Max Goodwin met his match on New Amsterdam in Season 4 with the introduction of Dr. Veronica Fuentes, who wasted no time in proving that “How can I help?” is definitely not her mantra as a medical director. Although the show is currently on a brief break, the most recent episode set the stage for Max to gain some ground in his efforts to oust her, while also using flashbacks to shed more light on Fuentes. Star Ryan Eggold weighed in on his hopes for Max and Veronica when the show returns for the rest of Season 4.
Max returned to New York with the ambitious goal of getting Veronica Fuentes out New Amsterdam, with the not-so-small problem that he doesn’t actually have any power at the hospital any more. He cooked up a scheme that could do the trick with the help of some of the friends he’d left behind, and doesn’t know the more sympathetic backstory for Veronica that was revealed via flashbacks. When I spoke with Ryan Eggold about the most recent episode, called "Two Doors," he weighed in on whether or not Max can see when Veronica has a pragmatic point in the decisions she makes:
I hope so. I think the truth is often so much more complicated than A or B. And I think we live in a world that often likes to make your choices, just A or B. And I think the world just isn't that simple, and the best way forward is not that simple. It's not like Max is right and Veronica's wrong. That kind of thinking is just not the way the world works. And so, I think yes, I hope there's the opportunity for Max to see her in a different light, just discover, understand why she is the way she is, and see these things [about her]. For all of Max's optimism, his weakness sometimes is that he's not a pragmatist, and that gets him in trouble a lot. Like anything, I think there's some balance to be found.
Max didn’t lose his “How can I help?” attitude even when he crossed the ocean to start a new life in London with Helen, and he brought that attitude back to New York with a vengeance. Of course, Max’s lack of pragmatism about budget is part of what brought Brantley to recruit Veronica as his replacement in the first place, although Veronica outmaneuvering Brantley certainly changed her mind on that! He and Veronica are simply on opposite ends of the spectrum of providing help.
As the flashbacks revealed, however, she once had a lot more in common with Max than anybody could have guessed. Ryan Eggold – who actually directed the episode as well and shared some insight on the unconventional Sharpwin love scene – helped bring those flashbacks to life from behind the camera, with Michelle Forbes playing a different version of the character who had seemed all but purely villainous. He shared his thoughts on how the flashbacks changed the perception of Veronica as a character:
I see her as not just a villain but a human being. Michelle and I and Aaron [Ginsburg], who wrote it, were really excited to humanize this character and to give her a backstory and to find [out], where did she come from and why is she this way? Painting her as just a one- or two-dimensional villain is of course not true to life, people are three-dimensional human beings, so to find some of that color and some of where she came from and why, and flesh her out and feel some empathy for this character was great. And Michelle just did an absolutely gangbuster job, especially in the flashbacks, portraying this other side of her, this softer, more youthful, more hopeful, optimistic, more Max-like, if you will, side of her. And then seeing how did she end up where she is.
Veronica showing a sympathetic and “more Max-like” side in the flashbacks doesn’t mean that she’ll suddenly change her ways in the present at the hospital, especially considering she laid off a significant number of characters, demoted Iggy (although actor Tyler Labine pointed out that he was initially handling that fairly well), is blackmailing Dr. Wilder, and continues her methods that are causing more harm than good, to the point that Reynolds found a way to help Max from the inside despite his betrayal.
Now that Max has some allies actively working to get him a seat on the board to make a stand against his foe, his odds are better than ever, but the promo for what's next in Season 4 makes it pretty clear that there's a challenging road ahead for all of them. Tyler Labine previewed some major consequences that are on the way for Iggy, and Max evidently intending to propose to Helen doesn’t mean that the course of true love will continue to run smooth when there’s an ocean (and Veronica Fuentes) between them. Take a look at the promo:
New Amsterdam will remain on its mini hiatus until April, with the miniseries The Thing About Pam occupying the 10 p.m. ET time slot on NBC on Tuesdays for the next several weeks, but it’s on the way back. See what happens next for Max, Veronica, and the rest with New Amsterdam’s return on April 19. Unfortunately, the medical drama has officially been cancelled, but the three-season renewal back in early 2020 guarantees that a fifth season will happen to hopefully tie off any and all loose ends. If you want to revisit the earlier days of New Amsterdam, you can find it streaming with a Peacock subscription.
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