Seed Money

## Episode Chronology

**"Seed Money"** is the fourth episode of the fourth season on NBC drama series *New Amsterdam*, and the fifty-eighth episode overall. It aired on October 12, 2021.

## Synopsis

Max struggles with a new fiscal reality at the hospital. Dr. Sharpe is on a mission to provide follow-up cancer screenings for patients before it's too late. Bloom grapples with Dr. Shinwari's new overnight schedule. Reynolds has an interesting conversation with Dr. Malvo about their future.

## Plot

Max chases after Karen, begging her not to hire Dr. Veronica Fuentes as the new medical director of New Amsterdam. He feels she is ruthless, money motivated and lacks the “new Amsterdam” spirit. Max is not impressed that Veronica has rearranged his office as Karen demands him to take the next 5 weeks, training her but Max insists this is not going to work. Karen shows them a generous donation from longtime owners, that is worth 10 million dollars and she wants them to agree on how to use it.

Lauren brings Leyla at the coffee and bagel into the linen closet but finds Dr. Mark Walsh in there instead. She somberly eats the bagel as she walks into the ED, rearranging the schedule, having Leyla replace Mark. Meanwhile, outside, Floyd is at the coffee truck with Lyn, him joking to the woman serving them that she is not his wife but his lover in a polyamorous. He kisses Lyn as he says he cannot help people see their vibe.

Max speaks to Helen, complaining that he is stuck being “attached at the hip” to Veronica and all he sees is Veronica Fuentes as “corporate shill” in the dictionary. Helen feels she is cagey but she is getting things done; mocking Max about her getting under his skin as he worries he only has 5 weeks to leave his mark on the hospital. Helen gives him a kiss as she explains that she is making sure everything is in tip top shape for the oncology department and rushes off; leaving Max frustrated.

Lauren pulls Dr. Iggy, discussing how her relationship with Leyla is driving her insane as she needs her. Iggy questions her about her mannerisms with Leyla, reminding her of the slippery slope she is going down as Lauren admits she is making Leyla her new drug. He pushes her to hash it out with her sponsor and focus on her triggers. She thanks him, saying he still has it if he wants to get back into the saddle.

Helen is shocked to discover when she meets with a coworker who has been working in oncology for 15 years and has been ignoring her letter that encourages her to get scans on her breasts due to dense tissue; there are boxes of “patients” who have received these letters that the hospital has not followed up on. Their files are left in “limbo land”.

Casey walks with Floyd, giving him the update on one of their newest ED patients, named Carrie, who is part of a gymnastic team. She is having a very painful abdomen and Floyd decides to take her for imaging, wondering if she has sickle cell disease, saying it is common among African Americans, but she stops him, insisting she is not black, causing him to look puzzled at the orderly.

Lauren and Max walk with Veronica while she apologizes for having her bounced out of the ED; both Max and Veronica disputing who should be spoken to about the funding; suddenly Iggy joins them, adding where he feels the money should go. Lyn and several other doctors come to and they are dropping ideas with Veronica as Max cuts them all off, reminding them they are doing it the New Amsterdam way and Veronica finishes his sentence saying it will be up to the community and where their needs need to be met. He mutters that is what he was going to say.

Max brings Iggy, Lauren, Veronica and Casey out to the community and says this land may be their project but the community is their focus and they need to find out what they need. Domino interrupts them, saying he is from the neighborhood and offers them all water. Max explains who they are as Domino says he has been in this area his whole life and whatever they need he can help.

Lauren speaks to people, finding they need safer places for kids and people to gather. Iggy meets with the pastor from the First Christian Church of the Vall and he learns they desperately want a homeless shelter as him and his wife were taking care of a fifth of the neighborhood. Casey helps at the laundromat where he is told there is a huge line up at the closest clinic and it is a disaster; he finds several of the people have a bad cough there. Max walks with Veronica as they find 3 Chicken Clucks in 5 blocks; him confronting her, saying he knows exactly who she is and she can’t fool him. Domino pulls out a chair for her as his friends tell them they need jobs, a gym as one jokes that they need a strip club. Domino tries to get Max a chair when he begins to limp and one of his friends reveal he has bad diabetes and his foot has been acting up for over a year. Max looks knowingly at Veronica.

Helen brings all the boxes into an office on a dolly asking Dr. Kepner if he has any idea if any of their patients have been sent a vague letter saying they have dense breast tissue and their mammogram might not be telling them the full story. Helen says radiology is going to send them a full letter explaining what it really means. He is all for it, saying that insurance will need to know it is a full diagnostic exam and insurance is required. Helen says sure, why draw a straight line when a crooked one is suffice?

