Just when I was really hoping the love triangle between Charlie-Alex-Joel wsa actually over, it seems it is just heating up. But before we get to that, tonight’s episode of Saving Hope got a little bit personal for me so lets start there.
Maggie and Zach
Maggie is checking up on Paulette, a woman who in a RV accident with her husband, Mike. The two of them were on their way camping in Churchill, Manitoba to see the Northern Lights.
Zach is treating Mike, who has a bad scratch on his arm. When Mike starts coughing violently, Zach goes to hear his lungs and doesn’t like what he hears so wants to do a chest x-ray. Mike tells him not to bother that he knows he is dying and doesn’t want his wife to know.
Later, Zach shows Maggie the results of Mike’s chest x-ray and he has stage 4 lung cancer and tells her that Mike doesn’t want Paulette to know. Mike just wants to use the remaining time has with the love of his life smiling and not worrying about him. Paulette is oblivious to what is going and is happily making plans to resume their road trip.
Mike insists on leaving and before they can get out of the ER, he collapses. Even after all of that Mike refuses to tell Paulette and Zach’s and Maggie’s hands are tied as they must honour their patient’s wishes. Every time Paulette wants to know what is going on, Zach says nothing but we see that he is having a hard time not to. Eventually, Zach gets Mike admitted so he is no longer his patient and therefore is someone else’s problem. But Paulette keeps on pestering Zach to know what is wrong with her husband. So without betraying Mike, Zach has Paulette follow him to where Mike is receiving some sort of treatment for his lungs from Maggie.
With the truth out, Paulette wants to know ever course of treatment there is for Mike. Unfortunately, even with chemotherapy, Mike has a 10% chance of survival and that when he diagnosed, his cancer had already spread.
Maggie tells Mike and Paulette that he collapsed because of a clot in his lungs and it will need to be removed. Mike knows that he is dying and their road trip is dead and is saddened how he will never see the Northern Lights.
Zach isn’t happy that Mike refused to tell his wife as their lives could have been lived much differently. Maggie wants to know what is wrong with Zach and he later confesses he went through the same thing with his father. He was 17 when he dad was diagnosed with lung cancer but Zach’s parents decided not to tell him so he was your regular teenager: staying out late, sleeping in and arguing with his dad. Zach tells Maggie that if had known, he would have spent the last year of his dad’s life differently.
The surgery to remove Mike’s clot is a success but Maggie tells Paulette that it will probably return and it is unlikely he will make it through the night. Paulette then goes to Mike’s bedside to be with him. Zach sees this and tells Maggie that he wants to do something for the couple.
With the help if Mal, Zach simulates the Northern Lights in Mike’s ICU room. Mike is overwhelmed by what he sees and has tears in my eyes. As Mike continues to rest, Maggie asks if Paulette will continue on the road trip with their beast of an RV, she answers that she will and that Mike said that he will be waiting for her when she arrives. And I got a bit misty-eyed. To get a bit personal here, this story line really got to me because I lost my mother to lung cancer when I was 19 but I did know she had it and I did get a chance to say goodbye, which is something Maggie tells Paulette and how not many people get that chance.
Joel
Daniel Gillie as Joel Goren
Joel’s patient is a paraplegic, Brianna, who is also a bride-to-be. Brianna is part of Joel’s and Shahir’s mobility study and their is discussion of some surgery on her legs which give Brianna hope that she might be able to walk down the aisle. Joel tells her not to get her hopes up so high and if anything Brianna will be using a walker to go the down aisle.
While getting coffee, Shahir wonders about using exoskeleton legs to help Brianna walk Joel doesn’t want to use that option yet. Talk turns to Alex’s birthing plan and Shahir wants to know if Joel wants to be on the call list. Later on, Joel tells Shahir that he wants to be the first person called when Alex goes into labour.
In the physiotherapy room, Brianna is attempting to walk using the rails but she falls and dislocates her shoulder. While mending her shoulder, Brianna tells Joel why it is important for her to walk down the aisle, she needs to prove something to her father and friends and it is her fault that she can’t walk. You see Brianna drove drunk but thankfully only she was hurt. Joel then hears how Brianna’s leg cramped up and that is why she fell.
