Spoilers ahead for the last two episodes of New Amsterdam on NBC, called “Right Place” and “How Can I Help?”
New Amsterdam has officially come to an end, fittingly with an episode titled “How Can I Help?” and featuring the doctors coming together and pulling out all the stops to save a mother's life. They pulled the nearly impossible surgery off, at the cost of Max not being able to take Luna to the mermaid parade before they moved to Geneva for him to take a job with the World Health Organization. The series didn’t end with Max asking a whole new crowd how he can help, but there was a Goodwin making a speech: a surprise flash-forward revealed adult Luna as the new medical director at New Amsterdam!
Executive producers David Schulner and Peter Horton spoke with CinemaBlend about the surprise ending, and a Max moment that didn’t make the cut for the finale. Young Luna spent most of the episode upset with her dad for not taking her to the mermaid parade, until he finally explained that everybody had to come together to save somebody’s mom. He promised that she’d never remember this day anyway, but that wasn’t the case after all. It would be the day that she realized she wanted to be a doctor, leading to a final scene of a grown up Luna taking her father’s former place as medical director.
David Schulner – who also co-wrote the series finale – opened up about how the show landed on the adult Luna reveal as the end, saying:
Before we started Season 5, we knew it was going to be our last season, which is a gift and a curse, right? You don't want to be cancelled, but the best way to be cancelled is to know it and be able to plan for it. So my 11-year-old daughter at breakfast one morning, said 'What if Luna came back as the medical director when she was older?' And I was like, 'Okay, 11-year-old girl, leave the writing to me, please.’ I was like, 'Not going to happen, but thank you for your time.'
New Amsterdam was officially cancelled back in March 2022, while Season 4 was still airing. The silver lining was that there was still one full (albeit shorter than usual) season left, with thirteen episodes to build up to the end. Apparently, the first person to throw their support behind the adult Luna twist was none other than David Schulner’s daughter! As she wasn’t exactly a staff writer at the age of 11, Schulner wasn’t immediately on board, but she wasn’t the only one pitching this final scene. The EP continued:
Then a week later, one of our writers, Laura Valdivia, emailed me the exact same ending. And I was like, 'Okay, maybe I'll think about this now.' Then a week later, I was on set with [writer] Erika Green, and she was like, 'Call me crazy, but what if the ending of the show is Luna coming back as the medical director?' So over three weeks, three different people pitched me the same exact ending and I was like, 'I guess that's the ending!' [laughs] It was pulled out of the ether.
If three people independently came up with the same ending, how could the executive producers go with anything else? It’s no wonder that actor Jocko Sims described the series’ conclusion as “a wonderful ending that puts a nice, beautiful bow on this wonderful journey we’ve had.” Schulner went on:
It’s interesting because you end where you begin. We began with Max in that auditorium as the new medical director, and so it really did make sense to end with someone else taking over that job.
It was inevitable that New Amsterdam would need a new medical director after the reveal that Max was relocating to Geneva. Not many fans likely predicted that Max’s final scene would actually just be a quiet moment with his daughter, and she would ultimately get the last scene of the show. According to executive producer Peter Horton, Max’s final moment had to be about making a choice:
At the end, the woman he chose was his daughter. He's going off to be her dad, all of the ways that he knows he wants to be and needs to be for her. That's the choice.
While Max’s relationship with Wilder had been going well and he even got some degree of closure about his former romance with Helen, there was only one person who he could prioritize over everybody else: his daughter. The finale ended before revealing what their life is like after they leave New York, but I like to imagine that it has included at least one mermaid parade.
Of course, Max’s final scene with Wilder left the door open for him to potentially return someday, and there were no hard feelings that he was leaving. Whether he actually ever did is a blank that New Amsterdam just didn’t fill in. When I asked the executive producers if there was an answer as to whether or not he came back, David Schulner said:
I know what I think. We actually shot an ending that pointed the arrow more directly at one conclusion or the other, but it's so much better with the audience being able to participate in it.
There was an ending that would have shed some more light on Max’s future beyond his departure from New Amsterdam as medical director, but was ultimately cut. According to Schulner, letting viewers imagine their own scenario works better than giving a hard answer one way or the other. Peter Horton shared another perk of not definitively answering every single question:
It's also a little subtle message to the network, if you ever want to bring it back. [laughs]
New Amsterdam had happy endings to go around with the series finale. Gabrielle decided to stay in New York with Reynolds, and fans got to see a glimpse of the whole family gathered together, looking much happier than in the earlier flashback. Iggy and Martin remarried each other, fulfilling Tyler Labine’s high hopes for their relationship. Bloom reunited with her sister at an NA meeting after getting a clearer picture of the new life (and new apartment) that she wants to build for herself. Even Daniel Dae Kim turned up one last time as Dr. Cassian Shin!
Wilder’s future was a little less clear, but she seemed more or less at peace with Max’s decision. Plus, even though there wasn’t enough time for the show to reveal much about adult Luna, I think it’s safe to say that she’s not going to be a medical director like Veronica Fuentes in Season 4.
As for whether New Amsterdam will ever return to NBC… well, fans can always hope. Ryan Eggold has already landed a new TV show, so he won’t be absent from the small screen for too long. Whether or not you’re happy with the ending, you can revisit the full run of New Amsterdam streaming with a Peacock Premium subscription, and find some new viewing options on our 2023 TV premiere schedule.
