New Amsterdam Review: This Be The Verse (Season 4 Episode 5)

It’s taken quite a long time, but New Amsterdam Season 4 Episode 5, “This Be The Verse,” finally rises to the caliber we have come to expect of the medical drama. 

Nearly everyone has a vital storyline that also qualifies as engaging and entertaining television. Plus, storytelling techniques are used in an effective manner to intensify the emotions we feel while watching. 

Would Helen’s false memory and subsequent realization be as compelling if we did not get to see her as a child, being ripped from her father’s arms? Luckily, we can’t say for sure because the flashbacks exist.

I only know that my heart breaks for adult Helen throughout the episode because we see young Helen’s biggest trauma play out. 

Iggy is right that women need to be believed more when it comes to matters of sexual assault. But New Amsterdam does a wonderful job of showing us why it is a fact that repressed memories can’t be trusted and therefore shouldn’t be admissible in a court of law. 

New Amsterdam is a constant champion for all marginalized groups, so it’s not surprising that Helen’s storyline is balanced out by Lauren’s mother Jeanie’s endometriosis. 

It’s amazing how innovative New Amsterdam has become with plots for Leyla and Lauren.

There was very little “will they or won’t they” tension and there is no love triangle to speak of; instead, Dr. Shinwari is constantly pushing Dr. Bloom to be better at her job and in this case, a better daughter. 

Endometriosis is hard to diagnose and part of the reason is that medical professionals need to get better at listening to and believing women in pain. 

But I’m no medical professional nor do I have endometriosis, so I want to focus on the plot from a narrative perspective alone. 

Wow, what a huge journey Lauren has from the beginning of the hour to the end. At first, she is absolutely insufferable as a daughter, girlfriend, and doctor. 

I get secondhand embarrassment watching her scream at her mother to “get out of my ED!” and be so condescending and patronizing to Leyla. 

To be clear, in reality, there is no way Lauren would have been making medical decisions for her mother. But medical dramas always take creative license here.

It’s a big deal to watch Lauren realize her mistake and apologize to her mother in the end. This doesn’t mean Jeanie was been a perfect mother. But she has been a mother with endometriosis that even her doctor for a daughter ignored until now. 

Lauren has no choice but to admit she has not been the perfect daughter either. Lauren and Jeanie’s relationship is one that continues to grow in unexpected directions. 

This brings us to Helen and Max. Even though Helen barging in to hear Max tell Veronica that he may not leave with her in charge of the hospital is a predictable cliffhanger, it’s also a great one. 

I don’t actively ship Max and Helen but that doesn’t mean I root for them to break up. Still, ending the episode with Helen hearing those words while she is in such a vulnerable state brings natural, mature conflict to their romance. 

It’s more obvious than ever that the couple will stay in New York. Now, they may make that decision individually instead of together. It’s going to make for great television. 

Doctor’s Notes 

• Floyd learns a great lesson on the episode, but he still should have gotten to do that surgery. 
• I can never fault an episode for fooling me, even if it’s a cheap device. New Amsterdam fooled me into believing that Lyn’s husband knew about Floyd. 
• I understand what Max’s storyline is supposed to prove but it’s still too unrealistic to believe. 
• “You know what I hate about the word ‘brand’? It implies that whatever you’re doing you wouldn’t be doing unless the cameras were rolling.” Those are such great lines!

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

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