Code Black, “Love Hurts” – What They Did For Love is Something Else!

This week’s episode of Code Black is called, “Love Hurts.”   Often times a show takes its episode title from something said in the show, but sometimes, like tonight, it’s a theme we see rather than hear.  “How do I love thee, let me count the ways” is a famous poem, but how about how about counting the ways love can hurt?

Code  Black, “Love Hurts” – The Setup

Angus

Resident doctor Angus Leighton (Harry Ford)  is having a bad dream.   It’s not just the pressure of his residency, although he’s clearly worried about being able to keep up.  What’s really haunting Angus is the fact that instead of helping the mortally wounded man who attacked his best friend – resident doctor Malaya Pineda (Melanie Chandra) – he held the man down as he was bleeding out.  How can he reconcile being a doctor with holding a man down so that he’d bleed out?  Good?  His brother, Dr. Mike Leighton (Tommy Dewey) once told him he was a good person…and also told him that what he did needed to stay between the two of them.

It’s a total nightmare and when he startles awake who’s there to witness it but surgical resident Heather Pinkley (Jillian Murray).  It’s becoming more and more difficult to like this woman.  Videos about dogs running into walls are funny?  Anyway as Angus bemoans the lack of coffee and worries about making it through her shift.  To “help him out she gives him a couple of Adderall pills.

Angus:      You have ADHD?

Heather:  No.  I’m a surgeon who works thirty-six hour shifts.  It’ll focus you in.  Silicon valley runs on this stuff.

I’m glad that Code Black made the point about having ADHD for a legitimate use of Adderall.  The drug has become something that’s abused by people who don’t have the disorder, but for those that legitimately have having the drug marked as universally bad and unnecessary does them no favors.   There’s a big different between those with ADHD & those using it to increase their performance.

…a person with ADHD does not become “addicted” to ADHD drugs (at least no more than diabetics are “addicted” to their insulin) and taking Adderall under proper supervision does not increase the chance of later addiction. For an ADHD individual, stimulants do not produce the euphoria espoused by the neurotypical people who recreationally take it. (…)Adderall may be technically safer than aspirin when used correctly. But, just like aspirin, when used incorrectly, it can also kill you. (From; https://modelviewculture.com)

Heather gives Angus two pills, “one for now and one for later.  He’s not keen on taking the pill but when his brother comes in to hurry Angus along because the shift has started and it’s already code red, he pops one in his mouth and goes.

Leanne & Jesse

Meanwhile, Dr. Leanne”Daddy” Rorish and head nurse Jesse “Mama” Sallander are having a…discussion.  Jesse wants Leanne to use her new position as  E.R. hospital administrator to get more nurses and pay the ones they have more.  Leanne indignantly says she’s asked for that before, but Jesse is all about her new position:

Jesse: You weren’t wearing a white coat before.  We’ve waited a long time for one of us to become one of them.

What a great line – and an excellent way to encapsulate the issue Leanne will have to continue to grapple with.  Last week it was her learning how to let go of  her instinct to take over and teach the residents, but there’s so much more to it than that.  Putting Leanne in this position means she really has to walk between the worlds of staff and administration.  It’s not going to be a simple or one-time transition.  Writing-wise, it’s a brilliant choice that gives Leanne layers of complex dilemmas to face.

For now, it’s the doctor that’s on the scene.  She and Jesse meet an incoming ambulance.  The patient is a 34-year-old-man who is unresponsive with an obvious intestinal injury.  The cause: “Motorcycle versus tree.”  Surgery is paged and Leanne takes him to center stage.

Christa & Grace

This scene was released as a sneak peek earlier.  Resident Dr. Christa Lorenson (Bonnie Somerville) comes into the locker room to start her shift and runs into the newly returned to Angels Dr. Grace Adams (Meagan Good).  It’s awkward as Grace is the ex-girlfriend of Christa’s current boyfriend, Dr. Neal Hudson (Raza Jaffrey).  The fact that Christa asks if Neal had texted Grace really shows that she’s feeling insecure.  Why would Neal have texted Grace if he hadn’t texted Christa?  This is also how we learn that it’s Neal’s first day on shift as a surgeon under Dr. Will Campbell (Boris Kodjoe).

Neal & Campbell

Christa is helping Leanne with the patient – because there isn’t another nurse around – when Neal comes down.  He notes to her that he’s “still auditioning” for Campbell.   His point is proven when Campbell arrives and asks Neal to run down the situation.  When Neal, who’s working on the patient, says he’s got it, Campbell pointedly then asks Leanne to do it.  Neal reluctantly tells Campbell it’s a “traumatic disembowelment.”

