Private Practice – Recap & Review – Who We Are / The Breaking Point

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Private Practice
Who We Are / The Breaking Point

Original Air Date: Nov 17, 2011

Karen Belgrad – Senior Editor
karenbelgrad@
thetwocentscorp.com

I went into tonight’s “Two Hour Event: The Intervention” wondering if it would be groundbreaking television or if it would be a Lifetime Movie. Luckily, I like both. Because, let’s be honest. We got a bit of both tonight.

There’s a lot of ground to cover, so why don’t we tackle on hour at a time. And, of course, if I miss anything you feel was huge or you disagree with me, be sure to take to the comments and let me know!

Who We Are

Amelia bounces into the practice, cheerfully prattling on to all of the stunned doctors. When she announces that she and Ryan are engaged, Addison promptly slaps her across the face. It seems our little pill-popper has been gone for twelve days, with nary a phone call, text, or email. The doctors had called the police, morgue, hospitals fearing the worst. Amelia admits to a slip/bender, but insists, thanks to Ryan, she’s clean now. After she leaves, Jake and Charlotte immediately call bull and a search of her office confirms that Amelia’s hiding Oxycodone pills all over the place.

When Amelia comes in the next day, Addison intercepts her. She’s introduced to Lennie and immediately recognizes it’s an intervention. She begins to lash out, attacking Addison first, mentioning her relationships with Mark and Derek, her abortion, and bitterly says that not even Rosemary’s Baby would want to live in Addison’s barren uterus; then she storms off. The group feels as if the intervention may be a mistake, but Lennie points out that Amelia is clearly high, but she’s going to go into withdrawal soon (shaking and sweating) and they have to keep trying. Jake, clearly drawing on personal experience, wants to keep going. When a sweaty Amelia rejoins them, she attacks Violet for aging and having a husband who hates her. Then she goes after Pete, saying that his life wasn’t even worth saving. She thinks he should kill himself so Violet can “rape” another patient history for a book and pointedly mocks Charlotte’s assault. Pete and Violet go to the kitchen where they laugh riotously over the allegations for a few moments until they silently seem to realize that maybe it wasn’t so funny… or wrong.

Lennie chuckles that Amelia seems to be winning better than Charlie Sheen, except for the Oxycodone. The doctors offer Amelia water, but she’s quick to note it has Buprenorphine in it, which will block the effects of her drugs. Addison tells her she loves her, but will not love her to death. She tells her she has to leave her house and threatens to call her siblings, mother, and the medical board. Amelia offers to stay for the intervention, but only if they give her some Oxy. The doctors debate the offer, with Jake pro and Sam con. Jake views it as disease, but Sam is harsher saying she controls her own fate. Jake leaves, since he barely knows Amelia, and visits the grave of Lily Ann Riley (1973-2003), who I believe must be his wife (or sister?) who died of drugs. Apparently Jake is helping to raise her college age daughter as well (back story alert!). He tells her he misses her and brought her favorite detox food, crullers.

When Coop tries to talk to Amelia, she begins to rant/cheer uncontrollably (What do we want? Drugs! When do we want them? Now!). Addison can’t take it anymore and brings Amelia a pill. Lennie challenges Amelia to do the drugs in front of her friends, so she smashes it with a stapler and snorts it on the reception desk. Addison cries that she doesn’t even see Amelia, who she feels is her sister. Sam thinks she should just grow up. Charlotte invokes her personal story and tells Amelia that she’ll never come back from it if she kills someone high. Although stoned, Amelia starts to seem receptive, but then Ryan arrives.

Addison is horrified to see Ryan with Amelia’s father’s watch. Amelia breaks down, telling Addison that it is her own story to tell, not Addison’s, going so far as to threaten to kill her if she tells it again. She leaves with Ryan, after telling a tortured Sheldon that she’ll never love him back. Lennie says they have to walk away from Amelia until she hits bottom and wants help. They’re incredulous that this isn’t bottom, so Lennie explains that 15 years, 3 months, and 4 days ago she nodded off on heroin while at the park with her five year old son. When she awoke, he was gone and never found again.

Over the hour, we saw flashbacks back to the night Amelia’s father was shot and killed in front of her and Derek. He was working in his store, when two gunmen came in, took the money, and demanded his watch, an anniversary gift from his wife. When he didn’t hand it over, they shot him, with his two horrified children nearby. We’ve heard the story before on Grey’s anatomy, but this was the first time we saw the memory, which clearly has defined Amelia. She relates the story to Ryan, who tells her that he loves her. The two talk about starting a family and agree to get clean… after they shoot up one last time. We’ve seen enough made-for-TV movies to know how this ends. The next morning Amelia awakens and finds Ryan dead of an overdose lying next to her. As the police come to take the body, a near catatonic Amelia asks them to call Addison, saying she’s ready to go to rehab.

