Spoilers for Season 2 of Nobody Wants Thisare ahead! Read with caution and stream the show with a Netflix subscription.
In Season 2 of Nobody Wants This, my fears from Season 1 came true… kind of. Throughout the season, Adam Brody’s Noah and Kristen Bell’s Joanne had to face the challenge of whether or not she’d convert to Judaism head-on. It was an inevitable hurdle they had to jump over after they decided to stay together last season, and they almost tumbled over it. The keyword is almost, though, because they decided to stay together in the final moments of the season, and that’s in part thanks to a conversation Joanne had with Esther.
So, when I had the opportunity to interview Jackie Tohn about this show ahead of its release on Netflix’s 2025 schedule, I had to ask her about the vital role her character Esther played in keeping Noah and Joanne together.
What Esther Told Joanne At The End Of Nobody Wants This Season 2
To recap, in the final episode of the season that just premiered on the 2025 TV schedule, the issue of whether Joanne will convert to Judaism hits a breaking point. Ultimately, that leads her and Noah to break up. Then, when she goes to the bathroom, she runs into Esther, and she starts listing all the things she’d miss about Judaism. In response, Jackie Tohn’s character says:
No, Joanne, I’m serious. I feel like you have this idea of being Jewish that’s so much more complicated than it actually is. I mean, you feel Jewish to me. You’re warm, you’re cozy. You always wanna chat about everything. You’d be a pretty good get for us.
Esther goes on to say that Joanne’s sense of humor and her tendency to overshare are Jewish. She also called her “a true kibitzer” and “yenta.” She then went on to name all the other things that make Joanne Jewish, like her being obsessed with her family and her eating challah early. It was a sweet and, more importantly, lightbulb moment.
As Esther said, “With or without Noah, you’re Jewish,” Joanne was coming to a realization. And that realization that she was ready to convert is what led her back to Noah.
What Jackie Tohn Told CinemaBlend About Esther And Joanne’s Scene And Her Personal Connection To It
There’s no question, Esther is one of the major reasons why Joanne came to this realization that she was ready to be Jewish. Therefore, she’s part of how Noah and Joanne got back together. When I asked Jackie Tohn about what that meant to Esther during an interview for CinemaBlend, she said:
Honestly, it probably meant more to Jackie than it did to Esther, because Esther is so in her own thing with Sasha at that moment. But she’s just, like, telling Joanne the truth and how she sees it. And because Esther is so no B.S., when she is giving it to you straight, and it’s gentle, and it’s so deeply true in the way that it is, you have no questions. You’re not like, ‘Oh, she’s lying to me, or she’s just saying that to make me feel better.’ You know, she’s not capable. She wouldn’t say a certain thing to make anyone feel better ever.
She’s right, Esther tells it like it is, and while she and Joanne were on better terms this season, they really aren’t that close. So, for her to so matter-of-factly tell Bell’s character that she’s become Jewish simply by falling in love with the little things about the religion while she was going through her own heartbreak with Sasha means the world.
However, it didn’t just mean the world on-screen. It was important to Tohn personally, too. The Jewish actress has been friends with Kristen Bell for decades, and to deliver this message to her was incredibly meaningful. Explaining why that was the case, the actress said:
And I think for Jackie, [it was] just so exciting to be myself and be such a kibitzer and such a yenta and a person who loves kugel so much, to be sitting in a scene – it’s meta – with my best friend, and being like, ‘You’re a kibitzer. You’re a yenta. You’re all these things that people –’…I don’t know if dream come true is the right thing, because I never even dreamed to have that because it’s so specific and special, but it really felt divine, of like, I have to call my mom and read these pages to her, she’s gonna plotz, and she did.
That’s so sweet! To be able to deliver such a heartfelt message to such a real close friend must have been wonderful, and Jackie Tohn made it clear that it was.
Now, I’ll be curious to see how this ending changes both Joanne and Noah’s relationship as well as Esther and Joanne’s friendship. However, we’ll have to wait and see when it comes to that. For now, I’ll just be basking in this sweet scene that helped lead Nobody Wants This’ two lovebirds back together.
