(It plays a little weird given the voicemail, honestly, but beggars can’t be choosers.) This means that for once Max is largely side-lined, or at least doesn’t hog the limelight completely. His quest to find it drags him through everyone else’s storylines until he meets Helen in the middle, and we get that big moment of them solidifying their mutual attraction. It picks up a month after the end of the previous episode and starts with Max both leaving a long-winded and weirdly intense voicemail for Helen and discovering he has misplaced his wedding ring. I often divide these recaps up by character, and New Amsterdam season 3, episode 14 does the same thing.

How determinedly is he going to try and right all contemporary culture’s systemic wrongs if he has a beautiful woman waiting for him at home? It’s like Marvin Hagler saying how hard it is to get up and run at 5 am when you’ve been sleeping in silk pajamas. And it opens a lot of potential storytelling avenues, including but not limited to Max no longer being a mopey, idealistic widower.

You can’t say it wasn’t built up organically.

However you feel about this pairing, it’s a relief to see them get together just to put an end to all the toing and froing.

New amsterdam episode 1 season 3