The Knick

- Good morning, Miss. - Good morning.

It seems someone called the Marquesa de Salobrena

is coming in for the opening of the season.

Salobreña, dear.

The squiggly mark, it makes a noise.

Oh.

So much young European royalty in New York these days.

They call our money new,

but it certainly does attract a crowd.

Sure are some nice shoes.

Thank you.

Some kind of fancy leather.

Must have cost you heavy.

Everything moving forward with the electrification

now that Thackery has seen the light?

Well, the crews finished the installation

on the operating theater and the wards.

Oh, we're now a modern hospital.

The board must be pleased.

Aren't they?

Where you get a pair of shoes like that?

At a store.

Which one?

Maybe I get me a pair like that.

It's not a very fair position to put a young woman in, August.

I'm sure Cornelia's only doing it because she can't say no to you.

I actually like it. I just...

I wish I didn't feel so...

Say it.

So damn stiff.

Casswell's down on 20?

Tip Top on Madison?

Levasseur.

Le what?

Where's that?

Paris.

Paris?

France.

I know where Paris is, nigger.

You lucky you was next.

I'm afraid no one really takes me seriously.

I'm worried I'm letting you down.

Neely, sweetheart...

if I didn't think you were up to the task,

I wouldn't have put you there.

Yes, I could get any number of men

to sit in as my proxy, but no one,

not even your brother,

thinks the way I do more than you.

If you'd been born a man, you'd be running this whole damn city.

I don't doubt it.

Besides, any bad news delivered to the board

or anyone else

would just sound sweeter coming from you.

Thank you.

Now finish your breakfast so you're not late.

Aye, aye, Captain.

That all of 'em?

Uh, all that's living.

Got one more here, but he ain't moving.

Naw, he's moving.

He was dead when we scraped him off the ground.

You a doctor? Huh?

Well, as far as I can tell, he's another body delivered alive.

Wheel him in.

That's seven in all.

New building going up near Broad Street.

Me and Pounce must have waited all week for that crane to go,

but when it went, boyo, that really did it.

A holy show if I ever saw one.

Schuldheit and Sons,

so's you know where to send the bill.

I wager you'll already have your stretcher

waiting under me when my day comes, Cleary.

Might just.

Now, Mr. Barrow, it's the end of the month

and we need to be settling up.

Counting these seven, that's 22 altogether

at two bits per, that's five and half you owe me.

Are you sharing with Pouncey?

Sure.

Just last week I bought him a pint at the pub.

He's a good lad,

but he's thick as champ.

Get a bucket, scrub out that blood

and see me in my office and I'll have your money.

- All right, mate. - This one's dead.

You can drag him to the morgue.

Looks like you'll be buying one less pint for your friend.

- What the fuck? - I told you he was dead.

Get in.

Let's see here.

And one, two, three.

And this is the pathological lab.

My workshop.

Only one in the city.

Other hospitals may frown on studying the dead,

but I believe it is the only way

to advance our knowledge of the living.

The answers to disease and the body do not lie in house calls.

They're here in a lab

where we can experiment and calibrate.

Cancer, syphilis, tuberculosis,

all their mysteries waiting to be unlocked

and take us soaring into the next century.

They built all this just for you?

The wealth supporting the Knick is endless.

People here want their hospital to be the best.

And they're willing to pay.

All I have to do is ask.

Of course, there are certain obligations

that come along with getting what I want.

Such as?

Hiring a new surgical apprentice.

How did you come to know Captain Robertson?

I did some work with him in Nicaragua.

- Now he wants you here? - No, that was my idea.

You are legitimizing surgery.

Taking it out of the barbershops and into the future

and I want to be a part of it.

You do realize if you choose to join us,

the work will be hard and the hours long,

the results slow and agonizing,

and we will see no shortage of death at our own hands.

But the rewards...

The rewards will be the achievement of it all.

"When the blast of war blows in our ears,

then imitate the action of the tiger."

Hmm?

Shakespeare.

Never read him.

I think the smells are what remind me of him most.

His cologne. His soap.

His cut tobacco pouch.

How are you, Catherine?

I miss him.

I meant to pay a call.

Let us both pretend you mean that.

I failed him, John.

- No. - I tried.

Country weekends, time with the children,

dinner parties.

I thought I'd opened the valve for him,

but the pressure was still there.

Blame is easy. Truth is harder.

Then what's the truth?

That my dear friend Jules lost sight of the procedure.

Stopped seeing the work, started seeing the death.

Is that the cardinal sin?

You did everything right. You were a fine wife to him.

Once a man shifts his mind from the surgical field

to the patient under the drape, it's only a matter of time.

How will it not take hold of you the way it did Jules?

I have ways of getting through.

Check that ligature with saline for leaks, Everett.

It's holding fast.

Dr. Chickering will now cauterize the end of the duct.

No flame needed.

But does it make toast?

Very good.

Get it off! Get it off!

Bertie! Bertie!

Nurse Elkins, saline.

Nurse Monk, don't!

My family and I paid more than $12,000

to electrify this hospital.

I am as furious as you are, Miss Robertson.

I gave the man his charge. I am to blame.

Regardless of who's to blame,

to my father we both appear incompetent.

If our goal in wiring the place was to showcase our modernity,

then might I suggest that killing nurses

and setting patients afire might undermine the message a bit.

We were just discussing this and I am in agreement with you both.

The contractor must be held accountable.

We should run him out of business.

Or just beat the tar out of him.

Thack, there is a lady here.

Well, from the looks of her,

I'd say she'd take the first bat to the man.

I would if I thought it would help.

I think we should let our attorneys take a swing at him first.

Agreed.

Before we go tying this up in court,

allow me to speak to this thief

and force him to make good on his contract.

I warn you, Mr. Barrow, do not throw good money after bad.

I give you my word.

I will not spend a penny of the hospital's funds.

You have one week to resolve this.

Thank you for your patience.

Was there something else?

Yes. I've been looking for Dr. Edwards.

Have you tried his office?

Hello?

Algernon?

Yes?

This?

They assigned you this?

With their compliments.