I thoroughly enjoyed the previous episode and swore it was the best yet. "Doctors with Borders," however, is yet another tightly written script with all the great things I've already come to expect from this series: character development and revelation, a look at our human foibles and strengths, scenes that truly touch the heart, and intense medical emergency action. The reveals show that Code Black is a show with a lot of different stories to tell ... and not just about the patients!
This show just keeps getting better!
This is the first episode of Code Black that doesn't have at least six different medical cases going on. Even though I do love when things are that busy, the last episode had seven different cases - four individual ones and then three which were interconnected - and the writing didn't suffer from because of it. The same holds true here, because in "Doctors with Borders," Angel Memorial actually doesn't go into code black. Every week the opening says a code black happens 300 times a year - which leaves 65 days where it doesn't. It's good to know the has this breathing space because the lower case count this week allowed for more character building and I found the medical intensity of the situations didn't drop.
Episode 5 proved its chops a mysterious outbreak, a seemingly simple cause gone wrong, and some family drama just for kicks.
With the tension between Neal and his father unfolding naturally while he has to treat his own mother, the writers have finally hit the sweet spot of medical dramas.
Even without the added drama of Neal's mother being one of the affected patients, the story of the respiratory "outbreak" made for a hell of an episode. It gave us a large scale incident that wasn't caused by some outrageous, unlikely catastrophe like, say, a bus exploding in the middle of a hurricane. (Looking at you, Grey's Anatomy).
The twist of the "outbreak" being a case of chlorine poisoning was clever. I suspected earlier on that it may not be a true infection, but ate up the red herring of the caterer and was guessing at some kind of food poisoning or contamination.
I really enjoyed how the case allowed us to see some different sides of the characters. Taylor finally did something other than calling a food truck and make (hilarious) inappropriate comments. Christa was still overly emotionally invested in her patients, but she's starting to learn how to make that work for her. But Neal was the star.
Of course, he usual self-possessed teacher persona was strongly featured, but we also saw his vulnerable side as he treated his mother. His conflict with his father was more than a little cliché, but then clichés exist for a reason. I didn't even care because the reveal of his backstory was done so much better than the other characters.
It seems the writers finally got the note about "show don't tell." Sure, there was a little bit of that with the Cole and Rollie in #1.4, but this took it to a whole new level. I much preferred seeing Dr. Peter Hudson's disparagement of Neal's life choices to the break room gossip reveals we've suffered through so far.
I mean, I'm still curious about what caused their break in the first place, so hopefully, the Hudsons will stick around while Neal's mom heals up. At least got a nice apology out of his dad; whether anything really changes between them remains to be seen.
I really like how even with this major mystery case shutting down half the ER, and threatening the operating status of the hospital, we still got a bonus case. And not just some straightforward, light-hearted diarrhea or something shoved up an orifice either!
The secondary case was just as medically interesting (okay, maybe not quite as much of puzzle, but it was still good) that allowed the doctors to connect emotionally and show personal growth.
Leanne's personal trauma was not explicitly mentioned in this case. Of course, it came up elsewhere when she shored up Neal, but it came about in a beautiful, heartfelt way.
"The tragedy is...when you're absolutely the finest, the most skilled doctor there is, and you have to turn them over to people less skilled than you. So you're lucky. Your mother is lucky. Because there is no one anywhere better equipped to save her than you. You have the opportunity to do what I couldn't do with my own family. I envy you that." ~ Leanne
Despite making a few mistakes with the impaled electrician, the case brought Angus and Mario closer together. I'm not really sure how I feel about that. While Dr. Guthrie Jr. is certainly going to be antagonistic, there's always room for more than one nitwit in a hospital.
Keeping Mario as an outside obviously wasn't going to happen in the landscape of today's medical drama, where the character's personal lives drive more of the story than their careers. Grey's set up the expectation that everyone is friends, or has at least slept with almost everybody else. But I like a good workplace conflict (which ER, for example, repeatedly mastered), so as heartfelt and revealing as Mario's apology was, it was a little disappointing. Of course, stabbing friends in the back is so much more dramatic than stabbing your enemies, so maybe this could still go my way!