The friction between the two is obvious.  Neal feels Campbell isn’t acknowledging his abilities, but Campbell points out that he actually doesn’t know what Neal’s abilities are and until he does, Neal has to shadow him.  I hate to admit it, but despite his arrogant demeanor, Campbell has a point.

The Zombie Convention

An accident at a zombie convention  (I’m guessing it’s like Comic-Con Cosplay – but just for zombies) yields two different storylines

• The Minor: The first is the initial arrivals  (This bit was also a sneak peek) which is funny in terms of how the hospital reacts to these people who look like they’ve been attacked by an axe-murderer!  The woman, Sandy (Dru Mouser) has hurt her leg.  Resident Dr. Mario Savetti (Benjamin Hollingsworth) and Malaya are treating her with lidocaine shots for the pain.   Malaya learns that Mario likes zombie movies!

• The Major: Two ambulances arrive from the convention scene.  The first has a 8-year-old boy named Luke Barton (Elisha Henig) with abdominal pain.  His father Ben (Craig Welzbacher) is in the second.  His chest has been crushed and he’s having a hard time breathing.  Both are brought to center stage.  Luke really is heartbreaking as he hears the other team working on his father, who’s starting to crash. (great child actor!)  Luke is trying desperately to make this all okay and part of the “zombie experience” – but he knows it’s not.

Mario & Dr. Rollie Guthrie (William Allen Young) exchange glances at Luke’s words.  It’s hard not to feel the gravity of that moment as Luke’s father could very well be dying right next to him.

Now, all of these setups, all of them, happen before the first commercial!  This show absolutely knows how to pack in the action! But wait, there’s more!

Angus & Mario

Luke gets wheeled away, but not before seeing his father vomit up a massive amount of blood. (It is so not cool in a real life situation!)  In trying to check the dad’s head injuries Mike and Mario are impressed when Angus has a trick that lets them be able to tell the real blood from the fake! This doesn’t seem like much, but it’s the start of major thruline.

The V.I.P.’s

Malaya gets a case that involves a couple that have been major hospital donors.  The nurse warns her she’s better get in there before “the suits” do!  Robert and Susan Stein (Chris Gartin and Myndy Crist) are not a happily married couple!

Susan:   My husband needs his phone surgically detached from his ear.

Robert: Sorry, I’m sorry.  Sunday  is actually a work day for me.

Susan:   They all are work days for you, and, I told you, you didn’t need to come.

Robert:  And let you skip tomorrow’s mediation? You skipped the last two meetings – which I had to pay for.

Susan:    We’re in the middle of a ‘cooperative divorce.’

Robert:   If you were cooperative we wouldn’t be getting divorced.

Susan Stein is having severe stomach cramps.  However as soon as Malaya starts to check her, Robert asks for Dr. Rorish.  When she tells him Rorish is  now an administrator he dismisses Malaya’s attempts to say she’s capable of examining his wife.  Instead he gets on the phone and calls Dr. Ed Harbert (Jeff Hephner)- the head of the hospital.  For someone not happy with his wife he certainly seems to want to make sure she has the best.   That could just be because he likes throwing his weight around though.

Angus & Mario

Going back to the zombie patient’ dad, who’d vomited up the blood, he’s now got a blocked airway.  Mario is trying to bag him up but can’t see well enough.  Mike’s thinking he’ll have to step in and do it, but Angus bumps Mario out-of-the-way.  He’s got a clean tube thing in his pocket.  Mario tells Angus there’s too much blood to see anything, but Angus does it – and with total confidence!  Mike’s impressed, Mario’s surprised.

Heather has come to help prep the patient for the O.R., but as soon as Angus steps away she starts bugging Mario about not returning her text.  Mario says he realized he had nothing to say to her.

Heather:  See, this is why we aren’t hooking up any more.

Angus comes back just in time to hear this and looks hurt for about a second before adopting a chilly disdainful aire.

Angus:     Well…it explains a lot.

Heather tries to brush the whole thing off, but you can see that it bothers Mario that Angus knows this.  Mario had tried to do the right thing, but then Heather pushed him.   Watching this scene gives me a theory about  why Mario has dropped Heather.  It’s one thing if Heather came on to him because she felt something special.  Had he known she just wanted to hook up with him he likely would have walked away – because of Angus.   Could it be Mario has what are usually considered “feminine” ideas about sex and love?

