Rituals

## Episode Chronology

**"Rituals"** is the second episode of the first season on NBC drama series *New Amsterdam*. It was written by David Schulner and directed by Peter Horton. It was aired on October 2, 2018.

## Synopsis

Max navigates his diagnosis while Dr. Sharpe encourages him to make a plan. Meanwhile, Dr. Bloom encourages Reynolds to take a chance and Dr. Kapoor and Iggy work together to help a child.

## Plot

Max telling jokes and sings to his unborn daughter, Luna; while Georgia remains sleeping. He continues his day by asking his staff, including the janitorial staff, how he can help them? In front of the board, when no one gives him any ideas, he starts dancing and says he isn’t going to stop until someone gives him at least one idea. He wants to hear it all. Georgia peeks through her eyes as Max kisses her belly but quickly closes them before he notices she is awake.

Ambulance arrives with new patient, Jozette where they are met by Lauren and Floyd who bring her into trauma 1. Her father reveals they were at a fundraiser, where she was accepting an award and just collapsed.

Iggy proudly talks about girls at karate with Ani Kapoor, learning that Kapoor never had a family. Kapoor assures Iggy that the Dean will not allow Max to “shake things up” much longer, as he has seen from his extensive experience.

Iggy meets with a new patient who has a hard time staying awake and is wetting the bed. He is on some heavy medications, but when questioned if anything is happening at school, the boy says no. Max offers condolences over losing his dad at such a young age. His plan is to take Leo off all his medication; Leo finally looks at Iggy in the face.

Max tells a patient to call congress about not being allowed to compete prices for a cardiac bypass surgery; urging him to resist! Dora hustles Max along informing him that he is running late for everything and the Dean of Medicine called again; he doesn’t want to talk to them because he is sure they are furious he fired half the staff and disemboweled the entire hospital.

They are interrupted by Helen, who confronts him about ignoring their appointment. She says it is a serious matter, telling Dora to get him something to eat as he says he is taking care of it. Dora says his 2pm just canceled and Dr. Sharpe tells him he better find the time to be in her office before he ends up being one of those patients he so desperately wants to treat!

Floyd and Lauren reveal Jozette has a heart condition, but when the father reveals she is an aide worker and a mud slide hit their village and so many people have died. Lauren suggests she literally has a broken heart; Dr. Reynolds says the good news he can fix a broken heart but they need to prepare her for surgery. Her father asks if they can perform a protection ritual first, which involves a cut in the skin and they rub in some herbs; Dr. Reynolds absolutely refuses, saying there will be no accidents.

Dr. Kapoor and Iggy explain to Leo’s mother what is happening to Leo and what the drugs are doing to him and why they want to pull him off the medications. They really want to talk to him. She cries as Iggy asks when was the last time she really saw him.

Dora stalks and finds Max, giving him an apple like Dr. Sharpe ordered. He throws the apple at Dr. Reynolds and walks off with him, ignoring Dora completely. He reprimands Dr. Reynolds for not allowing Jozette’s family to perform their ritual, which confuses Floyd as he just fired the entire cardiac department for the high infection mortality rate. When he says this is Floyd’s call, he says this is his call and he still refuses to do it.

Jozette’s stats drop completely as soon as they attempt to move the bed. They bring her back, but once they try to move the bed, she drops again, they bring her back and Max suggests they really should do the ritual as it looks like she is too unstable to move.

Dr. Kapoor and Dr. Frome meet with the Head Psychiatrist for all the schools in Queens and she informs them if Leo stops taking his medication, he will no longer be permitted in school or any New York public school. Max reveals to Iggy that it is legal if Leo’s mother signed the papers; but once they both feel they can really help Leo, then they need to present their evidence to a judge and prove it, taking the NY school system to court.

Reynolds feels if he believed in rituals he would have become a Shaman, not a surgeon, but Bloom thinks he should take all the help he can get. He thinks if the patient needs to pray or lay hands, then that means they don’t have faith in him. He thinks he solved the problem but suddenly her oxygen levels drop and she can’t breathe. Bloom continues to push for him to do the ritual saying its not about him, its about the patient and what she believes.

Dr. Helen Sharpe meets with her patient, who doesn’t get good news and feels like she looks like a cue ball. She talks about how the cancer has impacted her life. Helen is so affected, she needs to excuse herself from the appointment to compose herself.

Max visits Georgia, giving her horrible green Jell-O and an apple, telling her he is not the same, as he can be there for her. He is being paged, she tells him to go but when he comes back he needs to “let her in!”

Leo leaves with Iggy and his mother to the courtroom, where they are going to fight to remove Leo from all his medications, which caused him to become a diabetic and so sick. Judge Hayashi reminds them she likes to keep the court informal and wants Dr. Kapoor to explain their course of treatment. He feels there are too many children in the public school system and there is not enough mental health professionals to help. Its a painstakingly long job to evaluate each individual child and there are over 3,000 cases for this worker alone. He feels both him and Iggy can help Leo.

