‘New Amsterdam’ Series Finale Recap — Freema Agyeman, Helen Storyline - TVLine

Warning: The pursuing contains large spoilers for Tuesday’s New Amsterdam. Proceed astatine your ain risk!

There was 1 doc who was notably missing from New Amsterdam‘s bid finale connected Tuesday: Dr. Helen Sharpe, played by Freema Agyeman, who departed the NBC play astatine the extremity of Season 4.

In the bid ender, Max announced that helium was moving to Geneva, Switzerland, to enactment for the World Health Organization. As helium committed to making his girl Luna — who became aesculapian manager of New Amsterdam arsenic an adult! — the halfway of his beingness with his caller job, Max’s romance with Dr. Elizabeth Wilder came to an abrupt end, though the 2 intelligibly inactive had beardown feelings for each other. But what of his ex-fiancée, who was mentioned successful the penultimate episode?

“[Freema] was wholly up for returning for the play finale,” showrunner/executive shaper David Schulner tells TVLine. “It’s our 1 regret that her and Anupam Kher — his quality [Dr. Kapoor] died, obviously, connected the amusement — but we would person loved to grant those characters and actors arsenic good successful the finale, but we conscionable couldn’t marque it work.”

Executive producer/director Peter Horton explains that it was scheduling issues alternatively than the storyline that prevented Helen from being portion of the show’s swan song. “We truly did effort with Freema, too, conscionable to spot if we could get her, and it conscionable didn’t clip retired right,” Horton says.

Despite that unfortunate circumstance, Schulner believes that “it each worked retired the mode it was expected to enactment out, due to the fact that the communicative we had for Freema successful the finale wasn’t arsenic bully arsenic what we ended up with,” helium shares. “So connected the positive side, we would’ve had Freema successful the finale, but the downside is it wasn’t arsenic satisfying.”

Asked if they had to set their imaginativeness of the bid finale pursuing Agyeman’s exit astatine the decision of Season 4, Horton says, “I deliberation to a degree, we had to bash immoderate paddling erstwhile we realized that she wasn’t coming back. But similar David said, we’re truly blessed with wherever it ended up. It’s conscionable antithetic than it would person been if she had not left.”

“We ne'er wanted her to leave. We emotion her, and she was a big, large portion of our show,” Horton adds. “She conscionable made a prime that we honored. But fixed our druthers, particularly astatine that time, we would’ve said, ‘No, stay, please.’ She’s a large histrion and beauteous person.”

Although Helen has not been portion of New Amsterdam’s infirmary arsenic of late, her beingness has been felt passim the season, particularly for Max.

“When [Max’s wife] Georgia died successful Season 1, she was a beingness for each of Season 2,” Schulner says. “So we knew Helen leaving Max astatine the altar astatine the extremity of Season 4, Helen had to beryllium a beingness successful Season 5 adjacent arsenic Max was trying to determination on. There’s nary moving connected from that. Helen has to beryllium a portion of the show. So we did what we could fixed the constricted footage we had.”

For much scoop connected the bid finale’s large developments, cheque retired our Q&A with the EPs here.