Private Practice – Recap & Review – If You Don’t Know Me By Now

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Private Practice
If You Don’t Know Me By Now

Original Air Date: Jan 6 , 2011

Karen Belgrad- Associate Staff Writer
Karenbelgrad
@thetwocentscorp.com

The unspoken question this week on Private Practice addresses what exactly defines a family. Are you automatically close to someone just because you are their parent, spouse, or child?

When we last left the Oceanside Wellness Group, before the holidays, Bizzie had summoned Addison to a private airstrip where she greeted her with her ill girlfriend, Susan, and asked for help. Charlotte and Cooper were also working through the healing process following her traumatic rape. Now that we’re up to speed, let’s check in with the happenings of the week.

Bizzie’s girlfriend, Susan (played by Ann Cusack, sister of Joan and John), has stage four ovarian cancer. Addison tells them it’s too far gone for treatment, but Bizzie won’t hear of it, slaps her across the face, and demands Addison she saves Susan’s life. Addison recruits Dr. Rodriguez (played by the yummy Cristian de la Fuente, of Dancing With The Stars injury fame) who agrees with her initial diagnosis, but agrees to perform a scope with her to check the extent. The results are worse than they feared, with the cancer having spread to Susan’s liver. Bizzie still finds this unacceptable and demands she finds a cure.

Sam confronts Bizzie about being unfair to Addison. Bizzie knows she’s asking too much, but also knows that Addison is the best at what she does. Sam thinks she should actually tell Addison that, but Bizzie doesn’t seem to get it. Sam asks Addison if she’s not trying harder because she’s mad at her mom.

The patient of the week is Corey Ramsey, a genius environmental engineer who has wrapped his car around a tree. When his wife arrives, Pete and Amelia advise her that they need to remove a portion of his brain due to swelling. He’ll have all of his motor skills, they advise, but some of his mental functionality will be diminished. The wife refuses the surgery, saying her husband’s work is too important to him to leave him without his faculties intact, she hopes for a miracle, but thinks he’d be happier dead than deficient.

Unbeknownst to the wife, Corey also had a girlfriend of four years. The girlfriend says that while Corey’s work is a part of him, it’s not all of him, and he would want to live no matter what. Pete is torn, as he really wants to disregard the wife and perform the surgery, but Charlotte says he can’t. In the end, when Corey starts to seize, Pete goes in to save him. The wife doesn’t think he’d want to live like this, the girlfriend says he’d want to live for his child. The wife realizes she doesn’t know her husband at all, they even have separate beds. The doctors perform the surgery, but have to take out even more of his brain than planned. In the end, the wife leaves and his girlfriend stays.

Violet wrote a book. Actually, she wrote and 837 page journal, sent it to a publisher, and now it’s a book. It’s an extremely detailed and personal account of her life, especially her attack and Lucas’s birth. She hopes her story will help others in crisis. Everyone agrees that it’s brilliant writing, but Pete points out that it’s a lot of information to share with the world. It occurs to Violet that Lucas might read it one day and she decides not to go forward with the book.

Coop and Charlotte both want to regain the intimacy in their relationship. Coop gently broaches the subject over fried chicken and Charlotte is all for trying, which causes Coop to choke on the chicken. That night, as he begins to kiss and caress her, she breaks into tears and apologizes for not being ready. Charlotte confides in Naomi that she wants the sex, she’s good at the sex, and that the sex is a large part of how she and Cooper communicate. Naomi advises that one day she’ll be stronger, but the only thing that is physically coming between Cooper and Charlotte is Charlotte.

Later in bed, Charlotte initiates foreplay with Cooper, who realizes he can’t do it yet and apologizes. Charlotte talks to Violet and asks how long it took for her to be intimate after her own assault. Violet admits it took a while because she wasn’t able to trust men, but it’s different for Charlotte as she already has a man she trusts. Charlotte sincerely thanks Violet for opening up to her about her college rape, saying it helped her a lot. This, of course, inspires Violet to publish her book afterall. Later, Coop and Charlotte try again, but it’s awkward and bumpy, so they just eat fried chicken in bed instead. (Is anyone else hungry for fried chicken now?)

Addison brings up the idea of using the Da Vinci machine to operate on Susan. She enlists Dr. Rodriguez for assistance, although he’d still rather just take her to dinner. The surgery is a complete success. Addison clearly hopes for gratitude and approval from her cold mother, but her mother says nothing. When she goes t confront her, Bizzie stuns Addison into speechlessness by announcing her intention to marry Susan.

Line of the night:
Amelia: “I’ve got a kick ass mom. I have the best mom in the whole world.. But I have a dead father and a drug addiction problem and I’m kind of a whore.”

So that was our welcome into the new year with the Private Practice gang. I liked how Same stuck up for Addison while simultaneously calling her out on her insecurities. However, I really, really, really wouldn’t mind seeing more of Cristian de la Fuente, especially if it meant he’d take off his shirt (trust me!). JoBeth Williams is Emmy-worthy as the WASP-y Bizzie, although we all would really like to shake her and make her see how she affects her daughter. And if Violet is going on a book tour, is Amy Brenneman taking leave from the show? And will we ever see Maya again? And can Sheldon get a girlfriend? He really is kind of awesome!

So there’s My TwoCents! What were your TwoCents about this hour? Share your feedback, thoughts, and commentary below!