The Legend of Howie Cournemeyer

## Episode Chronology

**"The Legend of Howie Cournemeyer"** is the seventh episode of the third season on NBC drama series *New Amsterdam*, and the forty-seventh episode overall. It aired on April 13, 2021.

## Synopsis

Max gives care to HIV+ patients but gets backlash in the process. Dr. Frome is hoping to see his friend Dr. Kapoor return to work but later he gets news that Dr. Kapoor has resigned from the Neurological department at New Amsterdam.

## Plot

The hospital has seen some dark days. There’s a deadly pandemic as well as personal tragedies that have come about and it’s not the first time these words have been said. Dr. George Helms said these words over thirty years ago with the AIDS pandemic. He was back in New Amsterdam now to help them celebrate National HIV Testing Day. But not everyone is pleased he’s back.

He was the former medical Director at the hospital and he did some stuff that many are still angry about. Someone even defaced his portrait with the words “Shame Then, Shame Now”. Max saw it as he was running after his daughter Luna and the only reason he had Luna is that she was banned from daycare. Luna was a repeat offender. She likes to bit people and she’s been warned about it three times. Luna just can’t stop biting people.

Max also doesn’t have a Plan B. He can call his in-laws and ask them to take care of his daughter. It would just mean he wouldn’t get to see her as much with his crazy work hours. Max held off on calling for help. He instead turned to Sandra. He agreed to pay her if she watched his daughter for him and so she ultimately said *“yes”* but the biting thing proved to be an issue and Max couldn’t find another daycare to take his daughter.

Most great daycares in the city require a waiting list. It’s why people sign their children up while they were pregnant and so Max will have to wait a good ten months before he could get his daughter into one of the great daycares. He was trying to find a new daycare at the same time he was trying to track down a lead from 1986.

Max didn’t really have time for either of those things with the hospital celebrating National HIV Testing Day. The hospital was filled with people coming in for testing and often people had other issues that were wrong with them. Take Kwame. Kwame came to the United States as a missionary and he broke their rules by sleeping with a man. It happened once. It also gave Kwame the virus and initially he was in disbelief.

He didn’t want to believe he had the virus or that he had something wrong with his pancreas because of the virus and so he stormed out of there but he soon came back and he returned with the leader of his church. Kwame had to inform his Elder that he has the virus. He also tried to claim that he still believed in God and that he wanted to continue his mission.

Only the Elder believed Kwame sinned. He kicked him off the mission and now Kwame will have to return to his home country. What the Elder did by turning his back on Kwame was the wrong thing but Kwame didn’t see it that way. He thought he was the one who turned his back on God. He understood why he had been thrown out of his church and he told Floyd that people don’t change. God will always love him but Kwame’s obedience will always waver.

Floyd thought about that. He thought about it a lot what with his mom getting sick and having to cancel the wedding with Evie. Evie mostly handled the cancellations. She got them a full refund for the flowers and the venue and so she practically pulled off a miracle because Floyd knows he never would have gotten those back if it was him doing it.

The doctors were being run off their feet by testing everyone for HIV. Reynolds and Bloom were treating patients very differently and their different bedside manners sometimes caused them to clash. They even clashed over Kwame. Kwame wanted to stay in the Mormon church and so Reynolds helped him. Reynolds found the church elder. He informed him that Kwame can still have children.

Which was a big part of why he had gotten kicked out and the church Elder also said that they can find a woman for Kwame to help him with his demons. Kwame got what he wanted. He rejoined the church. It just cost him the freedom of being out of the closet. He now has to pretend to be straight to be accepted and Bloom had a problem with that while Reynolds thought it was in the best interests of his patient.

Meanwhile, Max figured out his 1986 problem. The hospital had been low on blood because the AIDS virus was everywhere and so a man by the name of Dale Rustin who ran the blood bank decided to do something about it. Dale had friends he knew were healthy come in and secretly donate blood in another man’s name. It turns out it was against hospital policy back then which was to never accept blood from sexually active gay men, but Dale kept the blood bank replenished until Dr. George Helms stopped him. Helms protected the hospital from liability. He also crafted the policy of who they can take blood from and so that’s why his picture was defaced. Helms was the villain back in the day.

Max was so disgusted with this continued policy of ignoring healthy blood donors. He decided to ignore the plan that Helms put in action and he’s now accepting healthy blood from everyone. Especially sexually active gay men. If the hospital tries to do anything about it like say remove funding, Max has said he’ll sue if pushed. Max solved the 1986 problem. He now has to find someone to watch his daughter because Sandra definitely isn’t going to do it again and so Max finally admitted that he couldn’t do this on his own. He had to accept help from his in-laws. He knew Luna was going to love spending time with her grandma and grandpa.

Max later went to a party for Dr. Kapoor. It was supposed to be a welcome back party and it ended up being a goodbye party. Kapoor has resigned. His doctor told him he could never work again and it proved true. Kapoor didn’t even come in to tell everyone he resigned. He sent off an email and it personally hurt Iggy. Iggy never got the chance to talk to his friend. He had to hear it from Kapoor’s wife and after he found out the truth – it made the little things he worries about all the smaller.

Sharpe’s niece Mina in the country. She’s going to be staying with Sharpe and Sharpe was worried about whether or not she could handle it, but Mina was a good kid and Sharpe has to at least try to be there for her.

## 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* Nadia Affolter as Mina
* Margot Bingham as Evie Garrison
* Christine Chang as Dr. Agnes Kao
* Mike Doyle as Martin McIntyre
* Dierdre Friel as Ella
* Nora and Opal Clow as Luna Goodwin
* Anna Suzuki as Sandra Fall
* Emma Ramos as Resident Mariana
* Em Grosland as Nurse Kai Brunstetter
* Kerry Flanagan as Marsha
* Simone Policano as Karla
* Jamie Ann Romero as Dr. Val Tiwari
* Larry Bryggman as Dr. George Helms
* André De Shields as Dale Rustin
* Stephen Spinella as Howie Cournemeyer
* Baylen Thomas as Abbie Shumway

## Multimedia

### Videos

New Amsterdam 3x07 Promo "The Legend Of Howie Cournemeyer" (HD)