‘Saving Hope’ S4 Ep 12 recap: Walk the line

Oh boy, Hopefuls! “All Down the Line” was full of some risqué moments. Love (and/or lust) is in the air. Signals are mixed and lines are crossed. There’s unrequited love, the one that got away, a new romance, and then there’s possibly fatal attraction. Let’s sort the hot messiness of it all.

I’m jumping the gun and getting to the most unsettling part of this episode. After the “I see dead people” ambush and that unnerving “connection,” Charlie has been avoiding Kristine. He ignores her texts and manages to dodge her for a few weeks, until she corners him in the elevator. Awkward!

Charlie shrugs it off and chalks it up to being busy, but we all know the real reason and so does Kristine. He tries to be nice and admits their talks have helped him a lot but…Yeah, we know what he’s about to say next, so Kristine stops him. She still wants to talk about what happened at her place (the super personal and confusing shared visions of Alex, Baby Luke and tuxedo clad Charlie walking into the ocean). They need to figure out what it means and Kristine argues that two minds are better than one. Charlie caves and agrees to meet with her to chat about it later.

Later that day, Kristine thinks they should go to a bar to talk and hang out. (Really?!) As Charlie politely shuts down the bar idea, she tries to kiss him. (1. What?! 2. On TV shows, people always act like they can’t stop somebody from “accidentally” kissing them. Charlie’s reaction totally proves them wrong. If you don’t want to be smooched, you can always find a way to stop it from happening.) Charlie slams on the brakes and physically distances her lips from him before she achieves her goal. Go Charlie!

Charlie, like us, is confused. He made it abundantly clear that he is in love with Alex. He is sorry if he misled Kristine in any way. It was never his intention to send romantic vibes her way. The only connection he feels with her is that they both see dead people. Even so, Charlie believes they’d be better off dealing with their supernatural problems on their own. As expected, Kristine is not pleased by Charlie’s reaction. Oh my, this lady is crazy.

That night, Charlie and Alex are feeding Baby Luke when he receives a text from Kristine. “Do you really mean it? We’re not safe.” At this rate, I get the feeling that Charlie will be safer going up against strangers’ spirits than staying in contact with Kristine. In a way, what she is doing is similar to Crenshaw’s behavior. She crossed a line and invaded Charlie’s personal space…be it his home or his face. She needs to step off.

This episode makes me love Charlie even more. The only fault I’d find with this situation is that he doesn’t tell Alex the truth when she asks about the text. We know that’s going to come back to bite him in the butt. On the other hand, he doesn’t want her to stress about his supernatural related problems. Charlie probably thinks Kristine will get the memo and leave them alone now.

How do you feel about Kristine? Do you think she crossed the line? Should Charlie have told Alex about what happened? What do you think of the way Charlie handled the whole situation?

Kristine’s craziness aside, Charlie had a busy day at Hope Zion. Asha is with Charlie on orthopedic rotation and she’s feeling self-conscious because she’s struggling to find her specialty. Charlie reassures Asha, saying he’s heard she’s great and has proven to be a promising resident. She also wants to clarify a few things about her relationship with Lane. Again, you have to love how Charlie handles this. The look on his face is priceless.

Charlie “doesn’t want to hear about that piece of sh…” that is, unless Asha wants to talk about it. Now that is man who knows how to behave with a woman. Call a creep out for who he is, like a dude, but then circle back and make sure to show some sensitivity…just in case. So sweet! Once that’s settled, they get to work.

Bishop brings in Margo, a mother of five who fell while building her kids’ treehouse. Her pelvis is unstable and we know she must be in bad shape because Charlie sees her spirit. Charlie and Asha will operate and put pins in her pelvis. In the meantime, her ghost is worried about who will take care of her kids if she dies. Yeah, Margo gives new meaning to being a single supermom.

In the OR, Bishop catches Asha’s mistake in the nick of time. She missed a bleed and they didn’t realize that Margo was internally bleeding to death this whole time. Asha is furious with herself for making such a huge mistake. She thinks she shouldn’t have been in surgery after such an error. Charlie, again, is Mr. Cool.