Later Angus and Mario are checking on Sandy.  Mario tries to apologize, but Angus is cold, noting that there was no reason to since he and Heather “weren’t dating.”  Sandy, talking about her leg, says, “It still hurts.”  Mario injects more lidocaine and Angus leaves to get saline to rinse out the wound.  Quickly, Mario goes after him.  He tries to tell Angus all the reasons why he was better off not having dated Heather.  Angus really doesn’t want to discuss this – and strongly tells him so.  As he’s walking away he tosses some uncomfortable information to Mario:

…By the way.  You can’t be this annoyed with someone you don’t like.

It’s a good point.  Before Mario can get to Angus, Mike comes by to talk to his brother.  He wants to tell him how proud he was of how Angus handled himself with Ben Barton.

Mike:    Angus, he’s alive because you were prepared.  You nailed that airway, man, I’m proud of you.”

Angus: Well, I’m, uh, still working on taking a compliment, but, umm, thank you.

Mike:  Whatever you’re doing, just keep doing it.  We’re all noticing.

What Angus is doing – is Adderall.  Beaming at the praise, then scowling as he thinks about Mario, he pops the second pill.

Well, we can see where this is going with Angus. The only thing that bothered me in this scene is how Angus and Mario have their initial conversation as they’re treating the wide awake patient!

Later on, Mario is with Sandy, who is now in a lot of pain and crying.  As he’s giving her another injection Mario notes her still being in pain is odd…and then Sandy starts crashing!  She’s got no pulse! Mario starts compressions, calls for a crash cart and an epinephrine injection – he figures she must be allergic to the lidocaine.  This is when Angus comes by.  After hearing the stats he realizes it’s not an allergy, it’s toxicity!

Once again, Angus pushes Mario out-of-the-way and starts barking orders.  He’s completely on target though, and saves Sandy’s life!

Angus is cocky with Mario about having saved yet another life, but Mario is noticing that something is different with Angus – something is abruptly different.   Watching him watch Angus talk I suddenly remember that Mario is a former drug addict!  The second time he here’s Angus say that he’s “Amped”  there’s a red flag going up.  …Wait until he finds out who’s gotten Angus “amped” up!

Adderall seems like it’s the solution to everything Angus was having nightmares about…but I don’t think it’s going to take away his sense of guilt.

Christa, Grace, Neal and Campbell

What’s intriguing in these situations  are how reflective they are of each other.  Grace is now in the role of being one of Christa’s supervisors which quickly becomes a problem when a 16-year-old-boy named Brody (Cameron Boyce) is brought in via ambulance due to a fall down some stairs with minor burns.   With him comes a Craig James (Dave Powers) who runs the camp for “troubled teens” that Brody goes to.   Right away, Brody reads as being problematic.  There’s something off about his demeanor.  Grace sends Christa to examine him, while she takes Craig to do paperwork.

The problem arises when Christa finds cigarette burns on Brody’s arms.  This is going on as Grace is questioning Craig.  She’s tough on Craig in her questioning, but not making any accusations.  Craig explains that they are tough on this kids because they are “bad kids.”  The parents send them here because they can’t handle them anymore.  That’s when Christa storms in and in an accusatory tone demands some answers.  Craig gets angry and storms in to see Brody.  Before things can get out of hand, Grace has a nurse take him to registration.  She then angrily pulls Christa aside.

Christa can’t see why Grace is angry with her.  Grace is more annoyed than angry, but she tells Christa that she’d jumped the gun with her attacking the camp counselor.

Christa:   You weren’t in the exam.

Grace:      It doesn’t matter.  Irrespective of what you found, you led with your feelings.

Christa:   My feelings?

Grace:      You don’t confront people like that.  This whole thing just exploded.  It’s unacceptable.

Christa:   With all due respect, I was a doctor responding to information that you weren’t privy to.  Now, are you upset about something else?  Or is that it?

Grace:      If I were you, I’d keep my mind on the medicine.

Here’s the thing…Grace is right, but Christa can’t, or isn’t willing, to see it.  Malaya finds her slamming clipboard at the nurse’s station looking for a patient’s chart.  It doesn’t take much for her to figure it out.  She tries to reassure Christa that Neal isn’t into Grace “anymore,” but Christa’s mood doesn’t improve.

Directly after this we’re in the O.R. with Campbell, Neal and Heather.  Campbell is giving Neal such a hard time that even Heather says something about the fact that Neal has had tons of experience doing the simple procedure Campbell is going on about. It certainly looks as though  Campbell is giving Neal a super hard time for what seems to be a completely personal bias – which is how Christa is feeling about Grace!

