I’m not quite sure of exactly what elements clicked, but this episode completely worked for me, it’s the best one so far. And I do believe the show just went from good to great. And because of the power of this episode, I can’t be my usual snarky self. Okay, maybe some low-grade snark.
We start off simply enough, with Jackie and bland husband (what IS his name?) and the kids at husband’s bar. Jackie has her sewing machine out on said bar, working on a costume for younger daughter Fiona, who is apparently involved in some pageantry requiring her to be dressed as a sunflower. The scene ends with Daddy explaining to the kids that you “don’t wanna whack a nun”.
That phrase echoes in so many ways during the rest of the episode.
We then cut to Jackie meeting up with a former co-worker in what I call the “Hall of Guilt“, the one with the saintly statues where Jackie usually, for some reason, has her most compassionate scenes with the wounded souls crowding the ER. Seems she and the co-worker, Paula, are really tight. Paula is dying of lung cancer, quickly and painfully, and she wants Jackie to help expedite the process.
Oh boy.
We then have a patient whisked into the ER, who turns out to be Dr. Cooper’s mother. Well, ONE of them, anyway. The other Mom soon arrives, and it turns out that Coop was raised by lesbian partners. Happily, this is no big deal to anyone. (Progress is being made, people, celebrate it.) Coop, obviously, cannot legally administer to his own mother, so he pulls in Dr. O’Hara.
Her reaction to Coop having two Mommies? “Bravo, Dr. Cooper.” Love her.
Coop, though, does insist on helping Dr. O’Hara with the emergency surgery on Mom #1, a necessary operation due to an overactive gall bladder. During the course of such, Coop has one of his episodes and latches on to O’Hara’s breast. The look she gives him is sterling, and, during this sequence of scenes, she gets to utter the line “Nothing’s better when I leave”. (Did I mention that I love her?)
Post-op, we have a scene with Coop confessing to Mom #2 that he liked her better. Mom smiles sweetly, and explains that she had the easy job, she got to let him do the fun things, because that’s what Mom #1 wanted. Good cop/bad cop. Awww.
There are some additional scenes, some of them involving Dr. O’Hara tormenting the easy target of Zoey (Z on Jackie: “I think she’s afraid to cry.” O’Hara: “Then why don’t you hug her. A lot.”) O’Hara calling Coop’s birth mom the “Vagina Mom”. And so on.
Then we get to the really deep part.
Jackie realizes that she’s going to need a lot more morphine than she has on hand to… do the deed with Paula. It seems that Paula was loved by all in her many years at the hospital, and somehow whispers spread about what is going down. We have a moving montage of all these friends, quietly slipping Jackie the extra vials of morphine that she needs.
That’s what did it for me, right there. Damn the waivers you signed, do the right thing. I hope like hell that I have those same people around me when I finally say “I’m ready.”
So Jackie puts the morphine in a cocktail glass of champagne, and the faithful gather around with their own glasses of safer champagne while Paula takes her final sip. A toast.
I should mention that Paula is played by Judith Ivey (do NOT be surprised when Emmy nominations are announced, seriously). And Coop’s two Moms are Blythe Danner and Swoosie Kurtz. Not kidding. Three powerhouse guest actresses in one episode.
Nurse Jackie has arrived.
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