Tonight’s Saving Hope is the penultimate episode and I didn’t even realize it. It also marked the directorial debut of Erica Durance and she did a great job at getting all of the emotional beats throughout all the storylines like Charlie’s and Dawn and Zach with the humor of Maggie and Jackson’s story.

Bishop had his toe throughout most of the storylines this week mostly telling people like Charlie, Dawn and Cassie about his impending divorce and the sale of his LA home that he shared with his ex.

Maggie and Jackson

Jackson has come to Maggie as he fears he might have an aneurysm. Jackson relates that he took his girlfriend, Maria, home for the first time and during sex he suffered a really painful headache. Jackson fears that this has ruined his relationship with Maria and also fears that he can no longer have sex before. An MRI revealed that Jackson had an orgasmic thunder clap. Maggie gives Jackson some reading material to help him prevent something like that from happening to him again but he doesn’t see the point as he thinks he and Maria are kaput. However, Maggie points out that isn’t the case as Maria has paid Jackson a visit as she was worried about him.

Charlie

Bishop is over for dinner and talk turn to Charlie’s upcoming surgery. Charlie and Alex try and not be worried about it and believe everything will be okay because Shahir is performing the surgery. Charlie goes to see Shahir who doesn’t quite ease Charlie’s mind on the surgery.

Charlie’s patient is Max Morrison, a man how had a stroke and now is in a long-term care facility. Max has  come in to Hope Zion because he fell and hurt his shoulder. Dev tells Charlie that he has locked in syndrome i.e. Max can hear and see the world around him but cannot speak. The only thing Max can do now is answer yes or no questions with a blink of his eyes.

As Charlie is checking his shoulder, Max spirit appears to him. Charlie takes him to an office but Max is unable to verbalize what he feels. Then Max’s nurse from the home, Yvonne, has come to visit him for one last time as she is moving out west for a job opportunity. Spirit Max hears this and is heart broken. Spirit Max finally talks and Charlie deduces that he is in love with Yvonne. Yvonne has been his nurse fro the past 12 years and before her, he just wanted to die but she was the one to figure out that he was still in there. Yvonne is the reason why Max wants to live but he doesn’t want to stand in her way for a chance of happiness and asks Charlie to find a way for him to let her go.

Yvonne tells Charlie that her sister wants her to meet someone and feels she can’t do that if she says here. Charlie mentions having a conversation with Max and brings her to  his bed side. Charlie tells Yvonne that Max wants her to be happy in her life. Yvonne and Max share a teary goodbye. But Yvonne comes back and pretty much tells him that she is staying and for him to get better and come back to the home.

Alex and Cassie

Their patient is a young woman named Georgia brought in by her husband, Chase, after falling while slack lining. The ladies observer some suspicious bruising that Chase and Georgia blame on drinking and an old bike accident. While during the examination, Georgia subtly shows Alex and Cassie a black dot on her palm. Cassie tells Alex that it is a sign of domestic abuse. However, the cops can’t be called as they have no proof of domestic abuse. The only thing they can do is separate the couple to learn the truth. However, Chase insists on coming with Georgia for imaging.

Eventually, the two are separated. Chase tells Alex that Georgia has a drinking problem and a liar and should see a psychiatrist. With Cassie, Georgia admits she is being abused but justifies Chase’s actions. Cassie shares how her sister’s abusive relationship resulted in her having her jaw wired shut and wearing a colostomy bag.

Chase and Georgia are about leave but Alex and Cassie manage to get Chase to leave the room so they can discuss Georgia’s results. The ladies tell Georgia they called a women’s shelter and someone is coming to take her there. Cassie tells Georgia they will call her sister to get her things and offers to take her cat. The lady from the women’s shelter and takes Georgia away and we see Chase get pissed off at an ATM.

After having a tough day, Cassie asks Bishop out for drinks and he happily obliges.

Zach and Dawn

Zach finds Dawn working in the cafe as her office is still under renovations. Dawn can’t choose a paint color so Zach keeps on suggesting some which she dismisses. Both get a page to see a patient in the ER. Simon has come in with a faulty pace maker and in the OR Dawn is removing it. Zach drops by to tell Dawn that Simon’s partner has arrived. Dawn tells Zach that he could have just texted that information and didn’t have to see her to tell her. Zach said he was in the neighborhood. The doctors and nurses in the ER definitely see something between the two.

During the surgery, when Dawn removes the lead from the pace maker, Simon’s chest cavity starts to bleed out and she works hard at repairing it so he can go on by-pass and then his new pace maker can go in. However, just before she is about to crack open his chest, a nurse comes in to tell Dawn that a board member is quite insistent on talking to her. Dawn tells the nurse she isn’t leaving her surgery and to hang up on the person.

Back in her office, Dawn isn’t too happy at being pulled from her surgery and tells the board person that and also isn’t pleased at being told what to do. It seems that Dawn is being pressured to drop her suit against Lane.

Dawn is back in the OR to put in Simon’s new pace maker. After a couple of attempts, the new pace maker is successfully in. After the surgery, Bishop notes to Dawn how Zach is a great guy.

In Simon’s room, Dawn checks up on him and meets his partner Diego. After Dawn gets Simon to follow-up, Diego mentions that Zach told him about he struggles finding a paint color and offered suggestions as he is a designer. Diego tells Dawn that Zach has a surprise for her in her office and also says that Zach is a great guy.

At her office, Dawn sees that Zach has given her three color options. Zach goes through each of them and we see Dawn look at Zach like she is falling for him. When Zach gets to the last color, Dawn gives him and kiss which he reciprocates. Dawn tells Zach that people kept on telling her that he is a great guy. Zach says it took some time but he finally is that guy again. Dawn doesn’t know what this means but knows she wants to take this slow. Zach says they’ve been friends for 7 years, he thinks he can do that. Dawn then grabs a paint roller and starts to paint her walls with Zach helping. Dawn then starts to break down in tears but Zach is there to comfort her.

This episode really was about these two and it was nice to see their friendship over the last few episodes blossom into something great. I really look forward to see what the show will do with these two going forward.

And the two-hour season finale is on Valentine’s Day of all days. Hopefully, we get romance and love instead of tears and heartbreak but looking at the preview it looks like the latter.