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When Pulse viewers first meet third-year resident Dr. Danny Simms (Willa Fitzgerald), she’s having “a woman’s worst day at work,” creator and co-showrunner Zoe Robyn tells Tudum. Not only has Danny just reported her boss, chief resident Dr. Xander Phillips (Colin Woodell), to HR for sexual harassment, but rumors about the delicate situation is quickly sweeping through their workplace, Maguire Medical Center. Danny is staring down a lot of questions — both from her colleagues and for herself. 

“What happens if you’re in love with your boss? What happens if you also work in a very high-stress, high-pressure environment? What happens if you’re promoted to your boss’ position?” asks Robyn. “And if you’re also in a hurricane?” 

Yet, by the Pulse season finale, Danny is smiling. Over 10 episodes, she manages to win the coveted title of chief resident, lose it to her best friend Dr. Sam Elijah (Jessie T. Usher), survive a deadly natural disaster, and accept her thorny relationship with Xander. By the end, Danny is free to laugh to herself as she swims alone in the Miami surf. 

“It was an amazing moment to shoot. It was an amazing moment for the character as well,” Fitzgerald tells Tudum. “It was both this cathartic release for Danny and this surrender to the literal tides of her life and the things that she cannot control.” 

As Danny comes to terms with the erratic pulse of her own heart, so do the rest of her co-workers. Xander takes accountability for a dark secret he’s held for a year; Sam steps into his new role at Maguire; Dr. Tom Cole (Jack Bannon) stands at the precipice of a mysterious professional future; Danny’s sister Dr. Harper Simms (Jessy Yates) is enjoying a hard-won success; and Maguire brass shakes up the leadership of the hospital. 

“The relationships on our show evolve and change and deepen over time,” co-showrunner Carlton Cuse tells Tudum. So what does this mean for Maguire’s complicated staff? Keep reading as Robyn, Cuse, Fitzgerald, and more of the Pulse cast answer your biggest questions. 

What did Xander actually do at Kennedy? 

From the very beginning of Pulse, we know Xander left nearby hospital Kennedy for mysterious reasons. Throughout the season, the secrecy around his exit becomes a pain point between Danny and Xander. In Episode 10, we finally learn what happened. 

No, Xander did not have an inappropriate relationship with a colleague at Kennedy. Instead, a year before he came to Maguire, one of Xander’s favorite young patients, Julio (Michael Garza), stopped by Kennedy’s ER. Amid rising pressures from Dr. Lucy Broussard (Charlayne Woodard) to “street and treat” more patients, Xander tried to fit Julio into his busy schedule. So Xander rushed Julio’s paracentesis without using an ultrasound for the procedure. Hours later, Julio returned to the ER. He had begun to bleed out, and died in front of Xander. As Xander tells Danny in the finale, he’d likely nicked one of Julio’s vessels during the procedure, inadvertently causing his patient’s death. Then, in an effort to protect Xander’s burgeoning medical career — and their prominent family name — his wealthy parents covered up the entire incident and had everyone involved sign an NDA. 

Woodell, who plays Xander, requested clarity on what happened at Kennedy before he signed on to Pulse. Luckily for him, Robyn and Cuse “baked in” the reveal from the very beginning of pre-production. “We had the idea that Xander had this secret shame about something he had done at the old hospital and that a mentor made him do something that he wasn’t really comfortable with. All of that led to this tragic thing,” Robyn says. “His past was always different from what viewers would expect.” 

After speaking to real-life doctors, Woodell thinks the finale reflects their actual struggles. “With that episode, you saw the personal investment that can sometimes happen with a patient — how hard you can take it if something were to happen to them,” the actor tells Tudum. “You’re more likely than not going to bury those feelings, right? Xander can get a change of scenery, move to a different hospital, and meet all new people. But that guilt is very real, and it manifests itself in lots of different ways.” 

How does Pulse end? 

By the start of Episode 10, Danny — with the support of her younger sibling Harper — has dropped her HR complaint against Xander. However, the pair still haven’t been totally honest with each other. That dynamic changes in the finale. First, Xander tells Danny everything about Kennedy, admitting he had to keep the truth from her due to his NDA. During this conversation, Xander also realizes their romantic relationship did put Danny in an uncomfortable situation. He finally apologizes and they both agree they love each other. 

During filming, Fitzgerald was moved by the “rare honesty” between Danny and Xander, two characters who tend to compartmentalize their feelings. “That scene was a lot about letting go and acknowledging the relationship for what it was,” Fitzgerald says. “Filming that felt like the end of The Graduate, where there’s an acceptance of the imperfectness of the situation that has led to the current experience.” 

Then, in their final conversation of the season, Xander tells Danny he went to the hospital review board and confessed everything about Julio’s death. Despite the possible fallout — including losing his license — Xander says he wanted to do the right thing … and be more like Danny. 

Cuse explains that Xander is finally done with the compromises that come with holding in secrets. “Danny has kind of challenged him to be the best version of himself,” he says. “We use that moment as a demarcation of the ways in which Danny has changed Xander for the better across the course of the season.” 

Now that Danny’s relationship with Xander is in the healthiest shape it’s ever been, she heads to the beach, ending the season happily swimming by herself. Fitzgerald jumped into Pulse’s final scene, even though she’s actually very afraid of the ocean. “I always joke that anything I’m really afraid of, if I have to do it on camera, I will do it,” she explains. “That scene is just a beautiful, poetic release for Danny after so much tension.” 

What really happened between Danny and Xander? 

