NEW AMSTERDAM Post-Mortem: David Schulner and Peter Horton on the Sharpwin Twist: It ‘Tests What Your Love is Really About’

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Tuesday, April 26 episode, “Unfinished Business.”]

The NEW AMSTERDAM doctors got to the bottom of their Very Bad Night…but not everything

With Sharpe (Freema Agyeman), Wilder (Sandra Mae Frank), Mia (Genevieve Angelson), Casey (Alejandro Hernandez), and Trevor (Ryan Faucett) all falling ill or going missing in the previous episode, “All Night Long,” they were tracked down one by one, in less than ideal conditions.

But it was a recovered Wilder who got to the bottom of things, realizing their bartender (played by Adam Rose) had drugged their party. His reasoning? He blamed the doctors for the ongoing pandemic fear—which broke Wilder’s heart, as she lamented how in the early days of COVID, they were actually respected and honored.

Getting the worst of things was Sharpe, whose body was riddled with clots. Though it was recommended she get a hysterectomy, she fought against it, not wanting to take a drastic, irreversible step. And with her relationship with Max (Ryan Eggold) on solid ground, she acknowledged she wanted to have babies with him…and Max proposed.

Unfortunately for Max, though he had a whole plan in place—one that didn’t include a hospital bedside engagement—he didn’t have the ring on him, so the newly engaged duo split so he could go home and get it. But when he returned, Sharpe was in distress—and things got worse when it became clear she could not clearly communicate anymore.

“You just don’t know if she’s going to recover,” executive producer Peter Horton previews of Sharpe’s next steps. “Everything’s on the table: if she can spontaneously start talking or if it could be years. I think when something like that happens, especially when you’re at the beginning of a relationship like that, with all the potential that right in front of you, you can’t help but project into the future of how amazing this is going to be.”

“And then something like this happens, and it just throws a wrench in the middle of it,” he continues. “It tests what your love is really about.”

Horton compares the situation to Reynolds’ (Jocko Sims) storyline with his baby drama: “Is it a projection of the future that you’re finally fulfilling that you’ve had your whole life? And if so, when this happens, that’s not what you imagined. And what does that do to your sense of each other? Is it the lov

e affair you thought it was? So is there’s gonna be repercussions from that going forward? For sure.”

But what does this mean for Max and Sharpe, who had just gotten engaged and committed to building their lives together?

“Those are the issues that are brought up,” showrunner David Schulner says. “They are constantly being forced into these big decisions. And I think they are so desperate to take control of their relationship again, to be the ones to make those decisions instead of being backed into them. So I think that’s the big takeaway for Max and Sharpe in 17.”

Elsewhere, giving up a bit of control was Reynolds, who consented to Malvo (Frances Turner) moving to Colorado with their unborn child.

“It all leads back to Reynolds own father doesn’t it?” Schulner notes. “The fact that he’s going to be a dad in not the way that he ever thought he would be a dad, and not wanting to repeat the same mistakes his father made. So it’s all going to lead back to that initial trauma for him.”

“There’s a great line in Edward Albee’s play THREE TALL WOMEN where this character turns to the other and says there’s a difference between knowing you’re going to die and knowing you’re going to die,” Horton adds. “And for Reynolds, it’s, ‘I’ll let them go. They’ll have this beautiful life. It’ll be wonderful.’ And the reality of that is kind of different than the thought of it.”

NEW AMSTERDAM, Tuesdays, 10/9c, NBC

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