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

The Mob Doctor: Protect and Serve

Yet again, we start the episode with a flashback to 1987, or thereabouts.  Grace is outside the house, watching her parents fight in the kitchen through the window in front of Nate.  This is the moment Grace learned that choices are hard, for some reason.  Six-year-old Grace decides to run away, but in hindsight, adult Grace says, where she comes from, even if you run away, you never truly leave.

A family of four is rolled into the ER one by one.  They were in a car and were hit by a red SUV, the father mentions to the doctors.  It should be noted that EVERY doctor we've met thus far is working on this family.  They are totally maxed out.  The kids and the father seem pretty chatty, despite the fact that the son has a crushed pelvis.  He doesn't cry or moan, all he says is "I guess I ruined my jersey, huh?"

Grace's patient is the young daughter in the family.  She says she's not hurt, but a second later she feels funny, and two seconds later, she's dead.  Grace tries to save her, but quickly stops because the girl is gone.  Her rival, Olivia wants to perform some procedure, but Grace says there's no use, the girl is dead.  Olivia says they should do it for maximum educational benefit.  Grace says, "I'm not going to rip open a little girl's chest for YOUR benefit."  I guess that's Grace's way of saying she has nothing left to learn.

Grace gets a page, and goes to Constantine.  He has another patient for her.  When she opens the patient's shirt, she sees a bruise shaped like a seat belt, and then notices glass in the cuts on his face.  She puts two and two together, and realizes he's the one who hit the family's car.  Grace goes to Constantine and tells him she will have to call the cops, but Constantine tells her that the guy is a cop.  He's Captain Shaw.

Grace sets out to do MacGuyver whatever medical instruments she can.  She asks for a hose from the vending machine.  She cuts a pretty large gash into his abdomen, and tells him she is going to fill his belly with liquid.  If it comes out clear, he doesn't have internal bleeding, but if it comes out red, they'll need to get him to a hospital.  Grace sets the hose in the sink, and there is blood.  Grace pretends he's fine and sends him on his way.

We can tell Constantine is a mobster with a heart of gold, because he grinds the broken glass into Captain Shaw's face for killing that girl.  If Constantine didn't need him for something, he would be dead.  Meanwhile Grace finds out that Nate is working for Constantine too.

At the hospital, Grace asks Brett how long it would take someone to go south from a slow abdominal bleed, and he estimates 24 hours.  So Captain Shaw should be dead by tomorrow.

At a meeting, Constantine says soon there will be poker machines everywhere.  I am so glad this plot point got it's own story arc, because I didn't really feel it got resolved in the last episode.

Grace and Brett look at the skyline while she tells him how upset she is about losing her patient this morning.  At the same time, Nate is working with Franco.  Franco asks Nate about Brett, and we get to find out about the backstory between Franco and Grace.  They dated while she was in undergrad, and she thought Franco was going to propose to her, but then he had to go to New York and got stuck there for a year.  Nate says Grace thought he left because of her.  Franco says Grace never said anything about it.  Nate says that's because she's a pain in the ass, but Franco says Nate should be more appreciative of what Grace has done for him.  They torch the red SUV Captain Shaw was driving during the accident.

Brett is with the boy, who says his leg doesn't hurt. He talks about playing soccer, so we know right now he's going to lose that leg.  He asks if he's going to have to sit out the rest of the season.  Poor, simple child, can't see the foreshadowing.

Grace's mom stops by the hospital to drop off pastries.  Her family really needs to stop bothering her at work, it is not normal.  Grace pulls her aside and tells her that Nate is working for Constantine, and she needs to tell Nate the truth about their father so Nate doesn't go down the same path.

Nate is hanging out in a car with Constantine.  Constantine reveals how he was arrested.  He was ratted out by a guy named Marcellas Coin who was so jelly of Constantine's power and money.  But Constantine assures Nate, he's going to get it all back.

Brett, Olivia and Dr. White talk about the boy's condition.  Brett says he wants to do whatever he can to try to save the leg, but Dr. White says the procedure Brett suggests is too risky.  The boy could end up dying if they try to save the leg, so Dr. White says they should get the father's permission to amputate.

Grace texts Franco to come over to the hospital.  She tells him she is not ok with covering up for Captain Shaw.  Franco tells her that Constantine and Shaw are planning a raid on a gang that sells drugs in the streets, The Disciples.  When they were kids, the streets were clean, but now things are a mess because Constantine wasn't around to keep everything in order.  But Franco said everything is going back on track since Grace fixed up Shaw.  Grace has a guilty look on her face and says she needs to see Shaw as soon as possible.  Franco says he may not always be around to cover for her.

