After watching Code Black season 1 episode 15 I suspect many viewers had a similar shell-shocked look as Dr. Neal Hudson (Raza Jaffery) does in the above photo!  This was yet another brilliant episode of Code Black.   The writing of this show is generally good, but it seems to have returned from its winter hiatus with an even more precise layering of stories.  Code Black “Diagnosis of Exclusion” is particularly well-crafted. It also stands out by it breaking away from the show’s usual form of having many cases going on at the same time.  Added to part one of this two-part episode the entire piece is more like a film than a television show.  This is an episode whose twists manage to surprise more than once, but they are perfect fits in the story and for the characters.

The performances in this episode are also – as always – top-notch.   I know the Emmy voters love the usual suspects from cable and streaming, but I hope they take some time to watch a few episodes of Code Black.  They may surprise themselves when casting their ballots. In particular Melanie Chandra as resident doctor Malaya Pineda stands out in a way she hasn’t before.  This is because it is the first story she’s been in that’s been about her. We’ve had Malaya reacting to other people’s issues and problems, but this is all her.  As brutal as this story is watching her go through what she does is truly character-defining. Chandra pulls us into Malaya’s nightmare and shows the will, determination, and vulnerabilities of this woman brilliantly.

People and Power

Just as Code Black broke with their normal episode structuring, this review will be different as well.  “Diagnosis of Exclusion” isn’t a group of separate cases.  Instead it’s one case with many moving parts.  The overarching theme is about the use and abuse of power in various forms.  There’s what’s going on with the hospital board, the way Malaya’s autonomy is threatened by an insane man’s sense of entitlement, the power that we sometimes think we have – when we really don’t.  There’s also the power of choice, and what in means to choose one thing over another…

All of these issues are examined via this giant case involving the before, during and after of a traumatic event at Angels Memorial Hospital.  The before and during are told in a series of flashbacks as the hospital board grills the people who were involved.

The Set Up

What is immediately apparent is that the board is looking for someone to blame, while those who are being questioned – Neal, plus the resident doctors Christa Lorenson (Bonnie Somerville), Mario Savetti (Ben Hollingsworth) are all in their own way still shell-shocked by the events.  Dr. Leanne “Daddy” who had finalized her leaving in part one of this story seems to be there advocating for her people.  At this point we don’t know exactly what’s happened.  The last scene from part one is Christa finding Gina Perello (Christina Vidal) – the temporary head of the emergency room – horribly beaten, stabbed and bleeding out on the floor of the staff locker room.   We have a good idea that Gordon Heshman (Jesse Bradford) – the creepy patient fixated on Malaya is the one responsible for this.  We saw him escalate from annoyingly creepy to serial-killer scary.

 What we learn in this meeting that Gordon was absolutely stalking Malaya.  The board presents security footage that shows him in the hospital on seventeen different occasions over the prior two months. In chilling flashback we see Gordon follow Malaya onto the elevator for the parking garage.  He “happens” to be going to the same floor that Malaya is.   Malaya, who in every scene with Gordon has become more uncomfortable with him, suddenly hits another button and says she “forgot” that she parked on a different floor that day. (This is why they say you should vary your routines….) Gordon, of course, knows she’s lying.  He proceeds to follow her out at the last moment.  

At this point, Malaya is straight up scared, but she’s trying to remain calm and not seem alarmed.  When Gordon asks her out for a drink, she explains that doctors aren’t allowed to go out with patients.  Things deteriorate rapidly.  He actually yells “Fascist” about the rules, then tries to appear calm as continues to push for a date with Malaya.  Malaya then tries to explain that she’s a lesbian – but that sends Gordon over the edge.

Gordon:  Okay, you don’t have to do that.
Malaya:   Do what?
Gordon:  Lie!  If you don’t wanna go out with me you could just say so.
Malaya:   I’m not lying.
Gordon:  (as he storms off to the elevators) Sure, whatever you say. I’m sorry to bother you!

Malaya is rattled and walks quickly as if going to her car.  She hides around the corner, and there’s no doubt she’s freaked.  She waits until she hears the ping of the elevator and the doors open and close.  Still nervous, she goes back to the elevators…  We see Gordon emerge from the shadows.

