“You save whoever they put in front of you. Nobody questions, should I? Shouldn’t I?”
All is well for Natalie and Jeff, and also Nina and Will. Or is it? There was tension between these two last season, as Will made his feelings for Natalie known. She wasn’t ready for a relationship, so things naturally got awkward between the two. For the first time since Will’s declarations, things seem to be back to normal between these two. Now that they are both in relationships, that pressure and awkwardness is gone. But how long will it last? Probably not very. More on that in just a bit…Natalie sees Hailey, a young cancer patient back in the hospital. Tests confirm she has an infection called CRE. It gets worse; Will has a patient recently diagnosed with CRE as well, which means they could be facing an outbreak. Dr. Robin Charles, an epidemiologist and daughter of Dr. Daniel Charles, is brought in to investigate and find the link between the CRE patients.
Natalie is convinced the outbreak is her fault, as Hailey was in the ED three days prior and didn’t receive that diagnosis. While Robin isn’t sensitive to Natalie’s concerns, Will definitely is. He insists throughout the entire investigation that the breakout was not Natalie’s fault, showing that he believes in her even when she doesn’t (you see where this is going, right?). This isn’t necessarily a good thing. Will is technically Natalie’s boss, but she continues to challenge him throughout the hour. And he lets her. Sure, it pays off…this time. But her continued determination to push the limits could land her in trouble, and Will would be somewhat to blame, as he continues to let her.
The cause of the CRE breakout? An endoscope. All CRE patients had endoscopies within the past week. Naturally, they’ll want to inform the FDA. Oh, but wait! They already know. The FDA doesn’t want to cause a shortage by pulling the endoscopes, and instead made a cost/benefit decision. This development opens up possibilities for Sharon’s storyline, as she would be the one to handle such issues. And while the drama of the ED is thrilling (we do tune in week after week), an ethical storyline about tools/instruments, practice, and/or procedures could be interesting as well. Thanks to Robin, the romantic possibilities with Will are once again brought to Natalie’s attention. Assuming they are together, Robin tells Natalie, “It’s great, what you two have…you’re really good together.” On the rooftop in the closing moments of the show, both Will and Jeff watch Natalie and Dr. Latham perform. Will and Natalie share a brief moment of eye contact before Nina arrives, but it’s the look on Natalie’s face when Will turns to Nina that is the most telling. Originally, I thought there would be a love triangle between Jeff, Will, and Natalie, and perhaps there will be. But it’s looking more like the triangle won’t include Jeff after all.
Side note: Hailey’s dad looks really familiar. Where have I seen him?
Elsewhere…
“Our job isn’t to solve family problems, it’s to fix ailments.”
Ethan has trouble letting patients go, and seems to have no problems breaking the rules to save them. The same can be said about Will, and I’m sure most doctors, to some degree. But the difference between Will and Ethan is that I think Ethan’s need to save everyone stems from those he couldn’t save while serving in the military. He’s still not allowing himself to heal and recover from his PTSD, which will eventually catch up to him. When Eddie goes into distress, Ethan claims he heard Eddie say, “Save me!” Well, we all know that Eddie said no such thing.
They do indeed save Eddie, and when he wakes up, Eddie tells Ethan that he is a “gravy train” to his much younger girlfriend. Ethan was obviously moved by the girlfriend’s earlier pleas to save Eddie, so discovering she’s nothing more than a gold digger afraid of losing her money can’t be easy for him.
Another interesting relationship is the one between Connor and Natalie. I’ve mentioned before how I originally thought these two would be romantically linked, as the series promos a year ago led us to believe just that. But they’ve developed a friendship that should definitely be explored more. They challenge each other, and it might just be because of Natalie that Connor has a change of heart regarding Dr. Latham.
Sarah is unable to stop Danny’s pimp from taking him, something that clearly doesn’t sit well with her. Learning medicine is one thing, but learning the boundaries between doctor and patient is something else entirely. As a new psychiatrist, Sarah has to learn to earn her patients’ trust, which typically means bonding with them. But bonding with them only causes her to care more, making the ones she can’t save all the more difficult.
Going back to Dr. Robin Charles, it’s obvious she and her dad aren’t close, so that’s going to be a development over the coming weeks, I’m sure. Through conversation with Sharon, we learn Daniel (it’s weird not calling him Dr. Charles, but now that there are two of them, it’s difficult) divorced Robin’s mom years ago. And even when they were together, he wasn’t really present. It will be interesting to see how Daniel navigates repairing his relationship with his daughter in the coming weeks. You also might remember that Robin was cast as a potential love interest for Connor, so this could get interesting. How will Daniel feel about Connor dating his daughter?
“I figure she has one foot in this world, and another in the next where Mom is.”
Maggie takes Jeff to “the farm”, an in-house, dark humor term for the ward of comatose patients. They visit a woman named Cindy who came into the ED right around the time Maggie’s mom passed away. In her last moments before slipping into a coma, Cindy called Maggie “Maggie-pie”, something her mom used to call her. Since then, Maggie checks in on her every week and feels a special connection with her. Looking to do something good for Cindy and Maggie, Jeff asks a friend for a favor to find any relatives of Cindy. They find a sister, and you just know that while he did a good thing, no good will come from this. Sure enough, Sharon later informs Maggie that Cindy’s sister decides to withdraw life support. In the most moving scene of the night, Maggie tells Cindy, “Tell Mom I say hi,” as she passes away. I’m glad that Jeff was there for Maggie, and I hope Maggie doesn’t resent him for trying to do something good.
Line of the night: Connor complains to Natalie about Dr. Latham
“The man is odd. He says that he is not good with ambiguity; that is an understatement. He is from Mars.”Gross abscess bursts: one (one too many)
