Boundaries

## Episode Chronology

**"Boundaries"** is the fourth episode of the first season on NBC drama series *New Amsterdam*. It was aired on October 16, 2018.

## Synopsis

When Max volunteers New Amsterdam to take over for a short-staffed hospital nearby, things get chaotic quickly. Iggy has a crisis of conscience after receiving the news that funding for a garden has been granted and an eager head nurse learns a secret about Dr. Bloom.

## Plot

Max waking up from the couch, checking up on his pregnant wife, Georgia . He cleans up the kitchen and makes her breakfast, but finds her attempting to put together the crib. She is bored of bedrest but thanks him for doing everything and he jokes that the couch is better than the bed. She wants to want him back, but isn’t. He tells her he has all the time in the world.

While jogging to work, Max finds a homeless woman who refuses treatment for her badly infected foot, and tells him to get away from her. He does tell her he is a doctor at New Amsterdam across the street. Iggy is walking with Vijay, excited to he is getting funding for his community garden. Kapoor brings in his cultural treats for Ella from the donut shop to show his gratitude for her kindness. Iggy calls for Gladys when he sees his office full of things from “Volt” and she informs him they are things from the company sponsoring his community garden.

Lauren pops another pill just as Floyd arrives; she tells him they got an EMS call coming in. Mateo Fernandez arrives in the by ambulance and tells Floyd he better be “in the game today”. Lauren realizes he is from Baptist Hospital and Floyd tells the nurse to get Max down there right now.

Helen is placing the radiation mask on Max to shape it for his face, telling him to not move; even though his pager keeps going off. She insists he needs to stay still and once she has the exact shape she releases him, feeling it was torture for both of them. Max rushes off to his 911 from Floyd, learning that there is a conference in San Diego for all cardiovascular surgeons and Floyd stayed for Dam and Mateo stayed for Baptist, so now now Baptist is no longer a level 1 trauma center, making New Amsterdam the place to go. Max says he will only do this if Floyd feels they can handle it, and he agrees.

Max brings up the heads of each department up to speed, skipping the pep talk with Bloom and telling Iggy to get his psych patients up to their rooms as quickly as possible. He sarcastically says its a good thing they are so compliant. Helen feels this is a horrible idea and wouldn’t have taken on the extra patients.

Bloom informs the doctors, including Dr. Edward Nottingham that she will point and yell at them and to not take it personally as the ambulance begin to rush in. Bloom asks where her ibuprofen is, angry that people keep taking her stuff. Nottingham tells Floyd he would like to grab an attending and handle the case himself; Floyd says he has a promising future, but he doesn’t want him to get in over his head and destroy it before it begins so simply prep the patient for him.

While the ED remains full, Max rushes out the door to help the homeless woman with the infected foot. Vijay and Agnes Kao meet their patient Mrs. Monahan who says she is dizzy; she is annoyed saying at Baptist, they know what dizzy means. Her tests are clear and she says she likes Kao, but Kapoor suggests while he examines his other patients she can think about her kind of dizzy.

Iggy learns from Lauren that he cannot take Volt’s money to fund his garden, as cola is all sugar and the cause of obesity, so now he can focus on her over crowded ED. Helen meets with young patient Tiana, who is getting a biopsy done to see if her cancer is back. She asks what it is like when you die? Her dad tells her not to worry about that as it’s not going to happen for along time. Dr. Sharpe asks her what bandage she would want; but Tiana says no one tells her anything.

The homeless woman doesn’t want Max’s help, until he informs her that it is free and not taking it will cost her, her foot. He learns her name is Faye, he wraps up her foot and gives her antibiotics and tells her to take them every day until they are gone. She tells him she has a brother who is very sick but won’t go to the hospital; Max says he has a hospital full of patients that need him, but looks at her face and asks, “How can I help?” Faye brings Max to a homeless camp.

Bloom tells Floyd there are 7 surgeries waiting for him in her ED and suggests one of his residents could do it. He refuses to put this pressure on a first year resident, but she gives him one hour before sending them somewhere else.

Dr. Kapoor and Dr. Kao come back to see Mrs. Monahan if she can describe her symptoms now and she says “DIZZY!” asking if he is a real doctor and for him to give her something so she can go home. He says he will give her more time to think about it, but Kao thinks he is wrong. Bloom suggests he should give Ella the pastries feeling its a huge mistake, but she simply wants to see him suffer. It’s barely 1:30pm and they have run out of beds and chairs, so Bloom tells an attendee to grab all the chemo chairs; he says this is just like his college days!

Iggy worries about Jemma who feels the overfilled psych ward is not okay. Vijay brings more patients in, as Iggy promises her they are trying their best. Iggy says this is exactly why they have to have the community garden. Kapoor makes a valid point that a garden would be good for these young psychiatric patients too, like a playground or football field.

Helen tells Tiana’s parents they should discuss palliative care for Tiana; her father doesn’t want to tell her, but he says he cannot tell her, looking at her mother asking if she can. Meanwhile, Faye convinces her brother to look at him. They reveal they are from Hamilton, Ohio and he might have a fungal infection; Max says if they don’t bring him to New Amsterdam he will die, promising they will never see a bill from the hospital and begs Vince to take a gamble on Max; but he refuses.

Dr. Nottingham scrubs in, but Floyd tells him he doesn’t need him in the OR, he needs him out there. Back in the psychiatric ward, Jemma begins a fight with another patient. Max returns to the Dean of Medicine screaming at him and Max tells Bloom to call all the department heads down to the ED.

