'Pulse' Ending Explained & Finale Recap: Will Danny Return In Season 2?

The 2025 medical drama on Netflix, Pulse, ends with quite a few twists, although none of them are perhaps too difficult to predict from before. The protagonist, Danny Simms, faces a difficult time in both her personal and professional lives, as it is unclear whether she and Xander Phillips will get back together and also if she will lose her job at Maguire Hospital after Natalie Cruz warns her of such an outcome. Pulse’s finale also clarifies what exactly Xander had done at his previous workplace, while a slight window for a possible 2nd season is seemingly left open in the end.

Spoiler Alert

Is Danny fired from Maguire Hospital?

The protagonist in Pulse, Danny Simms, comes under significant trouble when she gets carried away by her emotions and her protective nature towards her sister, Harper, which results in her having an altercation with the family member of a patient. When Benny’s father, Glenn, forcefully wanted to take his son away from the hospital, despite his wife and the doctors being of the opinion that his treatment was not yet over, Harper tried to intervene. This led to Glenn being quite verbally aggressive and disrespectful towards the young doctor, and Danny does not hesitate to come in between them. Danny also has to tolerate the impolite behavior of Glenn, and unable to keep her calm, she puts her hands on him, slightly pushing him back to show that she is not intimidated by him. While the push obviously does not hurt Glenn, and it was not Danny’s intention to do so either, the act is seen as a tremendous breach of protocol.

It is obviously against the laws for anyone working at the hospital to have physical altercations with a patient or their family, and so Danny’s momentary lapse of composure has a consequence. She is called to her boss, Dr. Natalie Cruz’s office, where Natalie explains that she will most probably be fired from her position at the hospital because of this altercation. Only some time earlier, the mother of Xander Phillips, Libby, had met Natalie with a special request, or rather demand, as the Phillips happened to be one of the largest donors to the hospital and, therefore, highly influential. Libby feared that Danny’s sexual harassment complaint against her son would lead to some old mistakes of Xander getting unearthed as well, which would put him and also his parents under extreme pressure. Therefore, Libby wanted the matter to be dealt with at the earliest, and the only way to do so, according to her, was to fire Danny from the hospital.

Thus, when Danny faces the threat of termination because of her reckless behavior, it is actually Libby’s orders that are at play. Danny having pushed Glenn gives the authorities a reason to fire her, while the real reason for her dismissal would be that the highest donors want her out. Natalie does not keep this situation a secret either, since she has been quite supportive of Danny and all her other subordinates, and so it is quite clear to the protagonist that she might be spending her last day at Maguire. Despite having already dropped the sexual harassment complaint, her earlier decision still threatens to ruin her life. But although Xander is almost directly responsible for this situation in her life, she does not share the news with him and also does not do anything to help her situation, much to the frustration of Harper.

During Pulse’s ending, Danny realizes just how much her job and the workspace mean to her, especially the opportunity to work with her sister, and she decides to take some steps. She tells Xander about Libby’s orders and Natalie’s inability to do anything about it, which makes him realize how Danny is being persecuted because of him. Therefore, Xander tells Danny the exact reason for his termination at his previous workplace, Kennedy Hospital, despite having signed an NDA to keep the matter a secret earlier. He tells Danny to go to his parents and threaten them with this information so that they take back their demand for her termination, and she gets to keep her job at Maguire. For some time, it even seems like Danny will have to take such a drastic step to save her career, but she ultimately does not have to by the end.

Despite being very helpful and supportive of her subordinates, Natalie Cruz finds it very difficult to protect Danny, as she realizes that the influence of her professional superiors is drawing her into one corner. The board has already made the decision to split surgery and emergency medicine into two separate departments, and while Natalie is still the chair of surgery, a new individual, Dr. Patrick Sanchez, is brought in to lead the emergency medicine department. As it happens, Natalie is not too fond of Patrick, both because of his close affinity to the board members and also his irritating attempts to romantically pursue her. Therefore, she realizes that Patrick has been specifically assigned to her hospital in an attempt by the board members to take away her power and meddle in her business, essentially. 

It seems like Natalie will have to give in to these pressures and listen to the advice of the most senior doctor at her hospital, Dr. Ruben Soriano, which is to fire Danny and protect her stronghold over Maguire Hospital. However, in Pulse’s ending, she reveals her truly commendable nature, for Natalie wants to protect good medical students with more determination than she wants to keep the donors and the board members happy, meaning that she decides to let Danny keep working at the hospital. She reveals that she had never really planned on firing Danny but had warned her to keep the protagonist prepared for the worst. Therefore, Danny is not fired from her position and will continue to be a resident doctor at Maguire Hospital. 

What had Xander really done at his previous workplace?

At the beginning of Pulse, Xander Phillips was temporarily suspended because of the allegation of sexual harassment that Danny had filed against him, and the protagonist also found out from her sister that Xander had faced similar allegations previously in his career as well. Before working as the chief resident at Maguire, he had been working as a resident doctor at the Kennedy Hospital, where his time had been cut short due to some undisclosed reason. The matter was so serious that Xander had had to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement to promise that nobody other than him, his parents, and the highest authorities at the hospital would ever know about what had happened. Finally, towards the end of the series, he reveals to Danny what exactly had gone down at his previous workplace and also explains the alleged sexual harassment allegations against him.

