When The Bold Type returns for its fifth and final season, the relationship status of Sutton (Meghann Fahy) and Richard (Sam Page) will most definitely be complicated.
Last season, the two got married and, at the altar, decided to stay a bi-coastal couple for a bit longer after Sutton's much-deserved Scarlet promotion. Soon after, she threw up in a planter and learned she was pregnant, only to suffer an early miscarriage. The experience led her to realize that she didn't want to have kids, a crushing blow to Richard who wants nothing more than to one day be a dad. The Bold Type's resident couple has always found a way to make it work, but this time, they just couldn't find common ground. Richard leaves and Sutton wonders if he'll ever come back, going as far as to take off her wedding ring in the season 4 finale.
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So will Richard return for the final season? The answer is yes, Page will appear in season 5. (He pops up in this season's trailer to tell her he misses her.) Will Richard and Sutton get back together? Well, we'll have to wait and see the final six episodes to know that. As fans wait, it's worth asking should Sutton and Richard stay together?
The co-workers turned May-December lovers (he's 15 years her senior) have been the rare Bold Type couple that has weathered the storm: office romance, unequal power dynamics, age differences, working-class resentment, daddy (and mommy) issues, long distance relationships, and fears of losing one's independence. Actually, looking back, they weathered a hurricane not a storm and through it all, they found ways to compromise.
However, compromising when it comes to starting a family means someone loses. Either he won't get to be a father or she risks becoming an absent mom. Not to mention, either choice comes with a high risk of resentment, which might already be building. After learning that Sutton doesn't want kids, Richards tells her, in last season's penultimate episode, that he's always making concessions for her. That she's always choosing work or her friends Kat (Aisha Dee) and Jane (Katie Stevens) over him.
"I knew it on our wedding night, I knew that I was going to be the one who would always be adjusting," he tells her. Though, as she points out, he blew up their New York City life to follow his dreams to California. "So we can adjust for your job, but not mine? Cause yours is more important," she says tearfully.
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And neither is wrong. Their careers are important to them and that passion and drive is what they love and respect about the other. In recent seasons, they've made big decisions that prioritize their work over their relationship, causing the other to adjust their plans, their expectations. It's possible that right now their careers are the most important things in each of their lives and they can't be the best partners. That's hard to admit, but, in her vows, Sutton said Richard was "my truth and without truth I am nothing." In this case, the truth hurts because the real truth is, this fight isn't over their jobs, it's about them wanting entirely different things for their futures.
The Bold Type has never questioned the love Sutton and Richard share. In fact, their on-and-off romance has always been a huge part of the series, showcasing just how rewarding, and complicated monogamy can be. Especially, when you're young and trying to establish some kind of work-life balance.
Sutton is only 26 years old and is still very much finding herself. When we first met her, she was worried she'd become her estranged mom, who struggled with alcoholism and often left her to fend for herself. With Richard's support (along with her besties) she learned to trust herself and others. She found confidence in her abilities as a stylist and comfort in the support he gave her. In him, the self-sufficient Sutton found a sense of family and security, but maybe she's become too reliant on Richard. "I don't know who I am without him," she tells her friends in the finale.
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Sutton doesn't seem to know what she wants yet. No surprise, since she's still under 30, but it feels like it's time for her to figure out who she wants to be — with or without Richard. She's not her mother, but she's certainly more than his wife. In this final season, she should take the opportunity to find herself and to do that, she needs to be on her own.
This is not to say she has to get a divorce, but time away from her new husband offers her a chance to prioritize things. Sutton needs time to figure out, on her own, what it is she really wants for the future. Maybe, in the end, it will be Richard. After all, The Bold Type's showrunner Wendy Straker Hauser told TVLine, “We love Sutton and Richard. They haven’t hit real, huge roadblocks before. I’m hopeful that they’ll get to know themselves better, and we’ll see. I certainly don’t think the door is closed forever.”
But maybe it's one of those, "When God closes a door, he opens a window" situations. The Bold Type has never been afraid to show the messy parts of growing up. Sutton deciding whether or not to get a divorce feels like a topic worth diving into. As does why Sutton doesn't want to start a family with Richard.
Sutton certainly doesn't have to justify her decision, but Fahy told Variety that she "think[s] there are a lot of reasons why" she might not want kids. "I don’t totally feel that she has explored all of that within herself," she continued. "Maybe she’ll do that and not change her mind, or maybe she’ll do that and change her mind." Either way, we know Sutton's friends with be there to help her take that next step.