Episode Report Card Sars: D | 1 USERS: F YOU GRADE IT Leave It To Weaver
By Sars | Season 6 | Episode 1 | Aired on 09.29.1999
Wicked Ugly Braces Kid, who has a cut on his cheek and blood on his shirt, says to Kovac, "I don't get this -- you're a regular old doctor, but you don't work here." Kovac explains that he does work there, but only when they call in a moonlighter. "Because you're from another country?" Braces Kid prompts him. "No," Kovac says patiently, "because I only work here from time to time, when they need me." Kovac and Braces Kid continue to debate Kovac's exact job -- Braces Kid seems to be worried that Kovac doesn't know what he's doing -- and finally Braces Kid figures out that Kovac is "like a sub." Then Braces Kid asks, "What kinda accent is that?" "Thick," Kovac answers. I would have said "the kind that makes clothes melt off," but I'll throw a "heh" in here anyway -- heh.
Meanwhile, the paramedics bring in a crying baby; apparently, the neighbors heard him wailing and called the cops. Jeanie "Haven't I Suffered Enough?" Boulet asks if he and his mom, who came in at the same time, have any known relatives, and the paramedic says that the mother, who has end-stage AIDS, lived alone with the boy. Jeanie asks if the boy has HIV, but the paramedic doesn't know; then Jeanie orders a bunch of IV medicine and tests on the mother and walks over to check on the baby. Finch examines the baby and orders tests, and Jeanie asks, "Pneumonia?" and Finch says yes, probably, and Jeanie then asks if Finch plans to order an HIV test, and Finch says they can't without consent from that mother, which isn't going to happen. Jeanie worries about whether the baby has the virus, but Finch repeats that they can't order the test without the mother's or the court's permission. Then Finch mutters, "HIV positive, goes ahead and has a baby, no sign of any support -- what was she thinking?" Jeanie sort of flinches and gives Finch a resentful look as Haleh comes in with X-rays on Michelle, and she tells Finch to go see Michelle and she'll fill out the labs on both the mother and the baby. Finch leaves, and Jeanie gives the lab orders to Haleh, but before Haleh leaves, Jeanie stops her and orders an HIV test on the baby anyway. Gee, I never would have seen that coming. Well, except for the "never" part.
Hathaway comes into the exam room with Kovac and Braces Kid. She asks, "Am I interrupting?" and Kovac says no, "We are done here." Hathaway and Braces Kid recognize each other from the coffee shop, and after some non-witty dialogue about whether Hathaway really works there, Braces Kid goes on his merry metal-mouthed way. Hathaway sits down so that Kovac can stitch her arm up, and Kovac says that he thinks Braces Kid's parents "feel quite exhausted." All right, writers, put the iron skillet down and step slowly away from the word processor. Kovac says he heard that Hathaway saw the accident happen at the coffee shop. Hathaway: "I had just left, ten seconds earlier. I don't even want to think about it." She adds that, miraculously, most people came out of it okay, and I guess she knows from miracles, being a saint and everything. Then she asks Kovac about why he took Michelle in to see her mother even though Weaver and Greene told him not to, and Kovac complains that he doesn't think Weaver and Greene think he's a good doctor. Hathaway scoffs, "Why do you say that? This is like the second or third time you've worked here, isn't it?" Kovac gives her a shot and gripes, "Yeah, enough time for them to stop calling me 'Dr. Kovac.' When people are not sure, they tend to keep things more formal." He hopes that he will do a good enough job on her suturing for Hathaway to call him "Luka." She smiles politely and doesn't say anything. Kovac goes on to explain why he brought Michelle to see her mother: "Children need to know, need to see, even if what they see is not good, it's still better than being in the dark, you know? Having -- that kind of fear." Hathaway says gently that he sounds "experienced in these things," an unasked question that Kovac dodges by saying that any experience he has didn't help him with Braces Kid. Hathaway chuckles. If the writers put these two together -- and I predict that they will -- well, just buy stock in whatever company makes Maalox.
In the hallway, Weaver asks Hathaway to show a brother and sister their mother's body. Hathaway ushers them in and sees Yosh tagging the body of the nosy old woman from the coffee shop, and she knits her brow piously.