New Amsterdam pulled out all the stops to wrap the first half of Season 4 by delivering not just one cliffhanger, but multiple for several different characters! The biggest twist is undoubtedly Max deciding to leave for London and leaving the hospital in the hands of Dr. Fuentes after her takeover. It was a happy ending to 2021 for Max and Helen, but not so happy for everybody they left behind. Fortunately, showrunner David Schulner and star Jocko Sims spoke with CinemaBlend to preview what’s in store with Season 4 in 2022.
The show will return on January 4 with an episode called “Talkin’ Bout a Revolution,” and will see Helen and Max settling into life in London much more happily than the doctors trying to settle into the new status quo under Dr. Fuentes. Her takeover will have some disastrous results, while Iggy works on finding employment for his psych patients, Bloom helps out a patient who believes he’s dealing with a curse, and almost certainly some fresh drama with Reynolds/Malvo/Baptiste triangle after the midseason finale baby bombshell.
Now, as “Talkin’ Bout a Revolution” approaches, check out a rundown what the showrunner and actor shared about the second half of Season 4 for the biggest twists after 2021!
Dr. Fuentes Has No Rival After Taking Over
Dr. Fuentes managed to clear a path to take power at New Amsterdam by making promises and winning votes from the board, and Max’s absence means that she’s unopposed in a way that she wasn’t before. Speaking with CinemaBlend, showrunner David Schulner revealed that for the second half of Season 4, she “has remade the whole hospital in her image. And our characters are suffering the worst of it, no doubt.” Unsurprisingly, she will use her position at the top of the power structure to run the hospital about as differently from Max “How Can I Help?” Goodwin. Schulner shed more light, saying:
She is running the hospital like a corporation. Which, spoiler alert, is how American healthcare is run. Like a corporation, with special interests, from the pharmaceutical companies and special interests from lobbyists. And what's great about what we're doing in London, is we're juxtaposing a corporate American health care system with a socialist one where healthcare is a human right. Where healthcare is a guarantee as opposed to crapshoot, and a winner-take-all wealthy elite system that we have here. Don't get me started. … What Veronica is doing is actually what happens when corporations determine your life, your health.
Fuentes began her process of running New Amsterdam like a corporation early in Season 4… as much as she could while Max was still around, at least, and he could only go so far in stopping her. Her arrival already resulted in the firings of Casey, Gladys, Agnes, and Baptiste, and it’s clear that her reign of terror has only just began. Jocko Sims weighed in on what the hospital looks like after she is able to run the hospital without opposition like Max or even Brantley:
The hospital is going to look quite different, starting with the firings, right? … So there's that. And, you know, it's not so much about how all she's changing the hospital, but it's also that void of our friend, our mentor, our leader, Max, and that is the biggest change in New Amsterdam of all. I mean, it just doesn't even feel the same.
Of course, none of this is to say that the hospital and characters will be unrecognizable when Season 4 picks back up. In fact, Jocko Sims previewed that it’ll be back to “business as usual,” but that doesn’t mean they’ll be happy to have Fuentes filling Max’s old role. The actor said:
it's business as usual to be quite honest. We have a great scene coming up with Michelle, where she's just stripping away some more stuff in a big scene that we're doing in the meeting. And we're fighting her on some of these things, and she's just shutting it down. She's just shutting it down. And yeah, we sort of come up with some idea momentarily for a coup. Will we be successful? Probably not.
Successful or not, the doctors who Max left behind at least considering an idea for a coup is a sign that they’re not beaten just yet. And in fact, the showrunner has revealed that there is a “spark of resistance” with the arrival of Dr. Wilder, played by Sandra Mae Frank and on board at New Amsterdam to fill Helen’s former spot as head of oncology. According to David Schulner, Wilder will “carry on Max's tradition as best she can.” Since she already made a good impression on the other doctors when she went the extra mile to save Guillaume, fans can probably look forward to what she brings in 2022!
Max And Helen Are Building A New Life Together
While the doctors back in New York may be suffering and struggling under Dr. Fuentes, Max and Helen are starting their new life together in London. They made the big move not too long after officially starting their relationship, and there were doubts up until the very last moments of the midseason finale as to whether or not he would actually go. Max passed what David Schulner described as the “final test” of leaving New York out of his love for her, but they’re not free of challenges just yet. The showrunner said:
Well, they have their own challenges in London. Just because they're following the joy doesn't mean it's going to be easy. They've got their own challenges. Sharpe with her mother, Max finding his footing in a new country, both as a father and as a doctor. So there's tons of challenges for them in London, but it's certainly joyous for them. It's certainly a lot of joy, even with the challenges that they have to face. And unfortunately, we juxtapose that joy in London with what's happening at New Amsterdam, which could not be worse.
The promo for the midseason premiere indicates that they’re enjoying quite the honeymoon period in London; with challenges on the way, will that last? The show clearly isn’t going to send Max back to New York by the end of the first episode of 2022, with this plan to juxtapose London with New Amsterdam. Whatever happens, hopefully Max and Helen just aren’t as miserable as seems likely for the friends they left behind!
