This post contains spoilers from Netflix's Pulse episode 9 from this point forward.
Following the dramatic ending of episode 8, Pulse episode 9 finds Xander back at work as chief resident and completing an online sexual harassment seminar. While Xander still has his offer for attending, there's now a chance that Danny could be dropped from the program. When Harper asks why she dropped the complaint, Danny explains it's not because it wasn't true but because she just needs Xander to apologize. She still loves him, even with everything that's happened.
The team doesn't have much time to unpack the latest developments between Danny and Xander. An after hours nightclub was engulfed in flames by a pyrotechnics misfire, causing a stampede and multiple injuries among partygoers. Xander and Danny work together well as Xander steps right back into his role as chief without incident. He even works perfectly with Camila, who he allows to jump in on the trauma since it's her last day of rotation. Danny pops out to help with other patients.
She assists Harper and Elijah with a girl named Penny, who's asking about her best friends Charlie and Fiona. Danny promises to track down her friends. When they come in one after the other, each one in critical condition and requiring immediate care from the whole team, Danny keeps them all together in the same room, and their friendship helps inspire a reconciliation between Danny and Harper. Ever since all that drama with their dad came up, they desperately needed a moment to come back together as sisters.
Xander shares his secret with Danny
Throughout his first day back as chief, Xander tries to reconnect with the team. He has an important conversation with Elijah about the situation with Danny, and then he later checks in with Danny to make sure she's comfortable working with him. She insists she is but wonders whether he wants her off the team. It's not a far leap since his mother's literally trying to get her fired, but that's not his agenda at all.
It's the last shift of the academic year, and all kinds of announcements are coming up at the party (which happens in the finale, so don't get too excited), including the new chief resident for the following year. Elijah offers to put in a good word for Danny with Cruz, but she knows that no one can fix this situation for her. Oddly enough, Xander doesn't know that his parents are trying to fire Danny. She doesn't tell him, though.
Xander does make an enemy, and that's Cole, who's on the warpath after getting a talking to from Soriano (more on that below). They argue over a patient, but it becomes about a whole lot more than that. The staff is a mess, and even with a particular senior resident, Dr. Patrick Sanchez (guest star J.R. Ramirez) possibly taking over her position as ER chair (since ER and surgery are being split), Cruz is still conflicted about firing Danny to save her own job, even though that's what Soriano is pushing her to do.
Finally, Danny admits to Xander that she could be getting fired because of his parents and the HR claim. She knows that he can't stop them, but she makes a last ditch effort for him to ask his parents to stand down. She doesn't want to lose her job and working with her sister after how hard she's worked. While heading up to the roof for a new trauma, Xander gives Danny a smoking gun about the NDA he signed after leaving Kennedy. She can use this information as blackmail to stop his mom. According to Xander, he killed someone. What?!
What else happened in Pulse episode 9:
- Sophie's excited that Soriano invited her to scrub in on Nia's surgery and relays the gossip to Camila that Cole and Nia might be involved. Later, Sophie sees Cole visiting Nia before surgery and holding her hand.
- When Cole asks Soriano to scrub in on Nia's surgery, he unenthusiastically agrees. However, when Sophie asks Cole if he should be scrubbing in given his feelings for Nia, he pulls her from the surgery and sends her to the ER. During the surgery, Cole freezes and allows the pressure of his feelings to get to him.
- Cole joins Soriano to talk with Nia's family, and her mother heard about Cole from Nia. "You're a lot more than friends." Soriano's furious with Cole and reprimands him for getting close with Nia.
- Sophie learns from Gabriel that Camila's planning on leaving Maguire, and she's surprised and frustrated. When she asks, Camila admits that the hospital and its staff are toxic. (Is she wrong?) She doesn't want to work with Cole, and they disagree about how he treats Sophie.