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Source: Netflix
Attention: What follows Spoilers for the second season of the series «Seasons» !
One of the best new series to watch with a Netflix subscription last year was Tina Fey's tragicomedy «Seasons» . Since the show, in addition to Fey, stars a host of comedians like Will Forte and Steve Carell, many viewers (myself included) were completely surprised by the unexpected death of Carell's character, Nick, in Episode 7 of Season 1. After a cliffhanger ending featuring a pregnancy, the show was renewed for a second season, and we knew we'd miss the actor, but the showrunners found a way to bring him back.
Now that the second season has been set in 2026, we know that Steve Carell's Nick will return in Episode 7, titled "A Little Thanksgiving." It's a flashback episode set in 2020, where a group of friends gather to enjoy the holidays after a year of isolation and social distancing. Here's what Tina Fey had to say about Carell's return to the series in an interview with CinemaBlend:
Ever since I screwed it up, we've been discussing a lot of ideas. When we were finishing the first season, I was sitting in a van in Puerto Rico with Steve and I was like, "Steve, I'm going to figure this out. We're going to make it work. We're going to make it work, Steve." And I knew he'd probably only want to come back if there was a compelling reason. He didn't want to just show up... This isn't the kind of show where you're going to look in the mirror and magically talk to an old friend. So it seemed like the logical way to do it, and thank goodness he agreed.
When Tina Fey promoted the first season TV series "Seasons"« , she told a funny story about how, upon learning of his death on the show, Carell responded by saying, «Why does this always happen to me?» Fey had no idea that something similar had recently happened to him and in TV series "The Morning Show" »"So maybe his return to the show was partly motivated by guilt. But on the other hand, obviously, if you have the opportunity to invite Steve Carell to your show, it seems like it should be.
As I already told the showrunner and the star TV series "Four Seasons"« , She joked about bringing the character back as a ghost or zombie, but ultimately, a flashback episode made more sense for the show. She added:
We spent a lot of time in the writers' room thinking, "What can we learn about the present if we go back to the past?" to understand why it's there. And I think we'll learn a lot about Nick and Ann's relationship, the beginnings of what started to destroy her, and why she became so fragile in the present. And also about what kind of mentor he was and how important he was to Jack, and why it was so hard for Jack without him in the present.
In this episode, we learn that before Nick and Ann's divorce (which, as we saw, was starting to gather steam in the first season), Nick had been flirting with a woman, but ultimately broke it off when it came to light. This severely undermined Ann's self-confidence, which she had been living with for quite some time. One of the episode's particularly memorable moments is when Ann almost decides to leave Nick, but can't bring herself to do so. Faye commented on the scene:
[Carrie] was fantastic in that episode. In the final scene [of Episode 6], they had a big fight, and then she ran out into the street and came back. And that, I think, was one of the few things we rewrote after the table read. We went into great detail, and she really nailed it.
After the first season ended, I certainly didn't expect to see Steve Carell back on the show, but it was a pleasure and I enjoyed learning more about the backstory of the group of friends from «Four Seasons» . Tina Fey and the other showrunners definitely found a great way to bring Nick back, and it seemed completely logical.