Christa’s take on Brody  is completely wrong.  He’s playing on her sympathies big time!  Because of Christa’s emotional attachment to believing she’s dealing with an abused teen when Brody starts vomiting she doesn’t give much thought to the fact that all of his tests are normal.  He says Mr. James is who burns him with cigarettes and threw him across the room and broke his arm.  Then the kid starts going into seizures!  Christa gives him Ativan

With Brody’s report the police are called in to talk to Mr. James.  Once again, he says Brody is pulling a fast one and suggests the police call the kid’s parents.  Unfortunately they’re in Europe.  For the moment, Craig is free to go.  Christa is fuming, while Grace is…contemplative.  The next time the kid goes into seizures, Christa is getting ready to intubate him, but Grace stops her.  She picks up Brody’s arm and let’s it drop.

Grace:  Brody, you can stop seizing now.  If your seizures were real, your hand would have hit your face.  Google it.

Brody, without any remorse, admits he was faking it.  However, he then passes out, starts foaming at the mouth and his stats start dropping.  It’s the Ativan.  Christa dosed him for refractory seizures – which were faked.

Once they bring him back, Christa asks Grace how she knew Brody was faking.

Grace:  I spent a year in Haiti.  I know what a kid living on rice and water looks like.   It’s not him.

Christa is feeling pretty bad about missing the signs that Brody was faking and nearly killing him.  Grace sees this and offers her some reassurance by saying that if a case like this came to her as a resident she’d have treated for seizures just like Christa did.  So now, Christa has to take in that what Grace said earlier is true.  You can’t make snap judgements.  It probably had nothing to do with Neal.

The situation Neal is having with Campbell has a similar kind of outcome.  Young Luke’s stomach ache turns out to be a ruptured spleen and he has to go to the E.R. immediately.  Neal, who’s gotten tired of Campbell treating him like he’s incompetent books the room and brings the kid upstairs.  Campbell however arrives and takes over in the middle of it.

Neal is angry at Campbell and his constant testing and belittling, as far as he’s concerned, Leanne has tested him far better than Campbell ever will.  Campbell tells Neal that Leanne isn’t a surgeon, and then gets frustrated.  He explains that emergency medicine is “Blue Collar” work because it’s about “stop the bleeding, plug the holes”  – and quickly – the first ten minutes.  There’s no shame it that, but it’s not the same as being a surgeon, which requires precision.

Campbell: In here it’s about hands.  So far all you’ve shown me are the hands of a carpenter. what I’m waiting to see is if you have the hands of an artist.

Darn it!  Even though he is an arrogant, self-serving prima donna, he does have a point.  In fact, if you take away all the attitude and pomp…he’s right.   I think even Neal can see that.  You can even see what Campbell means about the difference between the technique required in the E.R. being different that of a surgeon.  Neal’s orders are short and quick with a tense franticness to it.  Campbell is always calm.  At least now Neal knows what he’s aiming for!

The final piece in this Grace, Campbell, Neal, and Christa thing is that Grace finds Campbell being absolutely lovely with Roseline (Haley Brooke Walker) – the child he’d given such a hard time with about doing the surgery for.  On top of that, he asks Grace out!  What the heck?  Isn’t he doing Heather?  Maybe he’s doing it because he knows Neal used to date her?  Possibly, but knowing Campbell’s personality my guess is he’s one of those guys that divides women into groups: women you have sex with and women you date and possibly marry.  Grace and her credentials fit the latter.

If Grace ends up dating Campbell this will set up a major “us against them” situation.  So long as this doesn’t break up Christeal it could be really interesting! (No breaking up of Christeal!  They can argue and go pout in their separate corners, but no real breakups!)

The V.I.P.’s

Ed goes to Leanne in order to convince her to go be the Stein’s  doctor.   Leanne, as expected, says no, but not exactly for the reasons expected.

Leanne:   You know the data.  V.I.P. treatment in a hospital can be dangerous.  Protocols get sidestepped, safety measures fall through the cracks. That’s why medical mistakes happen so often with famous patients.

Ed surprises Leanne by saying he’s take the case himself!  Leanne then suggests while he’s remembering that he’s also a doctor he find a way to hire more nurses.  He reminds Leanne that the hospital doesn’t have enough money to begin with –  why does she think the hospital’s always in code black.  Leanne says that the “suits” don’t know what the doctors really need.  Ed suggests that since she’s actually a suit now, she should read the budgets.  Then he points out that she could ask the Steins for the money to get more nurses if she played nice.

