The latest episode of Nurse Jackie, "Good Thing," focuses primarily on an upcoming date that Jackie has with the cop she met in a previous episode. It is their first real date and the first date that she has been on since her divorce from Kevin, making it a big deal for her and to everyone she knows. In an attempt to keep her date secret from her daughters who she feels are not ready to know, she hides her dresses in a gym bag. They each ask why she has a gym bag packed and she has to explain that she is planning to go to the gym later, a lie that is obviously difficult for her. Jackie is simply looking out for her girls and their emotions in a realistic and necessary way, so she feels she has to lie to them in this sort of situation. As soon as she gets into work, Zoe (in a playful and teasing way) proceeds to question Jackie about her bag. After teasing her enough, she gets Jackie to reveal that she has a date and figures that it must be with the cop. Zoe has gotten to know Jackie well and their relationship has become a lot of fun to watch over the year, with moments like these particularly enjoyable over the past few seasons.
The news about Jackie's big date travels around the hospital fast. Everyone, including Eddie, Dr. Cooper, and even Dr. Roman are doing things in order to help her prepare and advise her about it. Dr. Roman simply gives her lipstick in a bit of an insult to her appearance and asks her if she knows of someone else that could take one of her patients, feeling that Jackie owes her something because of this. This is yet another example of why Dr. Roman continues to be an annoying addition to the show and very out of the place in the hospital.
Jackie is very nervous about her date, and after talking to everyone else in the hospital, she wants to get in contact with Dr. O'Hara, who is living back home in London, and she gets frustrated when Eddie's computer refuses to let her get on Skype to talk to Dr. O'Hara. A fun and interesting event happens when Zoe and Thor take it upon themselves to give Jackie a makeover for her date and help her pick out which dress she is going to wear. Zoe especially gets excited to help Jackie with this activity, and after they are done, they take a picture of the three of them. It is nice to see Jackie being able to relate to the other nurses in this kind of way, and she leaves the hospital feeling excited as she heads to dinner with Frank.
In an interesting scene at the hospital, we see the first real mistake that Dr. Prentiss makes on the show, and Akalitus conveniently notices it right away. She immediately notes that a patient who Dr. Prentiss had just discharged was not fit to leave, and Dr. Cooper, who is nearby, notices and is able to correctly diagnose him and send him upstairs for treatment. This makes Dr. Cooper happy, knowing that he was able to catch something that Dr. Prentiss could not see but this incident just inflates his ego, and of course he thinks of himself instead of the patient that he has just helped. A previous patient, a pregnant woman, collapses in the hospital, and Dr. Prentiss and the nurses are forced to deliver her baby on the floor of the hospital. Zoe gets to be the one to deliver the baby, which makes her feel like a hero, a cute moment in which she gets excited.
After all of the preparation that she went through during the day at work, Jackie finally has her date with Frank. In a very shocking turn of events, Dr. Cruz shows up on her date, calling her from inside the restaurant, and she proceeds to leave the date to talk to him, lying to Frank about why she has to leave. As a viewer, I thought he had just confronted her to talk about his son with whom she was in rehab, but I was surprised to see what happened between the two of them, as things turned romantic as soon as they got to Dr. Cruz's place. I find this turn of events to be disappointing because Frank seems like a nice guy and does not deserve treatment like that from Jackie.
Grace also gets away with a lie when she tells Jackie that she will be at a supervised movie-watching party with her friends, only to sneak off to a noisy club that she is clearly not old enough to attend. Fortunately, in a very brave and mature move on her part, she walks out of the club on her own, realizing that she could be in danger. Grace calls her mom as soon as she leaves the club, especially after being teased by guys on the street, and she fears for her life as she continues to call and does not get a response from Jackie. Meanwhile, Jackie is in bed with Dr. Cruz and eventually sees that Grace has called her repeatedly and comes to her daughter's rescue. This is yet another reason why sleeping with her former co-worker was a bad idea. Who knows what could have happened to Grace had Jackie not called her back in time? This episode was filled with entertainment throughout and with a number of exciting and shocking moments that kept me on the edge of my seat like no episodes recently have done. This episode was so briskly paced that I was surprised to see the credits appear as the episode went by so fast. The acting was excellent, and Edie Falco put on her usual Emmy-worthy performance as Jackie.
Thoughts and Quotes
-- Zoe: "I feel so alive, like I just ate a bunch of fresh fish." What could this possibly mean? I have certainly never heard anyone say this before...
-- Dr. Roman: "You may not be ER Chief, but you're mine." She is talking to Dr. Cooper in another awkward scene that resulted in them having sex in the hospital. These two just seem to act like they are college students and goof off whenever possible. It is sad to see Dr. Roman bringing out the worst in Dr. Cooper, too, since he seemed to evolve a bit last season.
-- Thor: "I am this close to Tebow-ing." He says this after the staff helps to deliver the baby. Isn't Tim Tebow's iconic status old news by now? Wonder why Thor thought this was relevant to the situation, too.
-- Dr. Cooper: "Let me show a little something that works for me...Zen magic." Why does Dr. Cooper think that he is helping Jackie by showing her something like this in preparation for a date?
-- Thor: "I'll be okay with those shoes in a few minutes." He says this after Jackie walks out in the makeover outfit that they created for her. What could change in that amount of time I wonder. Weird statement, I'd say.
-- Eddie: "Wow...have fun." Eddie is clearly jealous to see Jackie going out on a date and watches as she leaves. I feel kind of bad for Eddie in this situation, but at the same time due to the way she was involved with him, I do not feel like they are meant to be together at all.
-- Jackie: "It's very hard to be a role model."
-- Zoe: "This is like one of those makeover reality shows." Zoe shows her excitement at being able to give Jackie a makeover.