Double Blind

## Episode Chronology

**"Double Blind"** is the fifteenth episode of the second season on NBC drama series *New Amsterdam*, and the thirty-seventh episode overall. It aired on February 25, 2020.

## Synopsis

When tasked with turning the opioid epidemic around, Max shuts down the ED and proposes a massive change. Meanwhile, Sharpe goes great lengths to prove a point.

## Plot

Max attempting to feed Luna, playing with her but she doesn’t want to take anything. He receives a message from Alice, wondering if he is free tonight, before he can respond, Luna giggles and throws her food at his face.

Max arrives at New Amsterdam where he bumps into Dr. Floyd. Floyd explains how Evie Garrison has taken a job in San Francisco and since they are getting married soon. Floyd promises to help him fill the position he is leaving empty but Max tells him that it isn’t necessary and congratulates him.

In the ED, Casey walks with Lauren as she explains she is going out for dinner with her mother, only because she likes the restaurant. She meets with her patient whom she hoped she wouldn’t see again. She is going to send her home as the patient pleads for her opioids. Lauren reminds her that she can’t tackle the addiction alone as she has also been there. She offers her the NA book before Lauren is called off again.

Meanwhile, Helen stops Valentina, confronting her on seeing the patient, Fatima Abassi and the condition she was in. Castro reminds her that Fatima is no longer her patient but Helen insists that she was responding better to traditional chemo as opposed to the trial Castro has her on. Valentina advises Helen to stay in her own lane as she has a trial to run and brushes her off.

Vijay comes to the ED where their new patient seems to be a mystery. His wife insists that Joe doesn’t drink. Kapoor wants him on hydro and benzos and when he recovers perhaps they will all know him better; his wife isn’t pleased.

Iggy walks with Gladys saying he is drinking his homemade smoothie to avoid his sugar cravings, positive he is done with sugar. He is about to walk into his couple’s counseling with Chris and Jenny; who have been together for 9 years and planned on getting married at the end of the month, but they are having serious problems, no having sex and Jenny moved in with a friend. She’s appalled he is opening with this and tells Iggy that they got an early wedding present from her uncle; a DNA kit. They sent it in and learned that they are brother and sister.

Karen Brantley finds Max in the hallways, informing him that his ED just discharged another patient who overdosed on opioids. They exchange stats about how the overdoses are effecting the hospital and the country. He assures her that they do spend a lot of time informing the patients about the dangers of opioids. She wants him to turn the epidemic around; telling him to pull tantrums and use all his impulsive crazy ideas; she doesn’t care if he breaks the law as she will fully support him. She wants to see how much damage he can do. Max accepts the challenge!

Max has a meeting with all the heads of the departments. He says there is only 1% of the doctors of New Amsterdam in the room, yet they prescribe over 79% of the opioids there. He confronts them angrily about being the ones who hooking these patients on drugs, a step away from black tar heroin and he wants to know why all of them should not be arrested. They admit that the patients ask for them by brand name. He orders them all to change this right now. He is giving them one year to prescribe 79% less than what they are doing now and if anyone doesn’t meet that mark, they will be fired. His announcement causes a stir among everyone as he thanks them for coming. He tells Karen she can expect some calls, but she is unimpressed with his words as she could have done it all herself. She wants a “Full Max” solution and this right now is very disappointing.

Joe codes and they are able to revive him. Lauren and Vijay realize it is a heart issue and she leaves to page Dr. Reynolds. Vijay apologizes to his wife, saying that her husband just had a heart attack and they have a much bigger problem. Floyd immediately does a procedure, placing two stents inside Joe; but every time he opens another artery another one closes. They realize if he stops, Joe will die.

Iggy realizes they are half-siblings, who met at University; recalling how they met. Chris felt that they should immediately be together also helping that they came from the same small town. Jenny pipes in, revealing both their mothers used anonymous sperm donors. They both agree that they don’t want to tell anyone as they are getting married in 16 days. Chris wants to find their way back together as Jenny feels it cannot be fixed because they are related. Chris feels every day he has spent with Jenny has been the best day of it, and cannot imagine going back to the way they were. He says if she can look him in the eye and admit she doesn’t love him anymore he will call off the wedding. She looks at him, saying she does love him but that just isn’t enough; asking Iggy if love could be enough?

Max meets with Lauren about the epidemic of opioid addiction. She knows the routine and explains to him that only licensed physicians can prescribe so much of the other medication and she is the only one in the ED. He tells her that it has to change immediately, which means shutting down the ED so everyone who qualifies can take the test and be able to prescribe drugs as Lauren can. She protests, but Max is persistent. She tells him that it is unheard of and this will make the news. He orders her to do it!

