ALWAYS
AND
EVERYONE

Episode 7.

Episode Summary:-

It's quiet in A&E today, as Kate points out much to Cathy and Yvonne's consternation. So quiet, in fact, that Terry and David and Yvonne and Judy have the time to organise an impromptu game of indoor football in resus.
       The episode concentrates primarily on the individuals within the department, and the difficulties they are currently facing. Chris does not wish to have a relationship with someone she also works with - a fact which obviously dismays Andrew. Mike's situation is decidedly tense as he, Paul and Richie get ready to visit Stella. Robert has given Lou the task of talking about the consequences of their actions to a group of young offenders (car thieves, given the subject of the talk) - one of whom, apparently, was the cause of the accident she is using as her example. Martin dies while David is hunting down some chocolate for him, which upsets the young doctor. And Robert has found he no longer "gives a shit" about the patients under his care. Oh yes, he'll still treat them to the best of his considerable ability - but he's no longer interested in them as people...

Only two actual cases this week: a man with a mild heart attack, and an RTA with one woman seriously injured and one man BID.

I enjoyed the little football game scenario. Terry, Yvonne, Stuart and Judy looked like kids caught being naughty - and Robert's 'goal-scoring' kick lightened his admonition.

              [Rob] "What's going on here?"
              [Terry] "Nothing."
              [Stuart] "Nothing."
              [Judy - or maybe Yvonne] "Nothing."
              [Rob] "Good. Then nothing's gonna get broken, is it?"

       Rob is definitely just going through the motions here, but at least he recognises it. He's lectured David about his attitude towards his patients, and given Lou the less than pleasant task of lecturing young offenders to improve her people skills - but admits to Chris he can no longer be bothered with 'patient advocacy' or even his bedside manner (his advice to the heart attack victim about stopping smoking, while still smoking himself, was a little offputting too.) And his change of heart (if that's what it was, as opposed to guilt) at the end of the episode, while welcome, came a little too quickly to be wholly convincing.
       Rob seems to be coming to rely quite heavily on Chris, for stability, advice, and someone to talk to. She seems to be keeping a pretty tight rein on her feelings. It would be easy to assume that, once Rob is back on an even keel, their relationship will develop further. In a way, I hope it doesn't - it would be something of a cliché and a bit of an anti-climax, and also disprove Chris's insistence that she wants to keep her work and private lives separate. On the other hand, they're both fully aware of the pressures of the job and would probably be more in tune with each other than if they had two completely different careers. Well, I'll wait and see.
       But I do feel sorry for Andrew. I just hope I'm right to feel sorry for Andrew. After all, we know nothing about him...

I hope David's change of attitude is going to last.

I'm sure I'm not the only person who was apprehensive that young Ryan would barge in where he wasn't supposed to be and see the BID victim, but the writers avoided such a melodramatic moment, keeping the story rather more convincing. It made Lou's performance far more effective, too.

Paul and Richie's anxieties are made very clear in two sentences - is Stella going to disappear again, and is Mike still going to go out with Cathy. They seem content with his answers: their lives are still secure.

What a rotten (and very funny) thing to do to Kate! Nice to see she fights back though!

This episode was curiously low-key, down-beat and determinedly undramatic. So I'd anticipate that next week's episode with be thoroughly fraught and traumatic...

Apparently superstitions concerning the Q word are pretty widespread in the medical fraternity. Dr Irvine tells me that in her department, the person who said the word had to buy the chocolate! Back

Brought In Dead. Back