She starts to roll Shaw into surgery.  Flanigan catches her and asks why he doesn't know about this surgery, seeing as how he is, ya know, the surgeon, and she's a resident.  She's kind of like, it's an emergency bro, and he lets her go to it.

Brett speaks with the father and tells him he has to ask for permission to amputate his son's leg, but P.S. he doesn't WANT permission because he thinks they should save the leg even though it might mean the kid dies.  When Dr. White asks where Brett is, Grace spills that he's in surgery to save the leg.  Dr. White confronts Brett, but Brett insists it was a quality of life issue.  Ok, but no one in America cares about soccer.

The surgery doesn't go exactly according to plan, and Dr. White has to clean up the mess.  Turns out Brett used the wrong stitch to sew up the graft.  That's probably because he isn't an experienced surgeon.

Grace is driving and hears about the raid going down on the radio.  She hears the report that Marcellas Coin was the leader of the disciples, and realizes that Constantine didn't organize the raid to clean up the streets, he did it for revenge on the guy who ratted him out.  She meets with Franco and tells him she's sending a report to the police saying that Captain Shaw's injuries were consistent with the car accident, and she tells him not to lie to her again.

Grace tells Constantine what she's done, and he says she did the right thing.  As they are walking to his car, it explodes.

And at the very end, Franco drives up in the woods to Moretti, who is still alive!!  Franco is working for Moretti and planted the bomb in Constantine's car.

I feel like this was the best episode to date.  Only one medical side plot, and it related to the main plot.  Everything that happened made sense and was kind of important.  I think there's promise for future episodes based on this ending.  What did you all think?

Picture Credit: FOX

The Mob Doctor: Family Secrets

This scene must have been very important since it's the only one I can find a picture of.

We begin this episode, yet again, when Grace is 6 years old.  Grace's mother told her that her father couldn't come to her birthday party because he was busy with work, but in actuality he was stumbling drunk.  That was the first time Grace's mother lied to her, she says.  I guess Grace's mother never told her about Santa Claus.

All this is to make the the heavy handed point that, sometimes, we can't trust the people closest to us, and, sometimes, the only way to  protect the people you love is with a lie.  I could really do without this Grey's Anatomy voiceover at the beginning and end of every episode.

Grace's mother has invited Brett to dinner with the family.  She's making duck, which is a meal she reserves for whenever Grace brings a doctor home.  Seeing as how Grace IS a doctor, I'm not sure why her mother is so impressed that she is dating one.

Grace's brother, Nate, asks her if she's heard from Moretti lately.  She says, for the tenth time, she hasn't and she tells him to enroll in community college.

Constantine visits Dante Amato, who is in hiding, because of something to do with shooting some Filippino people or something of that nature.  Dante's brother Titus is there as well, and informs Constantine that the video poker machines will be coming in next week.  I don't know about anyone else, but video poker machines remind me of my grandmother... that is to say, not very mob-like or ominous.  Anyhoo, Constantine says he can distribute and collect, and Titus offers him the same deal he offered Moretti, 10%.  Constantine wants 15%.  Is this what it's like to be in the mob, really?

Grace shows up to work, and an old man without family is admitted to the hospital.  And if that wasn't thrilling enough, a woman in a wedding dress appears, saying "Help, I need a doctor."  She is crying blood tears and her dress is soaked with blood.  Like a lot of blood.  So much blood that it couldn't possibly have come out of her eyes.

At this point I am certain that either Grace or I am dreaming.  Why do we have to do the House thing?  Is it not enough that she works for the mob on the side?  Must she also figure out mysterious cases?

Since there's no external trauma, Dr. White, the head honcho says it might have to do with the bride's heart, so Grace says she will stay close, lest we forget she's a THORACIC surgeon, because that's so important.  And then Grace immediately leaves.

Franco, Moretti's former henchman, now Constantine's, picks Grace up from the hospital and brings her to Dante.  She examines him but says she won't know anything until she can get him to a hospital, which is obviously out of the question since he is in hiding.  So she tries to make due by taking a urine sample.

