Saving Hope Episode 1.09: "Bea, Again"
Wow! It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Well, this week’s episode picks up where the last one left off – and in case you’ve forgotten, you can check out the re-cap here. For those who remember, let’s just get right to it, shall we?
Condensed Version:
Per Dawn’s orders, Alex takes Charlie off the ventilator. While waiting for him to die, Alex seeks the help of a lawyer in a last attempt to save his life – while Charlie meets up with an old (and dead) teacher Mack, who is supposedly there to help him cross over. However, it turns out that Charlie is supposed to help Mack – as a returning patient Bea comes in for a check-up to learn that Mack misdiagnosed her several years ago. Meanwhile, Dr. Goran and Dr. Miller have a paraplegic patient who is suddenly able to feel her legs again, Maggie and Gavin have difficulty moving past their kiss, and Alex and Joel have a hard time figuring out where they stand with each other after Joel’s attempted confession. Though the lawyer loses the appeal, Dawn relents and agrees to revoke Charlie’s DNR status as he is able to breathe on his own.
Extended Version:
Medical Problem #1
Bea Patiera (Rachael Cairns) comes into Hope-Zion Hospital for a check-up on her Hodgkin’s Lymphoma – which she was diagnosed with several years previously by Charlie’s teacher Mack (Colm Feore). As Charlie is still unable to see patients, Alex takes on that case. While waiting for her test results to come back, Bea heads down to get some coffee, at which point Charlie and Mack catch her dysphasing – meaning she probably has a brain tumor. After a consultation with Shahir, it is revealed that Bea was misdiagnosed by Mack, and actually has a T-Cell Lymphoma, not Hodgkin’s – which resulted in a brain tumor. Fortunately, Shahir says that they were able to catch it quickly enough to be able to fix the problem.
Medical Problem #2
Nadia Hope (Karen Robinson), a parapalegic (thanks to an accident two years previously that also took her husband’s life), heads into the ER after taking a fall from her wheelchair and breaking her wrist. While checking for other injuries, Joel discovers that she can feel her legs again – which shouldn’t be possible after so long. Nadia and her church friends think it is a miracle – and Dr. Miller (Benjamin Ayres) thinks the same. However, Joel thinks she has conversion disorder – and seeks help from Gavin. He talks with Nadia and gets her to realize that she never dealt with her accident, particularly with her husband’s death. Ultimately, Joel helps set her on track for therapy – both physical and mental – to help her get full use of her legs back.
The Hope-Zion Hospital Drama
“Bea, Again” opens as Alex (Erica Durance) is about to remove Charlie’s ventilator. I suppose for normal coma patients, that would generally mean the patient would die within a few hours – as they are unable to breathe on their own. Of course, Charlie can do nothing but stand there and watch helplessly – eventually storming off in anger, where he turns a corner to run into his old teacher Mack (Colm Feore). What makes this interesting is that Mack had died earlier that year, but was supposedly back to help Charlie cross over. So, this week, much of the episode is centered on helping Charlie figure out what is keeping him here and trying to resolve it and move on.
A great deal of this episode is spent in flashbacks – which made for a very interesting episode. As usual, it was great getting to see more backstory between Charlie and Alex – this time with the added benefit of seeing Dawn as well. It turns out that Dawn (Michelle Nolden) and Charlie were married when Alex started her residency at Hope-Z. We still see a little bit of flirting and friendship forming between the two – which also helps us understand Dawn’s position a bit more.
Of course, even with that realization – we still don’t want to see Charlie die – and neither does Alex. So, though he’s off the ventilator, Melanda (Glenda Braganza) helps Alex get in contact with a lawyer (Catherine Disher) to try for an appeal of the case.
Meanwhile, Maggie and Gavin (Kristopher Turner) have to deal with some awkwardness after their shared kiss. Maggie (Julia Taylor-Ross) tells Gavin that they made a mistake – though Gavin disagrees. Later, she tries to bring the friendship side to the forefront – but Gavin doesn’t want to just be her friend anymore. Naturally, it causes some problems between the two. After a conversation with Alex – wherein Alex describes her relationship with Charlie as being more than a couple, but also best friends – Maggie begins to consider the idea of her and Gavin together.
Speaking of awkward conversations, Alex and Joel (Daniel Gillies) – who doesn’t have much to do right now thanks to his broken hand from the bar fight – have one of their own after Joel’s almost-confession. They seem unable to know how to behave around each other, as they stick to small talk and avoid any deeper subjects. After feeling so free to talk to Joel about her problems and Charlie’s status, it is probably very strange for her to be unable to do so anymore. It’s still unclear how long it will take for the two of them to return to normal – if at all.
After Alex has a lapse in judgement that involved her saying a few choice words to Dana Kinney (Wendy Crewson) – who just so happens to also be her boss – we get an unexpected twist: Dana offers Tom Reycraft (K.C. Collins) Alex’s position as Chief Surgical Resident. Tom seemed reluctant at first because he feels bad for the circumstances that made that position available, but definitely took the job – and who could blame him? We later see him excitedly calling his parents to give them the good news. Of course, no one has told Alex yet, so that is something to look forward to in the next episode.
Though not unexpected, the lawyer fails to win the appeal. However, with Charlie’s normal breathing after a day off the ventilator – which is unexpected given his supposed condition – Alex manages to convince Dawn that Charlie shouldn’t be DNR. The discovery of Bea’s misdiagnosis sets Alex on a path to see if Charlie was misdiagnosed as well. She seeks out Shahir to get his opinion and have him run more tests on Charlie. We’re going to have to wait until next week’s episode to determine whether or not he has been misdiagnosed – though I’m not entirely sure what difference it will make.
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Final thoughts:
-Can we begin by dealing with the new backstory information on the Alex/Charlie/Dawn situation? I don’t know about you all, but I sort of assumed Dawn and Charlie had been divorced long before he ever met Alex – but as this episode showed, that was clearly not the case. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that (mostly not good) – and it has definitely raised a lot of questions.
-Of course, I’m also even more curious to see Alex’s backstory with Joel. As actor Daniel Gillies teased on his Twitter, that’s something we are supposed to get to see this season at some point. It’s not entirely clear whether she is single on her first day of residency, or if she was currently seeing Joel during that time as well.
-Moving on from that, I don’t think it came to anyone’s surprise that Charlie made it through the day off of breathing tubes – though I did think it was an interesting plot twist to suggest that Charlie may have been misdiagnosed like Bea. However, I’m not entirely sure what that would mean for him and his chances of recovery – is he not in a coma, then?
-How about Maggie’s face in that closing scene as she watched Gavin chat with another girl? I mean, it’s not like we’re seeing any Joel/Maggie interaction lately – so I don’t entirely buy their relationship anymore. Can’t help but wonder if that’s intentional…. Guess we’ll have to wait and see. Personally, I’m thinking there’s going to be a relationship shift coming up fairly soon.
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In the meantime, check out Episode 1.10’s trailer and synopsis, and don’t forget to tune in Thursday, August 23rd, 2012:
1.10 “A New Beginning” Synopsis: Fear and doubt strike Joel in the OR, so Kinney takes him on a therapeutic field trip to her hometown, where they end up trying to rescue a woman who’s pinned under a truck. Elsewhere, Charlie connects with a newly deceased therapist; and Alex cares for a fitness buff with a rare condition.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I8NJbap78Y[/youtube]