New Amsterdam's fifth and final season will look and feel entirely different without its heart -- Helen Sharpe. Ahead of the Season 5 premiere, TVLine exclusively reported that Freema Agyeman would not return to the NBC series, leaving more questions than answers about Helen on personal and romantic levels. While Agyeman's departure was somewhat teased in the Season 4 finale when Helen stood Max up at the altar, New Amsterdam won't truly realize the impact of losing this character until the final season premieres.
Max and Helen's slow-burn, series-long romance has been one of New Amsterdam's biggest mainstays. It pulls in audiences because of Ryan Eggold and Freema Agyeman's chemistry and the breathless love story they bring to life. The medical drama always planned to actualize their will they/won't they romance since it teased their romantic connection from Season 1, when Max was still married. Unfortunately, with Agyeman's departure, New Amsterdam loses its co-lead and the other half of its central ship in the show's final stretch. That uneven ground raises one of many important questions: what comes next for Sharpwin without Sharp?
The first step in answering that question is considering how the show will leave Helen Sharpe individually. New Amsterdam's creative team has time to create a somewhat cohesive story that provides closure off-screen. However, it will never be as satisfying as seeing Helen continue her journey on-screen. During the four seasons she appeared, she wore many hats because her influence and power at New Amsterdam Medical Center and beyond expanded. Her impact on the medical field matters and there will need to be a believable reason why she's no longer there.
Beyond her professional accomplishments, Helen is an individual who began the series leading with her head and found a way to reconnect with her heart and her vulnerability. New Amsterdam depicted that journey through jaw-dropping medical cases in New York and London. Her development would also manifest through the meaningful connections she fostered with the other characters. Her complicated friendship with Lauren Bloom, especially when New Amsterdam spotlighted Lauren's addiction, was a prime example of how she affected other characters and they affected her. But, of course, the most popular example is her romance with Max.
Just as New Amsterdam will need to create a reason for Helen's departure, it must craft a story that honors the relationship that's been at its core for the last four years. The Season 4 left leaves the medical drama with a cliffhanger to draw people back in, if only for some semblance of closure. Perhaps that hint of interest is enough to spin a story that follows Max into the process of losing this relationship that can parallel the audience's experience of saying goodbye to a character they've welcomed into their homes for years.
That task won't be easy because Helen is such a formidable part of the series, and it will undoubtedly push the entity of New Amsterdam in a new direction. Unlike Meredith Grey on Grey's Anatomy, she's not coming back for a few episodes. The writes may have to follow the lead of ABC's The Rookie and revamp the series in its fifth season. But since New Amsterdam is already headed towards its goodbye, a silver lining could exist in the commonality of saying goodbye to Helen and the show simultaneously. Nevertheless, Helen Sharpe's absence will sting and have ripple effects. The series won't be the same without her and it doesn't have the time to replace her -- if it would even be foolish enough to try.
New Amsterdam Season 5 won't work without Helen Sharpe and Sharpwin, given the dependence the medical drama places on both. Many fans will be disappointed, while others may keep watching just out of curiosity or less out of disappointment. The producers will have to make peace with Helen and Sharpwin no longer being part of the narrative and then focus the show on the other characters who will also need closure in the final season. Making such a massive adjustment in the last season is challenging, but only because the character of Helen Sharpe, the performance of Freema Agyeman and Sharpwin mean so much.
New Amsterdam Season 5 premieres Sept. 20 on NBC.