Crime and Punishment
Updated 2008-12-04 08:54:36
Violet is suffering from a postmodern Hopper-esque frumpiness -- eating Chinese alone on the couch and talking to her television. When the phone rings she thinks it is Cooper, but it's Doug. Doug? When Violet rushes to Doug's house she is greeted at the door and quickly follows him upstairs. She doesn't notice that he is covered in blood and carrying a gun, so we can cross "attention to detail" off of Violet's list of attributes. When the gun is waved in her face and Doug's wife appears to be headless, Violet finally realizes that something is horribly wrong in the House of Doug. Sam and Cooper play racquetball and wish their ex-wives/ex-girlfriends were dead. Seriously! What a perfect segue! Artfully done, writers! Mid-game Sam gets a call and runs off. Meg and Pete discuss how bored she is. She is bored enough to jog, which I think we can all agree is really bored. She's been jogging so much her thighs ache! Oh, I smell a dirty insinuation in the works. Pete hugs her and tells her he knows it is frustrating being in a new place. Then he offers to hurt her thighs in non-running ways. I knew it! I love this show. Addison gives SWAT a sponge bath. He complains about it. As if!
Doug is still covered in blood. Sam can't figure out why Doug shot his wife. Doug claims a shot in the head is way faster than hemlock tea for those inclined to assisted suicide. Sam scratches his head and suggests that palliative care may have been a slightly better option than shooting his wife in the head. But Sam, it's no fun to watch Reiki massage, pain management therapies, and acupuncture! A bullet to the head is quality television! The cops are already at the house. They ask Sam and Violet for their thoughts on the situation. As Doug's therapist, Violet refuses to say anything. Sam as Doug's now-deceased wife's doctor feels more at liberty to discuss the fact that Karen and Doug had a troubled marriage and Doug was planning on leaving her before she was diagnosed. Violet cuts off Sam. Their conversations were privileged. The cops take Doug away. Sam is not at all happy about any of this. Violet is very calm and collected, though.
Cooper is patiently waiting for the elevator when Charlotte enters the lobby. Man does he wish she was dead, or what? Cooper claims the elevator is his territory and she has to use the stairs. Charlotte tells him he has one more day to grovel in his immaturity, and then he has to grow up and discuss the situation. He tells her to go to hell and he enunciates it really, really clearly so she doesn't miss a syllable.
The doctors discuss Doug's homicidal/assisted suicidal moment over coffee and Danish in their break room. Violet is firmly in the gunshot-as-euthanasia camp, while Sam is more on the fence. Cooper thinks it was murder. He is so vehement in his assertion that love can make anyone a killer that Sam asks if Charlotte is still alive, which was actually Hee-Lar-I-Ous. The comedy is interrupted by Meg, who wants to talk to Naomi. Maybe she has another tick?
Charlotte bravely walks off the elevator into Oceanside Wellness. She ignores Cooper's protestations of elevator use and walks to Addison's office and demands advice. A woman is comatose and nine months pregnant! Holy Drama! The husband of Comama (see what I did there?) anxiously eyes the doctors during their examination of his wife. The baby is breach and since medical shows are meant for nothing more than freaking the shit out of expectant mothers, Addison makes sure to list every single possible dire outcome of a breach birth. The husband doesn't care because he heard about a woman in Kentucky who came out of her coma after going through labor and delivery. That's what he wants. And thus we have our Drama of the Week!
Addison can't believe that Baby Daddy is going to risk his baby's life to maybe wake his wife from her vegetative state. Charlotte helpfully adds that they can't make him do a C-section. Addison really wishes they could. If she had her way, every baby would be delivered via Cesarean at a scheduled time with as much medical intervention as possible. She whines a little about the unfairness of it all. Then Addison and Charlotte decide to work together to save the family (and Charlotte's relevance to the show) despite their unending mutual loathing. Addison gives the wife drugs to stop her labor (which I'm sure Baby Daddy was totally onboard with) while Charlotte heads to legal to try and force the husband to cut open Comama. Wow, that guy needs a midwife stat!
