Previously, on the Netflix series Pulse, Dr. Sophie Chan (Chelsea Muirhead) and Intern Camila Perez (Daniela Nieves) face some hardships as they lose their patient. Sophie realizes how emotionally draining the job is, and she feels guilty. Dr. Harper Simms (Jessy Yates) and Dr. Sam Elijah (Jessie T. Usher) form a close bond, which gets questioned by Dr. Danielle Simms (Willa Fitzgerald). 

The episode begins with doctors in the middle of a cosmetic surgery. The patient wakes up while under sedation, and one of the nurses tells the surgeon that they need to call 911, as the patient’s vitals are dropping quickly. The patient is transferred mid-procedure, with Sophie, Sam, and Camila working to stabilize her.  

Later, Harper shows up at Danielle’s house with a coffee and a bagel in hand. Harper brings up their dad, telling her sister that she’s going to visit him and she wants her to come. After pleading, Danielle decides to go. 

Next, we see Dr. Tom Cole (Jack Bannon) bringing breakfast to Nia Washington (Ash Santos). Nia brings up the kiss from episode 4. She knows that Tom won’t commit, but Tom seems to think differently. They have a crush on each other, but won’t admit it. 

Tom changes his outfit, ready to leave for the day and play golf with Dr. Ruben Soriano (Néstor Carbonell). He takes Cassidy (Jessica Rothe) with him as a plus one. Before they can leave, Tom gets a text message from Soriano canceling their golf date. He tells Tom to meet him upstairs for a surgical procedure. 

Soriano and Tom meet their patient, Mr. Morris, a big contributor to the hospital. His wife is concerned that he might have cancer. They send him in for a PET scan. Soriano and Tom keep it a secret that it’s more serious than they think, so Tom tells them that the mass isn’t as bad as it could’ve been. 

Later, we see Dr. Natalie Cruz (Justina Machado) talking to the mother of the patient, Patricia, from the opening scene. She tells the mother that Patricia will have to go into surgery immediately. After conversing with the mother, Sophie gets the chance to scrub in with Cruz. While in surgery, Patricia’s vitals drop, and Cruz directs Sophie to save her life. 

After the procedure, Cruz meets up with Patricia’s plastic surgeon, Dr. Pittman. Cruz threatens to revoke his privileges at Maguire, removing his name from the business. Pittman doesn’t want that to happen, so his only other choice is to tell Patricia and her mother about the mistakes during her procedure. 

Next, Harper and Danielle make it to their dad’s house. They head inside, and there are no signs of him being home until they find him in the living room. He hasn’t been taking his medications, and he’s been stuck in his recliner since the storm. Danielle is worried that he might be in serious trouble, with blood not flowing to his legs, but he doesn’t want her to check. 

Danielle calls 911, but she and Harper begin to argue about what’s best for their father. He begins to stress, making Danielle leave the house. 

Harper follows as Danielle tells her that he takes advantage of her. Harper admits that she knows, but she loves him too much to say no. Danielle still believes that he pushed Harper down the stairs, but Harper thinks that it was an accident. Harper yells that it was her fault because seconds before Harper fell down the stairs, he was upset at Danielle, but Harper decided to defend her, causing her and their father to argue, ultimately making it worse, and their father pushed Harper down out of anger. 

Suddenly, Danielle hears music playing in the house and rushes back in, only to find him lying on the floor unconscious. The ambulance arrives, and they head to Maguire. Sam meets them and immediately gets him into a surgical room. 

After being afraid to tell her the truth, Cruz tells her daughter about what happened when the power went out. She tells her about the ventilator and how her heart stopped beating. Her daughter comforts her, reassuring her that she’s okay. 

After Tom’s shift, he checks on Nia. He tries to leave, telling her to go back to sleep, but she tells him to stay, so he closes the door and pulls a chair over next to her bed. She puts her arm out, and he holds her hand, watching her fall back to sleep. 

The episode closes with Danielle sitting with her father after his surgery.  

Overall, this was a deeply emotional episode. Jessy Yates and Willa Fitzgerald did such a great job on portraying these two characters, using so much emotion and dramatic effect revolving around the trauma that Harper and Danielle have, which is deeply rooted in their father and Harper’s incident. In contrast, we have the opposite narrative with Justina Machado’s character, Dr. Cruz, and her daughter, who have better family ties. It’s exciting to see Sophie having her first hands-on experience with Cruz, giving her more confidence in herself. Will we see more of Tom and Dr. Soriano?

Rating: 9/10