The Mob Doctor: Oh Baby

Before I get to the recap, I'm going to answer the question on everyone's mind.  The Mob Doctor is on hiatus until November 5 because of Major League Baseball, and not because it stinks.

I don't think it's a secret that I haven't been a fan of the flashbacks to Grace Devlin's childhood, and this week's was particularly weak.  So weak, in fact, that it isn't even worth mentioning.

Aside from that, the episode starts with Brett and Grace playing pool.  Some of Grace's high school friends come into the bar, and they seem like the type one Aviva Drescher might call "white trash," and by that I mean uneducated and a little drunk.  One of them stands on the bar and then falls off of it, cracking his head open.  Grace and Brett tell him he needs to go to a hospital to get stitches, but he decides to keep bar hopping instead.  Good idea.  Grace gets a text from Franco and ditches Brett.

Franco tells Grace that Constantine is putting feelers out to try to find out who blew up his car, and he advises Grace to take her family and get out of Chicago.  But first, Grace's new patient is a pregnant young woman named Tracy.  You may remember her as Denise from Full House, as I do.  Tracy is concerned because she hasn't felt her baby move in a couple of days, so Grace just rolls up the ultrasound machine and gives her an ultrasound.  I know what you're thinking.  How does she have an ultrasound machine?  That's just one of life's little mysteries.

Grace determines that the baby is breech, so she starts to turn him.  Tracy wants Grace to know that she's a good person.  Grace asks Constantine what's the deal with Tracy then?  Constantine says that Tracy is pregnant by some politician.  But who isn't these days, am I right?

Franco visits Moretti and tells him that he's tracked down where Serevino is, who is the informant that Grace was supposed to kill in the pilot episode.  The news reports that the trial against Moretti is going to move forward.  They describe him as a fugitive at large, and if he is convicted, he will likely end up on the Most Wanted list.

Constantine speaks with a politician who is against the gambling ordinance.  He shows him Tracy's ultrasound to see if it will change his vote.  The politician responds that he is happily married and he suggests Constantine doesn't call him again unless he plans on making a sizable campaign donation.

Grace's old friend comes into the hospital, saying he needs help because his head won't stop bleeding and he has to be at work in like an hour.  Leave it to a man to put off an errand until the last minute!  He complains over and over that he needs it done fast, so Grace just pops his head full of staples.  He is about to leave when Grace and Ro see a blood stain on his jacket that has, what they call a "halo sign" meaning there is spinal fluid leaking.  Grace tells him he is going to have to take a sick day.  Brett comes up and asks her why she isn't some special meeting for THORACIC surgeons, so she scurries off and slips into the meeting late.

The main gist of this meeting is that Grace and Olivia are competing for the assist on a great surgery.  Grace upstages Olivia by pointing out that the patient has a family history of an allergy to a certain anesthesia which wasn't in the patient history.  The surgeon is impressed by Grace, who probably just saved the patient's life.  But at the end of the day, she still chooses Olivia for the assist.  It's probably for the best since Grace comes and goes as she pleases.

Grace and Brett check in on her high school friend, who asks her if she ever talks to Franco and is yet another person saying he thought they would have been hitched.  He realizes that Brett doesn't know about Franco and he has put his foot in his mouth.  No time to dwell on that though, because they find out that her friend is not leaking spinal fluid, but he was horsing around with the other guys.  Grace runs to the waiting room and finds one of the other guys, Jimmy, is unconscious and he is absolutely LEAKING spinal fluid out his nose.  Hard to believe anyone missed that red flag.

Constantine calls Grace to say that Tracy's water broke.  Apparently, once this politician changes his vote, Constantine will have close to a majority in the city council.  I can't get enough of this video poker machine plot line.  Grace needs Ro to get her some stuff to deliver the baby, and then she drags Ro along for the ride.  The deliver Tracy's baby in seconds, but Tracy doesn't want to see the baby, she just wants Constantine to give her money.  Constantine tells Grace the baby is going to end up with a nice Canadian couple.  Before long, Tracy begins hemorrhaging.  Grace is about to call 911 but then Tracy loses consciousness so she performs an emergency hysterectomy.

Meanwhile, Franco is stalking a waitress named Peggy for Moretti.  He observes her and watches her video chat with Serevino.  He suspects that Peggy is Serevino's daughter.

Tracy regains consciousness and Grace breaks the bad news to her.  Now that Tracy realizes this baby is the only one she'll ever have she decides she wants to keep him.  Grace tries to convince Constantine to let her have him, but Constantine says that Tracy was a $2,000 a night call girl and she's going to get $100,000 out of the deal.

Olivia is assisting on the surgery Grace wanted to be on.  She makes a huge mistake and now the patient won't be able to talk.  The surgeon tells Grace she should have gotten the assist but the Chief of Staff has a soft spot for Olivia because she's a brown noser.

Grace's friend Jimmy's surgery went well, but they found something in the CT scan of his brain.  He has what's called an AVM which Grace says is a ticking time bomb.  There's a 10% chance of it rupturing and he would most likely die from it.  Grace says there's a surgical option and it should be done ASAP so she wants to get it on the schedule.  Jimmy's wife is like, chill out, we want to think about this.  And I'm wondering what the rush is, considering Grace JUST said he could have had it from birth.  Ultimately the wife decides they would rather live with the chance than risk blindness or stroke that could come from surgery.

Grace visits Tracy and gives her a plane ticket so she can run away with the baby. She says once she leaves, she can't come back.  As Tracy drives off in the cab, Franco catches Grace sending her off.  He gives her a lift back to the hospital and upsets her by asking how she feels about lying to her family all the time.  Bret walks in on them having a heated conversation but can't be bothered to intervene, or even ask if Grace is ok, although she's clearly sniffling?

Constantine visits the politician and gives him a lock of the baby's hair, threatening, if he doesn't change his vote, he will reveal the truth about the baby.
 
Moretti breaks into Peggy's apartment and tells her to call her father on video chat.  He tells Serevino he left him a gift in the desk.  It's a gun, and Moretti tells him if he doesn't shoot himself on video chat that he will hurt Peggy.  Serevino pulls the trigger.  Moretti tells Peggy that when the cops come to tell them that her father had been depressed.  With Serevino dead, the charges against Moretti will have to be dropped.

Grace is about to leave the hospital when Constantine pulls up. She says she knows he's angry but she actually did him a favor by saving him $100,000.  Constantine gives her cash to reimburse her for the plane ticket.

I suppose this episode wasn't quite as good as the last, but not as bad as the first few.  The plot lines are becoming more relevant, but I've just about given up any hope for ever caring about any of these characters.  A lot of people are predicting it will be the first new show canceled this season.   What do you guys think?

Picture Credit: FOX