‘New Amsterdam’ Kills off Major Character, and Social Media Is Stunned

This week’s episode of New Amsterdam saw a major character death during its Season 2 premiere this week, with the moment coming as a huge surprise to fans.

Warning — spoilers ahead for the Tuesday, Sept. 24 episode.

The season premiere revealed who died as a result of the ambulance crash in the Season 1 finale, though it took nearly the entire show until viewers learned that Georgia (Lisa O’Hare) ultimately passed away.

The episode began with Dr. Max Goodwin (Ryan Eggold) sleeping next to Georgia, who told him, “Your turn,” when their daughter, Luna, started crying. Fans eventually realized that Georgia had been the one to die in the crash at the end of the episode when Max said, “It’s always my turn.” Georgia had died at the hospital before Max could say goodbye, and the scenes of the couple together during the episode had been from Max’s imagination.

Fans reacted to the sudden plot twist on Twitter.

“It’s something I was kind of trying to set up in the pilot episode,” showrunner David Schulner told TV Line of the character’s death. “When Georgia came in with the preeclampsia, and there was trouble with the baby, I was trying to set up the end of the season in those scenes.”

“And so we did it, and it was horribly painful to do in the room as we broke the episode, it was horrible as we wrote the episode, and it was horrible for everyone shooting the episode. It really was like a death,” he said. “Having Lisa O’Hare play a corpse on that operating table, those things are really hard to ask actors to do, and we didn’t do it lightly, and we didn’t do it cavalierly. A lot of thought and anguish went into the process.”

New Amsterdam premiered in September 2018 and is inspired by Dr. Eric Manheimer’s memoir Twelve Patients: Life and Death at Bellevue Hospital and his years as medical director at the hospital. New Amsterdam takes place at the fictional New Amsterdam hospital and follows its director, Max, as he seeks to change the system and provide the best care he can in the process.

Photo Credit: NBC