The Four Seasons cast reveal the real reason Nick’s in season two after shocking death

*Warning: Spoilers ahead*

Right from the very start of The Four Seasons chapter two, Nick (Steve Carell) is gone but not forgotten, and that was very much an intentional decision, according to the cast and crew.  

Created by Tina Fey, Lang Fisher, and Tracey Wigfield, The Four Seasons surprised us when it first landed on Netflix last year, following a close-knit group of friends whose decades-long bond is tested by divorce and the messy realities of middle age.

After Nick ends his marriage to Anne (Kerri Kenney-Silver), he dives into a new relationship with the much younger Ginny (Erika Henningsen). 

While much of the drama centred on this new dynamic, the end of the penultimate season one episode threw an absolute curveball by killing off Nick in a tragic car accident. 

There were ups and downs as the friendship group tried to deal with their grief – and tensions rose between Anne and Ginny – but they all came together in the end. And if that weren’t enough, the finale revealed that Ginny was pregnant. 

This thread continues in season two, although the cast were a tad upset that Steve Carell couldn’t reprise his role as Nick. 

Thankfully, they found a way to include him in the throwback episode six, ‘Little Thanksgiving’, which travels back to the pandemic era when Nick is still alive. 

Why Nick was brought back for The Four Seasons 2

The short answer: They missed Carell. As showrunner Lang Fisher told Netflix, “When you lose someone, how the group as a whole changes is a big part of the storytelling.

“We missed Steve very much because we love him. So we did a flashback episode, because we wanted to see him again.”

Co-creator Tina Fey went on to admit that she had regrets over killing his character off. “It was so nice to find a way to have Steve back because he is an infinite delight and wonderful presence on set and onscreen,” she said.

“Last year, I was like, ‘Why am I killing him?’ We always try to plant the seed that you can come back because Steve was also sad to leave. 

“We went into writing season 2 knowing we wanted to try to do it for at least one episode. God bless him, he was willing to do it as well.”

In a separate interview with USA Today, Fey opened up about her talking with Carell while they were filming episodes three and four of the first chapter in Puerto Rico.

“I was in the van with him in Puerto Rico last year, being like, ‘Steve, we’re going to figure it out,’” she said. 

Anne star Kerri Kenney-Silver noted how her and Carell are “friends in real life,” but she still missed having him on set for season two. 

“We even had to start a separate group chat for this season, because at the end of the last group chat he just wrote, ‘I’m dead,’ with a sad face,” she explained. “But that group chat is still very much alive.”

The flashback reveals Nick’s biggest secret

Nick’s return isn’t just a nostalgic cameo, either. The flashback episode finally sheds more light on the cracks that were already forming in his marriage to Anne before his death.

Set during the pandemic, the episode sees Anne discover messages between Nick and another woman after using his phone while taking a Covid test. 

What initially appears to be a single drunken mistake quickly unravels into something much more painful when Nick admits there had been another incident involving a woman he met at a golf tournament.

We learn that Anne seriously considered leaving him years before their eventual separation. According to co-creator Tracey Wigfield, the storyline was designed to explore the idea that Anne could have walked away much earlier, but chose not to.

As for why, Kenney-Silver told USA Today that Anne initially stayed in the marriage for their teenage daughter, Lila (played in the flashback episode by Sadie Sink’s sister, Jacey Sink). “He’s a great father to her. He loves her,” she said. 

“But [Anne is] also just looking at this entire life that they’ve built together, this stone house that’s settled into the ground, with these warm lights, and the warm fire inside that they created, and this friend group that’s in there. 

“This whole life, right? ‘I can suck it up. I can suck it up and look past that for this.’ I do not believe she ever had the intention to leave him ever. If he had not left her, she would have lived out the rest of her days in that sort of fantasy land of, ‘This is enough.’”

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Featured image credit: Prime Video