Leanne: Did it ever occur to you that you don’t have to buy these people?  Maybe they give out of the kindness of their hearts.

Ed really loves that Leanne could be so naive.  It amuses him.

Ed:         No….Good day, doctor

For the record, I am loving the interactions between Leanne and Ed.  These are two people really not ready for a relationship: Gina just was murdered and the whole reason Leanne wanted to leave Angels is because she hasn’t allowed herself to really grieve and deal with what happened to her family.  This isn’t about romance (for now at least), but these two have the makings of a great team.

So Ed goes to see the Stein’s in the private room he’s gotten them, and lets them know he’s ordered food in from a restaurant.  Robert Stein quips to him, “where’s the mini-bar,” and then continues to be a jerk about his wife’s symptoms.   Susan suggests he leave, but he won’t.

Poor Malaya (because she’s still on this case) is trying to keep things as normal as possible, gives Susan a cup for a urine sample so that they can run a pregnancy test.  Robert barely looks up as he says Susan isn’t pregnant.  Susan and him have been trying for years with fertility doctors and it hasn’t happened.  He’s pretty mean about it as well.  Just as Ed tell’s Malaya they can “skip it,”  Susan agrees to take the test.           It’s a shock to him that Susan agrees to take it, and even more so why: she’s had the last two of their in vitro made embryos implanted!

The next scene we see with them totally rocks! Bravo to everyone involved with it because the acting, the pacing, everything was so well done!  Susan screaming in pain as she’s being brought into center stage by Malaya.   Malaya’s on top of it, rapidly calling orders even as she tells a freaked out Robert his wife crashed outside of the scanner room for the CT.   He starts demanding Rorish like he’s in charge, but we can tell he’s truly panicked.

It so happens that Leanne is on the floor doing her administrator doctor thing.  She ignores Robert and goes straight to Malaya for a rundown.  Robert continues insisting it’s “crazy” and that Susan is healthy, even though she’s moaning things like “it’s like a knife in my belly.”  Yeah.

Ed arrives in time to see Leanne finishing the ultra-sound.  Susan is pregnant, but it’s ectopic.  Worse than than that, it’s directly on the ovary.  Even worse than the ovary is ruptured and bleeding!

Robert’s first despairing response?  Blame Susan.  Susan screams that she wants him out of the room.  It’s not a single polite request either.  Leanne orders Robert be taken out, to which he vehemently protests.

Robert:  That is my wife, okay?

Leanne: And that is my patient right now and I’m asking you to leave.

Ed gently guides Robert out as he complains that he, “paid for this wing.”  (He wanted Rorish, well, now he’s got her!) Robert is not winning any points in the likable department right now.  Leanne starts moving Susan out to the O.R.

After the surgery Leanne goes to give Ed and Robert an update.  Susan’s out of surgery and sleeping, but the next few hours are “critical.”  Robert wants to go see her, but Leanne quietly tells him that the last thing Susan said before losing consciousness is that she didn’t want to see him.  It’s against the law for the hospital to allow him to until she gives him clearance.  Ed sighs.  She’s not wrong.  As the E.R. she’s doing exactly the job he wanted her to do!

Ed is now in a place that Leanne has been many times.  Does he follow the protocol or let Ed see his wife.  It turns into one of the touching heartbreaker scenes that have become a  Code Black trademark.  Ed actually really does love Susan.   While she’s sleeping he sits by her and takes her hand.  Staring at her face he starts telling Ed about all the times he and Susan have tried to have a baby, all the times they’re had to return baby furniture, and how it effected them.  He got irritated and angry.

Robert:  But she…she just refused to.  Instead of it making me proud.  Proud of how damn determined she was…I hated her for it.

Ed:          Listen, Robert.  You can’t do this to yourself.

Robert:   When she wakes up she’s gonna be so devastated that she lost another one…..  The last one.

God…it will have been her fourth miscarriage….I can’t begin to imagine this situation,  but for couples dealing with infertility the multiple failed attempts are a real possibility. (www.attainfertility.com

Ed’s emotional responses have been evident as he’s listened to all of this and he gives Robert some valuable insight.

Ed: Or, maybe losing the last one is the best thing that could happen to you both.  Look at you.  When is the last time you held her hand like that?  You love her.  Maybe you forgot that.

