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America Ferrera has clocked out and finished her shift as the series lead of NBC’s Superstore. Last season ended with Amy Sosa (Ferrera), the frazzled floor supervisor turned manager of a Cloud 9 big-box store, accepting a corporate director position that would relocate her from St. Louis to Palo Alto, California. When partner and co-worker Jonah (Ben Feldman) decides to uproot his life and move with Amy and her two children to California, Amy questions whether she’s falling into the same trap that ended with her marrying mismatched ex-husband, Adam (Ryan Gaul), straight out of high school — resulting in a 17-year tenure at Cloud 9.
In the series’ 100th episode, “California: Part 2,” Amy’s first order of business on her last day is to reinstate Glenn Sturgis (Mark McKinney) as the store manager amid adjustments forced by the COVID-19 pandemic. She confides in best friend and assistant manager Dina (Lauren Ash) about a missing ring secretly taken by Jonah, hinting at his plans to determine Amy’s ring size and propose as they prepare to move out to California.
After a non-committal Amy admits she’s been feeling trapped, not wanting to make the same mistakes that landed her at Cloud 9, Jonah confronts her in the privacy of the stockroom: “Do you want to marry me? I’m not proposing to you. I’m asking a question. Do you want to marry me, yes or no?”
A stammering Amy says she doesn’t know, but when pressed by Jonah to give a definitive answer, she decides: “Then no.” Amy urges Jonah to come to California and figure out their future, but he chooses to stay.
“Amy, we’ve been together for years. We live together, we work together, we’re raising Parker together. I don’t know what else you need to know! And I think I deserve a little more than just, ‘See how it goes.'” Amy suggests temporary long-distance and Zoom dating, telling him, “I don’t want to lose you.”
“When we first met, you told me that all your days felt the same. You felt trapped,” he responds. “And I don’t want to be the reason that you feel like that again.” When he goes to leave, Amy asks him: What happens if I’m wrong?
“I’m guessing you’ll know where to find me,” Jonah says, leaving Amy alone.
Later, the Ozark Highlands store employees send off Amy with an emotional goodbye video topped off by a self-duet from Mateo (Nico Santos). Noticeably absent is Jonah, who doesn’t reconvene with his co-workers until a parking lot goodbye beneath fireworks gifted by Cheyenne (Nichole Bloom).
Jonah’s best friend Garrett (Colton Dunn) checks in on him, jokingly asking if he wants him to trash talk Amy. “No,” Jonah says, sipping an alcoholic drink. “Maybe tomorrow.” The ex-couple exchange glances and Jonah sends Amy off with a silent raise of his glass as we fade out above the Cloud 9 superstore to the tune of Miley Cyrus’ “Slide Away.”
“We felt like it was very organic to her character to be concerned about the way things went with Adam — how circumstances forced them into that marriage, and how she’d be very gun-shy about that happening again. As much as she loves Jonah, and as great as she thinks he is, she would be [against] letting that happen to her again,” showrunner Gabe Miller told TVLine. “It was important to us, also, to see that maybe even she thinks that she [made] a rash decision. She doesn’t want to lose Jonah, and she’s torn.”
Added showrunner Jonathan Green, “We really liked the idea that she doesn’t know if she’s doing the right thing. It’s just what is feeling right to her [in the moment]. If it feels a little out of the blue to people, you know, it’s sort of catching her off-guard, too.”
Asked if the breakup is permanent with the departure of star and producer Ferrera, Miller said, “We feel like the door is still open the way that we left things. By the end, what they [both] realize is that they are making an adult decision. They’re not on the same page about their future right now, but who knows? They still could find their way back to each other.”
New episodes of Superstore air Thursdays at 8/7c on NBC.