10 New Amsterdam episodes to help get us through this hiatus

“Sanctuary” (written by Shaun Cassidy & Erika Green Swafford, directed by Jamie Payne)

Part two of the #sharpwin couplet

Having braved the elements to make it safely and soundly back to New Amsterdam, Helen and Max must delay their talk about their relationship due to a blackout. With limited supplies and a hospital full of people who need their help, they are presented with a choice. They can save who they can by distributing power to the floor that needs it the most or they can try to fix the generator and risk more people than they’d save.

Helen’s choice is triage. She’d rather save who she can. But Max refuses to make a choice that doesn’t involve saving everyone. He puts the patients at risk by relying on an electrician who is serving time at Rikers. Not only is the electrician a flight risk, if he can’t fix the generator in time, his expertise will mean little to those who pass in the interim.

Max’s inability to choose, his propensity for choosing ‘all of the above’, forces Helen to triage their relationship. She cannot be his doctor, his deputy, and his friend, so she steps down from the role of his doctor. It’s a scene that reads uncannily like a break-up and it puts me deeply in my feelings.