Previously on saving hope
Charlie is up and about and recuperating, he is still seeing near death people like he did, when in his coma, it can be distracting to his work and life and as a result he pushes Alex away, as he tries to find ways of getting rid of the people he sees. Alex loves Charlie and wants to marry him but is pushed away from him and so tries to move on with her life, including being set up on a date with a guy who loses his fingers in a condom machine, she soon seems to be suffering from heart palpitations and is wearing a heart monitor under Dawn Bells orders. Joel takes the job running as chief of surgery, he is doing very well including looking great in a suit and having phone almost permanently attached to his ear, as we go through the season we see he still loves Alex and cares for her deeply including asking Charlie to give her space since he was the one to break it off, he decides after a surgery implants problems, with the company responsible knowing about it, to take action in the form of a law suit and steps down from the chief of surgery position to protect the hospital, Dawn Bell Charlie’s ex-wife takes over this position and we see she still has feelings for Charlie. Maggie finds out she is pregnant with Gavin’s child and they become a more firm couple, but after a while she has a miscarriage and loses her child. We finish season 2 with Joel watching over a sleepwalker patient who writes masses of formulas on walls, Joel exhausted falls asleep and his patient goes for a walk, Alex whilst wearing the heart monitor tries to wake the sleep-walker who unknowingly stabs her in the chest, the season and episode closes with dawn and the team operating on her and Charlie shocked to see her ghostly self-talking to him.
So let’s dive into to season 3 and see what happens to Alex with these questions I know I have, what will Joel think when he finds out his patient is the one who stabbed the woman he still loves? How will Charlie cope with seeing Alex? Is this long or short-term? How will it affect their relationship?
Season 3 episode 1 Heaven Can Wait.
We open with Alex on the operating table and dawn operating on her, Alex sees she has no heart beat and Charlie tells her to hang on, dawn tells him to shut up as she is trying to operate on her, they open her up to see what damage the stab wound has done as it was in her chest, seeing this Alex says she feels like she is going to die, Charlie tells her she isn’t and the emotion and pain in his face is so evident that seeing her like this is really messing with Charlie. Joel is looking at his patient lying with blood on him trying to figure out what the hell happened, Code white is being called over the speaker system and Joel asks a nurse what Code white is, she replies with someone stabbed Alex, he looks to his patient and put two and two together running to see Alex and if she is ok. We see dawn trying to help Alex and Alex looks at Charlie and Says she thinks there is somewhere she needs to be, she disappears and Charlie is stood there calling her name, we then hear an alarm clock and she is in a bed waking up, (I get thrown completely here) she is not alone and the house looks a little old-fashioned, she gets up and walks into the bathroom and the man in the bed says don’t forget the Piñata, Alex is next walking up the drive with an empty trash can and walks up to the house, a young girl run up to her and she says happy birthday and we see the saving hope credits.
Back in the operating room, Charlie finds out that its Joel’s sleepwalker who stabbed Alex and runs off in a mood, he meets up with Joel who is running to see Alex and as Joel asks how she is Charlie tackles Joel to the ground and they get into a fight, (I’m not happy at Charlie taking it out on Joel it wasn’t Joel himself, but we do see two men have a fight so I’ll let him off for now) we leave the fight to see that they have stabilised Alex’s stats but she is not out for the woods they need to still fix a hole and make sure they have done all that they can do. Back with the fight and Gavin and Jackson are just watching, wondering if they should intervene, Jackson agrees and jumps in with “I’m Short your skinny let’s do this!” (oh I laughed at that) they break up the fight and Gavin takes them both to see how Alex is doing with an update from Dawn you can see they are both worried, once they have received the news Gavin comes out with the awesome line “Godzilla, Mothra do you wanna shake paws and call it even?” (I want to know who is who because they are awesome fighter names). Zach tells Joel he needs him now and Joel heads out, Charlie tells him to stay away from her and Joel says that’s not going to happen, they both care for her and they both want to be with her.
We now flash over to Alex again, she is now flipping pancakes in the kitchen and making breakfast for two kids, the little birthday girl and her younger brother, she gives them the pancakes and they talk about the party supplies they need to get, balloon’s dips, food alcohol and the young girl says she is going to get daddy and Alex says No daddy is working and she needs to stay upstairs, Alex then hands a pancake to the girl and cuts one up for the boy, the girl seems to be putting in as much as she can (piggy child), Alex puts music on and then drops a bowl in the kitchen, as she picks up the pieces she cuts her hand and we are taken back from her drops of blood to her being on the table. Joel and Zach walk into the ER and are putting on the gowns and we soon discover that Joel’s sleep walker has thrown himself of the roof of the hospital and Joel is needed to sort it out, he is a bloody mess, he has broken a lot of things and when they try to help him he screams at them as he doesn’t want help and he looks at Joel and says you were supposed to watch me (Joel’s face shows his emotion, he needs a hug and I am willing to offer). Charlie is sitting alone in the café and looks worried, Gavin and Shahir stand and say they are worried about him, they decide to tag team him for support and Shahir offers Gavin a fist bump before they go, its more hygienic and cooler than a hand shake (the smile on Shahir’s face is so cute). They keep saying things that even I think aren’t helping, but they just want to help Charlie, ghost Alex walks up to Charlie and he looks at her, he is next seen rushing into the OR saying something is wrong with Alex, dawn is about to close up and they start arguing over who has the best action for this. We keep bouncing from Alex the mum and her car which just got a flat as she heads to get her daughter’s birthday party gear to the argument in the Or with Dawn and Charlie, as we do this her condition slowly deteriorates.
