Saving Hope Recap: "Consenting Adults"

One good thing I can say about this week’s Saving Hope episode, “Consenting Adults,” is that it never at any point made me want to throw things at my computer. But that could be because I had no reaction to it whatsoever aside from constantly checking the time to see if it was close to being over so I could move on with my life. It makes me sad that I don’t love this show. I really wanted to because Erica Durance and Daniel Gillies are two of my favorites and Michael Shanks is fantastic too. The first three episodes were amazing, especially episode three. But now the writing and the plot and the supporting characters are terrible and boring and it has become a chore to watch.

There were two patients this week: a young woman, who was engaged to be married and needed to have non-cancerous tumors removed and a man, who had implanted horns in his own head (he owned a tattoo/piercing parlor) and he had an infection in his brain that was going to kill him. The woman’s procedure was being handled by Alex and it was supposed to be quick since it was being done with a laser and the man was being treated by Joel, but he was adamant about not consenting to having his horns removed.

Admittedly, I mentally tuned out a lot during the horned guy’s scenes. Every time Joel spoke, I started thinking about Elijah and why I love The Vampire Diaries and how I wished I was watching that instead.  But from what I did pick up, horned guy was really attached (no pun intended) to his horns and felt like they made him who he was and that was why he didn’t want to lose them. Gavin did a psych consultant and tried to explain to Joel why he felt that way, but Joel wasn’t having it. He pointed out that the guy was going to die because his brain matter was getting infected.

Then Gavin went off on Joel and accused him of being self absorbed. Okay, I like Gavin, I normally wouldn’t mind seeing more of him, but he needed to step off Joel. He was making it personal and I could only assume it was because of Maggie (Seriously, she is the worst. Why would anyone fight over her?), but even if it wasn’t because of Maggie, calling Joel ‘selfish’ doesn’t make any sense (not that much on this show does). In the pilot, it seemed like Joel was going to be cocky and selfish, but every week since, he’s shown that he has a huge heart and genuinely cares about people. So maybe the writers need to consult their previous scripts before they write scenes like this one.

Horned guy ran away from the hospital and almost got into a fight with some construction workers outside who mocked him. Joel stepped in (not selfish at all) and then the man collapsed so Joel took him to surgery and removed the horns. Afterward, the guy was with his wife and son and Joel told him that he couldn’t under any circumstances put the horns back on himself because he would end up with another infection and die. At first he wasn’t happy, but then horned guy seemed resigned to it and he was nice to Joel. (I’m never going to complain when Daniel Gillies is on my TV, but I fail to see the point of this storyline).

Going back to the other patient, she had a bad reaction to the anesthesia and spiked a fever, slipping into a coma, which meant that she was going to be hanging out with Charlie for the episode (more on that later). Alex couldn’t do the surgery until she had more tests done and Dana told her to tell the family about the reaction, but leave it at that until they had more information. Alex didn’t listen and basically told them that it was all going to be fine and the patient would most likely wake up and be allowed to go home before the day was over. (This felt really out of character to me, which is disappointing since Alex is one of the only characters to be written consistently from week to week. But I suppose we were supposed to see it as her being more compassionate because someone she loves is in a coma). Of course it backfired when the patient’s condition got worse and her family was not happy with Alex.

Meanwhile, coma woman is now hanging out with Charlie and he’s trying to reassure her that she’ll wake up soon, but she doesn’t seem interested in that. Her marriage had been arranged as per her family’s customs and she was sad that she’d never know what it was like to really be in love. As the doctors worked on treating her, she kept having these weird spasms where she would be in the middle of a sentence and then she’d just be sadder, like she knew she was going to wake up soon. (I’m sure the point was to feel bad for her, but I didn’t). At one point, the woman and Charlie started singing together and I think I mentally went to sleep. There was something medically wrong with her and Charlie was hoping Alex would figure it out and see that it wasn’t just a normal coma. But Alex had another issue on her hands.

Dawn was back. (For those who don’t remember, Dawn is Charlie’s ex-wife and she doesn’t particularly like Alex or any of the decisions she’s making regarding Charlie’s health). Alex had hired a masseuse for Charlie as part of the coma arousal therapy, which she reminded Dawn was her idea when Dawn scoffed at her. This guy wasn’t just a regular masseuse though; he played the guitar and looked at the patient’s aura and other new age stuff. At one point, he went into coma woman’s room and Alex went to yell at him, but then she noticed the patient was randomly smiling every few minutes and that made her realize what was actually wrong with her.

The doctors were able to treat her and remove her tumors and before she went back to the real world, the woman asked Charlie to kiss her. He told her ‘no’ and then she joked that the least he could do was take off his tuxedo. I have no idea what the point of those scenes was, but then Charlie did kiss her and she woke up and was reunited with her family. But considering how much she didn’t want to wake up, I felt like this was a bad thing? I’m not sure, but it didn’t send the right message.

There was the customary flashback to Alex and Charlie being cute and happy together, but at that point, I was so excited that the episode was almost over that I missed the dialogue. Then Dawn dropped her big bomb on Alex: she was petitioning to take over Charlie’s care because he’d been in a coma for too long and she wanted to put him on DNR. Alex was angry and plans to fight her on it, which I assume will be the subject of next week’s episode. I’ve never been married or divorced or in a coma, but unless I’m missing something, why would anyone side with someone the patient divorced over someone he was planning on marrying the day of the accident? I can understand a mother or father versus a fiancée, but a fiancée versus an ex-wife? Is the law different in Canada?

I can’t say that I’m looking forward to next week’s episode. I’ll watch because I don’t quit shows that have actors I love this much in them, but I am extremely disappointed in this show. It had so much potential and there are a lot of talented people in it, but nothing is gelling and episodes are getting worse instead of better. Aside from a complete overhaul of the plot and the characters, I’m not sure there’s anything left to salvage at this point.