This post contains spoilers from Netflix's Pulse episode 8 from this point forward.
If your mind is still spinning from Danny taking back her complaint, you're not the only one. Pulse episode 8 opens with Maguire's resident gossip queen Cole already yapping to Elijah about Danny's retraction. Their gossip session is interrupted by a mother named Kathryn, played by guest star Katie Leclerc, bringing her baby, Benny, who stopped breathing and now won't stop crying. Harper and Elijah care for Benny, and Harper's concerned that the baby could be malnourished.
Meanwhile, Danny and Xander see each other for the first time in days in the HR waiting room. Human resources wants to know why she changed her mind about what happened between them at the retreat, and Xander does, too. Danny doesn't seem interested in rehashing the details. She just wants to tell HR that they both agreed to drop it and put this in the past. Speaking of the retreat, we finally learn what happened between Danny and Xander that resulted in her sexual harassment complaint.
Harper tries to make inroads when Benny's father arrives, but he's untrusting of doctors and, frankly, kinda of aggressive. He begrudgingly agrees with Kathryn to allow Harper to run tests, but this case won't be an easy one. Back in the HR office, Danny and Xander continue waiting and clearing the air. Xander sees what happened as "one bad fight," but Danny felt like she was drowning. Once again, Xander denies the rumor about Kennedy. Danny decides to believe him, fully and completely.
However, when she contacted him to meet her at HR, he expected her to tell him she meant when she said at the retreat. He's fed up with the situation and leaves. Back at the retreat, Cruz pieced together suspicious that Danny and Xander were involved, which stressed out Danny. She soaked her stress in drinks and picked a fight with Xander during a karaoke night. But their relationship rollercoaster is just beginning.
Danny and Xander said 'I love you,' then...
Benny's tests all come back normal, but Harper still believes there's something wrong with the baby, but they can't force the parents to stay at the hospital with no medical evidence requiring more tests. On top of the frustrating situation with these parents, Harper feels guilty and responsible for the messy situation Danny's currently in.
When she has to convince Xander to return for the meeting, Danny thinks about the morning after her drunken night at the retreat. Xander took her back to his room because they couldn't find her keys. She apologizes for what she said the night before, and he tells her that he loves her! She wastes no time in saying it back. They kiss and share a special moment, which continues when he reveals he got the attending offer.
Now, he wants to tell everyone about their relationship. That's an immediate red flag for Danny. He has nothing to lose with the offer on the table, but she still has something to lose while in contention for chief resident. She didn't want Xander to just not recommend her; she wanted him to remove himself from the process. She wanted to earn chief, and if they report to HR now, she can say buh-bye to her promotion.
So here it is: The big fight that led Danny to realize that Xander, either intentionally or unconsciously, wielded his power in their relationship, as a professional superior, in favor of his career above hers in a harmful manner. Again, intentional or not, it looks and feels very bad. He doesn't understand that this situation has higher stakes for Danny than it does for him. Their fight ends with downright awful things said, and Danny goes to Harper's room, where she advices Danny to report Xander for sexual harassment.
Cruz warns Danny that she could be fired
Before going to Harper, Cruz spots Danny tearfully leaving a room that isn't hers in her outfit from the night before. They share an elevator ride together where Cruz, who's clearly put two and two together but doesn't say anything, offers some wisdom wrapped up in a theoretical scenario of being weak and defenseless in front of her colleagues. "You can't ever let them see you like that. You hear me?"
In the present tense, Danny admits to Xander that she hasn't had a lot of love in her life, but she's sure that she really loved him in a way that she never loved anyone. He tells Danny that it hurt to have that "I love you" moment then be blindsided by what came next. But she's even more hurt that he's still not understanding where she's coming from and he's the only person she wants to understand. She's crying, but they agree to simply tell HR that they were in a relationship and it ended.
Harper tries to convince the parents to keep their son for more observation, but the father yells at her and gets in her face. Danny exits the elevator, sees the incident occurring, and intervenes to defend her sister. The father then gets right in Danny's face, and she warns him to step back twice. When he calls her a "crazy b-tch," Danny pushes the father. Uh-oh... Cruz isn't happy and reveals her job was already on the line and now Cruz has cause to drop her from the resident program.
What else happened in Pulse episode 8:
- Cole apologizes to Cass and she accepts, but he's off to the yacht party and asks her not to tell Soriano. She heads up to visit Nia and they have different perspectives on Cole. But Cass discovers Nia's taken a turn for the worse.
- On the yacht, Cole begins to enjoy a life that could be his if he joined Hoffman's practice. But a call from Sophie about Nia going into surgery changes everything. Soriano also learns he attended the yacht party. Cole rushes back to the hospital as soon as he can. Cass isn't happy to see him when he's back.