Warning: The following contains major spoilers for Tuesday. New AmsterdamProceed at your own risk!
There was one document specifically missing from New AmsterdamTuesday’s Series Finale: Dr. Helen Sharp, played by Freema Agyeman, who left the NBC drama at the end of season four.
In Series Ender, Max announced that he was moving to Geneva, Switzerland to work for the World Health Organization. — Max’s romance with Dr. Elizabeth Wilder was central to his life at his new job, but the two apparently had strong feelings for each other, but it came to an abrupt end. But what about his ex-fiancée mentioned in the penultimate episode?
“[Freema] We were ready to go back for the season finale,” showrunner/executive producer David Schulner told TVLine. [Dr. Kapoor] Of course, they died in the show, but we wanted to honor those characters and actors in the finale as well, but we just couldn’t make it work.
Executive producer/director Peter Horton explains that it wasn’t the story that prevented Helen from being part of the show’s swan song, it was a scheduling issue. We tried, just to see if we could get her, and it didn’t time out,” Horton says.
Despite that unfortunate circumstance, Schulner believes that “everything should have worked out, because Freema’s story in the finale wasn’t as good as what it ultimately got.” So there would have been Freema in the finale, but the downside was that it wasn’t satisfying.”
Asked if he needed to adjust his vision for the series finale after Agyeman’s departure at the end of season 4, Horton said, But as David said, we’re really happy with where it ended. “
“We didn’t want her to leave. We love her and she was a huge part of our show,” adds Horton. But I would have said, “No, please stay,” especially given our druthers at the time. She’s a great actress and a lovely person. “
Helen hasn’t been admitted to a hospital in New Amsterdam recently, but her presence has been felt throughout the season, especially for Max.
“when [Max’s wife] Georgia died in season 1, but she was present in all of season 2,” says Schulner. “So we knew Helen had left Max at the altar at the end of Season 4. Helen had to be present in Season 5 even though Max was trying to move on.” Helen has to be part of the show, so we did the best we could with the limited footage.”
Check out our Q&A with EP for more details on the series finale’s big twist. here.