Joel’s sleepwalker Ian is not doing well, he has a pressure dressing which is seeping and we see he is not clotting, Joel starts to stabilise the pelvis and Ian wakes, he doesn’t want them to help him and as he blacks out again, Joel and Zach have a discussion on the fact that no-one survives an 8 story fall, Joel says they are torturing him and they need to just sort out the pain instead of prolonging his suffering, after a few words they agree that it is the right thing to do. Alex is now with her daughter at the supermarket they are getting the things they need, a guy (who happens to be Ian) comes to help Alex get the things she can’t reach and they talk, as she turns she sees her daughter is gone, so she needs to go searching for her. Back with the arguing about Alex and the fact Charlie thinks something is still wrong and the fact she can’t stay on the table any longer, and then a man comes out of the OR and says she is not doing so well. (The chopping and changing back and forth is a little weird) Back with Alex she is telling of her child for running off, she soon find she left the piñata in the taxi and the taxi has gone. In the OR they see the heart is swollen and they soon discover that dawn has accidentally sewn her artery shut, she is furious with herself and they have to perform a coronary bypass on her beating heart. Joel is collecting Ian’s things and takes them down to him to make him comfortable, he gets him a blanket and starts to make him feel as good as he can do, Ian asks about Alex and Joel lies about how she is and says she will be perfectly fine, Joel starts to do all the lines and monitors himself and Ian hands Joel a chain with a small pendant on it and Ian discusses that he will finally see his son and that he has no-one so everything he has is now Joel’s, Ian takes his final breath and dies, with Joel holding his hand and he takes in a sharp breath as this has deeply upset him (the emotion seen in his face truly makes my eyes start to water).
Charlie has his hand resting on Alex’s head as they fix her heart, Dawn tells him to leave as he is making everyone nervous by being there, even she is nervous, he says that she now knows how everyone else feels, they try to have some banter saying Alex has nice legs, but Charlie doesn’t like the talk, dawn says they are trying to relax as they work or they will not get it done. They take a vein out of the leg and start to put it in the heart, the nurse drops the tray and Dawn shouts at the nurse, she is not only worried about Alex she is in a mood with herself for making a mistake. We flash to mummy Alex who is going out for the piñata and is leaving the kids in the house to watch TV whilst their dad is down stairs, she tells them to not disturb him (not a good idea Alex considering your daughter ran off earlier). Alex gets back in and the daughter has gone downstairs, Alex starts to call down to the girl who is called Alex, the girl walks into a room downstairs and sees her father hanging, then she is now all grown up and can see her brother Luke, who we know died earlier in season 2. They chat about his passing and how he feels about it, she tells him about the fact she saw her father hanging and closed the door to go back up and have her party, as she wanted her birthday party, Alex then hears Charlie and Luke tells her she has to go and he can’t go with her and he is happy he has seen her again. We are back in the OR and all seems fine with her condition, Charlie is outside the OR and you can see his eyes look full of tears as he heads down a corridor and sees Alex walking towards him. Alex is hooked up to monitors and is in a coma, Joel is standing with the pendant from Ian in his hands looking at her and Melinda stands beside him, she sees it St Jude, the patron saint of lost souls, causes and impossible situations, which fits Joel’s situation with Alex, Melinda tells him to talk to Alex as she will hear him, he says he can’t and walks away putting the pendant on as he leaves.
Everyone is gathered in the doctors lounge for a briefing from Dawn, Gavin tells Joel he will need to deal with his feelings before they comes back to bite him, Joel says he will take it under advisement and stands near the back with his coffee, Melinda joins Gavin as they get coffee and say that Joel is quite an intense dude, just as Dawn walks in and asks for a, coffee Gavin hands over his which has 3 sugars in it and she doesn’t like it saying he is like some sort if teen hooker. Dawn starts the meeting and tells them all that the man responsible has passed and they need to move on and get back to work, as she says this Joel walks out of the room, Dawn says that Alex is healing and so should they, after a cough from Gavin she adds in that they need to go to counselling and then she leaves. Zach joins Joel who is sitting outside, he starts with the weirdest conversation about growing a beard, Joel starts to talk about when he first knew Alex and what it was like and he believes he wasn’t really good for her (not true). Maggie walks into see Gavin and he says he is free for counselling and she sees he has one name on the list, Dr Hugh Jass (lmao very original) Maggie seems down and she has doubts about her relationship with him because he is not the type of guy to have a fight or mumble like a mad man to save her like Charlie and she dumps him (I’m sorry really selfish and bad timing you cow, don’t hurt sweet Gavin). We finish with our slow music, Reycraft and Dawn sit on a sofa down beat and low, exhausted even, dawn cries it’s been one hell of a day and it has got to her. Gavin sits as Maggie kisses his head and leaves after she has broken up with him. Joel and Maggie are in the lift she tells him that she has broken up with Gavin and he says he is sorry as he is a good guy, as the lift opens she walks out and goes “Yeah you’re all good guys!” he also walks out and then we see Ian walking the corridor as his soul is finally free. Ghost Alex and Charlie are standing at her bedside they talk about the fact he can see her and that they have the worst luck, she thinks she has always been close to death as she saw her father die, she then wishes she could touch Charlie and he starts to stroke her head, then her leg and he finally kisses her hand trying to see if she can feel his touch, he says I Love you and she says she can feel that.
So that was the first episode, wow what a start to an exciting season, we have had a fight, risky operations, a weird version of Alex that left me confused at first and we are left with Alex in a coma and Charlie by her side, a massive reversal from how this show first started, stay tuned for episode two recap shortly and we know to keep watching Saving hope in its current Thursday night slot on CTV! Thank you and I’ll be seeing you.
