Is Dead to Me cancelled? Why there isn’t a Dead to Me season 4

Will the infamous Jen and Judy duo be back for another season? We reveal the fate of Dead To Me and whether it’ll be back for another outing.

Dead To Me season 3 landed on Netflix on November 17, and most of its die-hard fans have binged the entire season already. Jumping straight into the streamer’s top 10 series, it amassed 30.3 million hours of viewing in the first four days after its release - which is very impressive. Season 3 picked up exactly where season 2 left off, in the aftermath of the horror crash that left Jen and Judy screaming. Jen is in hospital with neck injuries, and Judy appears to have come away with nothing but scratches. However, for those who’ve seen the show, the drama for the pair is about to get worse. Read on to find out if Dead To Me has been cancelled, and what’s in store for one of TV’s greatest female pairings.

For those yet to watch season 3 of the show and want to catch up with season 2 beforehand, we have a handy Dead To Me season 2 recap. Elsewhere on Netflix, Florence Pugh is garnering critical acclaim for her performance in a period mystery drama. This had led to viewers asking if The Wonder is based on a true story, and the real inspiration behind the film is quite disturbing. Bending both genres and minds, the 1899 series has been dividing opinions. Our 1899 ending explained untangles the ending that brought more questions than it answered. 

Is Dead To Me cancelled?

Dead To Me will end at season 3, and there will not be a season 4. The fate of the series was actually announced by Netflix on Twitter, on July 6, 2020.

Posting a picture of stars Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini, The official Netflix account wrote "The brilliant Dead To Me has been renewed for a third (and final) season!" Show creator Liz Feldman spoke to Deadline about the show coming to an end, saying "From start to finish, Dead to Me is exactly the show I wanted to make. Telling a story sprung from grief and loss has stretched me as an artist and healed me as a human".  She continued "I'll be forever indebted to my partners in crime, my friends for life, Christina and Linda, and our brilliantly talented writers, cast and crew. I am beyond grateful to Netflix for supporting Dead to Me from day one."

Feldman already has her next project with Netflix lined up. This will be a comedy entitled No Good Deed. The show is set to follow three different families as they attempt to buy the same 1920s Spanish villa, convinced it will be the answer to their problems. In a statement released in May, Feldman said "No Good Deed was inspired by my many late nights during the early pandemic maniacally searching Zillow listings for a way out of my house. I'm endlessly grateful to Netflix for being such a supportive creative home and for continuing to allow me to turn my crippling anxiety into entertainment". 

Why isn't there a Dead To Me season 4? 

Dead To Me was only ever intended for a short season run, and creator Liz Feldman felt three season was perfect for the story she wanted to tell. 

Speaking to Deadline, Feldman revealed exactly why she wanted to keep the show short and sweet. She said "I always knew from the inception of the show that I didn’t want it to be a long long-running show. Then there was a certain point when we were in production on season 2 when the end of the show came to me, pretty profoundly, so I realized, ‘I know the story that I have to tell,’ and season 3 feels like the right time to do that. It’s just something that came to me organically, and I tend to try to follow the gut feelings I have". 

Some fans of the show took to social media to express their desire for a further season of the show, while others appeared content with the ending. One Twitter user wrote "There’s no way Dead to Me ends that way and there's not gonna be a season 4!!!!" Another disagreed, adding "That is not a cliffhanger to launch a season 4 of the original series, but maybe a spin off at best. Dead to Me is built around Jen & Judy’s relationship. A 4th season is unnecessary as their story is complete. Plus, Christina Applegate isn’t in good health right now."

How did Dead to Me season 3 end?

The Dead To Me season 3 finale ends with Jen and Judy driving to Steve’s beachfront in Mexico. Judy is on the run - after receiving her terminal cancer diagnosis, she confessed to the murder Jen committed. 

The pair spend their final days together sunbathing, chatting, and watching episodes of The Facts of Life in Spanish. Judy suggests they take Steve’s boat out for a spin, and when collecting lifejackets from the garage, they discover the 1966 Mustang Steve and Judy were driving when they killed Ted in the hit-and-run.

Jen has always maintained to Judy that she's forgiven her for her part in Ted's death. The pair share a profound moment when presented with the Mustang, when Jen tells Judy she is grateful for the car, because it brought them together. Jen wants to leave Mexico and return home, but Judy tells her she wants to stay and admits she's been struggling with the pain from her cervical cancer for some time. 

Deciding to live out the rest of her days in the holiday home, Judy makes plans for Jen to visit, tearfully telling her "I’ve had the best time with you". Settling down to watch The Fact of Life one final time before Jen leaves, the pair fall asleep. Jen wakes to find a note and a bracelet left for her by Judy, and she is next seen staring at the ocean, with the implication Judy has died. 

Arriving back to Laguna Beach in the Mustang, Jen has visions of Judy in the passenger seat. Going straight to Henry’s church recital, she finds the one thousand paper cranes folded by Judy while undergoing cancer treatment, hanging above the pews. Ben then arrives as a surprise, having been released from prison early. Asking if Judy is at the recital, Judy looks skyward and replies up and says "I think so".

In a small time jump, Jen has returned to her grief group to introduce daughter Joey, who is wrapped in a blanket embroidered with "Judy Ann" although Jen had decided not to name her daughter after her friend. The final scene shows Ben playing in the pool with Charlie and Henry, and Jen watching them with Joey on her lap. Kissing Jen and telling her he never thought he'd be this happy, Jen announces to Ben "I have something to tell you" and the screen fades to black. 

What Does Jen Tell Ben at the end of Dead To Me?

It has been made deliberately ambiguous regarding what Jen tells Ben at the end of Dead To Me, and left to the audience to speculate.

It is assumed that she is going to come clean about the fact it was that killed his brother and not Judy, as this seems the most obvious thing for her to do. Liz Feldman spoke in depth about the ending to Variety, and when asked if Jen told Ben about the murder, she said "I think that’s for you and for the audience to explore for himself. If I had wanted to explore that, I would have. These women were imperfect and wonderful, they were flawed and they made mistakes and they did some things. I didn’t want to gloss over that".

She added "I wanted the end to still feel very much like the show. I didn’t want to put too fine a period on anything. This show always ends with an ellipsis. I didn’t want to stray from that. My experience with grief is, you don’t know what happens. That’s why it’s so long lasting, why grief is so hard to work through. Because you don’t know, you don’t have the answers. You don’t know where to put your feelings, you just have to feel them. I wanted people to feel their feelings, but also give a little sense of delight". 

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