By Jacob
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Upset by a homeless diabetic patient's foot amputation, Zoey accidentally mentions that Jackie directed her to underserve the guy previously, and she feels guilty. Jackie calls her a liar and incompetent, then later finds the offending page in that diary she's always taking notes in, and rips it right out. Then she falsifies another patient's donor card and time of death, while his parents are stuck at Heathrow. But neither of these is the creepiest thing she does this week!
Usually the show's bright and acidic in equal measure, but this week it was pretty much just Awful People On Parade, with the working assumption that Jackie's going to start pulling her whole world down around her ears, which should be interesting as hell. The parents of Gloria's stolen baby finally come forward, and she tells them the baby is dead, but just to freak them out. She pulls him out of her desk, hands him over, and starts shaking down Mo-Mo to find out how the homosexuals get kids.
After Grace threatens to have yet another breakdown, Jackie's progressed to getting nosebleeds from the constant snorting, and when Eleanor mentions that she's giving adultery tips to her sister in Paris based on her admiration of Jackie's cheater skillz, Jackie tells her to fuck right off. It's pretty devastating. Also bearing the brunt of Jackie's rage this week is Coop, who is now hooking up with last week's pretty daughter and paying even less attention than usual to his pager.
Having betrayed Zoey and hurt Eleanor's feelings, Jackie snorts some drugs in the hospital chapel, stares at the Blessed Virgin for awhile, checks out a few minutes of a Shirley Temple tap-dancing movie, and decides to take a dance class with Grace. For such a seemingly happy ending, it sure was a depressing episode. week: Tap dancing, I guess. Probably on razor blades, or at least on HIPPA regulations.
Discuss this episode in our Nurse Jackie forums, then see how Jackie's bedside manner compares to Meredith Grey's in TV is the Answer!
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Jackie and Kevin have the kids at the park, and Fiona's posing on Alice's mushroom when one of her balloons pops. She's cool for a second, and then starts to wig out: she is not consoled by the fact that she still has one balloon, she doesn't want a replacement, she wants her original balloon back. Exasperated, Jackie asks if she wants another one or not, and in true Fiona form she's like, "NO." So Grace tries to give her one of hers, which impresses the parents. And if Fiona were going to take it, I'd be impressed too. But she doesn't, so Grace has no choice but to let go of one of her own.
Jackie nearly cries, watching Grace watch the balloon float up. Waiting for her to knit herself back together. She doesn't understand what that says, what it means: that fairness can only get you so far. That sharing doesn't mean anything unless you're sharing pain. If fairness doesn't work, because the person is still hurting, sometimes the only choice you have is to hurt yourself. I knew the second Grace offered her second balloon that thing was getting popped, or let go, or otherwise lost. I admit I crossed my fingers against it. We inherit our disguise.
Fiona's screwing around at lunch, blowing bubbles in her drink and annoying everybody, purposively, with mean eyes, even after Kevin and Jackie ask her to stop. "Honey, really?" asks Jackie, putting the drink in front of Grace, who starts to freak out because it's contaminated somehow. Jackie licks the straw from stem to stern, but Grace isn't having it, so she gives them both a dollar to buy candy with. Fiona runs away, Grace stays put. "I'll give you a dollar if you don't go to work today," Grace says. More important than candy, than pleasure, than anything: she holds it up, like a balloon.
They discuss it, Kevin tries to get Jackie to stay firm, stick with him, keep the girls in place, and asks Grace what she really wants. "I want the hospital to burn down," Grace says softly, and Jackie sighs. "Okay." In the bathroom she snorts some shit, lets it take, and then innocently flushes. At the table, Fiona shouts, "I'm practically rich!" holding up her candy. "The world's not gonna cave in every time she falls apart," Kevin offers, reminding her they've talked about. Jackie tries but can't explain that this isn't about Grace needs, but her own. "We can't keep changing the rules," he says, and begs her to trust him. Grace doesn't look at her when she kisses them goodbye. Then it's later, and a kooky homeless man named Gus Everett collapses in front of the hospital as she's arriving. Her nose starts to bleed as she gets him on a stretcher and inside.