Alex (Erica Durance) and Maggie (Julia Taylor-Ross) bring the John Doe into Hope-Zion
For this week’s recap of Saving Hope I am going eschew my normal practice of dividing it up according to character’s plot lines as most of our doctors of Hope-Zion were involved in tonight’s medical case with the exception of Charlie and Gavin (more on that later) and Joel because it looked like we hit a period were Daniel Gillies was filming The Originals and only appears at the beginning and end of the episode.
We see Joel wishing Alex a good night after a long and difficult shift. The only thing Alex wants to do is go home and have a glass of wine. However, when she reaches her car, she is approached by a creepy guy who looks sweaty and hitting on her while saying that he can’t find his car. Alex is creeped out by him and doesn’t really want to go with him to find his car but suggests that he use the car’s remote to find it. He goes off on his way to find his car but Alex ends being concerned about him and is erratic behaviour. As this John Doe steps into the middle of the parking garage, he is hit by a car.
The driver, Denise starts to panic and doesn’t want to get involved as we see Alex start to save his life. Alex manages to get Denise to call Zach instead of 911 as it would be quicker. 3 minutes later Zach arrives with Maggie and Jackson. All four of them work on saving his life and we see a countdown clock set as they have a certain time limit before their efforts prove futile. The first thing we notice about him is that he has a scar on his chest from heart surgery.
When this John Doe is stable enough, the team move him from the parking garage back to Hope-Zion while Alex gets Denise to call the cops about the accident.
On their way back to Hope-Zion, the elevator they use is occupied by a arguing couple with a young son. Unfortunately, they can’t get out and the witness as our Hope-Zion doctors try and save this John Doe. We see the little boy notice a tattoo of the solar system that this man has on his arm, which does prove important later on.
They manage to get the John Doe to the ER and they can truly start to work on him. The eventually get a pulse and a heart beat. One of the nurses or doctor (I can’t tell) wants to stop the countdown clock but Zach and Alex tell him know as the patient isn’t out of the woods yet.
Meanwhile, in the waiting area, Alex updates Denise on what is going on and Denise is very worried of getting in trouble for this accident not only from the police but from her father. Later, when Denise finds out what happened to John Doe, she does face her fears and does talk to the police.
While John Doe’s CT scan is being performed, he crashes again and Alex comes back. She and Maggie start to argue on what is wrong with the John Doe. Zach shuts them up and takes charge OR and Zach asks that Dawn be called into the case.
In the OR, Alex can’t figure out where he is bleeding from and when Dawn comes in, she gets updated on what is happening. John Doe codes again while in surgery and Dawn thinks that because he has only been having a pulse and heart beat for such a short time that they should stop. But Alex won’t give up and it seems either does John Doe. So Dawn undergoes another surgery that can help Alex figure out where John Doe is bleeding.
During this surgery, a police officer comes in wanting to know if John Doe will make it but Alex forcefully kicks him out. Dawn is impressed with Dr. Alex Reid but not the person Alex Reid, whom she sees as a passive person. Alex sees this as a dig with her situation with Charlie and she explains that she is giving Charlie some space. Dawn says she did the same thing but Charlie still left her. The two women manage to work together enough to find the bleeder and fix him.
Meanwhile, Jackson is trying to figure out who this John Doe is. With his car keys in hand, Jackson eventually finds it but there is nothing to indicate his ID except for an unmarked pill bottle. When Jackson returns to Hope-Zion, he manages to identify what the pills are for and combined with John Doe’s test results, we learn that John Doe has a kidney problem and is hypokalemic.
We see John Doe crash again and after learning his diagnosis, Alex starts barking orders on what he needs to save his life. However, Dawn now realizes that it is a lost cause and stops the countdown clock. But Alex doesn’t want to give up but eventually realizes that it is too late and John Doe is dead.
Later, Alex tells Zach that she should have known that he had a renal problem because his tattoo of the solar system was meant to hide his dialysis hole.
Speaking of Zach, remember the family in the elevator. The little boy has come to Hope-Zion to undergo leukemia testing and he wanted to know how the John Doe is doing as he believes he is an astronaut. Zach lies to the father and says that the man made it.
While all of this was happening, Gavin tried to get Charlie to come to his therapy session. But Charlie tells Gavin that the pills he gave him has stopped the hallucinations and that he hasn’t seen a spirit in 10 days. We believe this because we don’t see the signature light flares the show likes to use to indicate the spirit world.
But Gavin tells Charlie that the meds are only part of the therapy but talking is also integral. So the two roam the hallways of Hope-Zion talking about the significance of Charlie seeing the spirits. When Gavin asks do the spirits tell him anything important, Charlie doesn’t answer. Gavin then notices that they’ve been avoiding areas where death or near-death happens as that is usually when Charlie sees spirits. Their talk somehow turned to a point where Charlie said that he had to give up the woman he loves to deal with this. Later we see the two men watch Alex’s surgery.
We see the light flares show up again and lo and behold Charlie starts to see John Doe appear but he can’t hear her he tells the spirit. Gavin watches as this goes on. In the viewing gallery, Gavin closes their therapy session and tells Charlie that he hopes to see him next week but Charlie says that he is busy and he will see when he can see Gavin. Later, we see Charlie in the OR looking at John Doe’s body when we see the spirit behind him, Charlie sees him but doesn’t speak to him and as he exits the OR, he throws away his pills. I really hope that this isn’t the last therapy session. I think Charlie having someone to talk to about this without judgement is a good thing but I guess we will see.
After everything is over, Joel is surprised to see Alex still at the hospital. Remembering what Dawn thinks of her, Alex tries to explain herself and her decisions about Charlie to Joel and how it is breaking her heart not having him in her life.
We finally see Alex start to go home when the police officer who interrupted her surgery stops her to get her statement. Alex is willing to do so when the officer notices blood on her neck still and offers her a tissue to wipe it off. Looking at how exhausted Alex looks, the officer tells her that he will take her statement in the morning. When Alex gets back to her car (a Mini Coop by the way), she notices a flat tire, which doesn’t seem to surprise considering the day she was having and we end the episode with her changing the tire.
Next week looks like we have Liane Balaban guest starring and she seems to be the spirit of the week.
