Croaklahoma

## Episode Chronology

**"Croaklahoma"** is the fifteenth episode of the first season on NBC drama series *New Amsterdam*. It was aired on March 5, 2019.

## Synopsis

Max finds it difficult to listen to his fellow chemo patients cracking jokes about their cancer and realizes that the reality of his diagnosis and prognosis has hit him hard and finds little humor. This spills over into the birthing class he attends with Georgia and also leads to him criticizing Dr. Sharpe after one of the chemo patients gets an infection. The Pope is at New Amsterdam giving a presentation and the staff butt heads with his staff and security. Dr. Kapoor and Dr. Frome are detained after their actions and comments are accidentally interpreted as death threats to the Pope. Dr. Reynolds and Max work to help a family that is struggling to pay for their son's anti-rejection medication after receiving a heart transplant. Dr. Sharpe finds herself overly involved with one of her patients after his legal guardian attempts to protect him from his girlfriend, whom the guardian believes does not have the patient's best interests at heart.

## Plot

Max sitting and joking around with the patients who are going through chemo with him. Max finds it hard to have a sense of humor like they do. Lauren is in her rehab program, where they ask her to talk about her friend, Floyd came to see her; but she isn’t ready to share anything.

At the hospital, Floyd comes to see Iggy who is on the phone discussing their daughter and how she needs to try new things. Floyd reveals he went to see Lauren and probably shouldn’t have done it since she wouldn’t even look at him and made him leave. Iggy says he invaded her privacy and made that environment toxic. Iggy is more concerned about Lauren than Floyd, not willing to coddle him. Floyd rushes off to the ED, where Jimmy arrives with his parents, he had a recent heart transplant. They need to figure out why his body is rejecting the transplant.

Helen finds an elderly couple heavily kissing in her office. She interrupts them to find that her patient was originally at Baptist Hospital, where he was receiving chemotherapy. He is there to get the shunt removed as he no longer wants to receive the medication. He knows the medication could be prolonging his life but it is not living. Helen says the chemo is vital in treating the disease, but he asks if she has been in love and wouldn’t she do anything to have a little bit more of it.

Max meets with Dora, who is going over his schedule; but he is more concerned about whether he has a sense of humor. She doesn’t find him funny as he tries to explain that he doesn’t find joking about death really funny. Max arrives in his office and finds a Bishop and two agents from the SS; they tell him the Pope is doing a presentation and they need to secure his Presidential Bay in case of an emergency; they also need the surrounding floors. Max doesn’t like that they need the surrounding floors as this is a working hospital, but they tell him no one will notice they are there.

Helen is about to schedule Mr. Brant’s procedure when his legal guardian shows up with the police and escort Sheila out of the room; once she is gone, Helen is informed that Sheila kidnapped him. Max returns to his office, learning that Vijay Kapoor threatened the Pope. Max immediately goes to see Kapoor who says he love the Pope and only gave a gift of petals, but they turned out to be poisonous. The SS agent receives a message, revealing Kapoor’s background check came back clear and now they have to wait to see if he can go back to work, but he blabs about what he would have really used to kill the Pope. Max tells Kapoor he is on his own and leaves the office.

Floyd informs Jimmy’s parents that his body is rejecting the new heart. He gave him medication that will treat this episode, but he needs to figure out why it happened in the first place. When asked if there was anything out of the ordinary, his mother reveals the insurance paid for the transplant but didn’t cover the medications which are over $9,000 a month so they had to start spreading out the pills to make them last. Floyd reveals that is what made him sick so they have to make sure it won’t happen again. They fret that they cannot afford the pills and ask what they are supposed to do.

Helen sits with Walter’s guardian, who is trying to stop him from this happening. He was given this case because his medical proxy was falling asleep at the wheel. Helen says they need to respect his wishes but he tells Helen he knows Walter is a pain in the butt but she has to follow his wishes and keep Walter alive. Helen stands with Walter, who says this is his idea and doesn’t have a lot of time on Earth and the law won’t let him live the way he wants to. Helen tells him there might be a way to get the law on their side.

