New Amsterdam Review: Cavitation (Season 1 Episode 5)

In a potentially overlooked scene on New Amsterdam Season 1 Episode 5, “Cavitation,” Max is talking to Louis Navarro about why he’s not going to a press conference discussing the police shooting incident that brought two victims to the hospital that day.

Max: I would love nothing more than to tell people what hollow points do to flesh, how the bullet blooms inside of you, expanding to three times its size. How it breaks apart, tearing through flesh, pulverizing bones, liquefying muscles.

He’s saying this to make a point about why he can’t choose sides between the mayor and the cops. I’m typing it because I think it’s one of the most important quotes from this powerful episode.

Max describes what a bullet does to a person, what one bullet did to both Jalen and Malik. It takes one life and turns another upside down. My question is: Why?

Perhaps Floyd has the best answer, though it’s far from satisfying. He gives his response after closing Malik, when he’s in the scrub room talking to Helen.

Helen: That’s something I will never understand about this country.

She says the above, referring to the fact that children in America get shot on a regular basis.

Floyd: The dangers of walking around in brown skin?

He delivers this retort, seeming defeated, stoic, matter-of-fact.

I believe it is more dangerous to walk around in black and brown skin in many countries. While the U.K. might have gun control handled, I don’t really buy that Helen is so shocked by the extreme consequences of racial bias in the U.S.

But I do believe gun violence has reached extreme heights here, as people are being villainized for taking to their knees in respectful protest and for walking down the street in their own skin.

It’s no way to live. But, as Floyd says, he does live with it.

Floyd: So if it takes a million camera phones and protests and knees to make that point, so be it.

All the doctors at New Amsterdam can do is their jobs, trying to save these boys’ lives. It’s an incredible amount of pressure to put on medical professionals, yet they take it on willingly every day. Sometimes they fail, and then they take on the burden of guilt.

That realization is incredibly difficult to watch in the bookend scenes of this episode. But they do their jobs. The bullet often just does its job better.

There is so much more I could say here, politically. I could type it all into a spiderweb and still not have a solution for the racial bias and institutionalized oppression in this country that I believe will work.

While live-tweeting the episode, I said I wanted more information about the incident. But after a second watch, I realize that politically charging this story even more than it already is is not necessary.

The beauty of the way this story is told is in the subtlety. We learn more about Malik’s aunt and Jalen’s brother than we do the boys themselves.

But Jalen dies. Javier is the one left behind. And Malik is just a boy who was late to school and now has a long recovery ahead of him. As much as his life is devalued by the cops that shoot him, so is his aunt’s.

It’s about time someone listens to the caretakers of the victims. PTSD is a real disorder that can affect anyone, not just soldiers.

Some subtle artistic choices really make this episode shine. The camera work in the scene where Javier is trying to find out about Jalen and punches Max is so effective. Seeing even just a little bit of the scene from his perspective helps the viewer see his rage and anxiety building.

I also love that they shot camera phone footage of the memory Javier shares with Max. It’s utterly tragic that a boy who once faked a gunshot with ketchup to freak his mom out was effectively predicting his own cause of death. Seeing a piece of that memory onscreen adds an undeniable element of reality.

These boys are just kids — where is the crime in that?

Shifting gears to an equally important topic: Iggy is gay! As a champion of authentic representation on TV and across all mediums, I am so happy with this development.

It’s not only because of what New Amsterdam does here, but more because of how they do it. There is no press release to announce Iggy’s coming out party before this episode. Much like The Resident did a few episodes ago with the patient Jack, Iggy just naturally and casually mentions another aspect of his life to the viewers. In the fifth episode of the first season of a show? That’s a big deal.

I especially love that, though they mention it about three times, I missed the first mention while live-tweeting. That’s how much of a non-issue it is in the hospital. It should be such a non-issue in real life. But the fact is, it’s not.

The LGBTQIA community fights for their stories to just be seen on TV, for the characters that represent them not to be killed off or shipped away with very little logic behind the exit. Kudos, New Amsterdam. You got this right (so far.)

I love “Cavitation” because it gives me so much of what I’ve been asking for from the series for weeks now. It shows so much more about the characters’ personal lives, while uniting them all with two very high stakes cases.

All I’ve been asking for is the show to give me more reasons to care by exposing the humanity in every character. This episode gives that in droves. Even a detail as small as Max losing his voice makes me like him more.

Because now, I have more faith than ever that the show might not view him as Superman. He might not beat cancer, and his trademark question “How can I help?” will not save every life or fix every problem. Thank you. It’s a real start. Now keep going.

What did you think of this episode of New Amsterdam? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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New Amsterdam airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on NBC.

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