Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Are We Back In Everwood?
By Couch Baron | Season 1 | Episode 13 | Aired on 04.17.2008
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close. We start with Eli having a dream about undergoing the surgery and pulling a Colin Hart. Then a man with probable terminal cancer comes to Eli for help, as his wife wants to take away his right to make his own decision not to have chemotherapy and to simply die. He says that God told him his time is up, and of course this has particular significance for Eli, as he's on a parallel path. And speaking of resonance, Nate berates Eli for signing a DNR, but Eli tells him he wants him to be his healthcare proxy. Nate's not thrilled, as his track record isn't so hot in that department, but Eli prevails on him, saying he trusts him to make the right decision. We then seem to flash forward to Nate waiting nervously in the hospital. Maggie comes to Eli and offers her services as second chair, partially out of guilt and thanks for last week, and soon we're learning that Cancer Guy's wife is a rabbi, and she's not thrilled about him abandoning his kids. Jordan's been reinstated as managing partner, and tells Eli that he used to be an ass -- and then leads him into a party for his promotion to junior partner, pro bono division. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! But it turns out this isn't quite real, as we cut ahead again to Jordan standing by Eli's bed, despondently urging him to wake up. Back in what turns out to be Eli's mind, he asks Cancer Guy about his vision of God, and Cancer Guy tells Eli that he simply experienced a moment of clarity, of peace, that convinced him of the rightness of his path. Taylor comes to Eli and tells him that she's the most important person in her life, and then we flash forward to Taylor at his bedside, and we learn that the aneurysm is gone, but Eli hemorrhaged and went into cardiac arrest, and now he's a vegetable, just as he feared. But of course, what's happened so far makes it clear that Eli's mind is still active in a way the machines can't detect. Back in his mind, he's telling Chen about his promotion and his new client, and Chen tells him how he spent years looking for God, but he didn't find him until Eli came to him -- and then Chen is waking up, apparently having had some sort of mental connection with the comatose Eli. He goes to Nate and tries to convince him not to take Eli off the machines, but Nate won't listen until Chen shows him the picture of him and his dad from so many years ago. Nate agrees to wait two more days. Back in Eli's brain, Cancer Guy's wife comes to Eli and tries to get him to urge Cancer Guy to fight for his life, and Eli tries, but Cancer Guy tells him that before he got sick, he was just an entitled workaholic, and he likes his life now so much better since that moment of divine intervention. In the present, Jordan consoles an emotional Taylor -- and we learn that Jordan actually is planning to promote Eli if he survives. In Eli's mind, he wins the case, and then we flash forward to Cancer Guy dying at St. Vincent's. Talking to Chen, Eli finally realizes that all the stuff that's been happening is in his own mind, and that he had the surgery and it went bad, and Dreamwalk Chen tells him he could give up, but if he wants it, he has more to do, and Eli chooses to go back -- but not before Dream George Michael, Dream Jordan, and Dream Sassy Patti all sing to him. After a montage that I'll give a pass, because that's just what this show does to me, Eli wakes up. Let me just close with this: Jonny Lee Miller. Emmy nomination. Want more? The full recap starts right below!Wow, this is really the end of the season! I really have to hand it to the people involved with the show, because it really felt like it was in the high weeds around the third and fourth episodes, and somehow it managed to pull things together and involve everyone in Eli's poignant journey. I really hope it gets another season, because it's not that often a show succeeds in getting me invested in just about every character. Except with Berlanti shows, of course, where it happens EVERY SINGLE TIME. Seriously, though, ABC, don't cancel Jonny Lee Miller. He's too cute!
Okay. We open on Eli already under the knife, so I guess any further complaints about this decision being overly reckless are going to fall on anesthetized ears. The doctor says they're just about done when machines start beeping and a nurse says Eli's pulse is dropping. No one actually refers to Eli as "Colin," which is admirable, given that if you played the dialogue from this scene and from Colin Hart's surgery, I have the feeling you might get some stereo action. The doc says that the aneurysm ruptured, and everyone frantically works away...
...and then, after a flash, Eli jolts awake in bed. He takes some deep recovery breaths, as you do when you imagine something horrible happening to you that you completely signed up for.
In the lobby of the WPK building, Matt rushes for the elevator that Eli's holding open for him. Once on, Matt gives Eli an uncertain glance, and then looks at his shoes as he notes that Eli's got that "thing" this week. Eli acknowledges that said "thing" is happening Friday, and Matt responds, "If anyone deserves to...not...die, or be brain-damaged, it's you." Aw. Matt's been hiding his sensitive side all along! "And if you do end up a vegetable, two words: Sponge. Bath." And there he is, doing it again! Eli tells Matt that that sentiment is comforting. Hee.
We see workmen doing earthquake-cleanup, and then when the elevator arrives, Keith is waiting for them. Matt thinks he's waiting to discuss a case with him, but Keith says that he actually wants to talk to Eli. Matt's just as happy to go scam on some chicks to get the awful taste of caring out of his mouth, leaving Keith to make small talk about Mosley. There's a nice little blink-and-you'll-miss-it touch, though, where Eli looks at the men working and remarks, "I thought they fixed that already!" Nice one, writers. Anyway, Eli divines that Keith is offering to talk about the surgery, and says that isn't necessary, but Keith tells Eli he's there for him, and even if he just wants to go out and get hammered, drinks are on him. I only hope that the upcoming surgery will fix Eli's remarkable lack of enthusiasm for this offer. Keith gives Sassy Patti a little conspiratorial look as he leaves, prompting Eli to ask her why everyone's treating him as though he's made of glass. Patti plays dumb, but Eli tells her gently that she doesn't have to threaten everyone to be nice to him. She points out that people don't get brain surgery every day, but Eli tells her he wants her to be herself -- in fact, he demands that she be even meaner to him than normal. "Where's the Mayor of Sasstown when I need her?" Aw! I'm heartened to hear that Eli likes the sassiness -- it makes her behavior toward him a lot easier to take in retrospect. If only she'd get the memo that not everyone on the show is a sass-loving masochist, we might actually be able to come to an understanding. Anyway, Patti, making a valiant effort not to cry, tells Eli, as we see a man standing behind him, that his ten o'clock is there. Eli responds that he didn't realize he had a ten o'clock, prompting Patti to seethe that he doesn't listen. Eli's like, "There's my sassy girl!" Anyway, the bald client steps forward, and Patti introduces him to Eli as "Mr. Green." Eli asks him to remind him what his case is about. Mr. Green: "I need you to help me die." So this isn't going to be one of those Berlanti season finales where everyone ends up jumping in the pool, huh?