In The Four Seasons, a group of friends reunite four times a year, catching up on what they’ve missed while strengthening the bond that pulls them together. Except, things are a little different this time around in season 2 of Netflix’s aptly named drama.
Following the surprise loss of Nick last season, Steve Carrell’s absence is felt throughout the show’s return. Beyond scenes where the others spread his ashes, Nick is often referred to still, and it becomes clear that he was the glue that primarily held this group together.
But nowhere is Nick’s presence felt more keenly at the end of episode 5 when Steve Carrell actually appears suddenly out of nowhere, speaking to Anne (Kerri Kenney-Silver) as if he’s alive and well again.
There’s no build up, no signs that could explain how Nick returns. And then the credits roll. So what’s happening?
It’s not until the second Thanksgiving-themed episode which follows where the reality of what’s transpired becomes clear. It turns out that Nick’s appearance actually signals the beginning of an extended flashback rather than anything more ghostly or supernatural.
Back the clock winds to an earlier Thanksgiving the gang shared during the COVID-19 pandemic when Nick was still very much alive.
“We all felt so bad about killing Steve,” co-star (and co-creator) Tina Fey explained to USA Today.
After the writers’ room “spent a good amount of time” contemplating how they’d bring Carell back, the decision to go back in time made perfect sense.
“We wanted it to remind us how important Nick was to the group,” Fey continues, “how he was a mentor to Jack, and how he was kind of the ringleader of the group, what brought them all together.”
Throwing us into happier times like this smartly draws parallels to the struggles everyone is feeling in Nick’s absence, none more so than Jack (Will Forte) who flipped out in the previous episode when Anne’s guests meddled with the Thanksgiving traditions that Nick established before his death.
It’s easy to romanticise the past as Jack does here, clinging onto a time when his best friend was still alive. But in this extended flashback episode, the show also reveals the root of problems that have taken hold this season.
“We get to see them happier than we’ve ever seen them,” Fey said in that aforementioned interview, “but we also get to see them, kind of lower almost, than we’ve ever seen them.”
Early signs that Kate and Jack aren’t happy pop up along with Danny and Claude’s initial disagreement over having kids which has since taken centre stage for the pair in season 2. We even find out why Anne decided to buy two donkeys this season, reasoning that one would be lonely because Nick mentioned it to her years earlier.
Where this flashback works best, however, is in the reveal that Anne already knew Nick had cheated on her prior to the events of season 1 before they initially broke up.
After a woman shows up at the house with a pie for Thanksgiving, Nick eventually admits that he kissed her once at an office party. Anne asks then about another woman she’d previously had suspicions of at a golf tournament.
Broken by his betrayal, Anne runs out of the house as Nick begs her to stay. She reluctantly returns soon after though upon realising that she’s forgotten her car keys. As a result, Anne ends up staying with Nick until their breakup which played out at the start of season 1.
Kenney-Silver suggested why Anne stayed to USA Today, explaining how she was “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,” adds Kenney-Silver. “If [Nick] 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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But that “fantasy land” wasn’t meant to be. As the flashback ends, the reality of Anne’s life now in the present hits as she stands there in her empty house after everyone’s left to go on with their own lives.
It seems that the entire episode essentially played out in Anne’s head as she reminisced about being with someone again. Bringing Nick back in this extended flashback really emphasises Anne’s loneliness in that moment, but even more importantly than that, it also highlights her strength and how much she’s grown since the breakup.
Because Anne doesn’t just wallow in that misery. She chooses to make her own plans for Christmas, which ends up taking her and the others to Italy where Danny (Colman Domingo) and Claude (Marco Calvani) now live. There, she has an adventure of her own and ends up making a huge life decision for herself that has huge implications for a potential third season.
This is the most rewarding arc in season 2, the journey Anne has taken from a meek housewife to someone who’s back in touch with her independence, that same risk-taking drive that attracted Nick to her in the first place, all those years ago.
In fact, she’s stronger than ever now that Nick’s gone, which his brief return only highlights further.
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