In the OR, Floyd finds a belly full of pills and they determine that Carrie was attempting suicide; when her parents arrive they fight in front of the doctors and Carrie as Floyd knows this is a lot to digest but he thinks they need to have a psychiatric evaluation. Carrie says she was not trying to kill or hurt herself and Floyd says he wants to be believe her but this is not much to go on. She reveals the pills are “skin lighters” and she wanted them to work faster so she took a whole bunch. It is clear she wanted to look like her adopted parents who are Caucasian.

Back at the empty lot all the doctors are speaking at once to Veronica and Max about the needs of the community; Max deafeningly silent. Domino falls off his bike as he is riding past them, quickly Lauren and Max find his foot is badly infected and they are taking him to New Amsterdam. Max tells Veronica the place is filled with chronic illness because there is no healthy food options but Veronica thinks they cannot help that but he reveals they are going to build them a grocery store. She shakes her head as Iggy welcomes her to the New Amsterdam!

Veronica and Max bicker, him explaining how the government made it impossible for anyone but fast food joints to own any property in the area. She thinks putting a grocery store in an economically depressed area is the worst thing. He reveals this is going to be a non-profit store and this is not a joke, it is an opportunity to make a lasting difference in people’s lives. He says they are doing it. She stumps him and says they are not as he says, “watch me!”

Lauren attempts to clean Domino’s foot but she quickly tells Casey to get the surgeon. She informs Domino that they cannot save his foot and he is on his way to surgery where they are going to amputate it. He is very distraught, causing her to lean on the door for a brief moment before she orders FDNY to go get Domino’s bike and it better be in the ED by the time he wakes up. She is furious and orders her to go immediately.

Carrie’s parents tell her that her skin is beautiful and they have always told her that being adopted chose her for her who she is. When she is asked about where she got the pills, her sister says she probably got them on the internet; Floyd asks them to leave the room so he could do some tests. Once her parents leave, Floyd says he simply asked them to leave because it looked like she needed a break. He informs her that the way she is dealing with “race” he needs to still order a psych veal. She knows she is mixed race and that is why she looks the way she does.

She is tired of the way she looks only when it causes a problem, like when her family is together or when she is at dance. She explains when they were changing and forgot her leggings in the van, when she came back from getting them one of the judges stopped her and there was no way she could be with the dancing club. Her coach came out later and was mad at Carrie for taking so long and the lady only made a mistake and it was no big deal but it felt like one to her and she simply wants to be like everyone else in her family.

Helen is pushing the boxes, when one falls. She laments that she is concerned about her legacy. She talks about her best thing about Max is how things roll right off him and he carries on. Iggy reminds her that in order for her to find out what she could have been if she wasn’t so terrified of the powers that be would object, she needs to be that person who truly wants that legacy. She jumps up and tells Iggy, “it is time to make a big messy mess!” leaving him to clean up the files on the floor.

Karen is objecting to Max’s idea, leaving him stomped in the hallway as she tells him there will be no new hires, no new projects and no grocery stores!

Lauren calls Leyla, saying she saw the census from the ED last night and she is calling because she missed her. She admits she misses the smell of her fresh out of the shower but before she can continue the message hangs up but she continues, saying she can’t stand being away from her. Lauren looks out at the ED.

Iggy stops Floyd who is destroying one of the vending machines, explaining to Iggy about Carrie’s situation. Iggy reminds him that she is only 13 years old as Floyd is only putting his life experiences onto hers but this is her journey and this is about her own struggle and boundary testing. She knows there is a difference in the skin color, explaining that she needs to be around another person of color who can understand what she is going through and shares experiences but not him. Floyd feels his brother and walks off as Iggy offers more help.

Admin is swamped with women as Helen calls for their attention, explaining that she will tell them the breast screening to each of them in detail; Karen pulls her away, demanding to talk. She is furious that Helen would email every one of these women saying they may not have cancer. Karen says they are not equipped to do this as Helen says they need to outsource this and Helen feels they need to send out scan vans, no waiting, no extra charge. Karen feels this is very “Max” of her as Helen thinks she can get this rolling before she leaves and hopes her successor can continue this as a priority. Karen just looks at her, suggesting she just accepts more losses than wins, leaving Helen in tears.

