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Last night’s episode of “Emily Owens, M.D.” was the best of the series so far, which makes the news that the CW will not be moving forward with the show that much harder to take. I can sit here and write about how unfair that is or how wrong the network is, but I’d much rather take the time to talk about everything that made “Emily and the Question of Faith” such a fantastic episode.
The episode began with Emily filling out an evaluation form about Dr. Bandari, a form that Emily filled out honestly because she had no idea that Dr. Bandari was going to see it. Cassandra and Will shared a kiss in the hallway and Emily did her best not to run screaming in the other direction as much as she wanted to. Instead, she listened as Cassandra explained that Will wanted them to be friends so Cassandra was going to try to be nicer to Emily. It seemed like a decent enough compromise, but both ladies were still a little on edge as they tested the new “friendship” waters.
Meanwhile, Tyra had decided that she was going to come out to her father because she was tired of hiding who she was. But she wanted Emily to be there with her, which turned out to be a huge issue because the second Dr. Dupre saw Emily; he assumed she’d told Tyra about the affair. The two tried to cover, but Tyra knew something was up so he had to confess (although he left out who he was having an affair with). Tyra was understandably devastated and she was pissed at Emily for not telling her.
Will got to experience his first surgery this week and as Micah instructed him on his first cut, Emily and Cassandra watched. Cassandra went into way too many details about how much she enjoys sleeping with Will and the look on Emily’s face pretty much said that she was trying not to lose her lunch. After the surgery, Micah and Will were handling the post-op stuff with the patient and Emily came in to bring Will something. She basically lit up at the sight of him and Micah let his jealousy show (not that Emily noticed) and Micah got a little short with Will.
Emily and Tyra had a case involving a baby that was a male on the outside, but had female reproductive organs on the inside. The parents needed to make a choice on whether they wanted to have gender reassignment surgery or wait until the baby was old enough to make its own choice. The father was pretty adamant that he stay a boy, but the mother agreed to let the doctors run the tests on the chromosomes. Emily tried to get Tyra to hear her out, but Tyra wasn’t having it. Cassandra overheard the exchange and wanted dirt until she remembered that she’s supposed to be nice to Emily since she helped her with Will. Tyra got a look on her face that pretty much said that was a total lie and then she filled Cassandra in on some things.
The question of religion came into the episode when a patient of Dr. Bandari’s almost died on the table, but didn’t have a near death experience. Emily talked to him about it and Dr. Bandari felt that she said all the wrong things because the patient’s faith was completely shaken and she ordered Emily to fix it. Then Cassandra blindsided her by telling her that she knew that Emily had told Will not to date her. Tyra had filled her in, but she (thankfully) left out the part where Emily is hopelessly in love with Will.
Speaking of Will, his patient was in pain and it was taking too long to confirm the diagnosis so he ignored protocol and went ahead and ordered the medicine she needed. Then he found Emily in the locker room and wanted to know why Cassandra was angry with him. Emily told him the truth and then she asked him not to tell Cassandra about Emily’s feelings for Will. He wasn’t thrilled and pointed out that she needed to stop asking him for favors. As she promised that it was the last one, Micah came over and was furious with Will for ignoring procedure. Will responded (fairly arrogantly) that he did what he thought was right to help his patient. Micah was not impressed and threw him off the case.
Later, Emily and Micah were having a moment on the roof and once again, Emily failed to notice that Micah gets all sparkly when he’s talking to her. She told him that she wanted to tell him something and she knew it was probably inappropriate and then she asked him to go easy on Will (That so was not the right thing to say). Micah responded by going to find Dr. Hamata and cementing their relationship status (dating 10 weeks!).
In a beautiful scene, the father of the baby decided that the surgery could wait until the baby was old enough to make his or her own decision. He also said they should rename the baby something more neutral. Even now, I’m getting choked up typing this. I’ve said this before and it’s worth repeating. One of the best things about this show is how well fleshed out all of the characters are, including the guest stars. It’s impossible not to care about them and it elevates the show so much.
Emily told Tyra that she wasn’t going to apologize because it was a difficult position that she’d been put in and she was new to the hospital and Tyra’s father was intimidating. Tyra appeared to be weakening and then Emily told her that she needed to apologize for telling Cassandra the truth and Tyra looked remorseful and the two stared at each other for a moment and then all was forgiven in a way that only true friends know how to do.
Cassandra was still mad so Emily finally set her straight. She explained that she hadn’t done it out of hatred, but jealousy. She told Cassandra that she was in love with Will and that he’d rejected her and it hurt so much to see the two of them together, but that was her issue. Cassandra listened and once again proved that she was not all bad. She forgave Will and suggested that they keep the PDAs out of the hospital as Emily gave her a grateful smile.
Back to Will for a second, it turns out that he’s not as unaffected by Emily as he pretends to be. Even though he was taken off the case, he returned to hang out with the patient and she was pressing him about whether or not he and Emily ever hooked up. He insisted they didn’t, but when she asked him if he’d ever thought about it, he recalled one night where he’d left her a drunken message. Not only did Will remember leaving the message, he remembers thinking that Emily could have been the girl for him. But there’s one little catch: Will thinks he erased it and has no clue that Emily heard it (and saved it for years).
So many things happened in this episode and my emotions were all over the spectrum, which is the epitome of good drama as far as I’m concerned. The characters continue to develop each week and we’re finally getting to see more of Dr. Bandari and we’re learning more about Will, aside from just seeing him the way Emily does. While I’m always going to take Will’s side due to my (extreme) bias, I have to admit that I’m pretty firmly Team Micah more often than not. But I am curious to see how Will’s feelings for Emily develop because it’s pretty obvious they’re there, even if he doesn’t completely realize it yet.
Next week is the mid-series finale and then the show will be back starting in January with the remaining six episodes. Even though we know it’s ending much sooner than we would have liked, I urge people to keep watching. It’s a wonderful show with a fantastic cast and I have no doubt the next seven episodes are going to be every bit as enjoyable as the first six have been. Then, when the show is over, you can find me sobbing in the corner. See you next week…
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