Helen goes to meet with a woman, telling her that she has a dilemma but it is a secret. She explains that it has to do with Castro’s trial and knows this could damage the trial and the funding to the hospital. Helen knows this and wants to speak to her off the record and she is only wanting to help a patient she cares about. The only way to verify if Castro is risking the patient is to use a double-blind and find out of Fatima is receiving the medication or the placebo; the only other alternative is to ask Castro. If it is the drug then they will have to have a much bigger conversation.

Max informs Karen that he has shut the ED, so there will be more people to prescribe the right medications. Karen asks him if he wants a cookie because she didn’t ask him to raise awareness; she asked him to solve a problem. She screams that she knows about all his antics and people are dying from this and he needs to do better!

Lauren struggles to organize the patients that are already in the ED when EMTs arrive with a patient, she tells them to take her to Baptiste as they were not mistaken, New Amsterdam is closed. Dr. Melvin Skein (Andrew Polk) brings down files to Lauren demanding to know what he is supposed to do with all of them and she tells him to attend to his 20 new patients.

Iggy knows their situation is difficult but it isn’t his job to tell them if their relationship is right or wrong. There is one truth that biological children cannot be an option. Jenny can’t even look at Chris the same but Iggy reminds them that life goes on and relationships do too. They can grow or they end, but what is in the heart matters. The real question is can they change what is in their heads; Jenny wants to know how as Iggy asks her to sit with Chris, both looking at each other. Jenny is instructed to take Chris’s hand but she tells them both she cannot do this and she is sorry.
Floyd and Kapoor continue to work on Joe’s condition in the OR, Vijay feeling that Joe has “decompression sickness”. When his wife is asked, she says Joe has never gone scuba diving in his life as he is afraid of the water. She reminds Kapoor that he was wrong before and could be again. Vijay says if they don’t put him in the chamber he will be a dead guy; she feels that as his wife of 40 years she knows Joe better than him and walks away.

Helen waits for Dr. Castro to come back, giving her 13 minutes. She goes into the file room and looks for Fatima’s file. She quickly photocopies what she needs, but spots something in the file, looking long enough to be distracted when Valentina walks in. She tells Helen that she tried to be the bigger person here and if Helen focused more on her patient rather than trying to put her against the wall, Helen would have seen that it was arthritis that changed into something far worse that caused the delirium and it wasn’t her drug doing it.

Max is fielding calls until a call comes in from Alice, who wants to know if he got her text and if he is free that night. She has a gig and needs s sitter; something he immediately accepts as Luna would love that. Max rushes out the door and grabs a taxi to a meeting he is holding for all the city’s top medical directors. He explains the diversion he did for New Amsterdam, informing them that things are about to get a whole lot worse. He shows a sign that shows New Amsterdam spends $108,562,145 on opioids every year and all 15 hospitals are spending over a billion dollars on a product they know are killing their patients. He feels it is time to turn back to ethical behavior so instead of giving the Nyler's another billion dollars he can cancel the opioid company’s contract. He explains there is blood on all their hands and thinks it is time they wash it off. He rips up the contract but doesn’t seem to get through to anyone of the directors who leave the room.

Helen is in Max’s office who continues to take calls. He realizes that all their supplies are now either coming extremely late or not at all. Helen doesn’t want to pile on, understanding the need to change things but this is not working as her chemo drugs have been canceled; even Dr. Skein comes in, wanting to know why his acne cream won’t be coming in for his dermatologist patients.

Joe is placed in the chamber, as Floyd wonders if Vijay has the wrong diagnosis. Vijay insists he is listening to his patient, who is Joe as his body is saying decompression sickness; Floyd hopes he is right.

Iggy presents Chris and Jenny with their DNA results, as they are 98.5% identical. He shows them his DNA showing he is also 98.5% identical to both of them because that is the genetic similarities between two human beings. They are all very much the same, scientifically. Iggy wants to know why Jenny feels there is any reason to explain anything to anyone. She can’t forget who Chris really is. He reminds her they are about to get married in 16 days and she must have written her vows. She reads her vows to Chris, crying as she speaks as no one has ever loved her like him and she has never wanted to be with anybody but him. Iggy asks Jenny if she can see that Chris, Chris wrote the vows for. She takes his hand as Iggy reminds her that it is the only Chris there is and if she forgets that she needs to go back to her vows, just like any other couple; the couple kiss and hold each other.

Max stands outside the Nyler Auditorium where he is given the new contract to sign. He doesn’t know what is worse, people addicted to their drugs or the system that’s addicted to their money. Adele shows him a photo of her sister who got hooked on oxy after her surgery, and she is dead now for two years. Max asks for the photo and places it under the Nyler name in the hospital. Meanwhile, back in the ED Lauren informs the EMTs that the ED is closed but they are just bringing an OD down to the morgue; Lauren lifts the sheet to see it was her patient from that morning; her NA book still in her pocket.