Sam and Violet walk and talk about Doug and his wife. I thought nobody walked in L.A.? That would actually explain why it looks like they are walking on a traffic median. Violet knows that Doug wouldn't harm his wife, but would help her end her pain. Sam knows that Karen wasn't suicidal despite her kidney failure. They both swear to tell the whole truth to the cops. Of course those truths totally contradict each other.
Meg and Naomi have hatched a brilliant plan to expand Oceanside Wellness's community outreach. Meg in her do-goodness managed to find a free clinic that has too many patients for their exam room capabilities. Meg is going to start seeing them at Oceanside. And she is going to let Dell shadow her so no one else has to pretend to care about his career aspirations. Obviously Pete is horrified that his ersatz girlfriend might be working with him. Yeah, who is excited that they get to work with their girlfriend? Nobody! Violet aggressively pushes elevator buttons and gets in a discussion about pent-up anger with a very helpful passenger who turns out to be interviewing for the shrink position at Charlotte's competing practice! Oh Mr. Helpful is going to love Charlotte!
Dell and Meg have their first patient together. Dell excitedly goes to fetch the girl from the waiting room. But when he makes her announce to the room at large that she is there for a termination the fun just gets started! Dell immediately goes and tattles to the other doctors that Meg is performing abortions. Sam, Cooper, and Pete (three single men in California) are all opposed to the procedure, while Dell the wannabe midwife surfer dude is so adamantly opposed to the (still legal!) procedure that he storms out of the room (he is getting good at that move) and manages to call it baby-killing twice! Addison has no problem with it and kicks "everyone without a vagina" out of the room lest they risk a rumble with her. (And have you checked out her guns?) Naomi has a huge problem with abortion, too! She is a fertility doctor and she creates babies, she doesn't kill them! She then storms out. Addison gets paged to the hospital, but as the Lady in Charge, she tells Meg she can do whatever the heck she wants. Meanwhile, Dell has talked the poor girl out of "killing her baby." This was apparently done in the waiting room! Surrounded by other patients! That must have made for some awesome eavesdropping. Dell is surprisingly not limping from the kick in the balls he probably earned. Meg is shocked that her male midwife is such a douche.
Addison was paged to the hospital, not by the husband, but by Comama's parents. Turns out that little baby was made out of wedlock! The notHusband swears they were on their way to the altar when the accident happened and she was put into a coma. The parents don't care, they want what is best for their grandchild. Addison schedules the surgery.
Meg complains to Pete about Dell's incredibly unprofessional behavior and Pete is very unsympathetic. In fact, he is pretty much a complete dick. He tells Meg that her decision to perform a legally permissible medical procedure without consulting the other members of the practice reflected badly on him and may have damaged the practice's reputation in the community. As opposed to Dell's behavior, which was highly professional. Meg points out that as a doctor she doesn't need to talk to anyone else about her medical practice. Then she points out that she is going to leave. Pete looks contemplative. Find me one alternative medicine practitioner who is anti-choice. One. Just one. It's got to be easier than finding an anti-choice midwife.
Over at the old hospital, Addison is prepping for her C-section on Comama. As she is about to go into the operating room, Charlotte comes in with the Baby Daddy's injunction. Addison is pissy about the delay, but Charlotte promises to go to the judge and straighten him out. She stops Addison from leaving long enough to ask about Cooper. Addison assures Charlotte that Cooper is 100% ticked off and probably will be for a while. Charlotte gulps suggestively and Addison surmises that Charlotte is love with him. Charlotte denies it and then reminds Addison that they are not friends and never will be. Addison shrugs because really who cares?
Doug should really steer clear of neon orange. I mean I know crimes must be punished, but making him wear that jump suit is cruel. He looks like a neon orange sausage and lest you think "yummy!" I assure you it is not. Doug is complaining to Violet, not about his attire, but that "they" are claiming he murdered his wife. He is oddly surprised by this assessment. He was just ending her pain! Doug claims that Sam doesn't know what he is talking about, because only saw the deceased two weeks ago for half an hour. Doug had to watch her in pain everyday and he did what she wanted. He begs Violet to help. He waives all confidentiality rights--he just wants help proving his case!
