What’s Up With the Ending?

So that was abrupt, huh?

Just as things begin to look impossibly grim, Leo and Raisa save the day. Andrei's reign of terror is over; Vasili is dead; Leo has even been restored to his former post, charged with opening a brand-new homicide department in Moscow. On top of that, there's probably nothing that makes him happier than having Raisa back in his life.

So it's only fitting that Leo and Raisa mark the occasion by making their family a little bigger. They visit Zoya and Elena—the daughters of Mikhail Zinoviev, who was murdered by Vasili—at the orphanage, offering to either adopt them or connect them with a family that will. This reflects the fact that Leo is coming to terms with his past: although he "cannot fix what happened [...] [he] can offer [...] a better future" (5.59.46). Though the girls don't give a definite response, we have little doubt where they'll end up.