“It’s always my turn,” Max says to Georgia as baby Luna cries in the New Amsterdam season 2 premiere. But everything is not as it appears. Over the course of the premiere, it was revealed who lived and died after the ambulance crash in the season 1 finale. Sharpe survived with only minor injuries, while Bloom nearly lost her life after being thrown from the ambulance. It appeared that Georgia was going to be fine, but an unexpected brain bleed took her life. Georgia is dead and now Max has to live his life as a single dad.
HollywoodLife spoke EXCLUSIVELY with showrunner David Schulner about all things New Amsterdam season 2. He admitted that Georgia’s death was something that was destined to happen from the very first episode, but he almost chickened out. David teased how Max will be coping with Georgia’s death and how the crash will continue to impact Bloom, Sharpe, and the rest of the doctors.
It was so open-ended throughout the episode until the actual reveal. When did you decide it was going to be Georgia?
David Schulner: In the pilot, we set up that it’s not going to be an easy birth for Georgia. It’s something that was kind of in the back of my head during the writing of the first episode. You really want to, hopefully, give yourself a foundation of stuff that’ll come out of the season in that very first episode so people can go back to it and realize it was all part of a piece. To be honest, I chickened out. I grew to love Lisa O’Hare, who plays Georgia, so much and I love the character. We hadn’t even heard her sing yet. We’ve heard a lot of our characters sing and Lisa and Margot have the greatest voices out of our entire cast. Margot got to sing, but Lisa never got the sing. So I was like, “I can’t kill her, she never got to sing.” I fell in love with her and I wasn’t going to do it. We were going to try and think of another ending. And then Peter Horton gently and supportively nudged me and said, “I think you’re chickening out.” I said, “No, no, this is the right thing to do.” And then NBC less gently nudged me and said, “You’re chickening out. This is something that you had planted from the very beginning and it’s something that you’ve set up and it’s something that you’ve been building to.”
Was there ever a discussion to kill off Bloom or Sharpe?
David Schulner: I always knew that they were going to make it out. We had just gotten Dr. Bloom back after her recovery on the show and it was a really nice mislead, I hope, that she was planning on leaving anyway for her personal reasons. I was hoping that would kind of hide the ball a little bit. But we wanted to find a way to impact Max in the worst way possible. Sadly, that’s our job as trauma writers, so we knew it was going to be Georgia.
How will Max be coping with the loss of Georgia? Who will he be leaning on? Because this is just such a huge, massive event while dealing with a newborn.
David Schulner: It is. Max will not be leaning on anyone, sadly. The second episode is really about how Max is handling his grief and it’s both surprising, but knowing Max, not surprising. It’s a little similar to how he handled his cancer in season 1, which is a lot of denial and worrying about everyone else before himself.
Regarding his cancer, it seemed he’s in a better position now. Is he going to be okay on that end? I can’t imagine that this guy can handle any more.
David Schulner: I know. It’s interesting. A lot of my friends who were diagnosed with cancer and went through the chemo and the radiation, even if you get to a place when you’re into remission, the anxiety never goes away. You have the six-month checkups and you have the scans that you’re waiting for. So there’s always a chance that it could take a nasty turn again, even though we’re on the upswing now.
What can you say about how that crash will change Max’s relationships with Bloom and Sharpe?
David Schulner: Well, I think the more people try to help Max, the more he turns them away. Sharpe, being Max’s right-hand woman at the hospital and his best friend, will try to help him but it’s not what Max wants. He doesn’t want to be reminded. He doesn’t want to move on, essentially. So, it complicates an already complicated relationship.
What can you tease about how Bloom is going to be processing those horrific injuries and trying to move forward from that?
David Schulner: That also happened to the worst person because, as a recovering addict, Bloom can’t take the same amount of painkillers that another patient would. Bloom is going to have to deal with this disability without the help of medication because she just doesn’t trust herself to keep it under control.
We got to see a little bit more of Iggy and his family in the premiere. Now he wants to adopt again. Will we really get to see a little bit more of their relationship and their family in season 2?
David Schulner: We’ll try to get into Iggy’s issues as much as he gets into his patients’ issues.
Is there any possibility that Max could entertain a romance this season? Could we see that down the road?
David Schulner: No, I don’t think anyone’s thinking about romance at this point, especially Max and us. No romance for Max, but everyone else is going to get romance. Bloom is going to get a romance. We’re going to give romance to everyone else.