New Amsterdam Review: 14 Years, 2 Months, 8 Days (Season 2 Episode 12)
Many stories on New Amsterdam Season 2 Episode 12, “14 Years, 2 Months, 8 Days,” are stuck in the past and one is trying to contain the harmful effects of the future.
We begin the hour with a young Dr. Vijay Kapoor tending to a patient who has fallen into a coma. Before the title flashes, we visit Jacob with Vijay through many stages of his career and even briefly see his now-deceased wife when she meets him at the hospital before a fancy function.
As Kapoor’s life changes, Jacob ages physically but his state remains the same. Until a colleague tells Kapoor in present-day that Jacob has opened his eyes.
It’s all very touching if you ignore the realities of the healthcare system today. A patient in a 14-year coma would be in a long-term care facility. Manhattan is too populated for him to be taking up a hospital bed.
The story here is about accepting loss before it takes over your own life, so facts don’t matter. They’re just hard to ignore.
I want to empathize with Jacob’s wife Annie. Her fear of letting go of her husband is understandable, but that doesn’t make it acceptable.
Choosing organ donation would’ve saved lives. But just because she’s made the wrong choice for 14 years, that doesn’t mean she deserves to be alone for the rest of her life.
So, thankfully, her kids let go of their grudge against their mother for abandoning them and promise her she won’t be alone when she lets her husband go and comes out of limbo herself.
New Amsterdam makes a mistake leading the promotional material for this episode with Jacob’s story. Annie’s behavior doesn’t come off as hopeful — it’s more delusional. Someone should’ve been trying to help her accept the truth every day for 14 years.
The miracle we’re all hoping for is Jackson’s.
Max’s battle with the prayer group’s presence in the hospital is much more compelling. Vaping lung injuries are a modern epidemic with no known cure that doctors are just beginning to learn about and Jackson is a 13-year-old boy with a lot of life ahead of him.
If life were fair, everyone would get a miracle. But it’s not, and Jackson’s the patient who needs the prayers most.
Max seems begrudgingly agnostic, and he definitely doesn’t understand how prayer works. The minister explains the definition of miracle in the most refreshing way when Max asks him why he comes to the hospital with the prayer group if not to pray for miracles. He says:
“Do you know what miracles are? They’re the word for the shoreline between what we understand and what we can’t….When we do it right prayer changes us, not the other way around. Whether we’re praying for forgiveness or gratitude or guidance, we’re not looking out Max. We’re looking in. And if you can find that shoreline within yourself, I mean really find it, that’s when you’ve got a shot at one of your miracles.”
No matter your beliefs, that’s one of the clearest explanations of faith TV has to offer.
Max’s prayer may have helped Jackson live. There’s still no concrete medical explanation for why he does.
More likely, his payer is what gives him the strength to show up with Luna for the playdate with Alice and Bobbie. He’s filled that little bit of space inside of him with hope for his own future.
The fact that Jackson lives is just a bonus.
Doctor’s Notes
- The excess skin storyline has the potential to be so much more compelling but watching doctors so easily cheat the healthcare system is getting boring.
- The real emotional thread within the excess skin storyline becomes clear when you watch what Iggy is eating on the episode.
- Do we see him take the cupcakes out of the trash? He doesn’t leave them in the box when he throws them out.
- The fact that the computers in the ER go down grounds the episode in an inexplicable way, let’s just hope all of our actual doctors know how to treat our stomachaches without them.
- The plant in Jacob’s room provides a great way to bookend the episode and Kapoor keeping it is a sweet way to remember him.
- Helen and Dr. Castro’s fight is more of a battle of egos than anything else and that’s sad.
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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Esme Mazzeo
Esme Mazzeo is a lifestyle and entertainment journalist from Long Island. When she's not writing for work, she's writing for fun, or searching for something to satisfy her sweet tooth. She thinks rainy days are the best kind of days. Certified night owl.
One thought on “New Amsterdam Review: 14 Years, 2 Months, 8 Days (Season 2 Episode 12)”
Iggy’s therapy session with the young man who deliberately told Iggy the wrong medicine, was beautifully said! It was about grieving who he used to be but finding who he is now.
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