GASP! Can you believe that ending, Hopefuls?! “Saving Hope” left us hanging in the best way possible. In a fantastic twist, we are given a beautiful teaser of the future after spending weeks thinking we’ve been getting a glimpse of the past. “Remains of the Day” reveals a couple of game-changers for some of Hope Zion’s finest. Charlie’s ghost doctoring saves a life, but raises questions among his peers which puts his unconventional methods under a microscope. Alex and Joel work together to diagnose a teacher with a very rare genetic disease. Dawn has a second chance at motherhood when Giselle is kicked out of her foster home. Maggie is on the cusp of establishing a new and super awkward love triangle. But best of all, we have renewed hope in Chalex as this intense and telling episode closes.
Elaine, a 28 year old with OCD and major anxiety, accidentally swerved in front Zach’s train on his way to work. Charlie checks her out. What begins as a simple leg operation, evolves into something far more complicated.
During the surgery, her spirit appears. At first she seems like a hindrance, asking Charlie to abide by her OCD rules. He is forced to do so because her heart rate reflects the anxiety she feels in limbo. But then she helps him out in a major way. She suddenly goes blind, so Charlie jumps into action. He doesn’t want to look too crazy, so he cleverly asks Maggie and Larouche what kind of problems could arise during surgery, including blindness.
Long story short, Charlie breaks a bunch of procedures in the OR. Once the problem is isolated, Charlie calls Shahir to come in and perform a craniotomy. When Elaine starts feeling worse, Charlie realizes he must act fast. He takes a risk and drills a hole in Elaine’s skull to relieve the pressure on her brain. The people who work with him have learned to go along with his hunches without asking too many questions. However, this time around, his special save is a big and controversial deal.
Shahir says Charlie’s behavior was reckless and voices his concerns to Dawn, so she tells Charlie to present his case before a group of his peers and explain how he reached his diagnosis. She’d like a window into Charlie’s beautiful mind. Charlie hates these types of public speaking scenarios and he’s afraid that displaying footage from the operation will expose his secret and rightfully open him up to a law suit.
Charlie watches the footage and despairs, “I’m contemplating suing myself.” Then Maggie and Larouche come in eager to crack the case. So Charlie takes Elaine’s advice and has the students examine the OR footage. If they can figure out how he reached those life-saving conclusions, then he will help with their mock exams. Yikes! Poor Charlie is really out on a limb here.
He takes center stage in front of his colleagues and for a second we fear this will be the moment Charlie tells the world his secret. He starts muttering about everything being a matter of perspective. Suddenly, Maggie and Larouche burst into the room and they are full of legitimate explanations. Charlie steps aside and is stunned to see the medical backing for his supernatural methods.
Phew! Charlie’s secret is still safe. Shahir is thoroughly impressed by Charlie’s instincts and medical prowess (looks like that workplace crush may have been rekindled). He says they are “unbelievable, yet believable.” But Dawn isn’t buying it. She knows the limitations of Charlie’s medical knowledge and the truth about his gift. There is no way Charlie could’ve noticed all of those tiny details without some kind of divine intervention.
Let’s face it. Charlie’s methods are frequently questioned. He breaks the rules, talks to the air, walks out in the middle of procedures, and gives off a crazy genius vibe at times. But he gets away with it because he saves lives. His impressive statistics support that there is a method to his madness and despite his eccentricities, Charlie always gets the job done. However, given all of Hope Zion’s legal drama this season, you can’t blame Dawn for wanting to keep Charlie on his toes. Despite the craziness, Charlie shows how much he cares about his patients.
Charlie bonds with Elaine in a special way. After the surgery is a success, she chooses to stay in limbo because she enjoys being disembodied. She has always been led by the voices in her head and feels like the OCD keeps her safe. But it didn’t work this time and she ended up getting hurt. Charlie knows what it is like to hide a fundamental part of himself, but he says it is no reason to stop her from living a fulfilling life. So Elaine returns to her body.
Later, Charlie explains how Elaine suffered two strokes and the first one caused her to swerve in front of the train. Now that Charlie fixed the hole in her heart, she doesn’t have to worry about having anymore strokes. In an effort to help her move on with life and open herself up to new possibilities, Charlie brings her some Chinese take-out. To ease the blow of trying something new, he keeps things in threes, just the way she likes it. He tells her that perspectives can change and by the episode’s end, Elaine gives the food a try. Awww. It is so wonderful to see how much Charlie has embraced his ghost doctoring this season. He uses all of his talents to help heal patients in body and spirit. It truly is one of the major highlights of this series.
Complex relationships is another one of “Saving Hope’s” strengths. Alex is in the middle of an epic love triangle and we aren’t quite sure with whom her heart lies. Alex isn’t even sure, but her behavior offers little tells, showing us who she feels closer to, especially when Alex’s patient stirs up painful memories of her past.
