Why Is ‘The Bold Type’ Season 4 Ending Early? Expect ‘Frustrating’ Finale

“The Bold Type” Season 4 was supposed to be the Freeform show’s first extended season with 18 episodes. However, fans will notice that Thursday’s finale is only episode 16, and it wasn’t planned to be the finale.

Like every Hollywood production, the cameras stopped rolling when the pandemic reached the U.S. Filming on “The Bold Type” in Canada shut down in early March, just as they were going to shoot the final two episodes.

Jane actress Katie Stevens warned that the cutoff means “The Bold Type” Season 4 finale doesn’t tie up loose ends very well. “Everything's a hot mess, no one is going to get any resolve, it's going to be super frustrating for everybody,” Stevens told Houston’s ABC13.

She told another outlet that it’s very different from the usual season finales, which typically wrap up a lot of the big emotional arcs.

“I think we’re dealing with heavier stuff life-wise for all of these girls and things they’re having to face within themselves and within the outside world,” she explained to Entertainment Tonight. “So I think that it’s definitely different for ‘The Bold Type’ 'cause we normally see some things wrapped up in a bow, which we won’t get, I don’t think, this season.”

Thursday’s finale finds Sutton (Meghann Fahy) trying to cope after Richard (Sam Page) left her, so she heads to her hometown for a visit. Meanwhile, Jane tries to contemplate what to do about Scott’s (Mat Vairo) declaration that he has feelings for her, and Kat (Aisha Dee) continues her relationship with the ultra-conservative Ava (Alex Paxton-Beesley).

Kat’s storyline hasn’t been the most loved, nor do fans really understand how Kat could end up with someone who has all the opposite values. Aisha Dee revealed that she shared those conflicted feelings in an extended Instagram post where the actress called for more diversity behind the camera.

“The decision to have Kat enter into a relationship with a privileged conservative woman felt confusing and out of character,” she noted. “Despite my personal feelings about the choice, I tried my best to tell the story with honesty, even though the Kat I know and love would never make these choices. It was heartbreaking to watch Kat's story turn into a redemption story for someone else, someone who is complicit in the oppression of so many. Someone whose politics are actively harmful to her communities.”

She noted that the show “struggles to understand the intersections many of its characters live in… For a show that frequently uses words like intersectionality, inclusion, discourse, and the various ism's, I wonder how its stories may have been elevated had they been told through the lens of people with a more varied lived experience.”

According to Dee, it took two seasons to get one BIPOC in the writers room, and there have never been any LGBTQ black writers on the show. She called for more diversity in the writers room and among the on-set crew moving forward.

In a statement from the show's producers, Freeform and Universal Television said, “We applaud Aisha for raising her hand and starting conversations around these important issues. We look forward to continuing that dialogue and enacting positive change. Our goal on “The Bold Type” is and has always been to tell entertaining, authentic stories that are representative of the world that Kat, Jane and Sutton live in -- we can only do that if we listen.”

A rep for the show clarified that "The Bold Type" writing staff included a lesbian woman of color in Season 2 and a bisexual woman of color in Season 3. In Season 4, the writers room consisted of three writers who identify as LGBTQ+, and five are people of color. Eight out of the 10 writers for the most recent season are female.

Freeform has not announced if “The Bold Type” will be renewed for Season 5.

“The Bold Type” Season 4 finale airs Thursday on Freeform.