I would've preferred it if he were there, to at least try to help. He didn't get closure for so long because of it. Well, i guess this is a somewhat realistic ending, not bad, but sad nonetheless.The real tragedy here is the fact that the pain was eating mc alive at the start even though there is no way in which no one dies, if he had actually shown up one of them if not, both of them would have still likely drowned and had neither of them shown the kid would have drowned.