Finally Dr. Reynolds agrees, under his supervision, for Jozette’s family to perform the protection ritual needed to save her life. Her father thanks him and they race to take her to the OR, as they move the bed, there are no issues with her stats and Reynolds sighs as Max says the ritual worked. He asks him not to tell Bloom.

Max sits behind Iggy and Kapoor while they wait for a ruling. The judge then asks about the treatment plan, asking the school psychiatrist what they think. They play a video of Leo beating a child up before being put on medication; Leo briefly looks up at the video as the psychiatrist looks up saying she is responsible for the physical well-being of all the children.
Outside the courtroom, the mother admits she never saw the fight before. Iggy says it looks bad but that is rage, there is a reason – a situation, not chemical. He sits by Leo, asking if he could tell the judge why he did what he did that day; when Leo doesn’t respond he doesn’t feel he can. Kapoor thinks there might be a way.

Bloom is glad Reynolds did the ritual, asking him how many times he scrubbed each finger. He says 10, she asks why not 9 or 11. He says that is routine and he was also reciting Invictus. She says kind of like a prayer, or RITUAL! She suggests he loosen up as not everything will go according to his plan.

Max finds Dr. Kapoor and Dr. Frome are doing dialysis in the middle of court proceedings, which is the fastest way to get the drugs out of Leo’s system. Kapoor says they are putting their patient first, but Max worries the liability they are opening the hospital to. Dora finds Max who says he owes Dr. Sharpe a call and they need him in hematology. He goes to the rooftop, where Helen tells him this hideout is taken.

She admits she is running from patients and he admits he is running from one doctor in particular. She didn’t expect to care this much and he says that is exactly why she should be there. He says he made a promise to his wife that he would slow down, explaining how the clinic he ran before this almost broke them and Georgia can’t go through that again. He promised he would be there for her, and they could start a family. He asked her to stop dancing, something she loved and she did it for him and to be a mom.

Now they got pregnant and then he got the call for New Amsterdam. If the clinic was K2 than New Amsterdam was Everest and who can resist Everest? He said yes without telling his wife; Helen says he betrayed his wife, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t belong there and the changes he’s made will help thousands of people. She realizes he hasn’t told Georgia that he has cancer. She advises him to share the burden and his first order of business is to tell his wife that he has cancer.
Reynolds works on Jozette’s heart but there is no beat. He shocks her twice before they use more medication.

Back in court, Leo tells Iggy that it is his fault his dad died. They were going to the park to build Legos, when he forgot the Lego, his dad went back to get them but never came back. His dad had asthma and a heart condition and that day when he reached the top stairs he had a heart attack and Leo found him. The Judge asks about the video, the boy he beat up, Ryder said that Leo should be dead like his father and that day he finally had to make it stop. The judge wants to know what Dr. Frome is proposing, he says he wants to help him, let him talk and feel, without medications.

Dr. Reynolds continues to shock her heart as the team wants to know how long he is going to continue this. They want to call it, but he massages the heart determined to get even one beat; everyone has given up hope except for him, they are shocked when he suddenly feels a beat. Floyd tells her family that the ritual worked and Jozette is alive.

Max goes to see Georgia as Helen visits her patient who was feeling so down on her looks and polishes her nails while she is getting treatment. Dr. Kapoor is called back in to the courtroom, just in time to witness Leo smile as his mother hugs him.

Dr. Kapoor walks into the stairwell and calls his son, saying it has been too long; begging for him to call back, telling him, “I’m here.”

Max stands outside Georgia’s room, learning that she needs to stay on bed rest until she stops spotting. She cannot be put under any stress, physical nor emotional. She asks him what is wrong, he takes her hand, telling her he loves her as she reminds him of his promise to let her in. She wants to know one true thing. He says that he loves her and kisses her belly, tearing up as he lays his head on her belly.

## 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
* Lisa O'Hare as Georgia Goodwin
* Christopher Cassarino as Dr. Edward Nottingham
* Michelle Federer as Millie Tamberlay
* Stacey Raymond as Paramedic Kerry Whitaker
* Vanessa Kai as Dr. Suzanne Izuka
* Anthony Ruiz as Janitor Miguel

### Co-Starring

* Clifton Davis as Pierre Pampil
* Finn Egan-Liang as Leo Chen
* Brooke Bloom as Millie
* Cindy Cheung as Judge Hayashi
* Sandra Daley as Dr. Elsie Villarreal
* Josh Philip Weinstein as First Administrator
* John Goodlow as Second Administrator
* Malika Nzinga as Third Administrator

## Multimedia

### Videos

New Amsterdam 1x02 Promo "Rituals" (HD) This Season On
## References

1. ↑ New Amsterdam Listings - thefutoncritic.com
2. ↑ "Final Adjusted TV Ratings for Tuesday 2nd October 2018" - SpoilerTV
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl6r0zbDlqd/
4. ↑ New Amsterdam - Episode 1.02 - Rituals - Promo, Promotional Photos + Press Release - SpoilerTV