This episode there was very little working together in this episode between the team in general. Sure they were working together in smaller groups but the storylines this week were all four completely separate from each other with no interaction at all. I think I prefer when the storylines are a bit more intertwined with each other. But overall we got some new insights on Beckett, conflicts with Ruiz and Vic, and possibly Carina and Maya and there was some new romance put into the mix.
Carina is not taking the break between her and Maya lightly, she tells the guys at the firehouse that she has been struggling to get there for clinic days, as well as telling her patient that she needed a laugh that day. Speaking of her patient, a pregnant single woman, referred to Carina by Peggy and Dayna, who we all know by now. Throughout the episode, we saw the women flirt with Carina and she gave her a much-needed laugh.
The amount of time Carina spends with her patient and the way it looks makes Jack worry about Maya and keeps walking by trying to figure out what to make of the situation. While Warren plays it down, telling him there is nothing to worry about. However, we see something else, while Carina is treating her patient, laughing with her she also confides in her about her wish to become a mother and the complications in her marriage. Might all still seem friendly until the woman asks Carina out on a date. We don’t know how that ends and if she goes with her. What we do know is that Carina went by the apartment to pick up some extra stuff because she needs more time.
We also get some more background into Beckett. One of the patients in the clinic, an alcoholic is being treated for burns on his chest among other things. When Beckett gets notice of this patient he keeps pushing that the clinic is not the right place for this man to be threatened and that he needs a hospital. Still, the man refuses more treatment than that what he gets at the Clinic. When Beckett is done with it and wants to intervene by demanding he goes to the hospital, even after protests from Sullivan, Beckett tells him it is his uncle.
We get to see Beckett treating his uncle and telling him he needs to get medical care at the hospital. But he tells Beckett he is twenty years too late to help him. There and then we learn that alcoholism runs in the family and Beckett does get his wish of his uncle going to the hospital since he has a seizure upon walking out of the station.
Eli is riding along during the shift with crisis one to get campaign material for Travis. Andy being harsh towards him as always, makes him sign a waiver in case anything happens, Eli thinks it is nonsense, nothing will happen but Andy demands, signing or staying at the station. And he was wrong. Upon arriving at the scene of their call they run into three teenagers, two of which fighting over a girl.
They soon seem to have calmed the situation down, but then the girl says something triggering them to start fighting again. Andy is trying to keep them apart when Eli jumps in, as we learn later to protect her, but he just gets caught in the middle and punched in the face. Resulting him in becoming a little lightheaded he does not do well with seeing blood. Later back at the station, you still feel the tension between Eli and Andy but something changes and he asks her out on a date. To which she agrees, and by the look of it she might just like this!
Ruiz is still wound up about the fire in his old neighborhood last week, so he starts digging and finds out that most of the buildings around there haven’t been checked for fire safety in a while. After a bit of a discussion, Beckett agrees to let him and Vic do some inspections in the area. The first place they visit is a local barbershop, in which Ruiz seems to know everyone.
We get to see a different side of Ruiz here, he is back with people he knew from back in the day and his behavior changes drastically. While Vic is trying to do her job, Ruiz seems to be having the time of his life. When Vic concludes there are some things not in order in the barbershop, Ruiz tells her he will take care of it and talk to the manager, because he knows them. Being pushed to the side and not treated fairly by both Ruiz and the men doesn’t fall right with her.
Back at the station, Ruiz is back to research the area. But Vic calls him out on his actions of that day. She didn’t like the way he acted toward her and tells him she wants him to be himself around her and not pretend to be someone else at any given moment.
What did you think of this episode? Did Carina say yes to her patient? And how will Andy and Eli’s date go?
