Nurse Jackie season 6 finally saw the title character hit rock bottom. Nurse Jackie was Edie Falco's follow-up to The Sopranos, and the show follows Jackie Peyton, a drug-addicted nurse working in a New York City hospital. The show ran for seven seasons, where Jackie tried to balance her personal life with her addictions, and while the show could be darkly funny it was also a gripping drama.
Falco was perfectly cast and Nurse Jackie also featured a talented line-of supporting actors like Peter Facinelli, Eve Best, Merritt Wever, and Paul Schulze (24). The show came to a predictably dramatic conclusion in 2015, which centered around Jackie rebuilding her life and the impending closure of All Saints' Hospital. The way it currently ends feels fitting, though it was originally set to end with the hospital burning down. This would have seen Jackie run back in to save a patient, but after failing to rescue them, she escapes through the basement. When she emerges into an alley she sees her friends in the distance waiting for her to come back, but instead, she disappears into the crowd. The showrunners felt this wasn't the right ending and instead opted for a more tragic, ambiguous conclusion.
Despite her addictions, Jackie was still dedicated to her job and helping people, but Nurse Jackie season 6 is where her luck ran out. Despite her stint in rehab and stab at sobriety in the previous two seasons, by the start of the sixth season, Jackie has officially relapsed, which takes a toll on her personal and professional life. She brings her drug dealer to Kevin and Mia's wedding - which predictably doesn't end well - and her behavior isolates her daughters Grace and Fiona.
By the time of Nurse Jackie's season 6 finale "Flight" there's already a sense of impending doom, and that her world is about to come crashing down. She nearly kills a patient by administering the wrong dosage of insulin, leading best friend Zoey to suspect she's using again. Zoey reports this to administrator Akalitus (Anna Deavere Smith, Can You Ever Forgive Me?), who issues an ultimatum; Jackie can head to rehab and take a pay cut upon returning or take a drug test in an hour. If she tests positive, her career is over. Zoey also confronts her over her actions, and when Akalitus later comes to take her away, she just grabs her stuff and leaves the hospital.
She makes a weak attempt to flee with her kids but is rebuffed by both Mia and Grace. The Nurse Jackie season 6 finale finds her rushing to get to the airport to make her plane, but after stopping to help a car crash victim, she later drives into an ambulance - which also sends her rather large stash of pills flying everywhere. She's soon arrested, ending the season on a cliffhanger note.