Episode Report Card DeAnn Welker: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Grown-Ups
By DeAnn Welker | Season 3 | Episode 14 | Aired on 02.11.2010
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Somehow, everyone is acting surprisingly mature in this episode. For starters, Violet is all grown up and self-aware (though she does manage to make Dell's own growth all about her, even putting on the wedding ring he finally takes off). She works with Addison and Sam to help a Patient Of The Week: a woman who is found in the water alive, and Addison has to give her an emergency C-section. She also has a hole in her heart, but won't let Sam operate because her husband left, and it turns out she had been trying to commit suicide. Addison finds the husband, who's not interested in saving her because it will happen again when he leaves again. Addison can't bring herself to tell her, until the woman needs emergency surgery and she somehow tells her he's not coming back to miraculously get her to do the surgery. She tells her baby she's sorry she hurt her at the very end, echoing Addison's own feelings toward Sam. That relationship is pretty much awkward and tense -- so much that even Violet notices it despite not knowing anyone but her exists. They bicker and he gives her the silent treatment. He tells her he's trying to move past it, and I believe him.
Sam is also working to plan Maya's wedding, with Violet's help, while Naomi's trying to plan a speaking engagement celebrating her boss, Bill Buchanan. The whole cast shows up for the event celebrating Bill, which is the best part of the episode. Remember how The O.C. used to have a party or event in every episode? Well, it's really nice when a show puts its whole cast together and lets them all interact interchangeably. Cooper hits on women, and Charlotte is resentful; then she messes it up by telling one of the woman about him reading Ladies Home Journal. Addison watches Sam dance with a mystery woman, and Fife's jealous when he witnesses Bill Buchanan declaring his like for Naomi. Then he has to watch them dance. Pete and Violet talk, and he forgives her, but she's still messed up. He knows. So Addison and Pete end up having the healthiest non-in-love sex TV has ever brought us. They both know what they're doing, and are in it with their eyes open, but it makes them happy. It's sort of wonderful. Naomi finally comes around and does some wedding planning, then Bill Buchanan and Naomi go for wine, and Fife watches them kissing as the elevator door closes. It's been obvious they were building toward a Fife-Naomi thing, but I don't think they've set that up well enough yet to make this work.
And let's not forget the vampires! That's right: Thirteen-year-olds biting each other to prove their soul mates. That's Cooper's patient of the week (and Pete's helping him for some reason that's not made clear), because one girl ends up with Hepatitis. Is this something that's actually happening in real life thanks to the vampire craze? On second thought, don't answer that. I don't want to know.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!We open on Charlotte and Addison going through double doors at the hospital and greeting a "22-year-old pregnant female" who was found drowning and hypothermic. She's Addison's patient, who's 33 weeks along. No one knows what happened, since she was in the water when she was spotted. Charlotte says she's already in "V-tach" and has her sent to "Trauma 2." This show is so trying to be ER right now. In surgery, Sam finds a hole in the patient's heart that Addison says was never there before so it was probably from the stress of being underwater. Beeping, beeping, so Addison starts an emergency C-section. Sam tells Addison to hurry since the mom goes into cardiac arrest. Baby's out and crying. Sam: "All right, clear..." And sunny title card.
Violet and Pete wait for the elevator together in the morning, and discuss whether they're each going to "the St. Ambrose thing" tonight. Pete doesn't have a choice since William White (that's Bill Buchanan to us) is being honored and he writes Pete's checks. Violet can't handle crowds, which she guesses is just part of the crazy. Pete thinks avoiding dull speeches, big egos and drunken colleagues might not be so crazy. She asks if he's being nice to her, and he says "Maybe. A little." Also being nice? Fife, to Naomi as she looks at a microscope. He makes what I think is a joke about how he's decided it's time to clone people, but she ignores him and says she's trying to work. He says that's all she's done lately, but she says work is good and home she can't handle. Fife says he could help her with the work stuff, though he's "a little crippled" at the emotional stuff. She thanks him, and it gets a little... heated, I guess. But then Bill interrupts and gets all touchy-feely with Naomi about how her speech for him tonight will surely be "impressive as always." He wants to express his gratitude. Fife tries to rib her for sucking up to the boss, but he can clearly see there's some flirting there between Naomi and Bill and he doesn't like it.
Hospital. Addison's fondling the little baby's tiny blanket and head when Sam comes in and gives her the update on the mom, Lauren: She's sedated and needs surgery that he can't do until she's stable. Addison says the baby's lungs aren't mature enough so she's having a hard time. Addison tried to get in contact with the husband, but hasn't. Sam has to go check up on Lauren and then go back to the practice. She asks him if he'll talk to her, and he just says he'll keep her posted on Lauren. So, that's a no then? At Oceanside, Cooper's telling Dell and Violet they have to go to the ball, because "Addison's memo said!" Dell wants to play the "wife died, single parent" card, and Violet's like, "I was attacked!" That gives her carte blanche to ignore all memos. Cooper says they have to use big, gaudy events like this to move on with their lives. He's saying he'd like to forget about the past right as Charlotte walks in, and she asks if he'll ever grow up. Sam comes in and Cooper asks him to fill Violet and Dell in on the ball being a requirement. Sam confirms it, all "We're gonna have fun, we're gonna have fun, okay." But not in a way that implies he is going to have fun.