Joe wakes up, saying he knew he was with his wife but he just couldn’t get the words out. Floyd questions him because his wife said he has never been scuba diving before; he admits that their anniversary was coming up and he wanted to surprise her by taking a few lessons as she wanted to go on their honeymoon and he wanted to show her that he could do it. She knows he isn’t a water guy but he knew it would be a surprise. She jokes that she never thought he’d be able to surprise her, but he did.

Iggy and Gladys watch as Chris and Jenny leave his office hand in hand, calling them “adorable.” Iggy returns to his office and begins to throw out all his junk food, except a cookie he takes a bite from, telling it that it doesn’t own him. He spits out the piece he was eating and takes another bite, repeating the process over and over.

Lauren finally sits with her mom at the restaurant, who wasn’t sure her daughter would come and she doesn’t blame her. Her mom says she is sober now but Lauren doesn’t want to hear it as her earliest memories were her dad’s friend calling her an alcoholic; but her dad said she wasn’t, she was a “Drunk!” Lauren says she did everything she could to slow her down, but the first Lauren ever got wasted she was 7 years old, thinking the more she drank the less her mother would but that wasn’t the case. Her mom shouted at her that night because she was sick on the rug, not because she was drunk.

Lauren has been through all the emotions for her mother but she no longer feels anything for her anymore; reminding her that she was a little kid who was killing herself to get close to her and her mother was an addict who didn’t even try. She is sad because she got cheated and she didn’t deserve it. Lauren just wants her mother to tell her she is sorry so she can go, but her mother is sorry that she feels so sad but she doesn’t remember any of it happening and isn’t apologetic for it.

Floyd chases max, saying he doesn’t feel good about their conversation that morning as Max says it is okay. He is sorry he didn’t tell him sooner and feels Max is going to ice him. Max admits that he can’t just lose anyone else and will miss him. Floyd is taken aback at Max’s words as Max walks away. Max walks towards the sign for Nyler Wing and there are hundreds of photos of loved ones and letters about loved ones who have died from overdoses. Suddenly Dr. Brighton is beside him, asking if he asked people to do this? He says no as she reveals everyone is talking about how the Nyler's retaliated against him, by shutting him out. She says they put patients’ lives at risk and that isn’t business, that is a shakedown that could happen to any of them. She proposes unity with him and rips up her contract with Nyler and attaches it to the wall with all the photos.

Karen Brantley walks up herself and posts a photo of her and her sister, crying as she touches it. Lauren’s patient is placed in a black bag and closed. Helen is with Fatima, telling her the medication should help with the infection, giving the credit to Dr. Castro, saying Fatima is very fortunate to be in her trial; but Helen spots something on the computer and calls Lauren, saying she was wrong about the side effects the drug trial is causing but she was right about Castro altering the patients’ numbers before treatment so that the tumors would look worse. Helen announces that Castro altered her trial.

Alice looks beautiful when she arrives at Max’s door. He says she looks “serious”, meaning she looks great. Her date went very well and both the babies are sleeping. She tells him that he’s got yam on his face, and it’s a good look for him. She cleans it off with her hand as they two smiles sweetly at each other before giving into a kiss. They pause but he brings her into another kiss tightly pressing their bodies together.

## 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* Debra Monk as Karen Brantley
* Marylouise Burke as Adele Eisenbaum
* Alejandro Hernandez as Casey Acosta
* Alison Luff as Alice Healy
* Ana Villafañe as Dr. Valentina Castro
* Gina Gershon as Jeanie Bloom
* Megan Byrne as Gladys Miller
* Michael Basile as Paramedic Rob Moreland
* Andrew Polk as Dr. Melvin Skein
* Joe Carroll as Chris
* Kate Cobb as Jenny
* Judith Delgado as Mrs. Hildebrandt
* Phae Amara as Fatima Abassi
* Dipa Anitia as Dr. Flynn
* Amber Jaunai as Beth
* Hank H. Kim as Dr. Farnum
* Sarafina King as Paramedic Nokic
* Jessica Lee as Young Tourist
* Kim Berrios Lin as Audra Jacon (credited as Kim Rios Lin)
* Michael McCarthy as Dr. Ruben
* Kevin Pasdon as Paramedic Irving

## Multimedia

### Videos

New Amsterdam 2x15 Promo "Double Blind"New Amsterdam 2x15 Sneak Peek Clip 1 "Double Blind"
### Music

The song that plays from 33:40 through 40:10 is *Broken Heart* by "English space rock band" *Spiritualized*.

## References

1. ↑ Spiritualized on Wikipedia [retrieved 10 march 2021][1]