While working as a resident doctor at Kennedy Hospital, I had become quite friendly with a young patient named Julio, who regularly came in for his gastrointestinal issues. During one such visit, Julio and his mother requested Xander to execute the medical procedure required to temporarily heal him on that very day. Despite the hospital, and himself, having a very tight schedule, Xander had decided to go through with the procedure in order to help ease Julio’s pains and also to let him prepare for his college days. However, during the operation, a senior colleague of his, Dr. Lucy Broussard, told him off for using the emergency room for unscheduled purposes, which made Xander rush things. While an ultrasound test was required to figure out the location of the incision to be made, Xander did not get the time to conduct it, and Dr. Broussard even encouraged him to go through with the operation without the ultrasound test. Although the procedure was completed normally, Julio had to be rushed to the hospital once again a few hours later, after he had collapsed suddenly. Once tests were conducted, it was revealed that the previous procedure, conducted by Xander, had left some tremendous ill effects on his body, because of which Julio ultimately passed away.

The death of Julio was naturally considered to have been caused by Xander Phillips, and this was a grave blotch on his professional and academic record, which his parents were determined to keep a secret from the world. Therefore, the rich and influential Phillips ensured that an NDA was signed by their son and the authorities so that Xander’s career would not be affected, even though he was fired from Kennedy Hospital. It was for this reason that Xander had joined Maguire almost out of the blue, but since nobody at either of his workplaces knew what had happened, certain rumors started to float around. 

The allegation of sexual harassment and misconduct that Harper had heard from somewhere and had then told her sister was also among these false rumors, and since Xander had signed the NDA, he could not even defend himself against these rumors. Ultimately, Xander Phillips opens up to Danny about his past and also experiences a moment of redemption when he has to conduct a serious operation without the aid of ultrasound, just like with Julio earlier, but he manages to save the patient this time and himself steps up to give this happy news to the patient’s husband. 

Does Danny become the new chief resident?

In Pulse’s ending, the entire team of doctors and nurses prepares for the year-end evaluation, in which they will get to enjoy a gathering hosted by the hospital authorities, and most importantly, the new chief resident for the new year will be announced. Being one of the most dedicated, hardworking, and skilled resident doctors at the hospital, Danny Simms obviously wishes to be selected as the chief resident, but she is also prepared for the other candidate, Sam Elijah, being selected. Although Danny and Sam are very close friends who have always supported each other since their days of internship at the hospital together, the protagonist has high ambitions for herself, along with very low self-confidence, for the most part, which makes her genuinely yearn for the position.

When Natalie tells Danny that she has been cleared to continue working at the hospital, she also informs the protagonist that she has chosen her to be the chief resident for the next year. This is very happy news for Danny, and she is mentally prepared to hear the same announcement at the official gathering. However, the new Chair of Emergency Medicine, Dr. Patrick Sanchez, pulls off an unexpected twist when he announces Sam Elijah as the next Chief Resident instead of Danny. Although Natalie had chosen the protagonist for the position, Patrick overturns it and selects his preferred candidate, since the two of them have to technically decide on the matter together.

It is evident that Patrick does this to remind Natalie that he too now wields quite some power and can very well turn her decisions around in his favor. He is surely not too happy at Natalie’s decision to keep Danny at the hospital, since the board members do not want this to happen. Therefore, Patrick decides to not let Danny reach the esteemed position of the chief resident and chooses Sam instead. His decision to pick Sam is obviously not based on the skills displayed by the two candidates, for Sam is also an equally deserving resident doctor, but his intention is simply to deprive Danny of the opportunity to become the leader among the resident doctors. Therefore, at the end of Pulse, it is Sam who is announced as the new chief resident, and not Danny.

Will there be a season 2?

Pulse has been very much designed and made in a way to suggest that there will be a 2nd season, or rather, the creators have kept that window open. Although the basic problems in Danny and Xander’s lives have been solved, there are quite a few matters that might bring new challenges for them. To begin with, Danny will have to continue working as a resident doctor, especially under her good friend, Sam. Although Sam has no ill feelings against Danny for now, he has clearly noticed the preferential treatment that Natalie displayed in favor of Danny, which might create problems for both of them. Besides, Sam has always had a romantic interest in Danny, and he genuinely feels a bit let down by the fact that she dated Xander, and he might once again try to pursue her in the future.

Xander reveals at the end that he has come clean about his past to the hospital authorities, which is not just a clear defiance of his parents’ wishes but also that of the NDA he had signed. Whether he faces trouble for having done this and how he will deal with the ghosts from his past will be interesting to see. The introduction of Dr. Patrick Sanchez definitely makes things more complicated for all the characters we have seen, since he is a direct representative of the board members, and a clash between him and Natalie is almost bound to take place. Finally, in Pulse season 1’s ending, we see Danny letting loose and swimming in the sea, while Sam is informed of a speedboat accident that has taken place and that multiple patients are being rushed to their hospital. The show’s ending seems to suggest that Danny might be one of the patients who might have somehow been injured while swimming, meaning that the protagonist will need to rely on her friends and colleagues for her own survival if Pulse returns with a 2nd season. 

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