photo: cbs
In Case of Loss of Control
Original Air Date: Oct 21, 2011
Dennis – TwoCents Reviewer
Dennis@thetwocentscorp.com
So this show started off with a compelling first episode and hasn’t really lived up to it. I wish I could say this is the episode that will make you all want to tune into the show every week, but it wasn’t. I don’t think the show is anything revolutionary or great, but I think there may be an okay procedural in there somewhere.
So read on to read about the latest cases Michael solves this week.
The main case was about a 17 year old named Monica Lee, who had a mild seizure at school on her birthday. The seizure was supposedly brought on by the sparklers on her cake, so when Monica had another seizure at the practice, there was major reason to be concerned. The second seizure turned out to be a mini-stroke and could be a warning sing for a major one. The doctors test her for Lupus, which her mother died of the year before, and the results come back negative. They say that smoking and drug use could be a cause for her blood clotting but she denies doing drugs. Monica’s dad later tells Michael that Monica confessed to doing cocaine last year.
Michael gives his new doctor, Ed Morris, the case and Ed tells Monica that she doesn’t have Lupus and all the other tests came back negative. Ed asks her again if she’s on drugs or sexually active and she says no, but he thinks she’s lying. She later confesses that she’s on birth control and smoking. She says she got the birth control from Clinica Sanando and it turns out Anna prescribed her the pills. It then turns out that Monica was using her boyfriend’s sister’s birth control pills. Ed directs her back to the clinic to get her own prescription, and while she’s there her ex-boyfriend PJ shows up and shoots her. Michael and the other doctors of Clinica Sanando perform surgery on her before an ambulance takes her to the hospital.
The second case was about a kid named David, who shows up at Clinica Sanando with a case of diarrhea and vomiting. The docs think that he just ate too much candy the night before, but when he goes to the bathroom he locks the door and when they break it down, they find him passed out on the floor with a weak pulse. David was dehydrated and there was blood in the toiler so they order an X-Ray to see if the candy he ate was tampered with. David says that there was blood in his toilet a month before, but he was too embarrassed to say anything, so the doctors now think he may have had bad food. Zeke & Kate find out he has E. coli and when they tell his mother, Corina, immigration shows up and takes her away.
Zeke & Kate take David to Michael’s practice and while he’s there he has difficulty breathing. They see that his lungs are filled with fluid and that he has bruises on his belly and conclude that he’s undergoing kidney failure from the E. coli and needs a kidney transplant. Zeke & Kate tell Michael that David is an illegal immigrant, and even when Kate agrees to pay for the surgery out of the grant money she got for the clinic Michael says he won’t operate. The feds show up at Michael’s practice to take away David, but Michael contests the idea and wants to go through with the surgery before they ship him to El Salvador. David’s mother turns out to be a match for the kidney transplant, so they do the surgery and it goes well. The story ends with David being handcuffed in his hospital bed before he’s sent back to El Salvador.
I think that this episode was kind of ridiculous. The shooting at the end of the episode came out of nowhere and made the already over the top plotline House levels of crazy. I also still think the show would be better if they set it up at Clinica Sanando permanently. And, finally, I think Margo Martindale was in the show an extra minute or so tonight so maybe there will finally be a plotline for Rita in the near future! So what did you guys think of the episode? Leave your TwoCents in the comments below!
TheTwoCents 
I`m enjoying this show actually. It might not be great and sure it`s basically a medical procedural with a ghostly twist (thankfully not overdone) but it`s well done and 100 times better that the hot, soapy mess that Private Practive has become. There’s something quirky about it that I just like. And if the networks are able to find an audience for the meriad of cop procedurals on air right now (Castle, The Mentalist, Bones, NCIS, NCIS LA, Hawaii Five-0, Law & Order SVU…), then why complain about another doctor show as long it`s good. This week in particular had a couple plot points that I think can only improve the show.
The addition of Eric Lasalle as a permanent member of the staff at Holt brings another level of quality to the production. Who can forget how great he was on ER? His character here seems to have a similar professionalism but with a quiet sense of humour. I feel like Michael has been missing a comrade-at-arms at Holt, a role that EMo will fill nicely.
Then there was the surprise at the end of this eposide when we learned that Kate is married. This will certainly helps the show to avoid the obvious romantic storyline. Again I’m hoping AGM will be smarter than the standard soap.
As a final comment to your suggestion to move the setting fully to Clinica Sanando, I have to disagree. In fact I think that would be completely unrealistic. Michael is a man that likes his creature comforts and the Holt Clinic pays for all that. Secondly, he already admitted that a large part of his fulfillment has come from his work as the top neurosurgeon/specialist. He did the fulltime charity work and learned that it wasn’t for him. As the situation stands now, Michael gets to struggle with trying to create a balance, kinda like the rest of us 😉