Candy's death. Some see her death as a realistic portrayal of how black trans women are treated in heteronormative society since the episode aired around the same time several high-profile murders of Black trans women had been reported in national news, while others believe that Candy's death made no sense from a narrative standpoint and serves only to develop Pray Tell's character despite the latter being antagonistic towards Candy up until shortly before her death or for simple shock value.
The final season divided a lot of fans because of the choices made with the limited time that the showrunners had.
The heavy focus on Pray Tell was divisive. Many fans feel that he took too much focus away from the trans characters, who were supposed to be the protagonists, with many of them noting that Blanca receives almost no focus in the finale season, even though she was a driving force for the two previous seasons. On the other hand, other fans argue that he was the most interesting character on the show and are disappointed that he does not remain to the end of the series.
Angel and Papi's wedding received a split reception, with many fans applauding the show giving a happy ending to Papi for all of his hard work and Character Development, while others complain that the show essentially rewards Angel despite her doing the bare minimum to improve herself. A particularly sore point for these fans is Angel inheriting Blanca's cookbook, which had previously been promised to Damon.
Crosses the Line Twice: Under other circumstances, Elektra ordering one of her children to break Damon's foot so that Ricky could win an audition would be a Moral Event Horizon, but her motives are so hilariously deluded (she seriously thinks that she become best friends with Madonna by having one of her children work as a backup dancer) and her children are so absurdly ill-suited for the task, that it becomes farcical instead.
Growing the Beard: The series started formulated towards the typical audiences, with the cast following specific tropes related to a drama series (the protagonist, the antagonist, the alpha bitch groups etc., and a lengthy sidestory involving a straight couple with no relation to the plot other than Angel). Starting the season finale and the second season, the tropes are starting to get subverted at times gearing purely towards a queer audience. With the spirit of the ballroom scene, despite the internal dramas that are settled on the stage, the houses are still part of a big family and they will support each other in hard times.
Hilarious in Hindsight: The final season opens with Elektra's club being raided as part of then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani's attempts to weed out prostitution in New York City. A week before the episode aired, the real-life Giuliani's own home and office were raided by the FBI as part of an investigation into his foreign lobbying efforts.
Harsher in Hindsight: Near the end of the show, Billy Porter revealed that he really is HIV-positive, which he'd kept hidden for 14 years.
Love to Hate: Ms. Norman, with a gloriously over the top performance by Broadway goddess Patti LuPone making her wonderfully hissable.
Moral Event Horizon: In "Mother's Day", Matt stalks Angel and then delivers her apartment address to Patty, hoping for a messy confrontation between the two. The number of ways that this situation could have ended badly for either Patty or Angel is frightening to contemplate, but what makes this plot so appalling is Matt's motives. He's not doing it because he cares about Patty, he's doing it solely to make Stan's life a mess because he's mortally offended that Stan might actually get promoted out from under him.
Quite a few fans have stated that even for a deliberately over the top drag queen persona, Elektra's Purple Prose and insanely precise enunciation can often make her hard to take seriously.
Elektra declaring of her newly formed house "Wintour is coming," in a blatant reference to the meme from Game of Thrones despite the series being set years before not just that show but even its source material A Song of Ice and Fire, whose first book was published in 1996. And yet, she still delivers the line like she's quoting something everyone should recognize, like the show's crew just completely forgot it isn't set in the present day.
When Elektra is about to be revealed from the giant shell as Venus, Pray Tell calls out "Release the Kraken!", a catchphrase that became popular with the 2010 remake of Clash Of The Titans (in the original film, the line was "Let loose the Kraken!")
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Due to the delays in filming and the series' cancellation, the final season had a number of plot threads that a lot of fans wish had been developed more.
In the premiere, the House of Khan seems like it's being built up as the new antagonist team, in the same vein as the House of Abundance, the House of Ferocity, and the House of Wintour, but after the revived House of Evangelista defeats them in "Intervention", they play no further role in the series.
In "Intervention", Damon's absence is given one line of acknowledgement and then for the rest of the series, there is no fallout to his apparently relapsing and moving away, which is especially jarring as he was Blanca's favorite child and drug use was treated as a serious offense in the House of Evangelista.
"The Trunk" left a lot of fans wondering why the series waited until the final season to explore the history of the House of Abundance, especially since the episode also gave some long-missing background to Cubby, Lamar, and Candy.
