“Saving Hope’s” chaotic episode, “The Heartbreak Kid,” has a lot going on. Charlie and Alex find themselves working together when they operate on Tatum. The chatty teen’s spirit makes Charlie play Cupid. This display of teenage puppy love and heartbreak may be what motivates Charlie to confront Alex about their failed romance and express his true feelings about her blossoming relationship with Joel. Speaking of Joel, he returns from New Zealand and jumps back into work by running Selena’s (Lexa Doig) clinic when she gets stuck in the E.R. with an arm laceration. Meanwhile, Dr. Katz takes Maggie under her wing and doesn’t cut her student any slack. After Katz publically shames Maggie, the young doctor proves she has what it takes to be a great OBGYN when she handles one of the toughest family cases we’ve seen in Hope Zion.
What the Heart Wants
Teenager Tatum is brought into the ER by her brother, Milo. He loses tabs on his sister at a party and she ends up jumping off the garage into the pool and breaking her legs. Charlie has newbie Larouche assist on the operation. The poor doc’s reputation now precedes him after the nicking mishap with Reycraft. Charlie kindly comforts Larouche saying he was known as Harris Hands in med school because he drilled through his own hand. Ouch! But now he has the Harris Reduction Technique named after him. Someday Larouche will accomplish something great and this will all be a distant memory. Aww that’s sweet of Charlie. It’ll definitely help give Larouche a confidence boost.
When Tatum’s spirit appears in front of Larouche, Charlie tries to play it cool until he has a moment to speak with her alone. He asks her a bunch of questions to better understand her condition. She should have woken up by now, so what’s causing the hold up? Tatum ignores Charlie’s questions when she sees her crush, Grady. As she gushes about him, Grady is gently placing his sweater over Milo’s shoulders. Looks like Tatum’s in for some heartbreak.
Charlie does some more prying and learns what really happened to Tatum. Milo dismissed his babysitting duties at the party and Grady just wants to get rid of the clingy kid, so he encouraged her to jump into the pool with the other girls. As she jumped into the pool, Tatum hit the deck and the diving board before landing in the water. Her abs took a brutal beating. Plus, she downed some booze at the bash. Geesh. No wonder she’s still in limbo.
Charlie calls Alex for help. She discovers that Tatum has been internally bleeding for hours. Seriously, how did they miss that?! They will have to work together on this, which will be rough for Charlie since he’s overheard all the hospital gossip about Alex and Joel’s rekindled romance. Nonetheless, Charlie and Alex still makes a great team in the O.R.
When Alex reaches a dilemma, she calls Charlie to scrub in and give his opinion. He agrees with Alex. Tatum chimes in saying that he would’ve agreed with Alex no matter what she suggested. Hey, the kid has a point.
Tatum’s spirit lingers as her body still recovers from surgery. She realizes that Milo and Grady are in love with each other. She has a melodramatic breakdown over being in love with a gay man, so Charlie tries to help put things in perspective for her. He says, “Real love is someone who loves you back.” He can’t promise it won’t hurt, but it is worth the wait. Aww, this is heartbreaking. Poor Charlie! However, this gives Tatum an idea.
She writes a note and tells Charlie to put it into Grady’s hoodie. He does as she says and tells her to get to her body. Again, Larouche catches Charlie talking to the air. It is a good thing people at Hope Zion have learned to just go with the flow around Charlie or else there would be an awkward conversation every time Charlie ghost doctors.
As Tatum wakes up, she sees that Grady and Milo both love each other. The two kiss and she celebrates the couple’s cuteness. Unfortunately, love isn’t always so innocent and adorable.
Charlie and Alex have an uncomfortable chat about where they stand. He knows about Joel and this whole thing is turning into a nightmare. Alex wishes she could explain it, but Charlie says it is none of his business. He just doesn’t understand how Alex suddenly fell out of love with him. They were getting along so well, but Charlie has to accept that it has all changed. He admits this is so difficult for him because their relationship was everything to him. He can’t believe Alex can just move on so easily.
Sidebar: Ok, we know Charlie was hooking-up with Dawn and even thinking about having a baby with her, but that doesn’t mean he totally moved on from Alex and the way she dropped him like a hot potato. Charlie was mostly acting out of pain and frustration, which isn’t fair to Dawn, but she knew what was really going on and went with it anyway. So you can make an argument against Charlie here for being hypocritical, but still… he did it after Alex tore his heart to pieces. And yes, you can even go further back and say Charlie should never have broken up with her last season to begin with. That was super annoying, but then again…Charlie confided in Alex about his gift and she wanted to fix him like a doctor, instead of trying to understand him like a partner. Even Dawn was surprisingly understanding and open to accepting Charlie’s experience and gift when he first told her about it. So yeah #TeamCharlie. It all seems like a moot point anyway, because this isn’t how Alex truly feels. She was robbed of her love for Charlie while exiting limbo. This heartbreak and confusion is so unnecessary and frustrating. They should address the mystery of Alex’s missing emotional memory more on the show. Ok, carrying on…
Alex’s feelings for Charlie may have been left behind in limbo, but that doesn’t make her a heartless person. She feels horrible for causing Charlie so much pain and breaking his heart like this, but it is inexplicably out of her control. And what Charlie says next only makes her feel more terrible: “You can’t break my heart, Alex. You are my heart, my whole heart. You’re it for me.” Sigh! What a perfectly delivered line and it landed hard on Alex. Wow.