Max admits he made a mistake and over committed them and all this chaos is on him. He wanted to help everyone and ended up helping no one; he isn’t asking for forgiveness but how can he fix this. Each department head gives suggestions and he works with them, they shift patients that are able to go to other hospitals, out the door. The Dean of Medicine doesn’t know how Max is going to put it off, so Max says he is going to help and hands him a stethoscope; with Kapoor telling him how to actually use it.

Tiana’s mom thought the hardest part would be actually hearing the diagnosis, but Helen tells her to simply be her mom and Dr. Helen Sharpe will be her doctor. Iggy brings his up to where the garden will be as Jemma finds the bars and yanks on them. She admits she feels 100 things could go wrong with her placement; he suggests she sticks with the facts and he will make some calls and find a home she deserves. Suddenly he sees a plant growing out of the concrete, which gives him an idea.

One of the nurses, Casey is carrying a patient to x-ray, feeling he has a fracture. Dr. Bloom asks if he took one of her ibuprofen and he says he did; she suddenly understands why he is bouncing off walls. Dr. Kapoor finds the Dean with Mrs. Monahan, who explains that he doesn’t understand what the word dizzy means and says she can’t leave because every time she stands up she feels like she is going to fall over; its like her feet are not even there. Dr. Kapoor informs her that she has Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) and now he can officially admit her and get her taken care of.

Faye rushes in her brother, Vince as Bloom pages for Max who quickly intubates him. Max rushes to get Floyd, informing him there is a man bleeding in the ED and needs Floyd to figure out how to be in two places at once or someone is going to die.

Vince is losing too much blood, so they need to get a bag of 0- right away, Floyd is able to stop the bleeding, and his heart rate is steady. Floyd reveals he left Dr. Fernandez in the OR in the hands of a top notch surgeon, little does she know that he left him with first year resident Dr. Nottingham. Floyd nods his approval when he completes the surgery.

Dean tells Max it was fun being back in the trenches, but he is to never do that again; now that Baptist is up and running. Max informs Vince’s siblings that he will be okay in a few days and it was a fungal infection they find in the soil in Ohio, it was probably dormant this whole time but being on the streets weakened his immune system and it emerged now. Max wants to test them both, saying New Amsterdam is a public hospital and this is why they work there to help people.

Lauren tells Casey to drink water and explains that the ibuprofen is actually Adderall, admitting she has ADHD. Casey says she is killing herself with this job, but she says everyone is. Helen tells Tiana her cancer is back and explains what she thinks it’s like to die. She asks the little girl to take her hand and she sits on a chair, explaining that when it happens, she won’t be able to see her parents and they won’t be able to see her but they will always be there. She asks if she will always be here. Dr. Sharpe says yes, and they will always be thinking of each other but simply be on the other side of the room.

Tiana calls out for her parents, who respond. Afterwards, an emotional Dr. Sharpe cries in the stairwell only to hear the doctors planting trees on the roof, making a beautiful garden. She tells Max that she took the hard road and she’s confused. Max brings her to join in with the other doctors as they drink and plant. Dr. Kapoor brings up his sweets and shares them with everyone, having a good evening after such a stressful day.

Floyd and Lauren walk along the waterfront, as he shares his experience as a resident; feeling old habits die hard. Lauren says what feels even better than being in control is letting go of it. Floyd leans in to kiss her, but she puts her fingers on his lips telling him not to start something he isn’t going to finish.

Max and Helen share a beer, while he says to look on the bright side, at least he can take up fencing. She says in a two weeks they will start chemo and then radiation. He tells her there is so much to do, but she advises him to prioritize and by that she means he needs to start saying yes to himself and to what he needs; asking what he needs?

Max comes home and finds his couch made and Georgia sound asleep in the bed with the crib still not put together on the floor. The next morning, Georgia wakes up and finds the crib completely assembled. She wakes max up at 9:30, telling him he will be late for work. She is worried he got fired, but he says he is taking the day off to spend the day with her. She leans back and smiles.

## 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
* Alejandro Hernandez as Casey Acosta
* Lisa O'Hare as Georgia Goodwin
* Lizzy DeClement as Jemma
* Ron Rifkin as Peter Fulton
* Michael Basile as Paramedic Rob Moreland
* Megan Byrne as Gladys Miller
* Christopher Cassarino as Dr. Edward Nottingham
* Christine Chang as Dr. Agnes Kao
* Teresa Patel as Paramedic Harvell
* Isaiah Seward as Paramedic Durango
* Shawn Andrew as Zak
* Zuri Giddings as Tianna
* Mike Cabellon as EMT Kennedy
* Jorge Cordova as Dr. Mateo Fernandez
* Rose Harwood as Dr. Margaux (credited as Megan Densmore)
* Eboni Flowers as Ayeesha
* Michael Sean McGuinness as Paul
* Jonathon Olivo as Young Patient
* PJ Sosko as Vance

## Multimedia

### Videos

New Amsterdam 1x04 Promo (HD) "The Only Hospital That Can Help" Season 1 Episode 4
## References

1. ↑ New Amsterdam Listings - thefutoncritic.com
2. ↑ "'The Conners,' 'The Flash,' and more adjust up, 'Splitting Up Together' and 'Black-ish' adjust down: Tuesday final ratings" - TV by the Numbers
3. ↑ Upcoming Episode Titles - Various Shows - 10th August 2018 - SpoilerTV
4. ↑ New Amsterdam - Episode 1.04 - Boundaries - Press Release - SpoilerTV