‘New Amsterdam’: Wilder Starts a Revolution, Plus Who Got Fired? (RECAP)

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for New Amsterdam Season 4 Episode 11 “Talkin’ Bout a Revolution.”]

New Amsterdam just isn’t the same without Dr. Max Goodwin (Ryan Eggold) and Dr. Helen Sharpe (Freema Agyeman), but at least we like the latter’s replacement. The new medical director, Dr. Veronica Fuentes (Michelle Forbes), on the other hand, gets right to work implementing new policies now that she’s the sole person in charge.

Also in the New Amsterdam winter premiere, Max and Helen adjust to life in London, and that’s not without its challenges. Plus, Dr. Lauren Bloom (Janet Montgomery) tries (and fails) to connect with Dr. Leyla Shinwari (Shiva Kalaiselvan) after she found out about the donation that opened up a fifth residency spot, but at least her personal life is nowhere near as complicated as Dr. Floyd Reynolds’ (Jocko Sims) with Dr. Lyn Malvo (Frances Turner) pregnant. Oh, and Dr. Iggy Frome (Tyler Labine) continues to make bad decisions when it comes to his new assistant who hit on him during the interview, this time not telling him the sweater he compliments is from his husband.

Vive La Résistance!

Six weeks after Max left, the doctors are still trying to avoid Veronica, so she calls a department head meeting. It’s nowhere near as fun as Max’s introduction was in the series premiere, when he fired an entire department and asked how he could help everyone and patients. Instead, Veronica tells everyone about the changes she’s making to help the hospital. Iggy, Reynolds, and Bloom argue — “Solving the social ills of the world is not this hospital’s job, despite what your former boss might have said,” Veronica tells them — while Dr. Elizabeth Wilder (Sandra Mae Frank) agrees. And they find out that the budget squeezes in place are so the hospital could hire Dr. Mia Castries (Genevieve Angelson) as the chair of holistic medicine. (Yes, really.)

So when Wilder then summons them to the morgue, they’re not exactly open to listen. “We have a shared enemy who is too powerful to defeat separately. So we need to work together, in secret, to undermine her from within and make sure our patients get the care that they need and deserve starting ow. We are forming an insurrection. Vive la résistance,” she tries encouraging them. She’s letting Veronica think she’s on her side to lure her into a false sense of security. But no one’s in.

Will Hart/NBC

“What would Max do?” she asks. “You didn’t even know Max,” Bloom argues. “My last hospital was run by somebody just like Veronica. All they ever cared about was how many people did you cut? How much money did you make? Max reminded me that a hospital can be more than that. I can be more than that. I rearranged my entire life after knowing him for two weeks. You knew him for years. What did he do for you? What would Max want you to do right now?” Wilder protests. “But Max isn’t here, and he’s not coming back,” Iggy says.

But Wilder slowly gets them on board. When Veronica scraps Iggy’s vocational program, Wilder points out that his patients can be re-hired in their previous positions on their own. (Iggy even has the man who was the year-round Santa interview to be Veronica’s part-time assistant; she’s none the wiser.)

When Bloom’s patient, a guy who was hit by lightning, needs a simple procedure to remove a tumor, Veronica deems it elective. Bloom then turns to Wilder, who agrees to do the surgery — in secret, so Veronica doesn’t know. They take over the morgue, and it’s a success. But the patient credits Mia for getting rid of his curse, and she finds out about the surgery, so we have a feeling that might come back to bite Wilder and Bloom.

Will Hart/NBC

And so when the doctors meet in the morgue at the end of the episode, “this place feels like New Amsterdam again,” Iggy says. “For the first time since Max walked out. And it’s because of who walked in.”

Max Goodwin, Worst Receptionist Ever?

Meanwhile in London, at home, Max and Helen may be happy and in love and having fun moving in and painting and bringing Luna over, but it’s a different story at work. A month into working there, Helen’s trying to implement changes, but to her surprise the patient satisfaction surveys all have very low scores. Once she realizes why, however, she understands: Max, as he waits for his medical license to arrive so he can practice in the UK, is acting as the receptionist and doing his whole “how can I help?” thing. Needless to say, the line is long.

With an NHS exec who controls funding coming in to discuss her new initiatives, Helen needs Max to speed things up. “For you, my love, I will answer the phone when it rings,” he promises, kissing her hand. It’s a sweet sentiment (as is his “my doctor was everything” when discussing his cancer)… if only he didn’t accidentally start a revolution in the waiting room. As he explains to the patients, “my main gig is fixing broken systems.” So it’s not good when the NHS exec (who has just called Helen’s proposed reforms “American,” and not as a compliment) walks in that everyone’s demanding the “American way.” Helen knows who’s responsible.

Will Hart/NBC

Once home, Max apologizes for starting a rebellion with a home-cooked meal. Helen knows that rebelling against the system is in his blood, but her funding’s been cut by 10 percent and all her reforms were repealed. He offers her some good news: He got his license, so he can help. “You’re fired,” she tells him. “I can’t hire you, and you are fired from being quite possibly the worst receptionist ever. Today I had to face the fact that my American fixes are not gonna work here. They’re not gonna work in this system. And that includes you. I know that you’re looking for something and I will do anything to help you find it, but I have to figure out Hampstead on my own. I need to make it work, on my own.”

Still, Max smiles, “because I am a terrible receptionist, really very bad at it. Also because I’m in awe of you and everything that you are.” But she’s worried that he’s going to hate it in London and regret the move. He assures her he won’t: “I love it here because I love you and you know, you’re here, so I love it here.”

Complications on Top of Complications

As if Reynolds, Lyn, and her husband Dr. Claude Baptiste’s (Andre Blake) situation wasn’t complicated enough — they have an open marriage — now there’s the matter of her pregnancy and paternity. Both men go for paternity tests, which then opens the door for them to start discussing what will happen when they know the identity of the father. There’s no shame in stepping away if the kid isn’t his, Baptiste tells Reynolds, who then throws that right back at him.

Related

'New Amsterdam' Boss Teases Wilder vs. Veronica & Everyone 'Chasing Joy'

At first, Lyn only knows about her husband’s test. When she finds out Reynolds had one, too, she reminds him he said he was in for complicated. But before they can finish their conversation, she realizes something’s wrong: She’s in pain, and she thinks she’s spotting. When the men hover at her hospital bedside, however, she kicks them out of the room.

After Lyn and the fetus are both stable, they’re allowed back in and apologize to her. This is bringing up a lot of insecurities, Baptiste admits, and Reynolds agrees. They told the lab to destroy the samples after realizing they’d gotten so wrapped up in that test and forgot to ask about the one that mattered. The baby’s OK, she tells them, but she pulls away when Baptiste reaches for her hand. Lyn wants to know who the father is, too, she tells them, but they don’t need a DNA test to know if someone’s a father. “He’s the guy that doesn’t have to think twice about showing up,” she explains. “I wanted us to be better than this.” Uh-oh.

New Amsterdam, Tuesdays, 10/9c, NBC