Joel and Alex

Joel and Alex are driving on their way to a medical conference.  Joel tells her about the lady he is seeing and the fact that she has a car.

They seem to be lost and they discuss past trips they took together when they were in a relationship. They stop at a gas station and Alex starts to panic as she perceives that they are running late.

While at the gas station store, Joel is in behind a guy that looks pretty nervous but he also notices that he has an infected tattoo. But this guy is nervous for a reason, he pulls out a gun and robs the store. Joel gives him his car and Alex comes in and the guy steals her purse. The robber wants more money and when the store clerk, Diane, says there is no more, he shoots her in the leg and it is bad as he hit the artery in her femur. The robber has taken their cell phones so they use a landline to call for an ambulance. But the ambulance won’t come for another 45 minutes. The way they argue, Diane thinks they are married.

As they wait for the ambulance, Alex and Joel treat Diane as best they can using the supplies in the store. Joel tells Diane that they aren’t married. Joel did say that he did propose but Alex says that his question wasn’t really a proposal.

The duo use their make shift medical equipment to stop her bleeding. Diane again asks for her husband, Jack. Joel goes to look for him and find him on the ground unconscious. Joel manages to revive him as the robber ran Jack over with Joel’s car and Joel discovers that Jack’s leg is broken. Alex and Joel need a way to move Jack safely. They use a creeper and duct tape and a travel pillow to move Jack. When a car passes by, Joel tries to flag it down to no avail. They then move Jack back inside.

Alex calls for an ambulance again to come and help Diane and Jack. Unfortunately, the ambulance took the robber who crashed Joel’s car. Diane’s condition gets worse and is now unconscious and has lots of blood. Alex wants to donate her blood to Diane but Joel thinks she is crazy as he worries that she might injure herself. But they push through and start the process of the blood transfusion. Joel is worried that they will both become septic over the procedure. But the procedure goes on and they get blood flow and the transfusion begins. Diane becomes stable and Alex is grateful to be here instead of making her speech at the medical conference.

Alex is starting to get woozy and since her blood pressure went below a certain level, he stops the blood transfusion. They share a brief moment but Joel ends it as he tells Alex to get some rest.

The ambulance finally arrives, hours later to take Jack and Diane away.

At their hotel, Joel and Alex debrief about their day. As they call it night, they both seem awkward around each other. When Alex enters her room, Alex takes a look at herself in the mirror with a look of somewhat accomplishment over the day and perhaps looking back at her relationship with Joel.

Charlie

Charlie has picked up his former college roommate, Ford. But it isn’t a visit but more like a medical emergency. He has a busted leg that he sustained while in Africa and it is a nasty wound as it is a really open one as the bone is exposed and a metal rod is keeping it in place. Alex calls Charlie to make dinner plans. Charlie apologizes for ruining their weekend when Ford talks to Alex to explain the situation.

Ford’s leg injury has become septic and there is a possibility that he could lose his leg. Ford apologies again for ruining his weekend with Alex but Charlie says she understands. And so Ford’s surgery leaves. Maggie is helping Charlie on the surgery and is surprised that he wants to save Ford’s leg.

This is a pretty gross but at the same time interesting surgery that got more complicated as Maggie found maggots that puts a wrench in saving Ford’s leg. Maggie removes all the maggots and determine that Ford took a long time seeking treatment. As they continue the surgery the find bullets and metal fragments in the leg.

Charlie shows the treatment he is going to use to Maggie when Dana comes in to assist in the plastics part of the surgery. When Dana sees the wound, she tells Charlie that it is impossible to save. Charlie then smells smoke and lo and behold, Ford appears to him as a spirit smoking a cigarette. Dana wants to amputate but Charlie wants to save it. Charlie thinks of Ford like a brother and wants Dana’s help to save him.

In the on-call room, Charlie talks to Ford and seeks his advice on the fact that he can see ghosts. Ford thinks it is cool and that Charlie should embrace his gift to help others; wrongs he could make rights. Charlie says he will think about it but Ford wants him to commit. Charlie is then called back to his surgery.

It seems that Dana was successful in Ford’s surgery. Charlie gets a call that let him know that Ford is uninsured and unemployed. Charlie is at the hospital lobby wondering who is real and a spirit.

Ford is awake and Charlie wants to know what happened to Ford that caused him to lose his job. Ford tells Charlie that he killed a man to stop an act of violence. Ford wants Charlie to come join him as he takes on freelance gigs but Charlie declines. Ford then takes a picture of him and Charlie together. When Ford takes a look at the picture, he claims that Charlie looks like a ghost.

The Rest of Hope-Zion

Shahir has a complaint against him for having a bad bed side manner and is venting to Gavin and Maggie and asks for advice on what to do. Gavin offers to help Shahir with his bedside manner.

Gavin suggests that Shahir to role play and use Zach as the patient. Zach wants to know more about his character until the final get down to the role playing. Shahir is blunt so Gavin gives him some advice on how to better deliver bad medical news better. Shahir’s second attempt goes just as bad.

Shahir is talking to the complaining patient and he goes to over sympathetic. The patient wants him to be himself so Shahir tells him the truth and actually does a good job at telling him the bad news on his medical condition. Shahir tries to connect with the patient through music.

At the doctor’s lounge, Shahir tells Gavin how things went with his patient. Shahir tells Gavin a bit about what is going on in his personal life and something that his patient said to him affected him. Shahir tells Gavin he worries about not finding love.

Maggie comes in and talk briefly about her surgery and they seem to go away for some sexual role play.

Shahir later visits his patient and takes him to where the hospital has a piano and Shahir plays for him. As this piece plays, we see Maggie and Gavin making out in his office.

After Shahir plays his piece, the patient is very appreciative of the gesture and withdraws his complaint.

There is something I wish that Saving Hope would do. I would love to see how Alex and Charlie fell in love as that might help me care a bit about them more. Alex’s ordeal of getting Charlie back in season 1 should do that but I love to see their love story. Was Alex with Joel when she started working at Hope-Zion or was their relationship over at that point. Let us see Alex and Joel and the reasons why they didn’t work out instead of us hearing about it. We have 10 episodes remaining and maybe one or two of them could be a flashback episode. Judging from next week’s episode we may just get a glimpse at what their relationship was like.