Charlie tells Asha not to kill herself because she’s part of a team. The responsibility doesn’t fall solely on her shoulders, but she disagrees. If one person screws up, the whole team goes down. Well, you have to respect the way she is taking responsibility and acknowledging the severity her mistake. You’d want someone like that over someone who is eager to pass the blame or dismiss a mistake. Speaking of someone who carries all of the weight…

Margo likes Asha for holding herself to a high standard. She did the same thing when her husband left. She wanted her kids to know she could do it all. Awww. Charlie says she needs to take care of herself too and that her kids could help her. Margo snaps at him, “Don’t tell me how to raise my kids!” And the Mama Bear claws come out. It’s only instinct kicking in.

Soon after, Julie, her eldest daughter (16 years old), arrives at the hospital. Margo wants to know if the kids are ok. While Margo pesters Charlie to ask, Julie says how she keeps offering to help, but mom never lets the kids do anything. Charlie understands and says Margo seems quite driven. While Julie calls home to check on her siblings, Charlie tells Margo that kids want to help and she should let them. Both, Margo and the kids need each other. Yeah, that’s part of being a family. They are supposed to be there for you and you all can take care of each other. Charlie promises that he is not going to let anything bad happen to Margo.

They go back to the OR and Charlie hands the drill over to Asha. One mistake doesn’t mark the end of her career. Charlie advises Asha not to strive for perfection. The surgery turns out to be a success. Phew! Wait, so then why is Margo still in limbo? She tells Charlie she is taking an extra hour to be by herself. Haha! We’ll, she does deserve a break.

That’s probably a limbo first. Never thought of it as vacation time before. It makes you wonder if spirits with evil intentions unnecessarily linger in limbo just to mess with people. The thought sends shivers downs my spine, so let’s move on to a more amusing subject.

It’s Dev and Cassie’s six month anniversary. Wow! Did you know they were a serious thing like that? It looks like Bishop was cozying up to her a bit, so I thought their friendly flirtation would evolve into more. Instead we discover that Dev and Cassie have been going strong for six month and we are the only ones. Dev is eager to celebrate the milestone, where Cassie is terrible at keeping track of those things. She makes up for it with a little hanky-panky, which Zach walks in on. Eek! Totally awkward.

Cassie and Zach get to work on a bride and groom, Mika and Cole. Zach quickly gripes about how he hates happy couples, but we know that’s not really true. We’ve all seen Zach’s softer side, despite his unrelenting snark. They cut the tuxedo off of Cole and see he is wearing “nudes for dudes.” This revelation opens a whole can of worms in the couple’s relationship.

They start fighting and Cole says he couldn’t keep up with who she wanted him to be. He
got a hernia trying to get in shape for Mika because he didn’t feel like he was good enough for her. After a string of nude jokes, Zach tells Cassie he thinks Cole and Mika’s romance is doomed. Cassie quips back, “Bitterness suits some people, but you’re not one of them.” I agree with her. Zach just hasn’t found the right woman yet, but it would be nice to see him fall in love before the series ends. He deserves a proper romance. Plus, we all know he’s a sweetheart and he proves it again by comforting Mika.

Zach assures her that everything is under control. If anything, “pain is a precipice for truth.” This could be a good thing for their relationship. Mika reveals that she just wanted Cole to feel good about himself. The weight doesn’t bother her. Awww. Zach says she should talk to Cole before calling the family. Mika returns to Cole’s room and proposes to him. She says, “True Love is saying good things behind your partner’s back and bad things to their face.” Now that’s a nice line. It’s very true too. So Cole and Mika come clean about their pet peeves and agree that the wedding will happen when it happens.

Cassie adorably points to Zach’s heart and smilingly says, “It lives.” So cute! She also apologizes to Dev for not remembering their anniversary. She’s not good with dates, but she promises to make it up to him. So their romance seems to be just fine. Unfortunately, love doesn’t come so easily for others.

Maggie has recovered and starting back at work, just as Katz is preparing to leave and join her new girlfriend in Tel Aviv. Katz has a new outlook on life now that she’s openly living as her true self: “If you don’t know what you’re living for, you’re not really living.” For Maggie, her life’s focus is on work…at least for the time being, so she is eager to get back to it.

Before Katz leaves town, she passes the baton and entrusts her patient, Nikola, into Maggie’s care. Nikola is a special patient because she already had three miscarriages before her current pregnancy. Not only that, but we come to discover that Nikola is blind and her husband, David, passed away two months ago. How heartbreaking! David’s brother, Ben, has been caring for Nikola and it is easy to see how much he adores her. He wants to be as supportive as possible. The baby is all Nikola has left of David, so she really can’t lose this baby. As a result, Nikola wants to be extra cautious and refuses to undergo a necessary procedure to check for infection because it may induce labor. Ben supports Nikola’s decision, but when the doctors pull him aside to have a sensible chat, we learn the truth.