Charlie only asks one thing from her now. He wants her to buy out his half of their condo because he can’t stand the thought of her being there with Joel. Well, you can’t blame him. As Charlie and Alex shake on it, the touch of his hand brings on another flashback. Just like the last time this happened, Alex remembers a special moment on the beach when Charlie drew a heart in the sand. What is so significant about that moment? Why is that the only reminder of her love for Charlie? Is there a way to use that moment to unlock the rest of her emotional memories and make her feel that kind of love again? Could something like hypnosis jog her memory of that day and restore her true love for Charlie?
Again, great work by Michael Shanks and Erica Durance in this scene. Shanks has shown a lot of sensitivity this season. Poor heartbroken Charlie has been wearing his heart on his sleeve and it isn’t always easy to pull off those tender moments with such sincerity and depth.
Waiting for a Miracle
Dr. Katz and Maggie are treating a pregnant couple in a very heartbreaking situation. Lana (Rosa Laborde) is in a coma and she is scheduled to deliver their baby boy in two weeks. Her husband, David (Joris Jarsky,) is still bracing himself for the moment he will have to say goodbye to his wife as he simultaneously welcomes his newborn into the world. Sadly, that timeline speeds up when Lana goes into fetal distress and needs to deliver the baby immediately.
Maggie speaks with David and he is shaken-up by all of this. He knew this was coming, but he was still hoping to spend more time with Lana and the baby. He planned on properly saying goodbye to his wife instead of rushing everything in a frenzy like this. Maggie understands and she’s worried about him, so she seeks Dr. Dey’s advice. He suggests she keeps David focused on life instead of getting hung up on the loss he’s about to face. He also tells Maggie to check her e-mail.
Earlier that day, Maggie didn’t quite step up to the plate when Dr. Katz was testing her. She doesn’t seem to be taking this seriously enough, so Katz shot off a deprecating and critical e-mail to all staff surgeons, warning them that Maggie is a slacker. Maggie takes great offense to this. Katz just wants Maggie to prove she knows what she’s doing and that she’s truly invested in her career as an OBGYN. So Maggie follows her instincts, provides David with the support he needs, and proves Dr. Katz wrong.
Maggie is moved by the sight of David clutching onto a baby blanket that has been in the family for many generations. She breaks proper protocol and takes David into the O.R., so he can be there for his son’s birth. He holds baby Ezra in his arms and cuts the umbilical cord when Lana suddenly flat-lines. Dr. Katz says his wife is dying and gives him a hurried chance to say goodbye. Once the baby has been checked and tended to, Maggie brings him back to David. She thought he would like to be together as a family before he lets his wife go. All this time David had been waiting for a miracle and he is heartbroken that it came. Maggie looks at the baby and comfortingly tells David that Ezra is the miracle. Aww.
Dr. Katz watched Maggie’s interaction with David and is impressed by the way she handled this sensitive situation. She tells Maggie that obstetrics is not a career for babies, with that said, Maggie proved herself today. Dr. Katz admits she was hasty in sending that hurtful e-mail. Then she kisses Maggie. What?!?
It is shocking to see Dr. Katz act on her impulses like that. Maggie is her student and Dr. Katz could face serious consequences for crossing that line. It also felt very random. We don’t know enough about Dr. Katz, but being a lesbian must be rough for an Orthodox Jew. It makes you wonder how open she is about her sexuality or if she’s ever done something like this before. Let’s see where this storyline goes before judging it. For now, we’ll leave it at being an awkward, yet telling moment for Stacey Farber’s spunky, no-nonsense Dr. Katz.
You can’t help but wonder if Maggie will talk to Dr. Dey about this. If she does, will it get Katz into trouble?
Missed the Bus
Joel returns from New Zealand with a gift for Alex. He’s brought her a pairing of earrings. Hmm, does that mean he’s serious about their relationship? We’ll just have to wait and see. All we know is that Joel’s presence has the hospital chattering about his hook-up with Alex. Joel is about to head home and decompress when a surprising sight changes the course of his day.
Selena rushes into the E.R. with a bump on the head and a laceration on her arm. Joel insists on taking over her shift at the clinic. There he meets Teddy, a transgendered meth addict who is itching for his next hit. He tells Joel he needs to get his meds before he misses the bus to go to his grandfather’s funeral. When Joel refuses to oblige and offers something to help him deal with the withdrawal, Teddy storms out.
Teddy has a seizure in the waiting room, a little while after he comes to and seems ok, his arms and legs suddenly give out. Joel calls Shahir for some advice, he needs to take a CT. Depending on what’s wrong, Teddy could be dead in an hour based on the symptoms Joel has seen. When Joel checks back, Teddy has runaway. Another patient at the clinic tells Joel that Teddy’s grandfather died years ago and he never went to it. He says Teddy can usually be found under the bridge.
Joel finds Teddy and rushes him to Hope Zion where he gets the treatment he needs. At the end of the episode, we learn that Teddy made it out ok. Selena kisses Joel on the lips, says it is from Teddy and thanks him.
Uh oh! Is Joel falling into the same old pattern? Does he have feelings for Selena? If he didn’t think about it before, could this kiss change how he feels? Is Joel ready to commit to Alex? Will Selena continue to be a temptation?
What did you think of “The Heartbreak Kid,” Hopefuls? Were you surprised by certain moments? How did you feel about Charlie and Alex’s conversation? What do make of Katz and Maggie’s kiss? Do you think Joel will second-guess his relationship with Alex and start falling for Selena?
Share your thoughts below!
“Saving Hope” airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on CTV.
This article was originally published on Examiner.com on December 10, 2014.
UPDATE (Summer 2016): ‘Saving Hope’ now airs on ION Television in the U.S. and still airs on CTV in Canada. Visit ‘Saving Hope’s’ ION TV homepage (HERE) or CTV Homepage (HERE) for details.
