By J.E.
Last night’s episode of Private Practice was another pretty good one. I have a feeling this series will be around for a while after all, which is great! Now that I have some confidence in the show’s future, it’s a lot easier to become invested in the characters and all the things they’re going through. As a result, all of the regular cast members are growing on me now — even Pete, who I couldn’t stand for the first few weeks. Anyway, let’s get on to the recap of 1×04, which was called “In Which Addison Has A Very Casual Get-Together.”
Addison/Sam: Addison and Sam work together on a patient named Rebecca, who came to them from St. Ambrose after seeing Sam on TV. She’s pregnant and scared because she’s convinced the doctors at St. Ambrose are trying to kill her.
Charlotte, the chief over at St. Ambrose, comes by to tell the Oceanside gang that Rebecca escaped from the psych ward, where she’s been a patient for years. She’s currently being treated for Munchausen Syndrome, which means that all the symptoms she’s claiming to have are fake.
But Addison believes Rebecca, so she convinces Sam and Charlotte to do more testing at OWC before sending the patient back to St. Ambrose. The additional tests show that Rebecca has Crohn’s disease, so she was telling the truth in this case. They set up a treatment schedule, and Rebecca goes back to the hospital willingly.
Also, Addison was peeved throughout most of the episode because she invited all her co-workers to a party at her place, but no one bothered to RSVP. They all show up in the end, of course.
Cooper: Cooper examines a 10-year-old boy who’s been feeling lethargic and has swollen lymph nodes. At first, Cooper thinks Michael has mono, but the blood tests come back negative. When Michael’s mom leaves the room, he confesses that he knew he didn’t have mono. He’s just in love.
Cooper makes a pact with Michael. If Michael opens up to the girl about his feelings, Cooper will do the same to the girl he likes. Michael agrees. He then comes in the next day with bruises all over his face. It turns out the “girl” he liked was actually another boy named Brian, and Brian apparently didn’t like being asked out by a guy.
That’s not the end of the saga. Michael goes missing, and his worried parents come back to Cooper to let him know what’s going on. Cooper gets involved in the search by going to the skate park to try to find some leads on Michael’s whereabouts. Brian tells Cooper where Michael is likely to be. Cooper finds Michael, talks to him, and gets things worked out for the time being.
Later on, we see Cooper trying to psych himself up to tell Violet that he loves her. But when he learns that Alan might want her back, he doesn’t go through with it. He just says something about Violet being “unforgettable,” which makes Violet look at him in a strange way.
Violet: Took a major step backwards in terms of trying to get over her ex-boyfriend. She discovered that Alan’s current squeeze Cami is a patient at Oceanside, so she grabbed Cami’s file to find out what was going on. It turned out that Cami was getting treated for a bladder infection, which, according to Naomi, was the result of having too much sex.
Violet confronted Cami and asked her why she had to come to Oceanside when there are thousands of other doctors in L.A. Violet then realizes that Cami was there to scope her out. This doesn’t make sense to Violet since Cami is young, beautiful, and is the reason Alan left in the first place. She says she’s not Cami’s competition, but Cami isn’t too sure about that. Alan keeps talking about Violet, which is why Cami had to check her out. This makes Violet smile, and certainly can’t lead to anything good.
Pete: Pete counsels an elderly couple about a problem the man is having. He tends to fall asleep suddenly throughout the day, and then wakes up in a few seconds. After running a battery of tests, Pete can’t find any underlying causes for this disorder. That gets the woman to thinking that perhaps the problem is the result of stress caused by their recent engagement. Maybe it means the man doesn’t want to marry her after all. But Pete is eventually able to learn that a muscle strain was at the root of these problems. He can treat the area, so everything will be okay for these two.
My Reaction: I thought this was a pretty good ep on the whole. I was actually interested in all the storylines, which was a first for this season. Cooper’s was the best once again, even though I totally knew that Michael was crushing on a boy as soon as he brought the whole thing up. I loved how Cooper almost told Violet about his feelings, but held back at the last second. From her reaction though, she totally understood what he was getting at! (That being said, I’m not quite ready for them to hook up as a couple yet. They’re so awesome as best friends.)
I don’t know why this show is portraying Addison as so damn insecure all the time. What’s up with that? Why was she freaking out so much about the RSVP thing? Yes, it was rude of the others not to let her know that they were coming (and even ruder that they wouldn’t give her an answer when she directly confronted them), but still. This was just a barbecue, not a wedding. I didn’t get why she was so angry about the whole thing.
As I said above, I’m starting to like all the characters now, which makes the show a lot more enjoyable as a whole. Let’s hope Private Practice keeps going in the right direction!
