“Complicated is going to be a theme throughout that midseason finale,” New Amsterdam star Jocko Sims (who plays Dr. Floyd Reynolds) warns of the November 23 episode.
Why, exactly? Well, “Death Is the Rule. Life Is the Exception” sees the clock hit zero on Dr. Max Goodwin (Ryan Eggold) and Dr. Helen Sharpe’s (Freema Agyeman) planned move to London … just as a deadly superbug hits the hospital, drawing them back in. Max was able to save their friends’ jobs from his replacement Veronica Fuentes’ (Michelle Forbes) layoffs by firing others, including Dr. Claude Baptiste (Andre Blake). Not only is Claude the husband of Reynolds’ girlfriend, Dr. Lyn Malvo (Frances Turner) — they have an open marriage — but now Reynolds has his former job. That’s not even taking into account the fact that Leyla (Shiva Kalaiselvan) seems to have put the pieces together about her girlfriend, Dr. Lauren Bloom (Janet Montgomery), making a donation to score her a residency spot.
Sims shares what’s ahead.
Going into the midseason finale, how’s Reynolds feeling about the state of the hospital?
Jocko Sims: Veronica is a tornado that has come in, which is really great. We’ve got to change things up and keep things fresh, exciting, and scary. Michelle is just fantastic. I was watching her perform a scene the other day that we have coming up and she just knocks it out of the park every time. So excited to have her on the show.
And she’s flipped it upside down. She’s going in attempting to undo some of the things that Max has done as he’s leaving, which is obviously putting a lot of conflict on his heart. It’s great. Reynolds is the new chair of surgery and not feeling that great about it, as we saw in the previous episode. But in this episode coming up, a massive superbug hits the hospital and Max is on his way out and Veronica is not there. We basically don’t have a leader, so it’s madness.
Virginia Sherwood/NBC
How’s Reynolds feeling about how the situation with Lyn and Claude is going so far at this point?
At this point, Reynolds is just in it. All he knows is that he’s in love, and he never anticipated that he’d be in love with a married woman, but clearly he is, and he’s just trying to function. It’s difficult, obviously, initially, as we saw with his now former boss Claude and to get along and make that work, which has been interesting as an actor to try to find the complexities there [and] dive in. And it’s interesting to watch as well. So far he’s navigating alright. He’s got his head above water, but it’s going to get really hairy coming up soon.
What can we expect in the midseason finale from the fact that, because of all these changes, he has his girlfriend’s husband’s former job now?
It’s pretty awkward. I will say at the beginning of that episode, Lyn seems to be upset and Reynolds is attempting to figure out if she is bothered by the fact that Claude is not there, but it has definitely made things even more complicated. Complicated is going to be a theme throughout that midseason finale.
With Max and Helen getting ready to leave, how is everyone at New Amsterdam handling that?
To be honest, they’re not handling it that well. Max is going around attempting to get folks little parting gifts, and they don’t receive them well. Ultimately what they really want from Max is for him to stick around, as my character says at the beginning of the episode. We’re trying to manage, but I think it’s a double-edged sword. Look, it’s not even the fact that we’re losing our friend, the guy who’s been doing so well not only revolutionizing New Amsterdam, but attempting to tackle the healthcare system and affecting all of the characters at the same time and teaching them how they should put patients first. Not only is he leaving, but in that void, he’s bringing in this tornado of Veronica. So they’re mad.
New Amsterdam, Tuesdays, 10/9c, NBC
