‘Nurse Jackie’ Ending Explained: Does Jackie Live?

For seven seasons, Nurse Jackie viewers watched Jackie (Edie Falco) struggle with addiction while trying to hold down her hectic life as a Manhattan nurse at All Saints Hospital.

Throughout the show’s run, it earned 24 Emmy nominations and five awards, including Outstanding Lead Actress for star Falco and Outstanding Supporting Actress for Merritt Wever. After premiering in 2009, Nurse Jackie aired its shocking finale on June 28, 2015. But since series arrived on Netflix on Oct. 7, it’s found a whole new set of fans.

Throughout the series, Jackie balances her life as a mother, a wife and a nurse, all while struggling with addiction issues and an affair with the hospital’s pharmacist, Eddie (Paul Schulze). By the final season, Jackie is on thin ice. Adding to her stresses? All Saints is sold at the start of season 7, and the new owners plan on shutting the hospital down.

So, what happens during the series finale? Here’s everything to know about the Nurse Jackie ending.

Warning: Nurse Jackie spoilers ahead! 

What happens leading up to the Nurse Jackie finale? 

As the series comes to a close, all the doctors and nurses at All Saints prepare for the hospital’s closure, knowing that they’re just a few days away from losing their jobs. To commemorate the moment, Dr. O’Hara (Eve Best), who moved back to England at the end of season 5, returns to pay the hospital a visit. But after spending some time around Jackie, she recognizes signs of addiction.

Meanwhile, Eddie — who is now working as a pharmaceutical sales rep — gets approached by the company he works for. His bosses reveal that they’ve noticed hundreds of pill samples he’s requested are seemingly unaccounted for. They subtly let Eddie know they need to see proper paperwork immediately, or he can anticipate prosecution. 

Does All Saints shut down? 

The series’ last episode takes place on All Saints’ final day of operation. Jackie has been offered a nursing job at another hospital, and she asks her friend and protégé Zoey (Wever) if she wants to come with her. But Zoey turns down the offer.

“I need to move on, and I need you to let me,” she tells Jackie. “I need to go out there and make my own mistakes … that have nothing to do with you.”

Then, Eddie lets Jackie know that the pharmaceutical company has video evidence of him selling samples to a pill mill. He lets her know that he’ll probably spend the next year in prison, but that he still loves her.

In All Saints’ final moments of being operational, a man who is addicted to heroin arrives after being chased down by his dealer at gunpoint. Jackie personally cleans his wounds and gets him prepped to be transferred to another hospital with the rest of the remaining patients.

As the paramedics start to load the patient into the ambulance to be transferred, Jackie approaches him with a bag, which contains everything he had when he entered the hospital.

“I don’t want any of that s—,” he tells her.

After the patient leaves, the hospital’s doors are locked, and All Saints is officially decommissioned. 

How does Nurse Jackie end? 

After the doors to All Saints are closed and locked, the staff has a party to celebrate. But while everyone else parties, Jackie is riddled with grief. In one day, she’s lost her boyfriend Eddie, her best friend Zoey and the hospital where she’s worked for over a decade.

Jackie goes into a bathroom and rummages through the belongings left behind by the patient she just treated. Inside, she finds three bags of heroin and snorts them all. Jackie then leaves the bathroom and walks out into the streets of Manhattan. As the scene progresses, it turns into a sunlit fairytale, feeling almost too perfect to be real. Then, audiences hear Zoey’s voice saying, “Jackie?”

The scene cuts to Jackie lying on the floor of All Saints with Zoey kneeling over her. The doctors and nurses gather around and try to bring her back from what is likely a serious overdose.

“You’re good, Jackie, you’re good,” Zoey says, trying to bring Jackie back to consciousness. As the camera pans up before cutting to black, Jackie opens her eyes, but she’s heavily convulsing, leaving her fate ambiguous.

Does Jackie live at the end of Nurse Jackie? 

After the episode aired, Wever told The New York Times that she doesn’t think Jackie survived the finale.

“In my mind, Jackie doesn’t make it. I think the ending is honest,” she said. “And I’m glad that it’s not my responsibility to figure out what happens after the lights go out.”

In June 2015, showrunner Clyde Phillips told Entertainment Weekly that the team “wanted the ending to be authentic and controversial.”

“I personally did not want a happy ending, nor did Edie,” he added.

In the Entertainment Weekly interview, Phillips admitted that the ending’s mystery is on purpose, saying he wanted the finale to be “ambiguous and inspiring.” He continued, “When the credits rolled, I wanted people to lean forward and talk about what they just saw.”

Will there be a Nurse Jackie spinoff? 

In May 2024, it was announced that Nurse Jackie would be receiving a sequel series and that (spoiler alert!) Falco is set to reprise her role — meaning that Jackie does indeed survive her overdose in the finale. According to Variety, the series picks up 10 years later and follows Jackie, who has now lost her nursing license.

“The continuation of her story will find her facing new dilemmas in trying to be good in a world where being bad is often not only easier, but a lot more fun,” the show’s official tagline states, per the outlet.

However, in August of that year, IndieWire asked Falco directly if “the ball is still actively in motion for the series,” to which she responded, “No, not really.”

Falco continued, saying, “Right now, a lot of phone calls and Zooms with people. Everyone’s excited but, like, you know, they give me a script and I do my job. What goes on before then, I completely don’t understand, and that’s what’s going on right now.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.