Love is a many-splendored thing…unless it’s found at work…and one person holds a job title that is higher than the other.
This complicated issue is at the heart of the story in Netflix’s first original English-language medical procedural, Pulse, from creator Zoe Robyn, who serves as co-showrunner alongside Carlton Cuse. The ten-episode drama begins when third-year resident Dr. Danny Simms (Willa Fitzgerald) is suddenly promoted when Chief Resident Dr. Xander Phillips (Colin Woodell) is suspended.
The two co-workers at Miami’s busiest Level 1 Trauma Center were embroiled in a love affair, and when it ended, Danny reported Xander to HR. As if things weren’t complicated enough, they are forced to work together when a hurricane barrels toward the hospital, which then goes into lockdown.
Fans have been debating this storyline on social media following years of the #MeToo movement, which led to a worldwide wave of sexual abuse survivors supporting one another, the canceling of countless high-profile people, and legal fallout. This is a sensitive subject, and in the case of Danny and Xander, their relationship was consensual, which has caused some viewers to question Danny’s actions because she didn’t just report the relationship; she filed a complaint.
The online buzz has been divisive, but it’s important to spark discussions on this topic. Though the reviews have thus far been mixed, the differences of opinion around the show haven’t stopped viewers from binge-watching en masse since its April 3 premiere.
Pulse has remained in the Top 10 in 44 countries for three weeks with viewers binge-watching roughly 26 million hours of the show, landing it at the No. 7 spot on the English TV List.
Robyn and Cuse do a great job of keeping Xander’s history a mystery. The viewer doesn’t know if he deserves the demotion and is receiving a dose of his own medicine, or if he’s the real victim in all of this.
“Xander is a well-meaning guy with genuine love and affection for Danny, but he starts their relationship by pressuring her, leveraging his power over her career, and pushing past her boundaries,” explains Robyn. “It’s also true that she eventually falls for him and that she is an ambitious and complex person. Does this absolve him of his bad behavior? That’s the question the show is asking, and why making a complaint is often such a gamble for women.”
Fitzgerald defends her character’s choice, which follows the couple’s argument at a company retreat on whether or not to disclose their secret affair and how doing so would impact each of their careers. “This is so important because I feel like it’s the real inflection point for us to understand the stakes of their relationship. For Danny, it’s really the only choice. The only way of getting out of the situation is to go to HR.”
Danny is trying to save her career, but to do that, she jeopardizes his. She knows he left the last hospital he worked at under suspicious circumstances and wonders if he’s a playboy. If that were the case, there might be merit in reporting him. As we come to learn, Xander truly loves Danny and does not have a checkered past when it comes to women. The reason he left his last job was due to the circumstances surrounding the death of a patient. Danny doesn’t know this at the time she makes her complaint to human resources.
“She has been put in an impossible situation that’s been brewing at that point for months. They’ve miscommunicated with each other, not really listening to or seeing each other fully, and that’s what brings them to the point that they’re at,” clarifies Fitzgerald. “So, she reports that they’ve been in this secret relationship that now is undermining her career and her chances of getting this big promotion that she’s dreamed of and wanted.”
As for Xander, who may not be perfect but is certainly a good guy, Woodell understands his character’s inner conflicts and how keeping secrets about his past impacted his relationship with Danny. “He feels incredible remorse over losing a patient. He also feels guilty for letting his parents take control of the situation. It was a metaphor of his life. He’s always been at the sort of beck and call of whatever his parents tell him to do, and he’s not his own person.”
Robyn and Cuse take the viewer on a journey, and they don’t make it easy to decipher if Danny or Xander can be trusted, as those close to them struggle with the fact that they kept their relationship a secret for so long. Danny takes the brunt of it all as some colleagues wonder if she used her relationship to get her recent promotion.
“We follow her journey as she realizes that choice was the only option available to her in that moment, but it’s not actually what she needs to move forward with her life at the hospital or in her relationship with Xander. What she needs is closure with this person,” concludes Fitzgerald. “It’s a beautiful example in some ways of restorative justice. The system is incapable of giving her what she needs. HR is incapable of giving her what she needs. What she needs is to be seen by the person she fell in love with. That’s why those later scenes for her are so intense, and when Xander does apologize to her, that’s vulnerable on his part and incredibly moving to her because what she has needed this whole time was to be seen by this person. It’s such a beautiful moment. I love that scene.”
Love can be complicated indeed, and in the case of Danny and Xander, the road to happiness has been paved with a few detours. Will they get a second season and a second chance? Netflix has yet to announce whether this love story will continue.
