Harper was all over the two Capote theatrical movies and it would have provided another plum role for a mature actress. Maybe pushback from the estate? Or maybe he just wanted to give all the fireworks to Jessica Lange?

I don't think the series has taken much away from my regard for him as a writer since, especially from the era in which he was all over TV, it was obvious how bitchy and negative he could be; he himself obliterated the notion that he was a truly sensitive soul by his public disregard for the sensitivities of others. But we all have dualities within us and that's probably even more true of writers with a calling to probe human nature, like Capote and Williams. R.I.P., Truman and Swans.