Tuesday, July 7, 2009

#21 - "Nurse Jackie" - Season 1, Episode 5

So, oldest daughter Grace is still full of not-quite-identified issues, screaming at Jackie "Why are you always working!". Jackie calmly explains to her that she is not always working. And then she races out the door on her way to work.

I would imagine that the writers have it in their minds for Grace to finally blow a gasket and do something really drastic for attention, like say something incredibly rude to a nun, or report her momma to Drug-Snatchers Anonymous. We'll see.

Anyway, Jackie is at work, and it's the night shift. Yay. And it's a first for awkward little Zoey, who has only experienced the benign "daytime stuff" like finding a severed ear. Twice. Well then, this should be fun.

The hospital administrator (and I can never remember her name after the show, it's something odd, sounds like a skin condition instead of a name) is being all gruff and hateful, yelling at a security guard to "go secure something!" instead of flirt with some intern we've never seen before. We know something bad will happen to her because she's just so unpleasant.

A young girl arrives with her very ill mother. Turns out this 10-year-old has been completely caring for her mother (she's 10!, did you catch that?) and obviously has a miserable life in doing so. This, of course, goes straight to Jackie's heart, so she takes the girl under her wing, battling the evil hospital administrator and forcing Dr. Cooper to quit being a condescending idiot and treat the girl like an adult.

And we also have a stroke patient who is unable to communicate, and his totally horrible family is standing around bitching and whining as if he can't hear any of their nastiness. After several scenes of this, Jackie has had enough and writes out notecards with various responses that he can select to show his family. He chooses two: "Shut the f*** up" and "Seriously". I rolled, had to rewind.

Meanwhile, Jackie balks at a proffered dinner invite from Dr. O'Hara, so O'Hara instead takes Zoey, telling Jackie "that's how easily you're replaced". Of course, at dinner, Zoey launches into some Pollyanna babble, and O'Hara has to cut her off. Change the subject or no more food. Zoey: "Dad's in prison for manslaughter". O'Hara: "Fabulous. Go!"

Thor is still stalking Momo, Momo doesn't care but we do get hints that Momo and current honey are not exactly smoking, the hospital administrator (really need to look up her name) yells at Momo for his ACTUAL smoking 'cause she's still angry about whatever, and Jackie steals a crateload of pills for the 10-year-old's momma 'cause their insurance sucks. Get all that?

Finally the comeuppance, as the Hotel Admin finds a stun gun lying around and manages to zap herself in an elevator. (Had to rewind that one, too, just sayin.) Jackie later finds the Admin hiding under a sheet on one of the emergency room beds, identifying her by the "Easy Spirit Career Collection" shoes poking out. There's tenative bonding, but the Admin's just not a nice person and things don't go well.

Jackie finally heads home. Daughter Grace has another meltdown involving a pencil. The 10-year-old with the sick momma calls, calmly upset that the meds Jackie told her to give her mother are causing an issue, momma can't feel her arms. Jackie talks her through giving momma half a percocet with some juice (and Jackie is consuming the same cocktail while dispensing this advice, nice). "She'll be fine," our heroine soothingly says.

Oh boy.

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