So… that was a pretty powerful hour! We’ve seen the angry intervention before, notably with Bailey Sallinger on Party of Five and Dr. John Carter on E/R. I’d easily put this episode up there with those two fine hours of television. I’m sure a lot of people will be angry at Amelia’s scathing attacks, but I think the acting by Caterina Scorsone was amazing. I’ve often thought Amelia was dispensable among this ensemble, but her relationship with Addison came across as so strong and familial this hour that it really cemented her place. What did you think?

The Breaking Point

This episode, with the exception of the visits to Amelia in rehab, was far more standard of an episode. But that doesn’t mean it didn’t cover a lot of ground. They broke the episode out by days, but I think I’m going to go with the more standard breakout by character storyline.

Addison: Addison’s first IVF treatment didn’t take. She’s not sure if she wants to try again, but Violet steps in as her friend/side-kick and offers to help her through it (more on Violet later). Sam feels displaced, so Addison drags him to couples counseling. They have the same argument over him wanting her, but not a child, so Sam leaves the session. During the next round of hormones, Addison collapses from an abdomen full of fluid, a side effect of the treatment. Sam eventually tells her he doesn’t want her to go through another round of treatment, but she already had the implantation that morning. At the end of the hour, she takes a pregnancy test and we’re left hanging on whether or not she’s pregnant.

Coop: Coop has the patient of the week, a young boy named Toby who lives in foster care and is suffering from severe Lupus. Toby needs a lot of treatments, but has no real support system, as he lives in a group home with forty other kids. When Coop misses Mason’s first school play (James and The Giant Peach) because he’s at the hospital with Toby, Mason is pretty upset. Coop explains to him that sometimes the really sick kids need him more than Mason because they may not have anyone else. Mason, who’s turning out to be more mature than many of our doctors, comes to the hospital and introduces a recovering Toby to Pokémon.

Violet/Pete: Violet spends the hour obsessing over Addison’s IVF treatments, admittedly to distract herself from the darkness of her marriage. Pete spends the hour complaining about Violet to Sam, admittedly to distract himself from the darkness of his marriage. The two are barely speaking, coming together only for Lucas. Pete admits to Sam that he can’t leave. Violet is waiting for Pete’s heart attack grief to bring them closer. Violet eventually has an epiphany that Pete is staying out of obligation, like he did with his first wife. She gives him an out, offering to leave him if it’s what he wants. He quietly agrees. Violet moves to a hotel, but knows they still have to figure out how to co-parent. And viewers can rejoice and hope that these two miserable characters will be more interesting to watch apart.

Amelia: Amelia is in for the long haul, with a 50-day rehab program. She checks in, still in a fog from Ryan’s death and the drugs. During detox, she befriends Hailey by having her wits about her to know that neither of them has bugs crawling over their itchy skin, it’s just a neuro reflex. Initially, she refuses visitors and preaches to the other patients about sobriety. When she finally relents to see Sheldon, she admits to not being ready to make amends yet. Hailey calls her on not sharing; telling her it’s not her fault that Ryan died. After initial defenses wear down, Amelia breaks down sobbing and seems to release the anguish inside. Haley checks out of rehab at day 21, but returns a mere twenty days later. It affects Amelia, who finally reaches out to the other doctors (except Jake) for a family therapy session. She knows they may not forgive her, but she’s sorry and knows she needs to forgive herself in order to live. I’ll admit that I was bummed not to see Derek (her brother) or Tyne Daly (Tim Daly/Pete’s real life sister who played Mama Shepard) show up for a therapy session. A crossover was definitely warranted. Amelia checks out after day 50, joins the gang for Thanksgiving, but we know there will be more to this story as she tries to re-acclimate to real life.

So that was everything for the two hours. Did you enjoy the music of Mary J. Blige that exclusively scored the two hours? I liked the closing song, “The Living Proof”, the most. I’m still completely over #AddiSam. They want each other, and that seems to be the only thing binding them together at this point. I’m calling repetitive and boring… and repetitive! It remains to be seen what Violet and Pete will bring to the table when they’re not being insufferable together. And, of course, do you think Addison is pregnant?

Well, you’ve got My TwoCents (and then some). I’m not sure if there will be another episode before January, so be sure to share all your thoughts, comments, and feedback below!