Pete comes home and seems surprised to find Meg is gone. Oh please, she had one foot out the door already and getting yelled at by everyone certainly wouldn't make anyone want to stay. Plus, Pete was a dick.
Violet, Addison, and Naomi hit an outdoor café for a little girl talk. Violet asks if it is true that Pete found out Meg was doing abortions and asked her to leave, because if so that's crazy! Violet's crazy pantomime stops quickly when Naomi looks horrified. After Naomi gives her spiel about being a fertility doctor and creating life, Violet and Addison both admit that they had abortions and wish that they had somewhere nice and safe to go. Naomi fertilizes eggs all day and believes life begins at conception and that is it. Addison begs them to change the subject. Me too!
Charlotte is camped out in front of Cooper's door like his apartment is the box office two days before Lynard Skynard tickets go on sale. She invites him out for a drink and he tells her to go home. When she doesn't move, he bodily lifts her up and out of his way. She apologizes tearfully (well, almost) and swears she will " do the time." He goes inside and Charlotte leans against the door in defeat. Plus, no Skynard tickets.
The next morning, Meg comes back to Pete's place. She needed time to think. The man she knew used to share everything with her. She wants to know what happened to him. He doesn't answer. Instead he changes the subject and tells her to come back. They hug.
Sam, Violet, and Addison try to parse out what they should do about Doug. The District Attorney is subpoenaing Karen's medical records. Violet was up all night trying to figure out what to do about it. She wishes she had someone to talk to about all of this. Addison's ears perk up and I think she's somehow going to suggest Mr. Helpful from the elevator, but instead she suggests that Violet should talk to SWAT. Erm...why? It must be so SWAT has his contractually-required five and a half minutes of screen time. Why else would a therapist go talk to a cop instead of, say, a lawyer? Or another therapist? Whatever. Violet sits gingerly on the edge of SWAT's bed and asks how she can know whether it was murder or assisted suicide? Violet spells out the facts for SWAT: Doug was totally submissive to his wife and she can't imagine any scenario where he would have the temerity to shoot his wife without her go-ahead. SWAT gives her the cold hard fact that not one single woman in his entire time on the force has ever asked to be killed with a gun or committed suicide with one. The ladies no likey the guns. Violet doesn't likey that fact.
Over at the hospital some unfrocked judge is hearing the legal arguments not by the lawyers but by the notHusband and the parents of Comama. I'm so glad Shonda can show us these utopian worlds where the needed changes to our legal system can be made. In addition to the family's arguments, the judge asks for Addison's opinion, which is imminent danger fishcakes. The hospital via Charlotte agrees. The judge could rule, but he would rather have the husband withdraw his petition. Like he knows how to do that without his lawyer. The Comama's mama pleads with notHusband to help them save the baby.
Violet makes a run for the elevator only to be greeted once again by Mr. Helpful. He notices that she looks like she is in a hurry. The two spend the long elevator ride trying to out-therapy each other. They throw out some Jung and Freud references for good measure. Then Mr. Helpful quotes Mark Twain and they cheer each other up. Violet asks if he got the job and she looks pleased when she hears that he did.
Meg is still working at the clinic. And she is still working with Dell. Before they get going with their day, Meg wants to talk about the fact that he publicly scared off a patient yesterday. When Dell gets snippy about creating life and making babies, Meg gives him an earful about medical professionalism. They don't get to know why their patients make the choices they do, they just do what the patient wants once they make that choice. It is the hardest choice anyone has to make and Dell can just go suck it.
Addison preps for surgery. When she sees the notHusband skulking about she tells him that he is not allowed to be there. The notHusband confesses that he caused the accident that put Comama in a coma. He made her laugh, she looked away from the road, and whammo! Comama. Addison forgives him for his sins. She tells him that he did not cause the accident and he can't make miracles. But she can. Because she is Addison. She is going to go into that O.R. and make a miracle. O.R. U., Addison?
Violet goes to visit Doug in prison. He asks if she spoke to the DA, but she hasn't yet. She wanted to talk to him more. She questions him about the gun method of assisted suicide, but he claims Karen was worried anything else wouldn't work. He mentions how much pain she was in again, but Violet cuts him off. She wants to talk about his pain. He looks hopeful.
