Private Practice – Recap & Review – Playing God

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Private Practice
Playing God

Original Air Date: Oct 7, 2010

Farrah Kaye – Sr. Editor
farrah@thetwocentscorp.com

If you didn’t know (or have been living under a rock for several years), Private Practice is a spinoff from Grey’s Anatomy. Last week, Amelia (Derek’s sister) was given a plane ticket by Addison (Derek’s ex-wife) to go make amends with her brother. And if you haven’t watched this week’s Grey‘s, then don’t read what I’m about to tell you. I wasn’t sure what to expect with that plane ticket, but in the last minutes of Grey‘s, Amelia ruins my favorite non-couple on the show by sleeping with Mark and returns to LA with a cheesy smile on her face. With her brother’s ultimate rejection, she needed some comfort. She got it and moved on.

But when she gets in the elevator back at Pacific Welcare/Oceanside Wellness/Unknown Name of Future Combined Practice, her company isn’t exactly pleasant. It’s the man who killed Dell. At least they gave me someone to hate more than Amelia for a brief time.

So what happens when he gets out of the elevator? Everyone naturally freaks out, most of all Sam. Mr. Man Who Killed The Hottest Midwife Ever will be going to jail for a long time and wanted to apologize before he heads out. Forgiveness? Sam won’t have it. Instead, he chokes the man until he has a heart attack. Just kidding, this is a medical show, so of course he has to have a medical problem that only our docs can fix. Sam keeps the issue a secret so he’ll die. But why? That’s told in the form of a flashback.

FLASHBACK: A young Naomi, Sam and Addison are in a hospital together, making plans for a double date with Derek. Sam is getting ready to perform surgery on a teacher and has to cancel. Addison, always a surgery junkie, wants to watch. The surgery would be Sam’s first solo heart surgery. As they’re wheeling the teacher into the OR, he admits to Sam he is a pedophile, as his students look on from the waiting room. In the operating room, when the teacher crashes, Sam does nothing. He also never tells Naomi but rather tells Addison, a secret she has kept for all the years they’ve known each other.

This incident is the reason Sam stopped operating.

Back in the present, Sam and Naomi argue over what Sam should do. Naomi finally goes to Addison and tells her it’s her duty to get through to Sam since they’re together now (this breaks the “no discussing Sam” rule, but Naomi says she can talk to Addison about Sam but not the other way around). Addison tells Naomi about the teacher from years before and Naomi realizes that was the beginning of the end of her marriage to Sam. She then goes to Sam and finally convinces him to not repeat the mistake from years before, so he tells Charlotte what he found to be wrong with Mr. Drunk Driver so Charlotte can fix him.

Naomi talks to Sheldon about her friendship with Addison so she writes a letter to her. It’s angry but she finally gets her emotions out. It ends with “I wanted to slap you in the face.” Loved it. They essentially put everything behind them and make nice.

Everyone else was busy too.

Amelia begged Naomi for a job. She wants to have a home and be part of something. Tear. Naomi hires her.

Charlotte has hired a realtor to buy a house without telling Cooper. It bothers him. They talk it out and eventually he gives in and decides hey, I’m an adult, time to grow up.

In the second major plot (that was still minor), Pete’s friend from the war, Gibby, has recruited Pete to help him perform surgeries and other medical procedures illegally in his house. Pete loves it but Violet thinks it’s horribly immoral and they fight a lot about it. Pete gets such a rush from the good he is doing. However, when a gang member brings in his girlfriend who has been shot and they don’t have the resources to help her, Pete has a gun held to his head. He convinces the gang member that his choice is let him call 911 or lose his girl. In the end, the girl gets help and Pete obviously stops Gibby’s illegal hospital. As a compromise to his monotonous practice life, he’s going to start working in the ER at the hospital. All is well with our newlyweds again.

And that’s it. Everyone ended where they needed to be. Sam did the right thing, Naomi and Addison finally had their talk, Charlotte and Cooper are moving in the right direction and Pete and Violet are acting like a normal married couple. And YAY for Pete having some gusto finally. I wasn’t even sure I knew what he did half the time. I’m glad Amelia is on board and I still say, despite the probable age difference, her and Sheldon would make a good couple. She operates on brains, he tries to fix the way people think. It makes sense, right? Plus, she needs a good, stable male figure in her life. I also still ask where is Fife? And I’m glad we know that the man who killed Dell will be punished.

That’s it from me this week. What did you think? Any opinions? Leave your two cents below!