This show just keeps getting better!
This is the first episode of Code Black that doesn't have at least six different medical cases going on. Even though I do love when things are that busy, the last episode had seven different cases - four individual ones and then three which were interconnected - and the writing didn't suffer from because of it. The same holds true here, because in "Doctors with Borders," Angel Memorial actually doesn't go into code black. Every week the opening says a code black happens 300 times a year - which leaves 65 days where it doesn't. It's good to know the has this breathing space because the lower case count this week allowed for more character building and I found the medical intensity of the situations didn't drop.
Episode 5 proved its chops a mysterious outbreak, a seemingly simple cause gone wrong, and some family drama just for kicks.
With the tension between Neal and his father unfolding naturally while he has to treat his own mother, the writers have finally hit the sweet spot of medical dramas.
Even without the added drama of Neal's mother being one of the affected patients, the story of the respiratory "outbreak" made for a hell of an episode. It gave us a large scale incident that wasn't caused by some outrageous, unlikely catastrophe like, say, a bus exploding in the middle of a hurricane. (Looking at you, Grey's Anatomy).
The twist of the "outbreak" being a case of chlorine poisoning was clever. I suspected earlier on that it may not be a true infection, but ate up the red herring of the caterer and was guessing at some kind of food poisoning or contamination.
I really enjoyed how the case allowed us to see some different sides of the characters. Taylor finally did something other than calling a food truck and make (hilarious) inappropriate comments. Christa was still overly emotionally invested in her patients, but she's starting to learn how to make that work for her. But Neal was the star.
Of course, he usual self-possessed teacher persona was strongly featured, but we also saw his vulnerable side as he treated his mother. His conflict with his father was more than a little cliché, but then clichés exist for a reason. I didn't even care because the reveal of his backstory was done so much better than the other characters.
It seems the writers finally got the note about "show don't tell." Sure, there was a little bit of that with the Cole and Rollie in #1.4, but this took it to a whole new level. I much preferred seeing Dr. Peter Hudson's disparagement of Neal's life choices to the break room gossip reveals we've suffered through so far.
I mean, I'm still curious about what caused their break in the first place, so hopefully, the Hudsons will stick around while Neal's mom heals up. At least got a nice apology out of his dad; whether anything really changes between them remains to be seen.
I really like how even with this major mystery case shutting down half the ER, and threatening the operating status of the hospital, we still got a bonus case. And not just some straightforward, light-hearted diarrhea or something shoved up an orifice either!
The secondary case was just as medically interesting (okay, maybe not quite as much of puzzle, but it was still good) that allowed the doctors to connect emotionally and show personal growth.
Leanne's personal trauma was not explicitly mentioned in this case. Of course, it came up elsewhere when she shored up Neal, but it came about in a beautiful, heartfelt way.
"The tragedy is...when you're absolutely the finest, the most skilled doctor there is, and you have to turn them over to people less skilled than you. So you're lucky. Your mother is lucky. Because there is no one anywhere better equipped to save her than you. You have the opportunity to do what I couldn't do with my own family. I envy you that." ~ Leanne
Despite making a few mistakes with the impaled electrician, the case brought Angus and Mario closer together. I'm not really sure how I feel about that. While Dr. Guthrie Jr. is certainly going to be antagonistic, there's always room for more than one nitwit in a hospital.
Keeping Mario as an outside obviously wasn't going to happen in the landscape of today's medical drama, where the character's personal lives drive more of the story than their careers. Grey's set up the expectation that everyone is friends, or has at least slept with almost everybody else. But I like a good workplace conflict (which ER, for example, repeatedly mastered), so as heartfelt and revealing as Mario's apology was, it was a little disappointing. Of course, stabbing friends in the back is so much more dramatic than stabbing your enemies, so maybe this could still go my way!
