New Amsterdam Season 4 Episode 4 Review: Seed Money

At this point, we all know that there is no way in hell Max and Helen will be leaving in a month for London.

Nevertheless, they’ve deluded themselves into thinking that’s going to happen. But fortunately, by the end of New Amsterdam Season 4 Episode 4, they both agreed to raise some hell and get into that good trouble before their departure.

Veronica Fuentes better watch her back!

Finally, it felt like New Amsterdam again, with the series touching on several topical issues in organic ways, character interactions of all sorts, development of plots and our faves, and all-around good times.

The blend of personal and professional case plots made for a great hour, and it was the first time since the show’s return that all of the characters felt deeply themselves at the same time.

Lauren is a woman who is deeply in love with Leyla, and it’s reaching levels of concern. She has it bad. That’s fine, but the door is always open for it to affect their relationship.

She’s already displayed several troubling habits, blurring the lines between their professional and personal life, smothering Leyla, and not giving the woman space or respecting all of her wishes.

Lauren’s inability to spend more nights away from Leyla caused Lauren selfishly to switch the schedules. The casual way she went about doing it shows that she’s crossing some lines and boundaries that she shouldn’t and with ease.

But her self-awareness is what will save her. Lauren went right to Iggy to talk it out, and she wondered, astutely, if she was making Leyla her latest drug.

God, I’m making Leyla my drug, aren’t I?

Lauren

The series touching on that was a nice touch. It’s common for people with addictive personalities to become addicted to something else. Most of the time, it comes down to transferring from one unhealthy habit to something positive. It makes perfect sense that Lauren is easily making Leyla and their relationship her drug of choice.

It’s a slippery slope, indeed. And it’s something Lauren has to stay mindful of down the road.

The hour saw her teamed up with Casey again, which is always a treat. What is Lauren without her BFF and work husband? One of the many gifts from this hour was Casey getting more screentime throughout the hour, and we got to hear him speaking in Spanish was delightful to the ears.

The two of them finding a way to help Domino after his diabetes cost him a foot was a prime example of how they go above and beyond at New Amsterdam.

The seeds will take a while for him, so it’s not an immediate fix for his problem, but the gesture was sweet all the same. Floyd was also killing it with his case with Kerry.

Your heart broke for this girl when they revealed that her fistfuls of capsules weren’t a suicide attempt but rather an attempt to lighten her skin. Transracial adoptions are hard on families. However, what makes them more difficult is when all parties are too uncomfortable to talk about race.

We’re not homogenous; everyone is different, and the problem with the well-intended “I don’t see color” concept that many people express so fervently is that it implies that there’s something wrong with the color in the first place.

Being different isn’t the problem; treating people as a problem because of that difference is the real problem.

Kerry was stuck in an all-white family and an all-white community and school as the only biracial person. Anytime she experienced microaggressions, everyone gaslit her into thinking that her feelings and experiences weren’t valid.

The poor teen struggled with a host of identity issues. She had no one to speak to about them since her parents didn’t understand and felt too uncomfortable — not realizing that they were prioritizing their comfort over her discomfort.

Her parents were so defensive with Floyd that if she did bring things to their attention, it’s no wonder it didn’t get far.

Floyd’s advice was sound. He always shines best when he’s deeply involved with a case and connects with his patients. It was amusing when he consulted with Iggy about the ordeal, and not only did Iggy have advice as a therapist but also as a man who has a transracial family.

You have to get over your own discomfort for the sake of your child.

Floyd

It was such a natural way to bring up this type of conversation. Never once did it veer into the preachy territory either. And this storyline was a reprieve from the poly relationship stuff with Lyn.

Although, they worked in some of that too, when Floyd showed he’s not ashamed of their relationship by announcing it to a food vendor. And now Lyn says she wants to tell Claude about it since she’s falling in love with Floyd.

Everything about this screams messy, so I guess we’ll have to buckle our seatbelts for this ride.

Iggy serving as everyone’s therapist throughout the entire hour was such a fun way to utilize him, and it’s the first time he felt like his old self this season.

