“Welcome to COVID, everything sucks!”: Rounding Up the Character Progressions of the Pandemic Episodes

 

 

If you caught my roundup ofCOVID-isms from Part 1 of TGD’s “Frontline,” you know that episode was a veritable what’s what of things uniquely pandemic. Part 2 wasn’t nearly as prolific in that regard, but I did take note of another handful:

 

          + Watching Nurse Deena Petringa arrive at St. B with a 104 degree fever and a need to be hospitalized… alongside Dr. Reznick, already over her battle with the virus and back to work… is a great Tale of Two COVID Cases  because we know that both women were exposed at the same time and place (via unsuspecting Walter on the non-COVID floor of St. B). The fact that Petringa has a serious case and Reznick did not was a general reflection of the way the virus works—the woman in late 50s/early 60s struggling; the woman half her age, not so much.

 

+Martin (patient #2) continues to ping-pong from one incredibly stressful complication to another (as evidenced by Shaun’s frequent check-ins with Lily); Ambar (#3) is, on the other hand, “chilled” to the point that Park describes as “suspended animation” as part of her treatment, giving him a very specific focus while he tends to Ambar’s newborn, deals with Kellan’s frustrations, and rolls the To Arizona or not to Arizona? question around in his head.

 

+From a lockdown standpoint, Glassman awake at 3AM with nothing better to do than play video games against 15 year-olds (and take their “relationship advice”!) was very of-the-times.

 

+Speaking “of-the-times”: The part where Lim and Petringa made reference to the “protest going on downtown”, presumably about a mask-wearing mandate, was an especially noteworthy marker in a week where several states are bringing back restrictions similar to last spring. (Some may call it an ironic conversation given that “they should have been wearing masks on the non-COVID floors in the first place,” as I’ve seen some viewers complain; I presume TGD’s research indicated this wasn’t always the case in the early days.)

 

+ The flatline sequence, showing Dr. Lim present at one ventilator shutdown after another while the patient’s family wept goodbyes through a smartphone screen, was to me the most painful and powerful part of the entire 2-part series of episodes. The reprisal of this—for Petringa, near the end of the episode—was a close second.

 

+ Shaun’s concerns about Lea getting COVID point to the frequent inaccuracies of the test results, especially in the earlier months of the pandemic.

 

+ As Park “chatted with” unconscious Ambar, he gave an interesting update on where they were at pandemic-wise: fewer patients are coming in, and when they do, we’re getting better at…(keeping them alive?)- the exact end of that sentence is unknown, as Kellan’s call cut it off.

 

Park seeing Kellan in his graduation cap and gown via smartphone was very 2020…

 

As was Lea coming to Shaun’s door with three back-to-back “negative” COVID test results in hand.

 

I went on and on about Shaun and Lea’s contribution to “Frontline, Pt. 2” in an earlier post, but what about the progression and/or development of other TGD characters’ stories during the pandemic storyline? Here’s a rough ranking I’ve come up with (starting with the least development)…

 

Dr. Andrews didn’t have much going on aside from trying to keep Shaun in check, which is why he was a good one to show coming home to lonely garage “temp quarters”… both during the thick of it (in Pt. 1) and at the point where the temp quarters were no longer needed (in Pt. 2). One little bugaboo for me was the question of how the decision came THAT DAY for Andrews to be allowed back into the house… if there was a certain positivity rate or case-per-day number that San Jose was using to ease restrictions, we never heard it. Did he simply decide that day was THE day?

 

For Dr. Lim, Part 2 took her away from the administrative mucky-muck of securing enough testing and PPE, and back to the often soul-crushing work of being a doctor as she watched patient after patient (and finally, the nurse who apparently had her back from the beginning) die in front of her. As she sat there stock-still in her bedroom at home with the sun rising, as if she might not be able to pull herself out of bed to “do it all again” one more day… I wondered if she would rather be back on the phone with the county health department ad nauseum. (And while I’m not forgetting that she and Claire had their scene on the Melendez Memorial Park Bench near the episode’s end, it was more for Claire than for her… I presume her own mourning and healing regarding Melendez will show at other times this season.)

 

I’m including Nurse Petringa on this list because this was one of those times where the more I saw her in Pt. 2, the more I wish we’d seen more of her over the past three years. That’s hard to do on a show that features doctors almost exclusively, but I suppose the fact that I feel that way is just a testament to both Karin Konoval’s performance, and the script written by David Shore and Liz Friedman.

 

Dr. Reznick got some sound words of advice from Petringa in this episode, but we also got a mention of her new post-surgical specialty (she’s an internist, for those of you keeping score at home). But with most of her role in the episode centering on her own connection to the nurse—other than assisting with Petringa, we didn’t see Morgan “doctoring” at all in Pt. 2-- it was more of a nudge forward of her story than a full-on push. FUN FACT: the only time the season-ending earthquake was referenced by anyone in the two-parter was when Petringa’s son mentioned it in conversation w/Morgan when he came to retrieve his mother’s belongings.

