Episode Report Card Djb: D | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT West Said Story
By Djb | Season 4 | Episode 2 | Aired on 07.18.2000
A knock at Glynn's office, and Gloria and Sister Pete enter to tell Leo that they "want to talk about Tim." Glynn indicates that the topic is pretty much closed for a while. Like, say, forever. Why? Because McManus is fired. Eep. A grainy, Fontana-esque black-and-white shot of McManus carrying a single box out of his office and down the steps accompanies Hill's voice-over telling us about the indignity of someone he knew having his name spelled wrong in his obituary. Props to Megyn, incidentally, for setting a really important precedent last week by which we will pretty much perpetually ignore just about everything Hill's preachy voice-overs ever have to say. Ever.
Yay! It's Beecher! I was starting to wonder just where in the heck all the fun people were. He exits his pod and stands at the railing with the other residents of Em City. Murphy has an announcement: "Everybody listen up. Last night, Tim McManus resigned as Unit Manager of Emerald City." Er, "resigned"? From Planet Sanity, perhaps, but Em City gave the man his walking papers. Anyway, Murphy announces that he's in charge now and that "nothing's gonna change." Adebisi whispers an ominous, "Yeah, that's what you think." Ooooooh. Big words from a tiny little hat. Downstairs, Beecher approaches Murphy at the guard's station and asks if he's heard anything about Keller. Murphy snarks that between the shootings and McManus' departure, and I quote, "Your boyfriend's health ain't a priority for me." Flashback to the now-infamous "Oz didn't make you a bitch" fight between Keller and Beecher. Raise your hand if you don't think Chris Meloni is, like, that hot. At all. [Raises hand.] ["Time to get your eyes checked." -- Wing Chun] Cut to Beecher talking to Said about the death of Schillinger's son. His other son. Last season. Said retreads that Beecher came to him for guidance in the teachings of Allah, but that he has "this thing between [himself] and Keller. Homosexual acts are blasphemy." Beecher accidentally grabs a page of the script from today's episode of Passions with the hopelessly cliché, "I don't want to love him, Kareem. But I do." Is the cheesiness of that line supposed to be subverted by the fact that he's talking about two men? Didn't work.
Beecher walks through the cafeteria. He is catcalled from a nearby table by Schillinger, who taunts, "Sorry to hear what happened to your little butt buddy." Ew. Continuing on: "Of course, knowing that guy, he's probably flocked half his nurses and a couple of orderlies by now. I hope he doesn't come back here with any of those staph infections." Hmmm. Hey, he made a joke. Because a "staph" infection is a bacterial disease that people often pick up in hospitals, but Schillinger also alluded to the possibility that Keller would be having amorous relations (flocking them, if you will) with assorted hospital faculty. I wonder if he even realizes the full depth of his deeply textured pun. Oh, and predictably, he didn't really say "flocked."