Grace's brother goes to the post office.  Oh wait, no, he's actually registering for community college classes.  The guy behind the bulletproof glass window, for some reason, gives Nate the third degree.  He asks him questions like, do you have proof that you graduated high school?  And, what classes are you going to take?  Nate changes his mind about community college, it's dumb.

Grace asks her nurse friend Ro to find out about Dante's urine.  Ro says it shows a risk of renal failure.  Grace knows she can't help Dante without getting him to the hospital, so she tells Ro to keep her eye on the old guy from the beginning of the episode, and not let anyone call it when he dies.  Ro says, ok, seeing nothing wrong with this picture at all.

Meanwhile, Brett diagnoses the bride as having had a panic attack.  I don't think he even tried to explain why that made her bleed from the eyes.  Maybe Grace's mom should rethink that duck.

Nate storms into the hospital to yell at Grace and tell her how dumb city college is, because they wanted to know what classes he would take and stuff.  She basically tells him, don't bother me with this stuff at work.  This is the first thing Grace has done in two episodes that I have actually liked.  In the parking lot, Nate catches Grace bringing Dante into the hospital.

While Grace gives Dante tests, she finds out that he knew her father.  She asks if he knows who killed her father.  Dante says she'll have to ask Constantine.

Brett is running some more tests on the runaway bride, and finds a shadow on her kidney.  When he presses on it, she screams in pain and pushes him into a window.  She starts bleeding from the eyes and nose again.  Somehow now Grace is involved, and helps Brett inform the family that pressing on the growth released adrenaline that made her go nuts, and the first incident was caused by her corset.

Meanwhile, Flanigan is back from his, um, weekend off.  He has an axe to grind now, and he is suspicious as to why Grace is running to many tests on an octogenarian.  He's about to take over as the doctor for the patient when Franco runs up and says the patient is his grandfather and he insists that Grace stay on as his doctor.  The scare is too much for Dante, so he decides to go back into hiding.

During surgery, Dr. White talks about Grace and Brett's dinner plans, because apparently her mother had called him to tell him all about it.  How embarrassing must it be for your mother to call your boss to tell him she invited your boyfriend over for a duck dinner? 

Before dinner, Grace makes a quick pit stop to Constantine's to ask if he killed her father.  He swears he didn't.  Dante's breathing is very shallow so Grace calls the hospital for results.  She gets some... and based on that and the fact that his nailbeds are pink apparently means it could be cyanide.  I usually don't feel this out of the loop when I watch tv.  But apparently, Dante's wife was so sick of being in hiding, she was poisoning him with cyanide so he would die and she could leave.

Brett is the only one to show up on time for dinner, so Grace's mother gets to speak with him privately.  He helps her cook, and she tells him he has to keep stirring the potatoes or else they get lumpy.  UM... I don't think that's how it works.  That's like saying, if you don't shake the orange juice it will turn back into an orange.

Grace heads home and sees Nate on the side of the road.  He tells her she's in deeper than he knew. Then they go home and arrive just in time to miss the whole dinner.

Dante has survived, and to show Constantine his gratitude, he offers him... 10% on the machines.  Oh.  Well Constantine still wants 15%, so he leaves.  He and his men hijack the truck transporting the machines.  They douse them in gasoline and are going to burn them, but then Constantine realizes that each serial number matches two machines.

Apparently, I neither understand the medical part of this show, nor the mob part.

At this point I discover that Grace still lives at home AND she sleeps, which I was pretty convinced she didn't do.

Constantine visits Dante's brother Titus and tells him he knows about the twin machines, and how half the money can be collected tax free.  So wait... this money was going to be taxed?  What was illegal about these video poker machines then?  Constantine says now he's going to take 25% on all the machines.  Good for him, I guess.

A patient comes into the hospital and is pretty instantly pronounced dead.  Grace recognizes it is Dante's wife, and tells them to tell the coroner to check for cyanide.

Nate goes to Constantine and says he knows Grace is working for him, and now he wants a job.

I was hoping this episode would be less confusing than the last, but that wasn't the case.  For some reason this show wants to be EVERY medical drama that's ever existed AND MORE, but for me it is falling flat on all levels.  Why do we have to have to be subjected to Brett's ridiculous cases?  Why do we have to be subjected to Brett at all (no offense, but he doesn't serve much purpose)?  They could use that time to, oh, I don't know, tell us what debt Grace is even paying?  Maybe show her actually being an ethical doctor?

Is it just me?  What did you guys think of episode 2?

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Picture Credit: FOX