He had advice for everyone, and he’ll likely get back into helping patients sooner rather than later. If not, he works well as a therapist to the other medical staff.

Iggy’s moment in the hall with Helen was hilarious. He can’t help making comments about her and Max’s relationship, and it’s amusing that he’s such a Sharpwin fanboy.

He also understands Max’s charms and how he’s able to get away with as much as he does, and the moment of commiseration with Helen over Max’s hot, straight white male advantages was amusing.

Helen and Iggy are always fun together, and they need to pair them together more.

We all know that when women are disruptive, especially women of color, they’re deemed crazy, but when Max does it, he’s a maverick with dimples.

Iggy

Helen is all about channeling her inner Max and doing whatever she needs to do to guarantee her department is in the best shape by the time she leaves.

The breast health exploration, encouraging people with dense breasts to follow up with their doctors for mammograms and exams couldn’t be more timely during Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Helen pushing around those boxes that were taller than her made a girl giggle. How tall is she? Is she, too, part of the fun-sized, vertically challenged community?

But it was disappointing that despite her best efforts and working all of those people in a tizzy over the possibility of them having cancer after she reworded the notification with the seriousness deserved, she couldn’t help them.

Karen shut it down.

Is anyone else thinking that Karen chose Veronica as some twisted way of forcing Helen and Max to stay at New Amsterdam?

She had to know that this woman’s vision for the hospital would prompt Max to lose his crap and do everything to preserve the New Amsterdam he loves.

No way Max and Helen can walk away from New Amsterdam if left in Veronica’s hands. Even Karen’s demands were unreasonable. She wants Max to agree to show Veronica the ropes, give up his office already, and only sign off on things with Veronica.

Max: She’s going to sell this place for parts.
Helen: You know what, we still have five weeks.
Max: You want to get into some trouble?
Helen: How much trouble?

Neither one of them can agree on anything. They’re way too different.

Veronica is all about the profit over the people. She laughs in the face of Max’s efforts, and she has no qualms about undoing everything he’s ever done for the sake of getting under his skin regardless of how many people he hurts in the process.

She thinks that Max’s focus on helping all the disenfranchised people in the community they reside in alienates white patients.

And Max is right; it’s an unusual thing to say about a public hospital that serves an underprivileged, predominantly diverse community.

As loathsome as Veronica is, and she’s so damn bad that she’s fun to watch, she’s not wrong about some of the things Max did. Her digs at his “wokeness” were downright funny, and when she shared that multimillion-dollar deficit Max puts the hospital in every quarter, it was jawdropping.

It’s a problem, for sure. It’s a significant one, and there’s no way of knowing how someone can even begin to rectify it.

The perfect balance is somewhere between Veronica’s fiscal awareness and Max’s compassion and pledge to care.

But they’ll never find that balance with Veronica going for blood.

Max’s idea of using grant money to build a grocery store as the best way to serve the community effectively addressed the food swamps.

Helen: How does Max do this?
Karen: You have to accept that you’ll lose as often as you win and from here on out there’s going to be a lot more losing.

It’s a very real issue, and as much as the world discusses our problems with obesity in the States — it’s far more nuanced than laziness or whatever else people imply.

Many urban and rural areas and neighborhoods don’t have grocery stores or access to fresh produce without going further out. However, in urban areas especially, fast food places monopolize most of the neighborhood.

And because of the limited access to grocery stores, much of the healthy food and produce is overpriced even when people do get access to them.

If you’re a low-to mid-income household and the nearest grocery store is a half-hour away, and the fast-food joint around the corner is affordable, what are you getting?

It’s one of those storylines that was good enough for them to spend more time on, but it’s also refreshing that every issue Max faces doesn’t come with a solution or quick fix.

And Veronica shows that some fixes come at a hefty price.

Karen said that things will not come easy, and it’s more realistic that way. It makes Max and Helen still choosing to get into all kinds of good trouble along the way, worthwhile.

Over to you, Dam Fanatics. Are you still hating Veronica? Which storyline appealed to you most? Hit the comments.

You can watch New Amsterdam online here via TV Fanatic. 

Edit Delete

Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.

You can view the original article HERE.