#there's so much to unpack with her that could've been explored instead of giving us another 'will-they won't-they' plot w/ johnathan & stev

[wiitzend]

hmmm i think the reason why i don't vibe with robin and nancy as a ship (other than the fact that there's no canonical evidence to support this, but i digress) is that i feel like it brushes over the fact that nancy has no friends. barb is killed in the upside down and from that point on up until the current season, we don't see nancy hanging out with anyone who isn't directly related to the supernatural stuff that threatens hawkins. she's close to johnathan and steve, sure, but they largely provide romantic tension to her character arc and little else (which is a shame, but that's a separate post for another day). nancy probably makes a point not to befriend anyone after barb dies because she can't risk losing someone else, and when we do see her hanging out with fred in season four, someone she considers a friend, he dies too. nancy's reluctance to warm up to robin isn't because she's harboring some secret crush on her, it's because everyone she gets close to outside of her usual circle of friends/family always ends up dying in some terrible way because of the upside down. robin's case is a little different, but it's not hard to see why nancy probably wouldn't see it that way given her previous experiences with fred and barb. nancy's self-imposed isolation is actually pretty sad, but that's what makes her verbally solidifying her friendship with robin in season four so nice. there's a glimmer of hope there, however small, and i think nancy's need for a female friend, a true friend, and finding that again in robin after losing barb makes for significantly better and more emotionally impactful storytelling than if they were lovers.

[ginjointsintheworld]

Gin what do you think about freema's exit?

i was speechless and I'm sorry to say that no one makes a good impression (including freema, i'm sorry)

if the writers knew that she wanted to leave they could try to change her story in season 4 to give her a fair exit (by the way it's not an impossible thing considering they said they said fuentes had to leave in 4x09 and then they changed idea)

if freema has decided to leave NA at the end of the season, i'm sorry to say that she looks like a person abandoning the sinking ship (of course I know that she doesn't owe anyone anything and that it's about her career, but that doesn't mean a person can't be sad about it).

In conclusion: situation handled very badly by everyone.

anon 2:

I definitely saw Freema’s exit coming(the stans were intense but right, i fear lmao)because Helen’s screentime and storylines were trash and she was pretty much reduced to a love interest but I’m really going to miss her. Freema is so talented and I love Sharpe despite how much they tried to reduce her character. I keep wondering how they’ll save face going forward because her exit message to the fans was sweet but the producers were saying she wasn’t leaving up until two days ago lol so I can’t help but wonder if this blindsided them a bit. Anyway, I’m guessing they’ll do another time jump because that’s what NA tends to do after each season but I’m not really into that because idk how it’ll affect Leyren? Feels like they’ll skip steps again and have them magically back together…

I had doubts already about freema's status for s5 when wilder got promoted to main character. 2 seasons without a single promotion and they suddenly decide to bump someone up who was literally introduced as helen's replacement at NA? yeah. I'm annoyed and disappointed at how they wasted helen's character in s4 given that now there's little chance of us seeing her story continue to play out outside from second hand information from the other characters. I don't know when the writers were informed that she'd be leaving the show and maybe it was when part of the season was written already. But you can't help but think about all the ways s4 could've been a decent send off for helen's character with the premise they set up in 4x01.a premise that was built on her arc in s3 with mina too. If they had let her go to London on her own and get to do all the things she set out to, run the hospital and make it better, work on her relationship with her mother, unpack her history that sent her running from her home country. Really explore those things instead of constantly splitting her time with Max's story and him being a wrench in her plans. So that by 4x22 we could've left with helen's character settled into her new journey in London and new beginnings. Her character deserved that much after the seasons of "wait for it" to dive into her backstory.

as for a time skip, i don’t think it’ll be anything major, maybe 6 months or less. there wasn’t a time skip really for s3 to s4 and the only reason they had one for s2 to s3 was. well, pandemic stuff. 5x01 will definitely set the tone for how the rest of the season will play out. 

As for freema personally, I don't blame her for leaving the show. I know it feels like abandoning ship, especially this close to the end. But the reality is that New Amsterdam is ending and freema has an opportunity to lead a show that has a future. Given that the shows are in two different countries and that we are still in a pandemic, it likely wasn't feasible to do both even if she cut back episodes on NA. This is her career and she has to do what's best to keep it thriving. We can't fault her for that. i didn’t realize that any of the producers were saying she’d still be on s5 but i haven’t been following them closely during the break. maybe they were still working out the details and holding out hope to get her for a couple concrete episodes? though I'm sure the writers and schulner will work with her to fit in a scene or two to wrap up the series with. They'll just keep it hush for the surprise element.