No shouting matches. No dramatic showdown. Just one daughter finally telling the truth — and it says everything. Trying Season 5 wraps up its most emotionally loaded chapter yet, closing the door on Kat’s return while opening a much bigger question: who are Nikki, Jason, and Princess without the roles they’ve been playing?
How the Season Resolves
Kat, played by Charlotte Riley, spends the season testing the family Nikki and Jason built with adopted kids Princess and Tyler. But the show never turns her into a villain — she’s simply not suited for motherhood, and Trying lets that be true without judgment.
The emotional climax lands through Princess. She has to be the one to tell Kat she can’t keep crashing on Nikki and Jason’s couch indefinitely, something she struggles with until the very end. In a standout scene, Princess believes she’s venting to Nikki, who’s wearing the WoodScott Goose mascot costume — only to realize she’s actually pouring her heart out to Kat herself. She admits she used to keep a bag packed in case Kat came back, and that she’d once called a hotline just to have someone read her a bedtime story when she felt too alone. She tells Kat she’s spent so much energy thinking about her that she now needs to figure out who she is without her.
Trying Season 5: Breakdown
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Central Conflict | Return of Kat, Princess and Tyler’s biological mother |
| Key Emotional Beat | Princess confesses her pain directly to Kat |
| Nikki’s Arc | Questioning her identity outside of motherhood |
| Jason’s Arc | Reconsidering his path toward becoming a social worker |
| Season Tone | Quieter, character-driven, still packed with change |
Why the Ending Works
Nikki spends much of the season quietly unraveling, not because of any single crisis, but because she fears being left behind as her family changes around her — Princess bonding with Kat, Jason heading off toward a new career in social work. According to star Esther Smith, Nikki’s arc is really about wanting to “figure out who she is now without the mom hat on.”
Co-star Rafe Spall points out that the show doesn’t manufacture conflict for its own sake. Instead, it trusts Nikki and Jason’s relationship to withstand hard, honest conversations — which is exactly what makes the finale feel earned rather than dramatic for drama’s sake.
Blended-family narratives exploring the return of a biological parent are a well-worn but emotionally rich device in television drama, part of the broader tradition documented on Wikipedia’s overview of family drama.
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