Spoiler warning for the Season 4 finale of New Amsterdam, called “I’ll Be Your Shelter.”
A hurricane came to New Amsterdam in the Season 4 finale, and while this wasn’t the first natural disaster to hit the hospital, the effects could quite literally last until the very end of the series. The medical drama will come to an end after a 13-episode fifth and final season, so the changes made in the Season 4 finale may be a very big deal in the long run. After all, the long run isn’t all that much longer! Plus, comments from actor Tyler Labine indicate that fans should pay close attention to where everybody ended up at the end of “I’ll Be Your Shelter.”
The hurricane blew over and left some serious destruction in its wake – both physical and emotional, and it’s the emotional destruction that might leave fans dying to know what happens next throughout hiatus. Although the episode started out with Max and Helen finalizing their plans to get married in a garden in New York once her flight arrives, it ended with Max learning that not only was Helen not on the flight that landed from London, but she sobbingly informed him over the phone that she’s “sorry” and she “can’t.” The wedding is off – at least, for now. It’s not clear just yet what kept her in London, and whether there’s more to it than cold feet and self-doubt.
And that’s just the Sharpwin of the finale! Bloom realized that the money is always going to be an insurmountably messy issue between her and Leyla, and decided that she would let Leyla have the money and the apartment until her visa is figured out. Iggy doubled down on his stance that Martin is the problem in their marriage, and was told that he needs to move out if that’s the case. (Bloom and Iggy roommates in Season 5?) Reynolds may have been the main character who ended the episode in a better place than he started, after forming a tentative bond with his father. Sure, his father doesn’t know who Reynolds is, but it’s a good step!
Wilder didn’t actually have much to do other than help Iggy figure out the mystery of why people couldn’t breathe in the hallway, but there’s still big news for her. Actress Sandra Mae Frank confirmed on Twitter that Wilder has been bumped up to series regular status for the fifth and final season. So, what do all of these developments mean, and why should fans expect their effects to last beyond the Season 5 premiere? Well, when Tyler Labine – who had quite a wild ride in the fourth season as Iggy – spoke with CinemaBlend ahead of the finale, he shared one benefit of knowing that the fifth and final season was already guaranteed:
We knew that obviously we got a shortened season and we're done after the end of Season 5, which was disappointing. But reading this finale, already knowing that we were going to be cancelled after 13 [episodes] next year, made it feel very different. The read on it and what we're setting up for next season, I think was under much more scrutiny because I think none of us want to make anything but the best season of the show. If it's our last season, we want to make it the season that everyone's like 'Oh my god, it all makes sense!' [laughs] And we didn't just torture everybody for no reason. There is a lot at stake – especially for those people who really hung in there with the show – that Season 5 needs to be excellent.
Knowing how much time the show has left raised the stakes for creating “the best season,” and the Season 4 finale script was able to set some things up for what happens in the final batch of episodes. Hopefully that means a Sharpwin happily-ever-after after poor Helen was sobbing her heart out to Max at the end of “I’ll Be Your Shelter!” Tyler Labine went on to establish that there are plans for payoff of what the end of the current season set up:
So every little thing, every little thread we're pulling out of the end of this season, none of that is going to be throwaway, none of it is going to just disappear or be there for the sake of being there. This is all leading into our next and final season arc. So yeah, it changed the way I read the script. I mean, I was always invested, but this is like, we really want to double down on the quality of the show and what we give the fans who really, really hung in there through some difficult stuff as fans. So it's not been easy. It's been very challenging. So I think I read it more like a fan this time around. I was like, 'Well, okay, New Amsterdam. You better pay off next year.' [laughs] So that's how I felt.
Season 4 certainly has been tough, thanks almost entirely to the reign of Veronica Fuentes, who was finally toppled after some complex confrontations with Max. The struggles with Veronica stemmed out of Max’s decision to find his joy by moving to London to start a new life with Helen, and he was only one character determined to chase down some happiness after the difficulties of the third season with COVID. Tyler Labine spoke about the journey for characters to find joy with CinemaBlend back in September; now, he weighed in on whether they’re better or worse off after all the challenges:
I said at the beginning of the season, you know, when you unofficially name a season 'finding your joy' or 'more joy,' I was like, let's just keep in mind that finding joy, the journey to joy, is not joyful. No one's ever on their journey to joy, feeling joy, or they wouldn't be on their journey. You would be like, 'Oh, I'm joyful! Things are good.' So I think it's always important to remember that the journey is challenging. It's very difficult to find your joy. But I think we're looking at a cast of characters and people that will not give up until they do find the joy, like they know that they deserve it. So yeah, I think they've all come a long way this season.
Well, your journey to find joy can’t be joyful itself, and there’s no reason to assume that those journeys are over just because Season 4 is. There are still 13 episodes to go, and a lot can happen over 13 episodes on network television. Happy endings are still possible for all of the major characters, and wedding bells may still ring for Sharpwin. As for whether Iggy and Martin’s marriage will work out… well, only time will tell. Labine continued:
I think, for a lot of people, they're like, 'Oh, my God, can you just let up a little bit? Can we have a little bit of that joy?' And I'll say it again: they're struggling to find it. But it doesn't mean they stopped trying to find it. I think if you watch the season, you see that. Everyone's making moves to try to find this joy, but it looks messy sometimes. It's ugly, and messy, and it hurts and people get hurt. And that's life. That's how life is. Finding your joy sometimes means really shaking things up and rolling the dice, which can be really nerve-wracking and painful.
The good news of a guaranteed Season 5 is somewhat tempered by the fact that fans are still months away from finding out what happens next, after the promos that aired on NBC after the finale only confirmed that New Amsterdam will be back in the fall. Still, you can relive the highs and lows of the full series to date with a Peacock subscription. For some viewing options to fill the days until this and more of the network’s biggest shows are back, check out our 2022 TV premiere schedule.