Mr. Halpern is a high school teacher who just got his class interested in literature by getting them to put on a performance of ‘Hamlet.’ As he explains his symptoms and Alex examines him, Halpern recites a line from Shakespeare’s tragic play. The second he says, “Thy father’s spirit,” Alex has a flashback of the moment she found her father hanging and her hand cramps up. She reaches out to Charlie for a favor, but he is called away. So Alex poses as Maggie over the phone and asks for her father’s medical records.
You have to admit that it is very telling to see Alex turn to Charlie in a moment of personal crisis like this. Family tragedy is something they share. Both have been devastated by the loss of their parents and in this moment, Alex seeks comfort from the man who would’ve been her husband by now if life went according to plan. Despite Alex’s closeness with Charlie, this case calls for Joel’s assistance, so he works with Alex to figure out what is wrong with Halpern.
Based on Halpern’s symptoms (which sadly include mistaking Alex for his late wife,) Joel diagnoses him with Venetian bone disease, but Alex wants to get the full story before jumping into the OR. After doing some more research and having Shahir review Halpern’s MRI, they realize that he has a genetic neurological illness called Nasu-Hakola disease. People with this disease do not live past fifty, so Halpern will be reunited with his wife sooner than he imagined. Wow, “Saving Hope” is really breaking our hearts with these cases. Even with this life sentence looming over him, Halpern is still worried about his students. Since he can’t go to the play, they bring ‘Hamlet’ to him and put on a small production in the hospital lounge. Awww!
Afterwards, Alex tells Charlie that she got her father’s records and learned that his lung cancer had moved to his brain by the time he killed himself. Charlie assures Alex that if her father was in his right mind, he would never have left her. Sigh. Suddenly, the baby kicks. Charlie feels her tummy and she places her hand over his. In a beautifully moving twist, Alex experiences another vision. She sees Charlie picking up her baby on the beach. Her visions haven’t been of the past, they are premonitions of her future! Goosebumps! This is an awesome development.
Does this mean Charlie is the father of her baby? Are they going to be a sweet happy family just like they planned while she was in limbo? Or will there be a twist? Could Joel be the baby daddy? Even if he is, would Alex still prefer to marry Charlie? How would Charlie feel about co-raising Joel’s baby and vice a versa? “Saving Hope” writers have a way of building our hopes up only to throw us a curveball, so we’re just trying to cover any possible twists.
What do you think Hopefuls? Are the writers just messing with our heads or will this really be Charlie’s baby? Charlie certainly seems ready for parenthood. Speaking of which, Dawn’s hopes for having a baby with Charlie may have been squashed, but she still has the chance to be a mother.
Giselle has run away from two foster homes and the third one kicked her out. Now she is crashing at the hospital and napping on Layla’s old bed until social services arrives. Oof. This is hurting our hearts. Giselle has a way of cutting through people, she’s a lot like Dawn in that way. She fearlessly speaks her mind, even if feelings may get hurt. She chastises Dawn for not being at Layla’s funeral and calls her out on not having any friends. It is harsh, yet sweet.
We thought from the start that Dawn should totally adopt Giselle, so the writers are giving us exactly what we want when Dawn suggests keeping Giselle for the weekend when social services come to take her away to a group home. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. Hopefully Dawn will keep Giselle and have a little more love in her life. These two really could use each other’s support and it would be so sweet to see them find happiness together. What do you think, Hopefuls? Will Dawn adopt Giselle? Or will the weekend prove that Dawn isn’t quite ready to handle a teenager?
Lastly, we have Maggie’s hot mess of a life. As we discussed earlier, this character is all over the place. She flirts with Dr. Dey and then hooks-up with Dr. Katz. What does Maggie really want? Perhaps she wants the best of both worlds. When Katz gives Maggie her engagement gift certificate to a seafood restaurant, Maggie passes on taking it and claims she’s allergic to crab. That afternoon, Dey invites Maggie to dinner with Katz’s gift. He says his celibacy is officially over and Maggie accepts his invitation. They bump into Katz on their way out to dinner, so Maggie asks her to join them.
Geesh! This is getting super awkward. Is Maggie aiming for a three-way here or is she just trying to decide who she likes more? She better watch out because she is about to hurt a lot of feelings and put these two people in very uncomfortable positions. How do you feel about this situation and Maggie’s behavior?
This was another great episode, Hopefuls. A lot of exciting progress is being made with Alex. Her visions are getting clearer as her baby grows. Now she sees Charlie in her future. As it is, Alex seemed more inclined to be with Charlie once she learned of her pregnancy. Joel has been too unreliable in the past and now that there is a baby involved, Alex may not want to gamble on his desire to change. Charlie is a sure thing. He’s always been fully committed to Alex and he wanted to have a baby with her before this unplanned pregnancy. All signs are pointing to Charlie right now, but you never know what might happen.
What do you think, Hopefuls? Are you excited to see more of Alex’s premonitions? Is she destined to be with Charlie? Does Joel still have a chance? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
“Saving Hope” airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on CTV.
This article was originally published on Examiner.com on February 6, 2015.
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.
