Josephine Jobert’s DS Florence Cassell officially left Death in Paradise in season 11, after she had initially left in season eight of the series.
Death in Paradise season 11 marked the mid-season departure of beloved character, DS Florence Cassell, from the islands of St. Marie.
The surprising exit left many wondering if this was the last time they would see Josephine Jobert reprise her role in the show. This is because this is not the first time that Jobert has left her role, following the eight season finale.
But Jobert came back at the request of the show creators and as a responsibility to fans to see the conclusive ending of her love story with Ralf Little’s character, DI Neville Parker, which concluded indefinitely before her exit.
When did Florence first leave?
Josephine Jobert’s initial intention was to leave her role as DS Florence Cassell in the eighth season of Death in Paradise, which aired between January 2019 and February 2019.
The story provided the perfect departure for the character as in the season, she lost her fiancé, Patrice Campbell, while she herself narrowly escaped death.
The trauma of losing Patrice along with coming to terms with her own near-death experience had caused her to leave St. Marie’s to seek a place to heal that was away from all the surroundings that reminded her of all that she had lost.
When did Florence leave Death in Paradise?
While Josephine Jobert may have initially left during the season eight finale, her exit was temporary as she returned to the series in 2021 in the tenth season of the series.
It seemed that the decision to return was at the behest of the creators and writers of the series, who believed that Jobert’s character still had a lot to offer in the narrative.
This proved to be true, as fans of the series were enthralled to watch the developing love between Florence and DI Neville Parker, since in the season before the final episode, Neville had been open about his feelings for Florence.
But the season ended with a cliffhanger as Neville never got to share his feelings for Florence with her.
It was this open-endedness of the tenth season that resulted in Jobert making the decision to return for a final act on Death in Paradise to conclusively complete the love story arc between Florence and Neville.
As such, by the time the fourth episode of season 11 came around and Florence bid farewell to St. Marie, the love story between herself and Neville had concluded after a brief romance, which ended when Florence believed that they were better as best as friends instead of being romantically involved.
Why did Florence leave Death in Paradise?
In the story, Death in Paradise provided a four-episode story arc that resulted in Florence needing to leave St. Marie in an effort to protect herself.
This is as at the beginning of the story arc, Florence took a dangerous undercover job to investigate Miranda Priestley, who was believed to be operating a criminal operation in the Caribbean.
Initially sent to Jamaica, fate had Miranda come to St. Marie, which risked Florence being identified. However, she still continued her undercover work as an au pair.
It was when she found the evidence that Priestley was behind her own mother’s death that the two had a showdown, and while both survived, Florence’s life was in danger, and she had to leave St. Marie for her own safety.
Why did Josephine Jobert leave Death in Paradise?
Josephine Jobert has asserted that the reason she wanted to leave Death in Paradise is the same as when she made her intentions clear before her initial exit in season eight. At the time, she had been with the series for five years, having joined in 2015.
At the time of her most recent exit, she had been part of the series for seven years and she explained to publication Hello at the time, “… I knew it would be just four episodes, to finish the story between the two characters and to be fair to the audience and respect them and that they follow the series… I couldn’t just leave like that!”
Death in Paradise: Will Florence return?
As a beloved character, DS Florence Cassell, played by Josephine Jobert, will be a welcome return to St. Marie, especially as the creators and writers of the series still did not kill her off in her most recent and indefinite mid-season 11 exit.
This has left room for her possible return in the future. Jobert shared that this decision was intentional, and although she is not planning on returning anytime soon, she did confirm with Hello that, “Maybe for a special episode, why not!”