Each episode of Pulse features a series of flashbacks that explain Danny and Xander’s relationship. He got to Maguire a year before the hurricane, and the duo quickly became friendly. About a month after knowing each other, Danny and Xander’s romance heated up at a Maguire donor gala. Soon after, they hooked up and eventually began dating. As we see throughout the season, Danny and Xander were serious enough to have keys to each other’s homes and share Sunday dinner together every week. Still, the couple continued to disagree over how their connection should coexist with their mentor-mentee relationship at work. Danny’s desire to become chief resident further complicated the situation. 

Both Woodell and Fitzgerald count the flashbacks as some of their favorite scenes to film. “They were like little breadcrumbs for us as actors,” Woodell says. “You saw the complexity of the relationship and the genuine love between the two of them. But you also saw how things got convoluted and completely misinterpreted, along with the flaws in each of them.” 

Those contrasts came to a head during Episode 8’s Maguire retreat, which occurred immediately before Danny filed her HR complaint. On the second morning of the retreat, Xander and Danny said “I love you” to each other. Xander — who had just been offered an attending position at Maguire — decided he wanted to tell people about their relationship. Danny disagreed, since an admission would take her out of the running for chief resident. 

An argument breaks out over their differing perspectives. Danny felt Xander wanted to sacrifice her career in favor of protecting his promotion — while also ignoring how much respect she would lose in the process. Xander believed Danny continuously pushed him away to avoid feeling hurt, thereby hurting everyone else around her. 

“I know Colin feels the same way, where, by the time we got to the end of the season, we were both heartbroken for Danny and Xander,” Fitzgerald says. “The depth that those flashbacks add to the stories and the characters is really profound.”

What happened with Dr. Natalie Cruz? 

Natalie Cruz (One Day at a Time’s Justina Machado) is introduced as the visionary doctor behind much of Maguire’s success. She’s the chair of both surgery and the ER for the Level 1 trauma center. “We really wanted to play up the fact that Cruz — because of her authority, seniority, and talents — is this rare person who has both departments under her purview,” Cuse explains. “There are tensions around her position at Maguire. We realize that hospital leadership doesn’t really love the fact that she’s got both.” 

This means changes come in the finale. Natalie announces that ER attending doctor Patrick Sanchez (J.R. Ramirez) — who we meet in Episode 9 — will become the chair of emergency medicine.

“She takes it like a champ, but it’s very hurtful to her,” Machado tells Tudum. “The hospital is something that she built from the ground up. But she feels like she made the right decisions and can live with her choices.”

So, what does Patrick’s promotion mean? 

Patrick’s promotion to chair of the ER effectively cuts Natalie’s powers in half. “It doesn’t seem like Natalie likes Patrick very much right now,” Machado says. “I feel like she’s not going to go down without a fight.” 

Well, Xander might be fighting right alongside Natalie. In the finale, we also learn that Patrick and Xander do not get along. Patrick thinks Xander has lived an overly charmed life. Xander admits that Patrick is his “least favorite” attending physician. “I think Patrick is going to make Xander’s life a living hell,” Woodell says with a laugh. 

But there is one person who might be happy with Patrick … 

Wait, is Sam chief resident now? 

Much to the shock of Danny, Harper, their friends, and Natalie (who backs Danny), Patrick names Sam chief resident for the upcoming year. Sam ends the season settling into his new office with the support of the ER nurses. 

“That was the reassurance that he needed,” Usher, who portrays Sam, tells Tudum. “It makes him feel welcome and comfortable in this new position. Now he knows he’s got his troops on his side. It’s just a little different going into battle when you know your troops are really, really behind you.” 

Robyn explains that Sam’s promotion caps off a conflicted journey. “He really does love Danny as a friend. And he has some other feelings for her,” she says. “But his emotions are so intermingled with this sense of, ‘Did I lose out on this promotion that I’ve been working for my whole life because of some political thing?’ Sam is really trying to balance all of that at once.” 

What’s going on with Tom? 

While no one can question Tom’s talents in the surgical bay, his social skills are often up for debate. His underlings — like Dr. Sophie Chan (Chelsea Muirhead) and Camila Perez (Daniela Nieves) — are unhappy with his negative attitude. He also finds himself romantically split between nurse Cass Himmelstein (Jessica Rothe) and EMT Nia Washington (Ash Santos). Tom’s love triangle goes from unwise to professionally detrimental when Nia becomes his patient. Tom kisses Nia and then performs surgery on her. When Nia’s family visits Maguire, they make it clear they’re aware of Tom’s inappropriate relationship with her. Tom’s boss Dr. Ruben Soriano (Néstor Carbonell) tells him that his best bet is to leave Nia alone and pray for a good outcome. 

“Tom did need to go through all of that,” Robyn says. Cuse agrees, adding, “He’s self-absorbed. Tom is learning the lesson of what happens if you don’t treat people well or with respect.” 

Are Danny and Xander really over? 

Woodell says that Danny and Xander’s love is “real,” even after a very difficult period. “They’re both two characters who want to be good partners to each other. But they also have a lot of work to do on themselves,” he says. “Unfortunately, both of them need to figure some stuff out on their own first before they’re really available for the other.” 

Cuse agrees, saying the finale raises even more questions for these exes. “We see how much they care about each other, but what’s the path forward? Danny is still going to be a resident. Xander is now her boss again in a different iteration as an attending,” he says. “Our hope is that the audience really cares about these two people and about their relationship with each other.” 

So, if you’ve fallen in love with Danny and Xander’s “tragic” romance, (re)watch it all unfold, now on Netflix. For even more Pulse news, keep coming back to Tudum. 

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