Before we start this recap, congratulations are in order to Erica Durance and her husband David Palffy as the actress and her husband welcomed a son on February 10, 2015. It was reported on EricaDurance.TV that the couple named their son Lochlan William Palffy.
Okay now on to the recap.
It is the last episode before next week’s season finale and I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t get any movement on the Charlie and Alex front. The two barely interacted in this episode save for a brief period when Alex experienced Braxton Hicks contractions and Charlie made a joke about liking their album.
But that’s not to say nothing happened. So let’s begin.
Maggie and Sydney
Julia Taylor Ross as Maggie Lin
While Sydney is in the midst of wedding planning, unbeknownst to her, her fiancee Hershel shows up in the ER complaining about stomach pains and believe he is dying. Hershel doesn’t want Sydney to know he is in the ER and he also cannot see Maggie as per Jewish custom so Jackson is there to conduct the blood work. While Jackson is doing his thing, Herschel goes on and on about how Sydney never shuts up about Maggie and seems to know her very well.
Maggie does tell Sydney that Hershel is in the hospital and she goes to see him. Hershel’s test results seem to indicate that he might have cancer so Maggie needs to perform a biopsy to know for sure if he has lymphoma or not.
Thinking that he is dying, Hershel confesses to Sydney that he ate pork. Hershel thought he was going to a Kosher restaurant but it wasn’t and had brussel sprouts made with bacon and confesses he went back to the restaurant twice. Sydney is appalled and says she doesn’t know Hershel and walks out of the room. Maggie thinks that Sydney is using the pork thing as an excuse not to marry Hershel, which Sydney denies.
The result of the biopsy is negative for cancer but a PET scan reveals that Herschel has a tapeworm that has migrated to his naval cavity. GROSS. Good news is Maggie can pull it out through his nose which she does. Double gross.
While Hershel recovers, Sydney tells him that she can’t marry him. Hershel thinks it is because he broke Kosher law but Sydney says it is because she is gay. Hershel wants to know who else knows and Sydney says just him and Maggie; Hershel thinks the two are together. Sydney says that she can’t marry him because she is afraid of what the their community will think of her but she is also afraid of the life she will lead if she stayed. Hershel asks her to leave and reading between the lines pretty much says that she is a hypocrite for not forgiving him for the pork thing but being gay is way worse.
In the on-call room, Maggie comforts Sydney who feels like she is free falling.
Alex
Julia Taylor Ross as Maggie Lin and Stacey Farber as Sydney Katz
Dana grabs Alex on the pretext of a consult. While on their way, Dana asks how she is doing since she is very near to giving birth and also her board exams are coming up. Alex complains about all the paperwork she needs to fill out, how she needs to change her will and how she has to talk to her mom since she hasn’t told her she is pregnant.
When the two ladies arrive for the “consult” it is actually a surprise baby shower with balloons, cupcakes with inappropriate frosting (you thank Maggie who baked them while also studying for her board). Missing is Dawn who was called to a board meeting. Mal gives Alex the gift of a stroller and when Sydney asks if Alex is ready, she says she is not even close. But the baby shower gets gut short because of a motor vehicle accident that calls most of the doctors away except for Dana and Alex.
Alex realizes Dana stopped her from heading down to the trauma. Dana says she doesn’t need the stress but has a real consult for her. Alex is to perform thyroid cancer surgery on Theresa (Linda Kash), a difficult woman who does nothing but complain and belittle her kids and does so freely in front of them. Theresa pretty much emotionally abuses her daughter. When Theresa’s surgery get postponed a bit because of the motor vehicle accident, she gets very angry and hopes the kid dies (more on that later) so she can have her surgery.
During the surgery, Dana and Alex wonder how a woman like Theresa can talk about her kids in that way. Dana then asks why Alex hasn’t told her mom that she is pregnant. Alex explains that her mom started drinking after her dad died and there was a revolving door of not nice boyfriends that led her to raise her brothers by herself.
While talking to Theresa’s daughter, Christine about her mom’s surgery, Theresa has a complication; she has a hematoma and can’t breathe. Alex splits he throat open so she can breathe but Theresa needs Type O blood that the hospital doesn’t have much of because of the motor vehicle accident. Alex learns that Theresa’s other daughter is the same blood type but the two haven’t spoken in years but Alex gets Christine to call her sister in.