Dr. Malvo Is Pregnant, But Who Is The Father?
Reynolds had his mind blown in the midseason when he learned just how much he’d volunteered for when he said he was up for “complicated.” Malvo is pregnant, which presents a whole slew of complications considering the polyamorous relationship. Either Reynolds or Baptiste is the father, but who? According to Jocko Sims, that question will be weighing heavily on both of their minds, and that may not be the best case scenario for Malvo. He said:
There will be a moment where Reynolds and Baptiste are very interested to know who the father is. And their desire to know this, it's gonna come with a little bit of repercussions. We tend to forget about Lyn and what she's going through in the pregnancy, as there might be some complications.
Sims also shared that he thinks Reynolds would be a great father and has “always wanted Reynolds to have kids,” but only time will tell if this is how it happens. Even if Baptiste is the father, Reynolds does truly love Malvo. Based on some comments from David Schulner, the course of love probably isn’t going to start running smoothly for Reynolds, whether or not he’s the father. He shared:
It's just so fun to shake Reynolds up, because he started the show so certain of what his life was going to be and so clear in his ambitions. And I love that about him so much. And I related to Reynolds so much. That's really how I viewed my life as well. So it's just really fun to take someone so certain, [laughs] and shake them up as much as possible. Kind of punish them for their lack of an open mind.
Well, Reynolds is going to open his mind even more in the second half of Season 4, depending on what Malvo wants for her pregnancy! His life is clearly going to be complicated on the personal and professional fronts, and he’s not the only one.
Bloom Misses Leyla, But What About Leyla?
Bloom crossed a line when it came to her relationship with Leyla back at the end of Season 3 when she more or less bribed the hospital to open up a fifth residency slot for her girlfriend in the ED, and it was only a matter of time before Leyla found out. She learned the truth when Reynolds accidentally tipped her off, and broke things off with Bloom in the midseason finale. The showrunner shared that he and the writers “hope” that their relationship can come back from this very low point, but there are some hurdles in the way. David Schulner broke it down:
Bloom has to pay for her actions. We can't let her off too easily. And if they do come back, it has to be hard-earned, and we're gonna put them through the wringer in the back half of the season and see if they come out the other side.
Fans shouldn’t count on this story getting resolution right at the beginning of 2022, either. According to the showrunner, Leyla isn’t sticking around in the aftermath of what she views as Bloom’s big betrayal:
Right now, because of what she found out, Leyla wants to get as far away from New Amsterdam as she can. And as much as we would like her to hang out with Reynolds, that character doesn't want to run into Bloom in the hallways, doesn't want to hear her name on rounds, doesn't want to see her name on the board, doesn't want to be paged down to the ED. So unfortunately, no. Leyla wants to get out of there as fast as she can.
So, no surgical residency with Leyla and Reynolds, despite Reynolds extending the invitation in the same conversation in which he accidentally tipped Leyla off! Jocko Sims is of the opinion that Reynolds isn’t to blame for Leyla finding out – after all, Reynolds himself doesn’t know – and he’ll end up as part of the storyline. The actor previewed:
[I]n the future episodes, you'll see Reynolds get kind of caught in the middle when Leyla goes MIA for a little while. And Bloom, she's not returning Bloom's calls as a result, but reaches out to me for some reason that you'll see. And I don't last ten seconds in front of Bloom, she reads my face. And she just knows. And I think that was just a great Reynolds/Bloom moment that we have coming up.
Leyla might be going MIA on Bloom, but evidently hasn’t entirely cut off contact with the doctors of New Amsterdam! A big question now is how much actress Shiva Kalaiselvan will appear in the rest of Season 4.
Iggy May Have Made A Mistake
Iggy has struggled to get by without Gladys on hand as his head nurse, and his choice of who to hire to replace her may turn out to be a big mistake. The new hire actually made a pass at Iggy during the interview, and Iggy was very flattered. By the end of the midseason finale, Iggy made the decision to hire him, which might not turn out to be the best idea. David Schulner teased:
The biggest thing now going forward for Iggy is that he made a pretty questionable decision by hiring Trevor as his head nurse. You know, I'll defend Iggy, I'll defend all the characters, to my grave. Trevor was the most qualified, and he was the only candidate that Iggy could afford with Veronica's budget cuts. So he was kind of perfect for the job, except for the fact that he made a questionable pass at Iggy in the interview. Other than that, Trevor's super qualified to do the job that he hired him for. Should Iggy have kept looking? Perhaps. Should he have told Martin? Perhaps.
Relationships rarely go too smoothly for too long on New Amsterdam, so maybe Iggy and Martin will be the next couple to hit some bumps in the road! Fortunately, the wait to find out what happens next for him and all the others is nearly over. New Amsterdam returns for the second half of Season 4 on Tuesday, January 4 at 10 p.m. ET on NBC, following the highly-anticipated return of This Is Us for its sixth and final season. For more of what’s on the way in the new year, check out our 2022 winter and spring premiere guide now!
