‘New Amsterdam’: Max & Brantley vs. Veronica Ends in a Shocking Vote (RECAP)
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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for New Amsterdam Season 4, Episode 9 “In a Strange Land.”]
After Dr. Veronica Fuentes (Michelle Forbes) laid off a large number of the staff — including Casey (Alejandro Hernandez), Gladys (Megan Byrne), and Baptiste (Andre Blake) in Bloom (Janet Montgomery), Iggy (Tyler Labine), and Reynolds’ (Jocko Sims) places after Max (Ryan Eggold) fought for them — she’s once again on the (soon-to-be former) medical director’s bad side in the latest New Amsterdam episode. And this time, Karen Brantley (Debra Monk) is with Max: Veronica needs to go.
When multiple victims from a church fire end up at the hospital, the doctors soon learn everyone is undocumented. ICE has been circling the church for weeks and now is set up outside the hospital. Then, ICE gets warrants for everyone and is able to enter the hospital. In response, Max turns the cafeteria into a church, making it a sanctuary for their patients. Veronica, of course, is against it, and tells Max not to try to appeal to her humanity. They’re a hospital, not a refugee center, she argues. She doesn’t care if ICE gives them the medical care they need.
But after Veronica walks away, Karen tells Max she’ll call a vote during the board meeting that night to terminate Veronica’s contract. Does she have votes to pull that off? She’ll find them. And so she goes around to board members, but it’s not so easy to get people on board. Evan, however, seems to be key: Get his vote, others will fall in line. Evan’s reluctant, given that Veronica has done some good things, especially financially, but he eventually tells Karen she has his support and they shake on it.
With ICE closing in, the staff comes up with a way to sneak everyone out of the hospital, via the tunnels in the basement. ICE follows the ambulances (with Max in one of them) away, but when they stop them, they’re empty. They were just a distraction; everyone safely reaches a new sanctuary, a church.
Virginia Sherwood/NBC
Max joins the board meeting just before Karen calls for the vote to terminate Veronica as medical director. As the two women face off on either end of the table, people begin raising their hands … but not Evan, and they’re one vote shy. Then Veronica calls for a vote to oust Karen Brantley as board chair of the hospital, given the debacle of the day — and she gets the votes, including Evan’s. Evan is now the board chair of New Amsterdam.
Also with implications for the future: Reynolds lets slip to Leyla (Shiva Kalaiselvan) that a fifth residency spot was created for her. Leyla had no idea that spot opened up after her girlfriend Bloom “donated” to the hospital … just as happened last time that fifth spot existed. Uh-oh.
New Amsterdam, Tuesdays, 10/9c, NBC
