I wonder from the finale if the show runners didn't already have a clue.....
While I watched, I'm not going to miss this show. I thought it had a shot at creating a new universe, ala Star Trek and Stargate because it had a good concept and good to great character backstories. It just simply misfired. I think its main problem stemmed from the outset - abnormals should be ultra rare. What we got was a show where abnormals were so common, it almost seemed like normal humans were the minority. Then add the whole city of Praxis aftermath, and it became confusing and unwatchable.
Had they made abnormals rare, one Sanctuary, and the team investigating crimes/stories they believed to be of an 'abnormal' type, and toss in some of Magnus' past (ala Highlander) I think it could have been a lot more than it was.