>I thought the opening sequence was just tight on him, so you
>wouldn't know the end. And at the end, he is leaving with her
>and she has a bandage on her arm...where she was shot. If she
>was dead, wouldn't she still be the way he always saw her, no
>bandage? who images their love with flaws?

It's not that tight (I was watching in HD. "Jason's Lyric" was very very likely shot open-matte, but a widescreen copy of an open-matte film still gives a little extra sliver of left and right to the frame.

I say all that to say, the other chair is clearly empty at the beginning of the film.

Some people imagine their love with flaws, if they learn to accept those flaws. Moreover, she was shot point-blank in the chest (through the right lung and likely hitting major veins as well), not the arm - that's where the bandage on the not-really-there Lyric is.

Add to that all the thematic symbolism in having Lyric die - the Romeo & Juliet connection (well, West Side Story at least ,because Jason lives), how Joshua shoots Lyric accidentally, just like how Jason shot Maddog accidentally. As I understand it, the shooting script is quite explicit in that Lyric is shot dead.