In an episode directed by series star Michael Shanks, we get an episode that guest stars his real-life wife, Lexa Doig as Selina, a doctor at a city clinic.

We also get Alex’s first day back at Hope-Zion after being stabbed in the chest.

What surprised me most is we open up with Alex at home with Charlie also there happily taking care of her. It seems that the two might be living together again. So there is hope for those two.

At Hope-Zion, Dawn has assigned Alex a rotation in the ER with her watching over her. Alex’s first patient is a man with garden shears in his abdomen that Alex manages to treat.

Joel is at this clinic to hand some paper work to Selina but ends up treating a man, Gabriel, with a gunshot wound but his brother, Paul, won’t let them go to a hospital as it seems the two are in the country illegally. Paul threatens Joel and Selina by knife-point. Some quick thinking by Selina allows her to subdue Paul with the knife. When Paul gets defeated he wants to take Gabriel away as he is afraid they will be sent back to their country and it would not be good as Gabriel is gay. Joel promises to remove the bullet out of the man’s arm, which he does but it also causes major bleeding in his artery. Selina gets some drugs to help with Gabriel’s pain and she and Joel work to stop the bleeding. Joel and Selina manage to patch Gabriel up and we learn that Gabriel had to leave his boyfriend behind as their lives became in danger.

After the ordeal is over, Joel finally gives the envelope to Selina. Apparently they have a patient in common and this patient owed Selina some money. Selina asks Joel to give the money to Paul and Gabriel and she also offers Joel a job at her clinic.

And Charlie meets an elderly woman’s spirit hanging around Hope-Zion for her husband to die and join her. Charlie then goes to Gavin for his session but Gavin isn’t in any shape for any patients as he is in a hoodie and a T-shirt. Charlie goes to Gavin’s supervisor, Stu, with his concerns and he promises to look into it.

Gavin has a new office mate, a Dr. Day who is moving his stuff in. Gavin sweetens his coffee with some sugar cubes he finds in one of Dr. Day’s boxes and has three sugar cubes. When Dr. Day notices this, he tells Gavin those sugar cubes were laced with LSD for a experiment he is conducting. Gavin soon gets all trippy and refusing to talk about his failed relationship with Maggie but just that he wasn’t passionate enough for her. Gavin then goes through a trippy walk through the hospital. When Gavin returns to his office, he sees Maggie with their baby and he talks about how he tried to be what she wanted and “Maggie” talks about how his mother left him at 7 to find herself and that Gavin shouldn’t be afraid to the same. Gavin tells Dr. Day that he was feeling hate but now is starting to feel love.

When Gavin comes off his high, Charlie visits to see if he is okay. Gavin says that he imagined his life would involve him and Maggie starting a family but then things changed and that he is going to change too. Gavin announces he is leaving Hope-Zion and Charlie wishes him good luck. Gavin then says goodbye to Maggie and we see him walk out the doors of Hope-Zion with new found confidence. Goodbye Kristopher Turner. I am going to miss you goofiness.

That elderly woman is watching her grandkids singing to her husband and eventually she gets reunited with him. Charlie seems inspired by this couple’s love story.

Alex’s next patient is Glen who is being admitted for respiratory problems and Glen tells her that he’s never been to the hospital. Later, Alex’s stitched rip open and Maggie patches her up and promises not to say anything.

We learn that Glen has all of organs on the opposite side they normally are and that he has had a heart attack. Glen gets worse and he requires surgery. Alex is going to be in on the surgery with Dawn. Before Alex goes into surgery, she makes plans with Charlie that night.

While Alex is scrubbing up, she starts to remember her time in the OR and a bit of her out of body experience and panics. Alex drops out of the surgery and Dawn orders her to go home and for Reycraft to scrub in. However, even with Reycraft there, Dawn can’t figure out what is wrong with Glen. So Dawn finds Alex outside Hope-Zion and needs Alex because she is left-handed and knows how to think the opposite way. Alex is afraid to go back but Dawn convinces her otherwise.

Alex is successful in the surgery and when Dawn says they have to shake Glen to prevent a stroke, this gets Alex laughing, just what she needed.

In Glen’s recovery room, Dawn tells him that the video of surgery is only going to be for teaching purposes only and that he should consider being an organ donor so he can help others like him. When Dawn leaves, Glen tells Alex he is unsure that he likes his life how it was and that it feels weird to be the same on the outside but different on the inside. Of course this is like a metaphor for Alex. Regardless, it seems that Glen does relent as we see medical students in his room examining him as he tries to have a visit with his wife Rita.

After Dawn removes Alex’s stitches, Alex returns home and their is Charlie with red wine waiting for her. Charlie tells Alex he was inspired by something he saw today and he proposes to Alex saying he doesn’t want to spend the next 70 years without her. Alex however has a very different answer for Charlie. Alex tells him that she is not the same person since she woke up from her trauma. So different that Alex tells Charlie flat out that she no longer loves him. And my heart broke a bit for Charlie.

I really hope that Charlie doesn’t give up but woos Alex and gets her to fall in love with him again. Their love story is the heart of the show and why the show exists in the first place. I see Charlie and Alex as end game. So we may get Joel and Alex together for a bit but we know it can’t last long as I keep on saying Daniel Gillies cannot be a major character on two shows, he has to give one up and I feel that Saving Hope will be that one so I am not investing in that relationship.

I am Team Charlie. What team are you on?