This was an up and down season, with differing results.
What I liked:
Divya’s (Reshma Shetty’s) pregnancy. Despite believing
herself unable to conceive, she nevertheless becomes pregnant by her now
ex-husband, the unseen Rafa. Honestly, I didn’t like Rafa as he kept the huge
secret that he had a son from her but she forgave him and married him anyway.
But they had only one thing in common and that’s no way to start a marriage.
Jeremiah’s (Ben Shenkman) becoming a season regular though
he wasn’t used in three whole episodes and his presence was sorely missed. His
secret crush on Divya kept the show interesting when the other plot lines
sagged. He didn’t even lose the slightest interest after she revealed that she
didn’t lose the baby after all, thank goodness.
I also liked the idea of Divya having to move in with
Jeremiah after her apartment was discovered to have the nasty black mold though
Jeremiah is difficult to live with. However, that would be cut short after
Divya stumbles upon Evan (Paulo Costanza) reveals to Paige (Brooke D’Orsey)
that his crush was never that big, not like Jeremiah’s as he is in love with
Divya. This forces something I don’t like: Divya decides to move out and
continues to reinforce the words “just friends” into every conversation. My
sister put it best: Divya’s breaking my heart. Finally, in the finale, Jeremiah
admits to her how she made the transition for him better. Divya (her pregnancy
in jeopardy) finally shows him some compassion. She must stay on bed rest until
at least her twenty-seventh week. Jeremiah offers to take care of her but she
refuses, not wanting to take advantage of him. He tells her that his feelings
toward her have changed (though I don’t and won’t believe this) and he doesn’t
want to lose their friendship. Divya needs taken care of so it looks like she
will let him. But I also believe that she is finally falling in love with him,
too little too late.
Now to basically everything else:
Each of all the other plot lines had good parts but overall,
I didn’t like them much.
First, to Evan’s decision to run for Village Council just so
HankMed can get the necessary business license against the wishes of Blythe
Ballard (Frances Conroy) who rules the village with an iron fist. This quickly
becomes a burden as Paige just finished serving a term as the daughter of a
general and politician and it’s a life that she doesn’t want to go back to. For
the record, Evan wins, though it is a narrow victory but Blythe will be
watching his every move.
Now to everything involving Hank (Mark Feuerstein) who is
still battling his brain surgery. He is still having pain from that, so he
develops a dependency on a bad drug, but it turns out that he still has good
reason as the pain extended to his back. This turns everything in his life
inside out.
He has a new patient, Officer Don (Brad Beyer) and his
sullen, angry teenage daughter, Molly (Alexandra Socha). In order to get Molly
out of a situation, he gives her one of his pills but the effects are
disasterous with Molly having bad side effects which cause her father to have a
bad flare up of his own medical condition. To get back at Hank, she tells other
officers what happened. This means that Hank can’t keep his addiction a secret
anymore. His new boss, Shelby (Laura Benanti) is not pleased but hires a lawyer
to handle the situation. Shelby is in charge of Symphony, a good move for
HankMed but now it could all blow up in their faces. Shelby also puts the
thought in Jeremiah’s head that Hank came to him for drugs because Jeremiah
would just blindly give him some drugs without going through proper procedure,
though that was not the case. Jeremiah resigns from HankMed, but he better be
back (see below). He feels that Hank manipulated him and he’s angry. Honestly,
I can’t say I blame him, Hank figured he could use Jeremiah to obtain the
drugs. It was a hard blow for Jeremiah to take. Though Hank does apologize and
Jeremiah appreciates it, he can’t risk losing his medical license so he won’t
be returning. He will without a doubt be missed. As for Symphony, they will be
letting Hank go, though he can continue his practice locally.
Paige also has an unpaid internship working for Russell
Berger (Steven Spinella). I actually basically like this plot, though it does
take me some time to warm up to Russell. However, Paige’s and Evan’s
relationship which was once on so solid ground has grown shaky. They argue over
where to live (which is fine), how to spend their money (which is also a valid
argument) but the other petty fights and misunderstandings are not. And then,
it turns out that a wedding by an online minister is not legal in the county,
so they aren’t even legally married. And this is after a two-hour special
solely devoted to their wedding. But they no longer seem like they are
connected; the loving spark in their eyes is gone. They lost their chemistry
together. Paige is also thrilled when she is offered a temporary job in Paris
while Evan looks upset at the whole notion. They later bond over the lame
reason of helping figure out what bit Russell. They also decide to each give up
what they want to work on their marriage. Evan was finally starting to sound
grown-up and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Still, I’m mostly over
Paige and Evan. Jeremiah and Divya are my favorite couple on that show.
And still, there is Boris (Campbell Scott). His cousin,
Milosh (Callum Blue) is suffering from dementia so he is paranoid that Boris
discovered the allusive cure to the family ailment. This means that Boris is
finally looking toward his future which will include travelling around the
world with Russell and Hank decides to join him as his doctor exclusively. He
has talked Jeremiah into becoming the head of HankMed as he trusts him
completely and this will give him a break and space from the Hamptons. I wonder
what next season will hold.
Despite all my problems with the plots, the acting is
decent, with Shenkman being especially great, though everyone else does well.
Shetty has truly grown as an actress, showing devastation when she learns that
her pregnancy might be over. Too bad Evan is still so annoying. I hope next season will be better. Grade: B
(though it would vary widely from show to show)
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