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At the end of the May 17 episode of New Amsterdam, Iggy Frome made a shocking realization about his marriage to Martin. Iggy returned home and told Martin that he’s been spending their entire relationship trying to make up for his shortcomings in their marriage. Iggy admitted that he’s been “wounding himself” so Martin could save him because that’s how Martin loves him. “I’m not the problem, you are,” Iggy told Martin.
HollywoodLife spoke EXCLUSIVELY with Tyler Labine about why it’s taken so long for Iggy to come to this realization and what the finale holds. He admitted that it’s been a “consistent unraveling” between Iggy and Martin. “As a person who has been through a divorce recently, and someone who really believes that every street is a two-way street, these are informed actions. No one just wakes up and has a nefarious plan,” he said. “They’re trying to sort through some emotional detritus. They’re trying to get through what’s not working for them. And are those actions good or correct? No, they’re really selfish. They’re maybe even harsh or abrupt. But I think at the end of the last episode, with Iggy really turning the finger at Martin, there’s some truth to that. No matter how mad people want to get about that, there is a pattern between the two of them of Iggy apologizing for everything that he does. Has Iggy made mistakes? Yes. Are there things he should apologize for? Absolutely. But I think when you know, you do know when you’re not happy in this relationship. All we’ve seen are these things that have happened in later years in their relationship, and we’ve never seen the way Iggy reacts when Martin needs him. We’ve only seen the way Martin reacts when Iggy needs him. So we don’t really know the whole story. All we know is what we get told and what we’re shown. If I have to look at Iggy as a fully fleshed-out character, which I try to because I embody him, everybody’s coming from somewhere. No one just wakes up and goes, ‘I want to destroy my marriage.’ There are big feelings there that maybe aren’t articulated the best, but that’s where Iggy landed with it that day.”
Iggy and Martin are clearly at a crossroads in their relationship. Tyler teased that the season 4 finale will feature a deep conversation between the couple. “I mean, I can’t give away much because there’s a very impactful conversation that comes our way. But literally and figuratively, the hospital’s foundation is being pounded in the episode. Iggy really finds himself in a new position at the hospital and in a very empowering one. I’ll say this without spoiling anything, Iggy and Martin reach a new point of clarity that they’ve never even approached before. It’s a really big moment. It’s a very impactful conversation. I won’t say there’s a resolution. It’s impactful and there’s a lot of clarity involved,” Tyler revealed.
In the midst of his marriage complications, the hospital is facing a hurricane. “Iggy gets to step up into a certain place that he’s never been asked to step into at the hospital. What he agrees to takes him way further than he thought he was going to go,” Tyler revealed about what Iggy will be dealing with at the hospital.
At the end of the day, Tyler still hopes that Iggy and Martin can make things work. “I invest a lot in the Igmar of it all. I invest a lot in all of the relationships on the show,” he told HollywoodLife. “I think that I really hold out hope that they can make it through what they’re going through, especially as a guy who got divorced recently. I have a lot of things on my mind that I could have done differently, or ways that I wish I could have communicated that I’ve discovered after it was too late.”
Next season will be the fifth and final season of New Amsterdam. As Tyler looks ahead, he’s “very grateful” for all the “ground we’ve covered with this show.” He added, “There’s a weird thing that happens when you know the end is coming, but you still have this time to impart your message or make an impact. I think that this next season, season 5, is going to be the best season we’ve made. Because I think we’re all like, we’re there. We know we’re coming to the end. We have some stories to wrap up, but we also have a little bit of time to raise some more important questions and ask the right things of the American people of the world really. We have a responsibility. This is it. This is our final season. Nobody here is taking that lightly. We all want it to be very impactful, and we all want to leave people feeling like they’re glad that they hung in there.”