Dell asks Naomi if she is anti-abortion and she admits that she is. Unapologetically, too. He asks if she cares why a woman would choose to have one, for example if she was raped. Naomi deflects and says that it is only important if it matters to him or his beliefs or some such transcendental malarkey. Religious views are one thing, but is something else bothering Dell? For example, his recently discovered child? Under Naomi's intense questioning, Dell cracks and admits that he tried to convince his Baby Mama to have an abortion, but her crack-addled ass refused. And now he has a beautiful daughter! Naomi adjudges him pro-choice, but guilty. He is just punishing himself for the choice he almost made.
Speaking of intense questioning, Violet is still going at it with Doug. They've adjusted the lights in the holding cell to give it that Law & Order glow. Under Violet's insistent prodding, Doug cracks. He couldn't take his wife's yelling, her badgering, her harassment and he shot her. Violet gets all cold eyed and tells him he murdered his wife. Doug protests that he just put her out of her misery, but Violet counters with the reality that he put himself out of his misery. Amy Brenneman was really intense at the end of that scene.
At Oceanside, the patient that Dell publicly berated came back to get her procedure. When Meg sees her, she apologizes for the terrible treatment, unprofessionalism and crappy patient care. She is glad the girl got her messages and came back. The girl explains that Dell called her and that's why she came back. Meg shrugs and takes the girl to her office. Naomi bitches in surrender to Pete who says nothing. Wow Dell is really quick to act on his newfound beliefs! Anti-choice one minute and pushing abortion the next. Hilarious!
In the O.R., Addison delivers on her promised miracle, but the mother goes into cardiac arrest. This seems to happen a lot to Addison's patients. Serves them right for doubting her. Addison delivers the baby girl to the family in the waiting room. The mother and father are sweetly holding hands with notHusband. Addison apologizes for killing the mother, but nobody sobs quietly or anything at the announcement. They pretty much just ignore the fact that Addison's surgery killed their daughter. Yes, newborn babies are amazing, but I doubt anyone would get over their daughter's death that quickly, let alone forget. Oops, I spoke to soon! notHusband did forget that his almost wife is dead. Why else would he take his newborn daughter to meet her mother? Charlotte and Addison ask him not to compromise the newborn's immune system and hospital regulations, but he does it anyway. He holds his so-called newborn up to the cold waxen body of her mother. He introduces them while Addison and Charlotte stare in through the door. I can't tell if their look is of horror or sentimentality.
Over at Oceanside, the girl who had the abortion comes out and thanks Dell. He looks surprised. Meg tells him that she made the best choice for her. He tells Meg that he always thought medicine was about helping people and she assures him that it is. Naomi is off on the sidelines looking aggrieved for turning Dell into a baby murderer. Dell tries to apologize, but Naomi cuts him off. She is proud of him for doing what he thought was right, but he will still burn in hell for eternity for killing the babies.
Violet runs into Mr. Helpful in the elevator again. She decides to cave and asks him for his professional opinion on the Doug matter. Once she explains how much she likes Doug, but doesn't like what he did, Mr. Helpful asks if anyone got hurt. Violet admits that someone did get a boo boo. Mr. Helpful suggests that she already has her answer. As the elevator door closes, Violet introduces herself. They shake hands.
Pete finds Meg and tells her what happened to him. How he has a dead wife that he hated. Hated! And if he could take back the hate...well it killed a piece of him. There are very few women he trusts and he is doing the best he can. She nods.
Sam and Violet decompress over the fact that one of their clients offed another client. Violet feels bad. Sam asks if Violet is religious at all and when she says no, Sam tells her that at church they light a candle to remember people. He lights a candle and he and Violet stare at it. Cooper wanders in and asks what they are doing. Violet says they are trying to forgive themselves and he asks to get in on it. Outside of Sam's office, Naomi and Pete watch the other three stare at a candle, which probably means the cable is out. Addison comes home to SWAT. He thanks her for taking care of him and now he wants to take care of her. She denies she needs help, but cries in his arms about the miracle she created. Oh, and maybe the mother she killed.