Veronica returns to the office, finding Max sitting is his chair, but the desk is still on her side of the office. She says she got hired because she doesn’t build grocery stores and right now New Amsterdam is running a deficit of $21 Million per quarter. She feels everything he has been doing for everyone else has been under servicing his white patients but there is so many things he can do as he feels if it is only money she cares about she should make the hospital private and close the doors for anyone who cannot afford it.

Max learns she has an offer for the property there from Chicken Cluck as they want to build a factory on the lot. He insists he will not allow that to happen but she slyly informs him that she won’t need his consent and she will simply wait him out and then undo every program he has build on very shaky ground and it is all coming down. Max shares all he did was want to create a place for people to heal in every sense of the word and he feels he has been successful of that. Veronica says she has never in her career replaced a successful medical director.

Floyd informs Carrie’s parents that she didn’t suffer any long term affects of the pills, but he would be amiss if he didn’t address her identity situation. They feel they are not doing anything wrong and they don’t treat her any different than the rest of her family; he reminds them she is very different and explains what happened at the dance tournament and how Carrie got racially gaslighted by such dismissive adults. Both parents feel she can talk to them about anything and don’t want to make a mistake, but Floyd feels they need to make those mistakes and they need to get over their own discomfort for the sake of their daughter.

Domino is staring at his leg when Casey and Lauren arrive. He is told all his belongings are in the ED, along with a new set of ear buds. Lauren says he could have died on the streets out there and they are going to help him recover. She gives him a bag of seeds, saying he is going to plant them as his diabetes got out of control and medication can only do so much but he needs to change his eating habits too. She challenges him as Casey and Lauren encourage him to plant vegetables on the land as everyone fights over permits for the land; Domino thanks them for the opportunity.

Lauren and Casey return to the ED and she moves Mark and Leyla around again; him yelling at Lauren, saying he made plans.

Max comes to see Iggy, wondering if they were doing the whole therapy thing. Iggy clears a spot on the couch as Max fumbles with his words, wondering if he ruined the hospital. Iggy says there is no way he did and wants to know why he would think that. In the meantime, Floyd tells Lyn she needs to go as they are playing by the rules; she thinks that since they are playing by the rules she needs to tell Claude as she has fallen in love with Floyd.

Lauren pulls back her blanket to crawl into bed and finds Leyla’s t-shirt and a note that says, “I’m right here!”

Max feels Helen nailed it but she is furious that this is not the legacy she had in mind. Max feels he is going to be the medical director remembered as the one who nearly bankrupted the public hospital. They both laugh but Max frets over how Veronica is going to sell the place for parts until there is nothing left. Helen says they still have 5 weeks and both smile at each other as Max asks if she wants to get into trouble and she asks, “How much trouble!?”

## 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

Guest Starring* Michelle Forbes as Dr. Veronica Fuentes
* Christine Chang as Dr. Agnes Kao
* Alejandro Hernandez as Casey Acosta
* Shiva Kalaiselvan as Leyla Shinwari
* Frances Turner as Dr. Lyn Malvo
* Debra Monk as Karen Brantley
* Christopher Cassarino as Dr. Edward Nottingham
* Matthew Jeffers as Dr. Mark Walsh
* Jazmyn Dorsey as Carrie Logandorffer
* Vince Nappo as Clark Logandorffer
* Danny Garcia as Domino
* Laura Aguinaga as Dreama
* Maddie Lee Belanoff as Megan Logandorffer
* Jennifer Blood as Admin Assistant Adena Cleary
* Dimitri Carter as Orderly #1
* Yvonne Cecelia as Bronx Woman
* Allison Chin as Woman
* Jennifer Cody as Coach Jessa Wilkes
* James Foster Jr. as Reverend Baisey
* Martin Fisher as Victor
* Cristina Garcia-Leon as Laundromat Woman
* Sanyika Gray as Orderly #2
* Pressley Hosbach as Dancing Dell #2
* Sandor Juan as Mikey
* Lilliana "Lilly" Ketchman as Dancing Dell #1
* Sarafina King as Paramedic Nokic
* Ruba Thérèse Mansouri as Middle-Eastern Woman
* Rina Mejia as Rosa
* Tuffy Questell as Sammo
* Ura Yoana Sánchez as Sheila
* Saraiah Lee-Ann Shaw-Glen as Kid
* Matt Bradford Sullivan as Dr. Ketner
* Tammy Twotone as Lady Jane

## Multimedia

### Videos

New Amsterdam 4x04 Promo "Seed Money" (HD)