 

Park was the only one other than Claire to have real movement with his story; that’s because his role at St. B (and the show) hung in the balance… at least in theory (we all knew he was staying, right?). While I thought the show was smart to focus on one specific problem in his returning—the love for his and Mia’s son far outweighing any remaining love for each other—I almost forgot that his Phoenix plans were initially presented as a way for him to be there in a more literal way for Kellan, not Mia!

And in the end, Park concluded what—that Kellan didn’t need him there full-time to know he loved him more than anything? I guess… but he also concluded that he and Mia don’t have a romantic future together.

So they started Park’s epiphany one way last season, and finished it a different way here… basically clearing the deck for Park to possibly find new love there in San Jose. (Don’t you think?) Sneaky…

 

While I do think Claire got the biggest push forward, it’s a damn shame it will go unappreciated by at least the most vocal Melendaire fans. What I thought TGD did quite well here was the concept: start with Audrey and Claire sharing a simple ritual for their grief, end with Claire announcing she’s ready to try and move on from said ritual, have Ghost Melendez help her sort out her feelings in between. What I didn’t care for, as I mentioned last time, was the implausible amount of time Claire spent in the COVID items storage unit doing research and making phone calls (apparently over a timespan of while the pandemic raged on, just a few floors away). And according to the timeline given on Pt. 2, she did this for seven weeks!

Like I said before—TGD went out of their way here to give Claire and viewers alike some closure with this storyline, which is more than many shows would do. I just wish everyone was as willing to try and move forward as Claire is.

Which leaves what I felt to be the most progressive arc of “Frontline”… Aaron and Debbie Glassman!

 

It’s probably not fair to compare their story to that of those on the show actually in the hospital, because the fact that they were on lockdown at the Glassman Castle gave them time to tell a story. Nonetheless, I thought it was time very well spent:

         

          + It made sense (considering Glassman’s age and cancer-survivor status)

          + The frustrations that led to Debbie’s temporary sleeping quarters were believable, knowing what we do of the characters’ personalities and the methods of coping that each would choose

          + The resolution to their differences, complete with Aaron’s half-baked “first apology,” was refreshing and honest, and fit nicely into the context of this two part episode. (We didn’t see the Glassmans again after “Week 9,” you’ll recall.)

 

What I liked most of all is that it did all this AND allowed for the progression of something we didn’t see much in S3—Aaron’s “leap of faith” marriage to Debbie the (former) Barista. It’s not easy to work it into the show on regular basis, apparently, but they took the time to give real-life couple Richard Schiff and Sheila Kelley some room to shine together and I appreciated every minute.

 

Considering the real-life struggle with COVID that they are currently experiencing, it’s all the more poignant. Here’s an update from Schiff that I just grabbed off Twitter late Monday morning:

 

Covid update. Thank you all for so much love and support. You’re making it so much easier for

@thesheilakelley

and me. I am in the hospital on Remdesivir, O2 and steroids showing some improvement every day. Sheila is home and doing better but still fairly ill. Love you all.

--

 

Of course with the much-anticipated “Newbies” (4.3) episode airing this week, the spotlight has turned to Shaun’s anticipated supervisory challenges. But from a #Shea perspective, it’s still these lines from the synopsis of the episode that snags all the attention:

 

As their mentees shadow them for the day, Shaun and Park meet with Andrews to discuss a difficult surgery scheduled for a minor. Later, Shaun inadvertently insults Lea while discussing the pros and cons of the controversial surgery.

 

What’s the difficult surgery? Why is it controversial? And most importantly, what is it about the conversation surrounding this surgery that causes Shaun to (inadvertently) insult Lea?

 

“Inadvertently insult” is extremely important here, and will surely play into why this conflict will likely resolve itself before the hour is over. At first I presumed Shaun’s error will be borne of his autism; saying something insulting when it’s not intended to be sounds like ASD/NT Relationships 101 to me. But what if the “insult” drums up something about Lea that neither Shaun nor the viewers know yet…? Some part of her backstory that remains to be filled in?

 

Maybe it’s a combination of both? ASD misstep and a Lea revelation?

 

OK, I’d better stop before I get over-invested… and disappointed when we don’t get enough time with them during the episode.

 

A whole lot depends on what the “difficult surgery” is… the only thing that sprang to mind for me was a teenage pregnancy that was going wrong in some fashion. But maybe that’s too cliched.

 

Whether “Newbies” has aired or not by the time you read this, your speculation and/or thoughts are welcome in the comments!