Floyd tells Max about Jimmy’s situation, as Max says they can help in the short term; but Max has an idea. Max and Floyd tells the parents to file for divorce, because then she would qualify for Medicaid. Max admits the system is flawed but they need to divorce to save their son!

Helen and Max rush over to the cancer ward, where one of the patients has collapsed. Helen gives Max a minute to think about what he said when he berates Helen for letting her leave while being sick; Max is reminded he is a patient there, not a doctor! Helen tells Max that she is stable, but he is angry that she would call sepsis a set back; revealing she was laughing that morning in chemo and at that time he could have done something. Helen says she was laughing because of her symptoms, not at them – there is a difference.

Kapoor sits with the Agent, who says once he scans his email, he will be able to let him go. Kapoor says he thought email was a passing trend and never used it. Iggy barges in, saying he warned him not to do it, which peaks the Agent’s interest. He tells Iggy to take a seat because he knew about this stunt and didn’t report it; Kapoor asks Iggy if he know his password.

Max is trying to get to Georgia’s birthing class but the agent won’t let him take the shortcut; he even tries to use his cancer, to no avail. He ends up taking several flights of stairs. Meanwhile, Helen sides with Walter and Sheila in the courtroom, she knows love won’t cure Walter, but it will heal him. His guardian says the decision to deem him incompetent was not chosen lightly. He believes Walter is a danger to himself and to others, which worries Helen.

Jimmy’s parents watch over him when Floyd returns, checking in. They feel their marriage is a real promise and forever. He refuses to abandon his family and they would lose their community and couldn't have mass at church anymore. Floyd questions if their son’s life is worth more. Floyd reminds them Jimmy will be on meds for the rest of his life; they reluctantly agree to divorce for their son, but he hears them and cries.

Max and Georgia attend birthing class as she tells Max if this is too much, they can stop. Max stops them from doing foot massages, taking about all the things that could go wrong during labo0r. He apologizes as Georgia looks embarrassed.

Floyd says they are going to send Jimmy home with enough meds until the Medicaid kicks in; but when they return to his room, Jimmy is gone and there is a note that says “No Divorce!” Max doesn’t think sepsis and a missing sick child should be missing in this hospital. They are stopped by the SS agents, who reveal what they have actually seen; Max says since the Pope probably isn’t coming, maybe they could help in another way and a search begins with K9s.

Iggy is getting upset that he can’t leave on the sleep over with is daughter because of this thing with the Pope. Kapoor offers him tea, talking about how the Museum of Natural History is creepy at night. The Agent and Kapoor seem to agree on this, but suddenly the agent complains about pain in his leg, which makes Kapoor realize it is from his weapon that is resting on his nerve, suggesting he switch to a shorter holster. Iggy wonders if the SS hires a lot of agents with nerve disorders?

The Judge tells Walter that she believes in love, but love doesn’t change the law. His guardian is to stay in place since Helen doesn’t have anything else to add. Helen is disappointed as Walter reluctantly leaves with his guardian who wants to get him home. Outside the courtroom, Walter finds Jimmy hiding under the bench, saying if he could get back up, he would join him under there. Jimmy reveals he is mad at them, as Walter says he is mad at authority figures too; both wishing they were the opposite age.

Jimmy’s parents gratefully reunite with him, as they reaffirm their love for each other, and won’t live in different houses. He thinks they will go to hell as divorce is a sin, but his mom says sinning isn’t cool. Jimmy worries that they will go to hell and he will go to heaven and he won’t be with them forever. Floyd and Max witness the exchange.