Ben is in love with Nikola. Awww, it’s just like a Hallmark movie, you guys! He moved in to take care of her and he’s trying his best, but he will never be David. He also agrees with the doctors and believes Nikola should have the procedure. Eventually, they convince Nikola to do it. While they prepare her, we learn that she thinks Ben is this caring with everybody. Poor Nikola doesn’t realize that he’s in love. Instead, she apologizes to Ben and wants to give him some space, knowing he’ll still be there for her and the baby.

Nikola finds out she’s having a baby girl and wishes she could see her, so Maggie has a 3D print of her baby made. Awww! How amazing is that?! Nikola hopes Katz will keep in touch. Then it is Maggie’s turn to say goodbye.

Maggie and Katz kiss goodbye. We were never sure exactly what their relationship was, heck, they don’t seem really sure either. All we know for sure is that they do truly care for each other. Before leaving, Katz tells Maggie that she is “the only almost” she still thinks about. Who knows? Maybe they’ll reunite again someday. Speaking of caring friends…Alex is doing her best to make sure Dana gets better.

Now that Dana is back from her spontaneous and romantic trip to Paris, Alex wants her to resume chemotherapy, but she still refuses to inject her body with that poison. Dana would prefer enjoying whatever time she has left and Alex will not settle for this defeatist attitude. Interestingly, Alex’s case leads them to have an open conversation about it.

Alex treats Lorenzo Fescado (Stefano DiMatteo), who is an Anthony Bourdain-esque pompous Portuguese chef with a cancerous tumor on his tongue. When she pages a different surgeon for  consult, Dana arrives in his stead and she is peeved. Alex and Dana both tell Lorenzo that the best way to cure him is to remove the tumor, which means he might lose his taste buds a bit. Obviously, this is devastating news for a chef.

When Lorenzo goes MIA, they find him in the kitchen (his chapel). When we see him in his element, we realize that he isn’t such a bad guy after all. He even gives Alex some advice on how to make her puree more appetizing for Baby Luke. Alex explains how his cancer is treatable and his abilities will be restored. Yes, his taste capacity will be reduced, but it will still be there. Lorenzo would prefer to have a different treatment, so Dana explains it in his terms by comparing the surgery to preparing blow-fish. There’s an artistry, she understands him and will take good care of him. Ultimately, Lorenzo agrees and Dana removes the tumor (Do they really still use leeches?!). The chef isn’t ready to die yet, but Dana seems to be giving up on her life, especially since her cancer is far more advanced than his.

Alex tells Dana it was amazing how she tapped into his will to fight. Dana encouraged him to be aggressive with his cancer treatment and Alex doesn’t understand why she isn’t taking her own advice. Finally, Dana just tells Alex to spit it out…what’s her problem?

Alex is pissed at Dana, because she should fight for her life. Alex is not going to be a passive friend. Dana understands, but disagrees. She will not watch her kid wait for a miracle. Alex still argues that her cancer is beatable. Dana dodges by suggesting they go out for drinks, but Alex won’t have it. Going out for drinks is not a good plan, she should be coming up with a treatment instead. Dana snaps, “Who do you think you are?!” Alex affectionately replies, “Someone who loves you.”

Now that is love and friendship. Alex is staying true to her character. She fought for Charlie when he was in a coma and now she’s fighting for Dana. Sure, it is Dana’s right to choose how she wants to live her life or how she wants to die. However, it doesn’t seem like Molly even knows the truth yet. Any daughter would be devastated if she learned her mom was keeping a secret like this and not fighting for her life. Call Alex an overbearing meddler if you wish, but it comes from a place of love and Dana seems like she needs someone to start the fight for her since she isn’t willing to fight for herself just yet. Dana beat cancer once before and she can do it again. I hope she at least tries some kind of treatment, even if it is an alternative to chemo. Something is better than nothing at this point. What do you think?

How did you feel about everything that went down in this intense episode? Share your thoughts below!

‘Saving Hope’airs on ION Television in the U.S. and on CTV in Canada. Visit ‘Saving Hope’s’ ION TV homepage (HERE) or CTV Homepage (HERE) for details.