This post contains spoilers from Netflix's Pulse episode 1 from this point forward.
Welcome to Maguire Hospital in Miami, Florida, where the dedicated doctors and nurses are devoted to caring for their patients through a serious hurricane. Before we get to know the hospital's staff, we join a high school coach and his team on a bus. Due to low visibility from the rain, the coach swerves to avoid colliding with an accident ahead and crashes off of the bridge and into the ocean.
Before the staff learns about the bush crash and gets to work on helping their onslaught of new patients, Pulse pulls us in with some drama among the staff. Harper (Jessy Yates) wakes up her sister Danny (Willa Fitzgerald) before her shift, warning her not to make the day worse by being late. Danny ask if everyone knows. Knows what? Well, they seem to know, but as Harper insists, they aren't privy to all of the details.
Well, the answer comes quickly: Chief resident Xander Phillips (Colin Woodell) was reported for sexual harassment by Danny. As the staff gossips about the big change, they deduce that Danny reported him. Cole (Jack Bannon) presses Elijah (Jessie T. Usher) for information, but he doesn't oblige, and neither does Danny when she joins the team. The department's chair Dr. Cruz (Justina Machado) announces Phillips' suspension and Danny's promotion to his position of chief resident.
A flashback to Xander's first day as chief resident at Maguire reveals two things: He transferred from Kennedy under mysterious circumstances, and he and Danny have an instant connection. Needless to say, in the present tense, Danny isn't thrilled to be given the job of the man she accused of sexual harassment because of the optics. But there's no going back because a bus full of patients is coming for care.
Danny's first shift as chief resident
Danny jumps right into her role as chief resident when the patients arrive with the first responders, which prompts a memory of working with Xander for the first time. They have a conflict over a patient's diagnosis, and he asks her to name four types of nuts. She answers and he's willing to work with her. But she continues to have memories of working with Xander throughout the day.
Cole helps a patient named Tyler (who he affectionately refers to as Tyler Marie) with a missing hand. Tyler asks about his friend, Vero Cruz, and Cole realizes that Dr. Cruz's daughter was on the bus. Meanwhile, Cruz faces criticism from Dr. Soriano (Nestor Carbonell) for appointing Danny as the chief resident while in the middle of a hurricane with a short-staffed emergency room.
Gabriel (Santiago Segura), a nurse, delivers the news to Danny that Cruz's daughter was on the bus and coming to the hospital. Elijah wants to tell Cruz, but Danny choose to hold off since Cruz is performing a surgery and they aren't sure what condition Vero could be in. It's not the only conflict going around, as Dr. Sophie Chan (Chelsea Muirhead) politely calls out medical student Camila (Daniela Nieves) for standing out with her makeup and style.
It's little more than deflection since Sophie, a surgical intern, is failing to gain Cole's approval as the surgical resident. Speaking of surgery, the coach and driver of the bus refuses to be rushed into surgery until he knows that all of the kids on the bus survived. Because they can't force him to have the surgery, they accommodate his request. His condition worsens and Danny guilts him with a story about her sister, who became paralyzed when she pushed her down the stairs as a child.
Danny and Xander's relationship revealed
As Danny makes her way to an incoming patient who could be Vero, she runs into Xander. In spite of the controversy between them, Danny asks for his help to identify Vero. Unfortunately, Cruz's daughter is the patient in critical condition. Camila's searching for Cruz to give her the news, but Elijah assures her that he'll do it. (Of course he will, he probably wants to make himself look good.)
Inevitably, Cruz isn't happy that Danny withheld the information that her daughter was coming to the hospital. Danny and Xander are fighting to save Vero's life. Xander disagrees with Danny's decision to perform a pericardial drain, but she successfully pulls off the risky procedure even when the power goes off and the backup generator doesn't immediately kick on.
Cruz reprimands Danny for not telling her Vero was coming in, and Danny bites back in her own defense. It's a tough call to make in the moment, so it's unfair to fully blame Danny for her decision not to tell Cruz... especially when Elijah ever so slightly instigated the blame game. But it's not all negative fireworks. Cole seems to have warmed over Nia (Ash Santos), the new paramedic, after finding Tyler's hand, and Danny inspires the coach's team to push him to consent to the life-saving surgery.
In that moment, Danny remembers when Xander congratulated her on facing her fear of pregnancy to deliver a baby. They're speaking in close quarters, somewhat flirtatiously. Xander pushes in for a kiss, but Danny quickly pulls back and walks away angry. Xander interrupts her thoughts to talk about the accusations. There's a lot of unresolved issues between the two, and there seems to be more to their connection. Case in point: He knows that Danny's dad pushed Harper down the stairs, not her.
Danny's confession that she knows the real reason he was transferred from Kennedy stops him in his tracks. He replies with "What is it you think you know?" Before she can answer, Cruz reveals that Hurricane Abby will be a direct hit, but Maguire will ride out the storm. Because they're understaffed, Cruz asks Danny to agree that Phillips needs to provide assistance. The memory from earlier continues, as Danny returns home to Xander in the shower. He apologizes about kissing her in public and she kisses him, joining him in the shower.
Pulse on Netflix episode 1 review
Inevitably, Pulse will earn the most comparisons to Grey's Anatomy and Max's recent medical drama hit The Pitt. The comparisons are both just and don't diminish what Pulse is trying to accomplish in the long run as a newbie on Netflix. It's sexy like Grey's and from the point of view of young interns and residents, and it's also an emergency room drama like The Pitt.
But this isn't your mother's McDreamy or your mother's Meredith Grey. Pulse's de facto McDreamy would be Dr. Xander Phillips (Colin Woodell), a doctor who's just as handsome as Patrick Dempsey's beloved character but begins his show with sexual harassment allegations and secrets we're sure to be unraveling throughout the season. Meanwhile, Willa Fitzgerald imbues Danny Simms, our millennial Meredith Grey, with similar "dark and twisty" edge, though she's uniquely herself.
Because of these comparisons to other medical dramas, Pulse might be at an unfair disadvantage since it lacks some of the biggest strengths of the greats of its genre. But for what it lacks in realism or soap, it makes up for in energy and entertainment. It's impossible to not be fully engaged while watching the first episode and its excellent introduction to this drama filled and sizzlingly sexy (oh, just wait!) new medical drama.