Madam Secretary season 4: Is Bebe Neuwirth leaving as Nadine Tolliver?

Is Bebe Neuwirth leaving Madam Secretary as Nadine Tolliver? CarterMatt has some news that will likely cause some big reactions. After all, isn’t that what you want from these sort of shows?

As the episode tonight started off, there were probably some concerns from many fans out there regarding the character’s future. She was receiving quite a bit of screen time while also clearly having some issues with the divisive nature of the job. This was an episode with a looming government shutdown and other assorted crises weighing down on everyone.

It’s easy to say that losing Nadine would be a great loss given that she’s one of the main engines within Elizabeth McCord’s team. Her contributions go beyond words and she’s been there from the early days of the show. So are we really losing her from the show?

Well, it’s now official — here’s your update

Based on the scene at the end of the episode, it does look as though Nadine Tolliver’s time on Madam Secretary is in fact done. In the closing minutes we saw a conversation play out between Elizabeth and Nadine where the latter told the Secretary of State that she was requesting leave to become a grandmother — only to later admit that she probably wouldn’t be coming back and there was much more to it.

While it may be sad to lose Neuwirth (she really is fantastic), the show did craft something here that was rooted in a certain degree of realism. This is the sort of stuff that does often happen within the world of politics — people either get burned out, or it’s simply not the sort of job that they thought they were signing up for when they first came on board. There are some other things that they may want to do instead.

For Elizabeth, what the exit of Nadine means is that she has to reassemble a part of her team; not only that, but she also probably needs to figure out more of how to grapple some of the impending threats that are coming up next. Even though part of the executive branch may be secured and the sky isn’t completely falling politically, we would argue that this season (at least as of right now) is government in one of its most depressing forms.

Here’s the one last thing we will say: If Nadine is leaving, at least she’s doing so with a bang! What a heck of an episode for the character.

What did you think about Madam Secretary tonight as a whole, and what transpired with Nadine? Share in the comments!

Also, click here to get some more news when it comes to what is coming up on the show next. Meanwhile, like us on Facebook to get more news on Madam Secretary. (Photo: CBS.)