I have to admit that I was a bit worried about the future prospects for the new Grey’s Anatomy spinoff series Private Practice. Last year’s lead-in and this year’s pilot were completely underwhelming, so I ended up telling myself that I’d give the show just a few more eps before deciding whether or not to continue with it. Fortunately, episode 1×02, called “In Which Sam Receives an Unexpected Visitor,” was 10 times better than the previous two eps. Here’s what happened on it.
Cooper/Addison: Cooper and Addison handled the A-plot this week, which began with Cooper checking up on a 9-month-old baby that has been chronically ill since birth. Further tests indicate that the baby has a rare genetic disease that will require her to be medicated on a daily basis — and also gives her less than 5 years to live. The mother is devastated, but the father remains aloof and “disconnected,” which makes Cooper angry and suspicious.
Cooper goes to Addie for a second opinion/consult, and she confirms his findings. The mother asks that she and her husband be given blood tests so they can see which one of them has the genetic makeup causing the disease. Her sister is trying to get pregnant, and she doesn’t want to see the same problems happen all over again.
After running the tests, Cooper and Addison discover that the parents could not possibly have produced the child in question, as the DNA markers are not the same. This leads to an investigation at the hospital where the couple’s baby was born, and eventually points to a baby-switching plot by another Oceanside Wellness Center client.
What happened was a different couple spent about 3 years and $250,000 trying to get pregnant through IVF treatments, so when their baby showed signs of illness at birth, the father switched her for a healthy baby. His justification was that he did it for his wife’s happiness.
Anyway, they had to switch back the babies after that, obviously.
Sam/Naomi: More bickering between these two, especially after Naomi saw the stripper that Cooper hired for Sam. She was disgusted because he appeared interested (he wasn’t really), which led to discussions about how she has to be prepared for Sam to move on, etc.
Sam also had a case in which an alcoholic patient was being poisoned by his own mother. The mother was slipping her adult son some sort of mushroom extract which, when mixed with alcohol, produced sudden, violent illness. At first Sam was shocked that the mother was poisoning her own son, but soon came to see her side of things: how else is she supposed to get the guy to stop drinking?
Sam tries to get the guy to go to a 12-step program, but he refuses. At that point, Sam decides to throw in with the mother by telling the patient that he’s allergic to alcohol and must stop drinking — or else run the risk of more serious illnesses.
Pete: Treated Sam’s stripper for some mysterious skin rash she had, and flirted some more with Addison.
Violet: Spent most of the episode agonizing over Alan, the never-seen boyfriend that she broke up with a few months ago or whatever. Prior to the breakup she had apparently ordered a $6,000 custom-made bicycle from Italy for Alan’s birthday. She forgot all about it until it was delivered — on his birthday.
She debated with herself over what she would do with the bicycle, and finally decided to give it to him. But when she took it over to Alan’s house, she saw that he already had one. It was a birthday present from his new girlfriend.
This upsets Violet to the point where she starts dismantling the bicycle at her home. Luckily, Cooper comes to the rescue with a bottle of wine.
My Reaction: As I said above, this episode was much, much better than the two previous ones. I thought the baby-switching plot, while not exactly believable, was very well acted by the guest stars. The actress who portrayed Melinda (the mother whose husband ended up pulling the switcheroo) was excellent, and communicated her character’s sadness, grief, and shock very convincingly. I have to admit that I teared up during the switch scene, which is something I rarely do for TV shows.
I didn’t like the way Sam’s storyline was resolved. It doesn’t say much about Sam’s ethics when we see that he would lie to his patient like that. I am having a hard enough time warming to this character as it is, so I didn’t like seeing him cross over into that gray area this quickly. Also, I’m not really interested in the whole Sam/Naomi relationship. They either need to get back together or move on, because seeing Naomi as a bitter, jealous ex every week isn’t going to fly.
I’m still not feeling the chemistry between Pete and Addison, but obviously the writers are trying to foist this pairing on us. Why can’t Addison just meet someone outside of work and be done with it? Then we could have her dating someone while not having to deal with the fallout 24/7.
Cooper and Violet remain the best characters on this show. I love their friendship, and hope they stay just friends for a long time to come. They remind me of early George and Izzie on GA (before the hookup, of course), and that’s a good thing.
Anyway, things are definitely looking up for Private Practice. I hope next week’s episode is just as good!