Let’s Talk About the Baffling Sexual Harassment Plot in Netflix’s 'Pulse'

Earlier this week, we reviewed Netflix’s Pulse, easily one of the worst Netflix originals of the year, despite a strong cast that includes the remarkably good Will Fitzgerald, Colin Woodell, and supporting roles for Néstor Carbonell, Arturo Del Puerto, and Justina Machado.

From the reactions to that review, it sounds like a lot of people bailed early on (and a lot more wish they had), so many probably don’t know how that moronic sexual harassment storyline — which consumed much of the season — ultimately played out.

Here’s the quick version: When the series opens, a resident, Dr. Danny Simms (Fitzgerald), has filed a complaint against the Chief Resident, Dr. Xander Phillips (Woodell), for reasons that aren’t immediately clear. Phillips is briefly suspended, and Simms is elevated to interim Chief Resident over her best friend, Dr. Sam Elijah (Jessie T. Usher), who pretends to support her but is secretly jealous — especially once he learns the circumstances behind the promotion (he is played up as the nice guy in the series, but he’s also kind of a petulant asshole).

It takes most of the season — and a punishing number of flashbacks — to unravel the details, but here’s the gist: Simms and Phillips spark instant chemistry. He pursues her, and while she’s initially hesitant to date her boss, she quickly reciprocates.

Simms is clearly uncomfortable with the dynamic — not so much because he’s her boss, but because Phillips, as Chief Resident, has a vote in choosing his successor. She doesn’t want it to look like she earned the role because of their relationship. It puts her in an impossible position, and the two have several arguments about it. But crucially: She doesn’t end the relationship, nor does she report it to HR, because she knows — and Phillips frequently reminds her — what that could mean for her career.

So yes, it is messy, and the power imbalance and gender dynamics unquestionably make the situation harder for Danny than for Xander. But even so, Danny’s decision to file a harassment complaint against Xander is … baffling. He doesn’t harass her. He doesn’t exploit the power dynamic. He doesn’t retaliate when she pushes back (to be fair, there is a hint of that early on — and if she’d filed the complaint then, it would’ve been more understandable).

Basically, Danny files the complaint because she feels like Xander doesn’t fully grasp how impossible the situation is for her. And he doesn’t! But that alone isn’t grounds for a harassment complaint — especially since, as Danny herself admits, all she really wanted from Xander was an apology. Which he gives her (after she drops the complaint).

Meanwhile, Xander — who comes from a wealthy, well-connected family — finds himself in a difficult situation when his mother catches wind of the complaint. Xander’s mother tries to pressure the hospital into firing Danny for an unrelated incident (she berated a patient). But Xander, who was forced out of his previous hospital after a botched procedure killed a patient — a cover-up orchestrated by his mother — breaks his NDA to tell Danny the truth, giving her potential leverage against his mom.

It turns out to be unnecessary. Dr. Cruz (Justina Machado), the head of emergency medicine, basically ignores Xander’s mom’s threats and promotes Danny to Chief Resident. However, she’s soon overruled by her own replacement, who names Elijah Chief Resident instead. Dr. Cruz all but admits it’s a compromise to protect Danny’s job from Xander’s mother’s influence.

As for Danny and Xander, they agree to be friends — though it’s obvious the sexual tension is still very much alive, setting up a potential second-season romance. I doubt we’ll ever see that second season, though — not just because the reviews have been brutal but because Pulse had a mediocre debut for Netflix, landing at number three in its first week with 6.5 million views. That’s only marginally better than the now-cancelled second season of The Recruit.