![[Spoiler Alert] Season Seven Finale Breakdown of The Chi’s Yolanda Ross Heartbreaking Exit](https://television-b26f.kxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-04-at-5.36.06 PM-770x470.png)
![[Spoiler Alert] Season Seven Finale Breakdown of The Chi’s Yolanda Ross Heartbreaking Exit](https://television-b26f.kxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-04-at-5.36.06 PM-770x470.png)
Jada’s story came to a bittersweet end, in the Season Seven finale of The Chi, after a battle with cancer. It was difficult for viewers to watch, and even more tough for Yolanda Ross (Absolution, Stranger Inside) to play her character, according to TVLine.
Over the past few years, since the Paramount+ With Showtime drama premiered in 2018, Ross has portrayed single mom/community stalwart Jada Washington, TVLine states. The ending of this story brought forth many emotions, Ross says, but while on set, she tried to focus her attention on getting Jada’s final scenes right.
“I feel like I was nostalgic [when I was] alone,” she told TVLine. “When I was at work, I felt like, ‘Yeah, let’s just get through this, ’cause I don’t want to wallow in it.” She laughs. “Because there’s already, like, episodes full of sadness! And then to add to it any personal stuff? I didn’t feel like doing that.”
Jada’s death was not the only fatality in the finale, as Lynn Whitfield (Greenleaf, Eve’s Bayou)’s Alicia passed away when Roselyn resurfaced and sought revenge for Douda’s murder in the previous season. Other events within the episode included Tiff delivering her baby, Rob Jr., in a broken elevator with the help of Victor; and Keisha had a daughter, named Jada by herself and Emmett, in a planned home birth. Even though Jada’s health started to fade at the start of the hour, she tried to gather the strength to go to Keisha and Emmett’s to meet her new granddaughter. She died at the end of the episode, surrounded by Darnell, Keisha, Emmett, and the baby, TVLine notes.
TVLine spoke to Ross before the finale started streaming. Read on to hear her thoughts on her character’s exit and long-term legacy.
TVLine asked Ross what it was like when Jacob Latimore (Sleight, House Party) gave Emmett’s speech and then lost it.
Ross responded, via TVLine, “I mean, I can’t. We all lost it. [Laughs] It was hard. It’s funny. The room was set up, andI had never been on that stage. I know my house. I know Emmett’s house. My character doesn’t move around into other people’s zones. So I didn’t even know whose place this was that I walked into. It was all dressed with pictures of us through the years and all that. It’s a weird feeling, walking into something like that and then seeing characters that you’ve seen on TV but you never had scenes with. [Laughs]”
She tells TVLine, “When Jacob went up, I was holding it together, but he was choking up early, and it was like oh man. He came over and hugged me, and that’s it. You don’t really see it so much in the episode, but we were a mess after that. I think they tried to clean us up and do it again, but I don’t think it ended up getting done again.”
Read the rest of the interview on TVLine.