Max sees Georgia in his office who says they were not kicked out of class as she wants to know what is going on. Max wants to go back to work, but says foot massages, standing squats and changing doll diapers is way off. He feels she should focus on getting ready; just in case he isn’t there. He might not be able to carry her weight or bring her ice chips, or he might not be there at all. She reminds him that she thinks about it every day, but not about labor and death rates. She looks around at everything she has and focuses on that and if it goes, then it goes; but it isn’t gone yet. She grabs his face, telling him he isn’t gone yet!

Helen walks in to see Max leaning over his chemo patient. Helen calls her a “tough cookie.” She talks about how they used to name their tumors, but Max still can’t find the humor in it. Helen tells him he would be brought of her for pulling a “Max.” She doesn’t feel good about it since it didn’t work out. Walter’s guardian interrupts them, saying they need to discuss his next steps. They have to get Walter back to his hospital, which he gets the wrong name. Helen catches that, as he admits he has at least 10 cases, and people like Walter require more attention and care. They both observe Sheila taking care of him, giving Helen an idea.

They return to court where the guardian wants to give Walter’s guardianship to his wife; the judge didn’t know he was married, so Helen says that is the one condition. Everyone smiles.

Max walks out the Cardinal, who asks if there is anything he can do to express his gratitude for everything they have done. Jimmy meets with the Cardinal, who says he spoke to the Pope about their predicament and the Pope says, “it’s cool!” causing both Max and Floyd to nod towards each other. Iggy is told by his husband that their daughter doesn’t want to go on the sleepover. She tells him the museum is scary and only wanted to go because he wanted to. He explains that he only wanted to share his favorite things with her being her dad, but he sometimes isn’t the best listener and apologizes that she doesn’t always get the best of him; they share a family hug.

At the evening rehab meeting they are about to finish when Lauren says she messed up. She was in trouble and instead of asking for help, she pushed everyone away and felt she didn’t have any friends left. She ruined all her relationships and was wondering why she should even bother recovering. She didn’t have anything to go back to, but the other night a friend came and she is grateful that he did.

Floyd scrubs in for surgery as Helen attempts to write a letter to Lauren. Kapoor continues to work on his password for the email, it turns out to be his son’s name. Iggy has a sleepover with his daughter at home, thoroughly enjoying it.

Max goes to chemo, where everyone is somber because their friend wasn’t there but she slowly walks in and cracks a joke. They say she scared them and Max cracks a joke, saying “for a minute there they thought she was Croaklahoma!” Everyone laughs and the jokes begin again, with Max right in the middle of it, fitting right in; laughing with the rest of them.

## Cast

* Janet Montgomery as Dr. Lauren Bloom
* Freema Agyeman as Dr. Helen Sharpe
* Jocko Sims as Dr. Floyd Reynolds
* Tyler Labine as Dr. Iggy Frome
* Anupam Kher as Dr. Vijay Kapoor

Guest Starring* Zabryna Guevara as Dora Williams
* Lisa O'Hare as Georgia Goodwin
* Mike Doyle as Martin McIntyre
* Nana Mensah as Dr. Camila Candelario
* Michelle Federer as Millie Tamberlay
* Katie Lee Hill as Willow Yun
* Stacey Raymond as Paramedic Kerry Whitaker
* Em Grosland as Nurse Kai Brunstetter
* Aneesh Sheth as Lila
* LaRae Muscat as Sameera
* Frankie J. Alvarez as Carl Jimenez
* Dennis Flanagan as Neil Corrigan
* Cameron Mann as Jimmy Corrigan
* Alex Morf as Agent Hayes
* Arthur French as Walter Brandt
* Petronia Paley as Sheila
* Joseph Siravo as Cardinal Mancini
* Cindy Cheung as Judge Hayashi
* Brian Depetris as Andre
* Jimmy Gary Jr. as Big Mike Kiggens
* Damiyr Shuford as Agent Larson
* Sheila Tapia as Leah
* Tanya Thompson as NYPD Officer

## Multimedia

### Videos

New Amsterdam 1x15 Promo "Croaklahoma" (HD)