Oprah's final show: All it should be

The end.

For now.

Oprah Winfrey's final show was all as it should be: full of love, grace, compassion, pedagogy, spiritual nourishment and talk.

Maybe, in hindsight, a little too much talk. But what was the world's most famous talk-show host supposed to do on her television program's last day? Pantomime?

Yesterday's finale -- featuring Winfrey standing alone on her Chicago stage -- was not for the haters. Nor was it for those who would say her farewell has stretched just a little too long or was filled with a bit too much self-glorification padded with a smidgen too much star-studded baloney.

It was for the lovers, and the believers. Ending an incomparable 25-year run, this extraordinary broadcaster still has plenty of those. "You will not be getting a car or a treat," she told the studio audience. "This is my love letter to you. A thank you."

What those lucky few saw Wednesday was exactly what has made Winfrey so effective over all these years. Oprah as preacher, teacher, poet, power talker, soapbox philosopher, "Wizard of Oz" apologist and New Age self-help evangelist.

Oprah as someone who could craft thoughts so persuasively that she could force a nod of agreement out of a rock.

"You have to know what sparks the light in you so that you can illuminate the world . . . Your being here makes worthiness your birthright."

Or this vintage Oprahism: "You are responsible for your own life. Don't wait for someone to fix you or save you or complete you."

After enduring Monday and Tuesday's celebrity-filled farewell shows, you got the sense that everyone was waiting to exhale, Oprah especially.

Wednesday, she finally exhaled. She did what she has done so often, which is to connect, and if in the process she overshared -- that story about that wayward sperm from father Vernon to mother Vernita which resulted in her -- then so be it. That was vintage Oprah, too.

"I thank you for sharing this yellow brick road of blessings," she concluded. "To God be the glory." And with that, Dorothy has left Oz. Next stop, her cable network, OWN.