This week’s Saving Hope, we pick up the next day after the last episode with….
Charlie
Charlie goes to see a comatose Tom in the hospital and reams him out for coming into his home. Alex walks in and wonders what’s up and why he didn’t come to bed. Charlie passes it off that he has lot on his mind and leaves to say he has to meet another doctor.
Later, Charlie is treating Dean who has a severely damaged leg that was crushed when a forklift landed on it When Charlie asks about pain medication, Tom appears and apologies for coming to his home.
In the morgue, Tom apologies once again and Charlie only agrees to help if it mean getting him out of the hospital but it has to be on his terms.
Back to Dean, Shahir is testing his leg for nerve damage and tells Charlie it is best to amputate or Dean will continue to self medicate the pain.
Charlie’s tells Dean the bad news but he doesn’t take it well and wants a new surgeon that will keep his leg.
Michael Shanks as Charlie Harris and Travis Milne as Tom Crenshaw
In the elevators, Charlie pretends to be on his cell phone while he talks to Tom’s spirit, who offers to find out what is really scaring Dean. Tom reports back to Charlie that Dean is hiding his pain from his wife because he is proud. Tom shares when his wife, Amy, killed herself, he didn’t want to show weakness by crying over her death. Instead his pride caused him to look guilty and ruined his life.
At the hospital cafe, Charlie talks to Dean gets him to admit to being afraid of not being able to provide for his family. Charlie manages to convince Dean to have the surgery to amputate his leg as that will help him live his life again. Later we see Charlie showing Dean and his wife a possible prosthetic leg.
Once again at the morgue, Charlie tells Tom that he has asked for Amy’s x-rays and wants to know what happened. Tom shares that Amy tried to hang herself two years ago and kept that suicide attempt a secret. The medical examiner said that the broken bone in Amy’s neck was consistent to abuse than hanging. Tom says that medical examiner has had cases overturned. Charlie asks if Tom killed his wife; he says no and that he loved her.
Maggie
We learn that Dr. Sydney Katz has gone to a hospital in Cleveland and recommended Maggie for a job there. Maggie is tempted and asks Alex for advice who says that it might not be a bad idea to take something out of town as staff jobs hard to come by.
In the ER, Maggie finds Zach on one of the beds talking about a fondue kids party gone bad. Maggie shares her thoughts about possibly leaving Hope-Zion and missing her friends. Zach shares a study that when someone leaves a workplace, they are forgotten within 2 days.
Jackson interrupts so Maggie can see a patient with a cut on her forehead. Natalie is all skittish and doesn’t want help but eventually allows Maggie to treat her cut. When Maggie tries to draw blood to do some tests, Natalie starts to freak out and gets violent. Maggie says its best for Natalie to come clean to say what she is withdrawing from so she can help.
We find out that Natalie is an alcoholic that has 35 drinks a week to calm her anxiety. Natalie tried to quick cold turkey but it didn’t help. Natalie reluctantly accepts Maggie’s help but she then starts to have seizures. When Maggie goes to treat Natalie, we learn that she is also addicted to pills.
We get Natalie’s full back story. Because of her addition issues, Natalie’s husband has left her and taken their daughter and she has lost her advertising job. Natalie’s parents and sister have passed away so she has no support system.
Later, Zach realizes that Maggie really is thinking about leaving and learns about the job in Cleveland and says if she does take it, he will miss her.
Maggie sends Natalie to detox and says she will be okay. However, Natalie checks herself out of Hope Zion and refuses Maggie’s help and leaves.
The Natalie incident and seeing Zach go off with Selena, has led Maggie to make a decision about the job in Cleveland.
Alex
Kate Lynch as Clara Levine and Erica Durance as Alex Reid
Dawn is in a happy mood and gifts Alex with a surgery assisting Dr. Clara Lavine (Kate Lynch), a legend at Hope-Zion and someone that Alex admires. Side Note: Dr. Lavine is played by Kate Lynch and if you are a fan of Anne of Green Gables like I am, you may recognize her as playing Pauline Harris in Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel. End Side Note
The patient is Cynthia, a vet who was kicked by a horse and needs her spleen removed. When Alex tries to say how Lavine inspires her, she is brushes Alex off to find her cell phone.
While scrubbing, Lavine asks Curtis to scrub in too. During the surgery, Lavine gets to know a bit more about Alex and starts to share fun stories about a young Dawn who trained under Lavine.
During the surgery, Alex suggests a better course of action to closing up the spleen but Lavine takes offense to it and asks Curtis to assist instead. After Lavine leaves, Alex is hurt that Curtis didn’t have her back but he tells Alex that she should have kept her mouth shut as Lavine has been performing surgeries before they were born and there is a hierarchy in the OR.
Later Alex checks up on Cynthia and Dawn thinks something is wrong if Alex isn’t with Lavine. Alex tells Dawn she will bring up her concerns with Lavine herself Dawn says Alex is lucky to work with Lavine as she can learn a lot from her.
Alex goes to see Lavine about Cynthia and shares her concerns about her blood pressure. Lavime dismisses these concerns and when Alex tries to get Lavine to listen, she gets offended at being questioned and orders Alex to follow her course of treatment.
When Alex goes to see Cynthia she notices bleeding in her surgical area and rushes to operate again but Curtis thinks it is career suicide to do so without Lavine’s knowledge. Alex is more concerned with saving Cynthia and needs Curtis to support her. Getting Cynthia into surgery gets more important when her chest tube gets dislodged.
During the surgery, Cynthia’s blood pressure is still low and realize that Lavine has knicked something during the original surgery. Alex and Curtis work together to find it and fix it. Lavine interrupts the surgery all pissed off and starts lecturing about it is not the place of a junior surgeon to defy a senior surgeon. Dr. Sharp, the anesthesiologist, tells Lavine to shut up and let Alex and Curtis save Cynthia’s life.
After the surgery is over, Alex says she will speak to Dawn and take the fall but Curtis says he has her back. At Dawn’s office, Alex is ready to take the consequences when Cynthia’s file is brought in. Dawn realizes the error that Lavine has made and shows her the file. Lavine can’t believe she could make such an error and when she and Dawn are alone, announces that it’s time for her to retire.
As Dawn sees Lavine pack up her office, she calls someone to pick up a cake.
Episode end
At Lavine’s retirement party, Shahir and Maggie say their good byes. As Lavine herself leaves, she tells Alex that she still has to prove herself to the male surgeons.
As Maggie leaves the party, she calls Dr. Singh to accept the job in Cleveland. I really hope that Maggie doesn’t leave. I don’t think I can take any more cast turn overs!
Later, at Tom’s bedside, Alex manages to get Chsrlie to say it is a ghost thing that is bothering him but he doesn’t want her to worry about anything. Both are getting used to the idea that they can share the ghost thing with each other and it is nice to see. It would have been nicer that Charlie told her what ghost business is bothering him but baby steps.
Back at the morgue, Charlie looks at Amy’s x-rays and from what he sees Tom has grounds for an appeal, which is music to his ears. Charlie says he will work on proving his innocence and once again says it has to be on his terms. Tom agrees to his terms.
Looks like next week we get introduced to more new faces.