Oh wow.  Ed’s just lost someone he loved, so this scene is a double whammy towards causing the viewers to tear up.  The outstanding performances by both Hephner & Gartin make every moment land hard.  It’s so rare that we get to see men portrayed as displaying this kind of vulnerability and emotion outside of violent situation or sports.  Yes, real men do cry.

Robert tells Ed that yes, he really loves her – but it’s too late, he’s lost her.  It’s not.  Susan has woken up and heard some of this conversation – the most important part being that Robert still loves her.

Susan:  Robbie….

Robert: Hey…

Susan:   I love you too.

Okay, I hit full-on water-works here.  (I think there’s a rule about it not being a Code Black episode if you don’t cry at least once!)

Ed quietly turns around to leave – and sees Leanne watching through the window.  Oh boy….  Ed looks sheepish, and Leanne busts his chops about breaking the rules for the “V.I.P.s.”  Ed tells her Robert isn’t a V.I,P. in the current situation.  Leanne agrees.  She takes his arm as they walk away.

Leanne: You should come down here more often.  It’s not the same, is it?  Up there it’s all budgets and numbers and charts.  Down here it’s people.

 Leanne and Jesse

While Susan was in the O.R. Daddy and Mama had another talk about the nurses.  She tells him that she spoke to Ed about nurses again, but that it wasn’t the year for it.  He’s not making it up, either, because she’s looked at the budgets.  Jesse  reminds Leanne of all the ways nurses are essential in carrying out the doctor’s orders

Jesse:   We don’t work for you – we are you.

Leanne’s hurt by this, does he think she doesn’t know this?  Jesse goes a different route and asks if she fought for the nurses.

Leanne: Of course I did.

Jesse:     Because the Leanne that I know, doesn’t lose a fight.

This confrontation with Jesse is hard on Leanne.  There’s a reason she never wanted to be an administrator! However, I do think Jesse’s words will end up doing some good, even if it means Leanne has to get out of her comfort zone and do some V.I.P. politicking.  I don’t think Ed’s words to her earlier were for nothing.

The Zombie Family

How can one make zombies into a tear-jerker plotline and not involve a dark and gory mess?  It seems unlikely, but this is Code Black!  Eight-year-old Luke is obsessed with zombies…and his mother died four years ago.  I’ll leave a more insightful analysis to the friends of Freud, but it’s a subtle and excellent tie-in for this zombie story.

Luke’s father has managed to move on and is engaged to Leslie Garcia (Sprague Grayden).  Ben and Leslie were supposed to get married the following week…and Luke hates her.  There’s a huge scene when she first arrives where Luke screams at her that she’s not his mother, not a part of his family and he wants her out of his room!  Dr. Guthrie and Jesse both witness it.  It’s obviously tearing Leslie apart, as she ends up forcefully replying back she loves his father just as much as he does.

Jesse’s totally got this!  First, he bonds with Luke by saying he wouldn’t want a new mom either – then mentions how he could always use a new friend.   Maybe if Luke thinks of Leslie as a friend, not as someone trying to replace his mother – it won’t seem so bad?

The next stop is Leslie.  Dr. Guthrie sends Jesse to take to her while Luke is in visiting with his dad.  Leslie mentions they’d planned a small wedding because they didn’t want to freak Luke out.  She’s frustrated because she can’t find a way to reach Luke.

Leslie:  Maybe I should go to a zombie convention.

Jesse:    Maybe you should.  Look, he’s, he’s just a kid.  Words are not gonna help. It’s not his brain you have to convince it’s his heart.

Cue a week or so later and….it the sweetest zombie wedding scene ever!  At the hospital Mama is helping Leslie with the final wrappings while Luke is enthusiastically explaining Leslie’s costuming to her and all the zombie rules.  Luke gives Leslie the best wedding present when a nurse mistakenly calls her his mother.

Luke:  She’s not my mother…she’s my friend.

Mama has done it, again!

In his hospital bed, Ben is equally zombied out.  This is better than a zombie convention!

Code Black, “Love Hurts” really gives viewers a through look at all the ways that having love – in all its various forms – doesn’t mean there’s never pain in the relationships.  From Christa trying to deal with her insecurity about Grace, Leanne having to disappoint her best friend, the pain the Steins have been through over trying to have a child, and a child trying to accept a new woman in his father’s life, love really can hurt.  At the same time, the final takeaway is that it’s worth it.

I can’t believe that next week is the season finale of Code Black!  If CBS  doesn’t renew this show I don’t what I’m gonna do!