Later, Brianna’s father isn’t happy with Joel as he tells him that his daughter needs to accept that she can’t walk. Joel turns the tables and tells her dad that he needs to accept Brianna.
Daniel Gillie as Joel Goren
Joel treats Brianna’s leg with some botox as that will help her brain to stop sending messages to her leg to contract. Joel then mentions that they want Brianna to use the exoskeleton legs so she walk down the aisle and he reunites her with her dad. We then see Brianna successfully walk with the robot legs and her dad comments that it was like watching her take her first steps all over again and how proud he was and is. Joel sees this scene and from the look on his face gets inspired to do something. More on that after we talk about…
Charlie and Alex
Alex’s dad starts off with her pronouncing a man dead. As the day goes along, we see the man’s spirit hanging around Alex.
Alex and Charlie’s patient is Travis, whose leg got dislocated from a mugging gone wrong. Also on Travis’ leg is an ankle monitor as he set to go to jail in three days time. When Alex uses an ultra sound to see what is in his stomach, Travis gets all nervous and he really needs to leave. But Charlie needs to have him in surgery to fix his leg and for Alex to fix something on her end.
During the surgery, Alex and Charlie are working really well together, they notice some bruising on his legs and abdomen. The two start complementing each other and there is definite chemistry there as the two look at each other. When the spirit of Alex’s patient is outside the OR, Charlie goes to speak to him. The spirit says he has something to give back to Alex and starts saying things like “I will never let you go” over and over again and doesn’t remember where he knows it from but knows it is connected to Alex. Later on the spirit starts to quote some bad habits of Charlie’s and realizes that Charlie is the person he is talking about and now knows what he needs to do.
While Travis is recovering, we see that he is very agitated and really wanting to leave and we do see him try and discharge himself but he collapses and complains of his stomach hurting. We learn that Travis is a drug mule and wanted to smuggle in drugs to prison to make some money to send back to his pregnant girlfriend.
One of Travis’ drug package might have burst in his stomach so Alex, with the help of Larouche go in and start to remove a lot of bags of cocaine. Unfortunately, one of the bags that Alex takes out and bursts open. Alex is scrambling to remove the rest of the bags of drugs and when she does, Larouche and she go in to get drugs out of his system.
Mac Fyfe as Dr. Dey
When Travis wakes up, Dr. Dey is there to tell them him to folly of his plan and if he was found with drugs, his three sentence would have gotten much longer. Dey offers to help Travis.
Later on, Charlie and Alex meet up and her hand starts to bother her again. Charlie goes to take a look at it and starts to rub her hand gently. While he does that, Alex has a memory of her time in the spirit world with Charlie where the two “kissed”. When Alex comes out of her memory, she asks Charlie out for a coffee and we see such love in both of their eyes. But first, Charlie needs to meet
Michael Shanks as Charlie Harris and Erica Durance as Alex Reid
up with the spirit and will catch up with Alex later.
In the morgue, the spirit gets Charlie to open up the drawer where his body is but wonders where his clothes are. Charlie fed up with his games starts to leave until the spirit says what he has to give Alex is in his pocket of his jacket. So Charlie finds the jacket and inside is a note with Alex’s handwriting in it. As Charlie reads, he realizes it is Alex’s vows to him. The spirit is the taxi driver that they were in and we flashback to the Pilot. The taxi driver meant to return it but he never had anyone write such words of love to him. The taxi driver asks Charlie to return it to Alex and he promises he will and his spirit disappears.
As the episode ends, we don’t see Charlie and Alex happily reunite over returned vows, shared memories and coffee but with Joel going to a jewelry store to buy an engagement ring for Alex.
And from next week’s previews, Joel will ask his question and a spirit encourages Charlie to fight for Alex. So who will Alex choose? From our baby daddy poll, it seems a lot of you guys want the father to be Charlie, who has pulled quite a bit ahead of Joel.
From tonight’s episode, I truly believe that Alex will choose Charlie. What do you think?
