Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Season 4, Episode 8 of Trying.
After four incredibly heartfelt and wholesome seasons,Apple TV+’s best showTryingjust delivered its first major cliffhanger — and it’s a big one! TheAndy Wolton-created series led byEsther SmithandRafe Spallmade some bold changes for Season 4 through anaptly crafted time jumpthat found its main characters, Nikki and Jason fielding questions about their children’s birth mother, Kat (Charlotte Riley). But while the last few episodes have been an emotional rollercoaster and continue to affirm the series’ strengththrough its charming leads, the Season 4 finale,“Scott of the Atlantic” dropped one of the show’s most shocking momentswhen Princess (Scarlett Rayner) and Tyler’s (Cooper Turner) mom finally show up at their home. It’s a scene Spall and Smith tell Collider will “give lots of people a kick.”
“It would make for the perfect Season 5 beginning,” Spall said in an exclusive sitdown with Collider alongside his co-star and real-life partner, Smith. “I know the audience loves this family too and have rooted for them. You go, ‘Oh, my goodness. How is this gonna affect these people that we love so much?’”
Following Season 4’s seventh episode, “White Lies,” Nikki travels to Mallorca to get answers for her teenage daughter about Kat. But she soon faces the moral dilemma of whether to tell her children the real reason why their biological mother gave them up or keep it from them. Choosing the latter with her husband Jason as a way to protect their children,things seemingly blow up in their faces during the Season 4 finale when Kat shows up at their home wanting a second chance. It’s a moment that will no doubt have audiences stunned and at the edge of their seats, but one that Smith says creates a “very present threat” to her character, Nikki.
In a heartfelt comedy series, a London-based couple faces the realities of trying to adopt after failing to conceive. The show captures their emotional and often humorous encounters with the bureaucratic adoption system, their relationships with each other, and their interactions with potential children.
‘Trying’ Season 5 Will Confront Jason & Nikki’s Parenting Fears
With Jason and Nikki tested this season, there ismore coming for the doting parents ofTryingif Season 5 gets the greenlight from Apple TV+. After Kat makes herself known much to Nikki’s discomfort,Spall admits the possibility of Princess and Tyler’s mom returning is a daring choice for the series, opening up “many avenues of potential storylines.”
“I bloody hell want to know what’s going to go on next with her,” Spall says of his co-star, Riley. “I think it’s bold, and you’re right — it is our first cliffhanger. It would make for the perfect Season 5 beginning because it’s gonna give lots of people a kick, but a feeling of really wanting to find out what’s going to happen next because it’s a threat to our beloved family unit.”
Smith echoes Spall’s sentiments, saying the episode’s very open-ended finale was “unexpected” and a moment that left her awestruck when reading the initial scripts. As for what it means for Nikki and her very emotional state, the actor says it can go anywhere Wolton wants it to.
‘Trying’ Season 4’s Biggest Twist Is the Best Thing for the Show
It may be jarring, but it’s crucial for the series.
“It’s so confronting,” she says. “Nikki’s main fearthroughout the whole process is once becoming parents, these kids are going to be taken away from her.That’s always been a very present threat to her.So, to then be physically confronted with that — even though it’s something that she has sought out because she wants to help her daughter, and so she’s sought it out herself, but then that lid got closed.”
With the box being “firmly shut when that character disappeared again” at the end of Episode 7, Smith admits for Nikki and Jason to be “fully confronted with that on their front doorstep,” she cannot imagine what it’s going to be like. “It’d be nice to explore it.”
What That Career Change Means for Jason in ‘Trying’ Season 5
By the end ofTryingSeason 4, Spall’s Jason decides to make a career change in light of all the work he’s done with his son, Tyler. In helping children find a place in their community and feel seen,Jason reveals his desire to become a social worker— much likeImelda Staunton’s Penny in Season 1. But with the role requiring an objective voice, it’s one Spall describes to Collider is the exact balance needed for his character’s relationship with Nikki’s more emotional approach to parenting.
“I read this thing recently that in a relationship, two dysfunctional people — which most of us are —make one normal person, right?” he laughs. “So that’s the idea is that yougettwo people together that, together, make one sane person, and I think that Nikki and Jason do that. They make one sane person together.”
He adds that for all of Nikki’s rather “capricious, emotional state… and her neuroses, and her enormous empathy and love, Jason is much more pragmatic and has all of the attributes to become a social worker.” It’s a harmony that Spall admits was “really moving” for him.
“That scene where I tell Nikki that I’ve been asked to maybe be a social worker, it’s like you see Jason finding his calling, and that’s really wonderful. And again,would be rich ground for Season 5 storylines. In a dream world, — we’ve heard nothing about a Season 5 — ifIwere going to commission a Season 5, I would get Imelda Staunton back to be Jason’s mentor,” he says, with his co-star Smith calling the suggestion “amazing.”
‘Trying’ Season 4’s Time Jump Establishes Its Next Chapter
As the show has now set itself up for some major drama and very nuanced layers thanks to its time jump, it’s a strongly crafted plot device thatTryingcan be proud of as it steers the show’s most organic growth. Fast forwards are not easy for a lot of shows on TV, but the Wolton-created dramedy does a strong job of showcasing its strength in writing through a seamless finish. It’s something Smith admits “didn’t feel hard” despite some significant changes to its casting, particularly through its child actors.
“It feels like these characters have always been with us,” Smith says. “There’s so much in the script that Andy has written where you can get a sense of what has happened in those last six years.Jumping into these characters six years ahead, it didn’t feel tricky… It didn’t feel like they were different people. It just felt like they’d had a natural progression somehow. It felt like organic.”
Spall adds it all transpired while the two had beentalking to Wolton during Season 3, inquiring over what could give the show some of its richest comedy and drama situated in a fertile ground for more story. “That was really exciting because you don’t see it that often. It doesn’t happen that often, and it meant many things,” he says. “It meant that, practically, we could cut down on our child shooting hours, because you’re quite hamstrung by that. But also, I was really excited by the idea of seeing what it’s like for Nikki and Jason to be parents of a teenager… That gives you a lot of intrigue, comedically and dramatically.”
All seasons ofTryingare now streaming on Apple TV+ in the U.S.
