Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for The Four Seasons.
At first glance, Netflix’s newest dramedy series,The Four Seasons, seems more interested in emotional stakes than in physical ones. Based on the 1981 film of the same name, the show follows six close friends who are made up of three long-term couples: Kate (Tina Fey) and Jack (Will Forte), Danny (Colman Domingo) and Claude (Marco Calvani), and Nick (Steve Carell) and Anne (Kerri Kenney-Silver). The six of them have all been friends for many decades, and they all meet up for vacations together once every season.When Nick leaves Anne after 25 years of marriage, their friends have to deal with how this shakes up the groupand how it leads them to reflect on their own marriages.
In a shocking twist, the penultimate episode ofThe Four Seasonsends with Nick dying in a car accident while away on a ski trip with his new girlfriend, Ginny (Erika Henningsen), and her friends.In a recent interviewwith Collider, two ofThe Four Seasons' co-creators,Lang FisherandTracey Wigfield, admitted to regretting Nick’s death at first before ultimately accepting that it was a necessary next step in the story that they were telling. Although Nick’s death is very sad, and Carell’s absence will certainly be felt in any potential future seasons ofThe Four Seasons,the twist of his death was the right call for the show, and it really paid offin the Season 1 finale.
‘The Four Seasons’ Builds Up to Nick’s Funeral
In a lot of ways,Nick’s death feels like the culmination of all of the main storylines and themes inThe Four Seasons. The show explores the themes of aging, as well as how both platonic and romantic relationships change over time. Nick’s journey is about making this big life change and getting to enjoy the new parts of his life, while struggling with the major change and what it means for the old parts of his life that he still wants to hold onto. Anne has to deal with not just the loss of her husband, but how this impacts her relationships with her friends,and how this even gets her left out of the group at times. Meanwhile, Danny and Claude fight about Danny’s heart problems, as Claude is worried about his husband, but Danny just wants to live his life.
Kate and Jack’s major point of tensionis that she feels like she has to do everything for him, and like she has to make all of their big decisions. When tensions rise in their group of friends, Kate feels frustrated that she doesn’t have a partner who puts in as much effort as she needs. Jack, on the other hand, starts to feel jealous of Nick. It’s less about Nick’s relationship with Ginny, and more about the fact that Nick is taking risks and trying new thingswhile Jack and Kate are trapped in their routines.Nick’s death forces all the friends to reevaluate their priorities and their relationships.Anne allows herself to feel empathy for Ginny, Kate and Jack remember why they love each other, and Danny and Claude work to become more open to each other’s different worldviews.
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Nick’s death is truly tragic, as he finds himself playing the very same farming game he resented Anne for playing, after feeling like he doesn’t fit in with Ginny’s friends. Nick is torn, because he was happy with his friends but feeling discontent with his marriage to Anne, and now he’s happy with Ginny but misses his group of friends. After a fight with Ginny, he tries to make it up to her by getting groceries for her friends, but dies on the way back. As Danny points out in a speech in the Season 1 finale,Nick’s death is a random and tragic event without a deeper meaning to it.It forces everyone around him to think about the sudden and unexplainable nature of death, as they come together fora hilariously dysfunctional funeral.
Nick’s Death Shakes Up the Group Dynamics in ‘The Four Seasons’ Season 1 Finale
IfThe Four Seasonsisrenewed for a second season,Nick’s death is a way to ensure that the series' return will shake things up while also giving more of a focus to the story’s emotional throughline. Now, it looks likeGinny will become more of a permanent fixture in the friend groupin the future, after the reveal that she is pregnant with Nick’s baby. This is a great way to keep Ginny involved with the friend group after Nick’s death, as her baby will be the sibling of Nick and Anne’s daughter, Lila (Julia Lester). The combination of these two storylines givesThe Four Seasonsa lot of room for exploration in a potential Season 2. The group will continue to mourn the loss of Nick while adjusting to having Ginny around and welcoming a baby into the group. This will be especially difficult for Anne, even though she has already made amends with Ginny and accepted the news.
The Four Seasonsexplores the main characters thinking about the kinds of lives that they want to have, and the kinds of people that they want to be, as they get older. Before Nick’s death, nobody was especially concerned with mortality, aside from Claude in his worries about Danny’s health. Now, although the two marriages are stronger than ever, the friends will likely still be thinking about Nick’s death and worrying about the fragility of their own livesas they move forward. While the twist itself makes a really emotional and wildly funny finale,it also sets up future installments ofThe Four Seasonsto potentially explore how the friends healfrom their grief.
The Four Seasonsis available to stream on Netflix.
The Four Seasons