Lauren and Alex bond over having difficult mothers. Lauren shares how her mom disowned her after she got pregnant and has only seen her granddaughter Lucy twice since she was born and now she is five. But despite her mom being a monster, her words not mine, Lauren doesn’t want her to die and tells Alex to continue taking the amount of blood they need to save her.
Theresa ends being okay as Alex was able to remove the hematoma but a complication of the surgery resulted in her vocal cords being damaged and she can’t talk for a few weeks. Christina thinks it is a good thing. Theresa wakes up and Lauren goes to leave but Theresa wants her to stay. Lauren says if she stays, she wants her mom to listen to them as they let into her how she treated them affected them negatively and if she really wants her to stay to her that. Theresa nods that she does. Later we see the three ladies starting to mend fences as Lauren shows a picture of Lucy to Theresa on her phone. Seeing this inspires Alex to phone her mom.
Later, Dawn gives Alex her baby shower gift: a binder filled with all the paperwork that Alex needed to fill out like insurance papers and mat leave all prepared for her.
Joel and Charlie
Daniel Gillies as Joel Goren
As the motor vehicle accident, Zach notices the engagement ring Joel took out of his pocket. Joel wonders how Zach managed to get married since he is a busy ER doctor. Zach says that he shouldn’t take any advice from since he is divorced.
The accident rolls in and it involves two hockey players. One is Hayden and he complains that he can’t feel his legs but does have some pain on his spine, which Joel takes as a good sign but needs to get into surgery right away or he won’t walk again.
Hayden’s girlfriend, Cheeti, speaks to Joel and says his mom is on the way and asks about the status of his best friend Sean Danes.
Sean is the one that bumped Alex’s patient and unfortunately, he did die. Sean’s spirit appears to Charlie asking him to help save Hayden from paralysis as the accident was his fault as he was texting and driving.
When Joel is about to go in and operate on Hayden, Shahir bumps him because Hayden has a brain bleed. But Charlie figures out a way for Joel to get in an operate before Shahir.
Joel updates Cheeti about Hayden and tells her the bad news that Sean has died. Cheeti begs Joel not to tell Hayden or he will give up. Joel doesn’t want to but says he will tell Hayden after everything is over. But when Hayden asks about Sean, Joel doesn’t say anything just that he needs to prep him for surgery. Hayden believes Sean is dead but Joel lies and says he is okay.
The surgery to fix Hayden’s spine involves some high tech scanner that creates a 3D images that will help them complete a 4 hour surgery in two. As Joel operates, his phone rings (it’s Hayden’s mom, which Joel updates her on his condition). The point of this scene is to get Shahir to get Joel’s phone but instead pulls out the ring box, which allows him to voice his opinion.
Sean is a wise spirit. We learn that Sean was the enforcer on the hockey team and it was his duty to protect Hayden. Sean says fighting allows him to experience life and love also lets him do that. Sean asks is Charlie’s in love and if girl the knows it. Charlie respons that it is complicated. Sean says he loves someone but she doesn’t know it. It is Cheeti and he says he didn’t fight for her because of Hayden. Sean then tells Charlie that he has to fight for love and it was his mission in life to fight for Hayden. I was really hoping that Sean’s speech would inspire Charlie to go up to Alex and just lay a passionate kiss on her but alas that didn’t happen.
Hayden’s surgery is a success as he can move his toes. Joel tells Cheeti the good news this Joel tells ok what up with Hayden. We see Cheeti later by Hayden’s side and Joel sees the devotion and gets inspired to go ask Alex his question.
However, when Joel finds Alex in the doctor’s lounge, sees that she is crying. Alex hopes that Joel’s question isn’t too deep and tells Joel that her conversation with her mom, the first since Luke died didn’t go as planned. The only thing she wants is to give birth to a healthy baby boy and to be the best surgeon. When Alex asks Joel what it was he wanted to ask her, Joel hesitates for a moment but doesn’t propose and in fact says the question can wait.
And I breathe a sigh of relief. I am so glad that Joel didn’t propose but even if he did, I think Alex would have said no as I think she knows that Charlie is the One.
Next week is the season finale and it looks like Alex is going to give birth but Joel is with Zach at some military base and Charlie is seeing a white horse roam the halls of Hope-Zion. Sounds like we are in for quite a ride.
