The Night Shift season 4 finale review: Would this be worthy series finale?
Unlike last season, there was no cliffhanger where almost every character was in mortal danger. The biggest struggle that we saw was Drew in Ranger training. Everyone seemed to get a chance to find some element of happiness. For TC, that actually came in the form of him realizing that he wanted to stay in San Antonio rather than heading back to Syria. He’d had his adventure, and he wasn’t ready to leave his local family just yet. Even though he’s been with Amira, we’re certainly not ruling out anything between him and Jordan after what we saw on the show tonight with the glances and the talking about where his real home actually is. Meanwhile, Paul ended up taking his place overseas, getting a chance to have his own adventure and doing something that was completely separate from his father or anyone else. Kenny has a chance to move up in the hospital after getting engaged to Paul’s sister, Shannon headed back to the reservation to help more Native American patients for the time being, and Jordan and Scott stayed put in hopes of making SAM into the best military training hospital that it could possibly be.
If The Night Shift season 5 becomes a reality, there’s a lot of room to explore new avenues including Paul overseas or the presence of some new characters. (We certainly think there is room to bring Missy Peregrym back after her appearance in this episode.) However, there is also no enormous jaw-dropper like we had last season. No matter what happens, we get to be satisfied with where the story is left off — though we do still very much want that renewal.
What this finale did that was so effectively came in the final fifteen minutes, as everyone had a chance to open up and be a little more vulnerable. There was a great conversation between TC and Paul about their futures (Robert Bailey Jr. told us that this was one of his favorite scenes), and we also loved seeing Rick and Drew talk about the sacrifices that they’ve made and trying to find the best versions of themselves.
Was there a drawback?
We’d say that the college shooting storyline, while effective in terms of drama, tapered off fairly quickly and should’ve been either its own episode or part of a two-partner. There’s so much discussion that can be had about some of the sensitive topics discussed here, and there wasn’t a lot of time for the show to get into some sort of political debate about it. Instead, we had a patient who just represented an activist who was taking some of their actions a little too far, really to the point where there was no justice behind them at all.
Overall
A very worthy conclusion to season 4, and an emotional story that reminded us how much we appreciate these characters and the Night Shift family they’ve built. Grade: A-.
What did you think about the Night Shift season 4 finale, and what was your favorite moment? Share now in the comments!
Meanwhile, head over here in the event you do want to see our discussion as to whether or not a season 5 of the show should happen. (Photo: NBC.)