There’s much to talk about with Malaya’s storyline, but I’ll leave that for when we’ve gone through the entire thing. From that final menacing image of Gordon the episode jumps back to the boardroom where Dr. Mike Leighton (Tommy Dewey) has been brought in and is being questioned. He’s wondering if he needs a lawyer – that’s how hostile things have gotten. He picks up the story where we left off last week. This gives us a time frame: What we saw with Malaya was occurring at the same time as Christa finding Gina.

Gina:
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That scene…is emotionally and technically stunning. People have been comparing Code Black to the mega 1990’s hit E.R. and it’s a fair comparison.  E.R. was the first show to take medical procedures seriously within the narrative.  If you’d like you can check out this clip from E.R.’s first episode back in September 1994. (It’s grainy, but it’s an excellent example.) In terms of how medical procedures are treated, and its stellar casting, Code Black could be seen as a faster, even more realistic version of E.R.

Where Code Black takes things even further is how what the doctors do in emergencies are character-defining moments.  Last week it was Mike’s working in the E.R. with Angus and Mario that showed Neal, and the audience that Mike was in fact the best choice to replace Leanne.  Here, we get to see Mike being even more capable – as well as his humility.  This is a man who knows how to ask for help and backup.  He is not the Lone Ranger in his approach to emergency medicine. At the same time, he’s willing to step up and do what needs to be done.

Seeing Mike in that scene makes what follows even more painful and appalling.  Mike was told that there wouldn’t be a surgeon or operating room available for 15 minutes.  From what he sees, Gina will be dead by then.  He makes an executive decision to do an operation called a “clamshell” that is supposed to be done by a surgeon in a standard operating room.  By the time surgical resident Heather Pinkley (Jillian Murray  ) gets to the E.R. those 15 minutes have passed.  However she’s horrified that they are attempting this in the E.R. and says they can get Gina under Dr. Will Campbell (Boris Kodjoe) her surgical attending in 7 minutes.  Mike says there’s no time, Gina is in peri-cardiac arrest. Heather (who happens to be sleeping with her attending – as well as Mario) storms off and says she’s calling Campbell.  Back in the boardroom, one of the questioners very coolly asks if this when Mike decided to break with “standard protocol” and attempt the clamshell.  Leanne isn’t having it!

Leanne: Center stage is where rules go to die.

The head of the hospital, Dr. Ed Harbert (Jeff Hephner),  is the only person on the board who seems actually upset about the events that have occurred.   He takes Leanne outside for a chat.

When You Don’t Get to Choose

Did you notice the big poster on the wall when they go out?  It says “Accidents Happen” – a point well taken for this episode.  Sometimes there’s no one to blame.  In this case, there really aren’t any missteps that one can say the doctors made.  Maybe someone might look at the hospital’s security team, but that’s it.  Of course, later the hospital board will even try to put the blame on the doctors for not noticing that Gordon had been in the hospital so many times.  Excuse me, but that’s not their job.  Security is supposed to be monitoring that, but then, that would put the hospital in hot water, wouldn’t it?  I found myself getting angry at the thinking of  the hospital often!

Gina didn’t get to choose either.  No one chooses to be attacked.  Mike didn’t want to have to attempt a surgical procedure in the E.R. but with surgery saying they were 15 minutes out, his choice was to either try or just let Gina die.

Harbert though doesn’t see it that way and tells Leanne that Mike was “reckless.”  Leanne shoots back saying that Mike’s choices are the same ones she would have made, which is why she chose him.  She then adds that Ed had originally backed Mike as the new head of the residency program.

Leanne don’t seem to register Ed Harbert’s underlying emotions here, and things happen so fast that it’s easy to miss.  At the time it made me feel better to see that the man wasn’t completely heartless. It’s only in retrospect that it all added up.  Ed had been seeing Gina.  Not to speak ill of the dead but it makes all her attitude with Christa and Neal pretty hypocritical.  Maybe that’s why she was so hard on them though.  What’s that adage about a person condemning a behavior without mercy is usually also secretly doing the same thing….

Ed tells Leanne that he’s only preparing Mike for the lawsuit that’s sure to come.

Leanne:   You really think this is going to end up in a courtroom?

Harbert:  Everything ends up in a courtroom.

While Leanne is contemplating that and how she could never do Ed’s job of having to protect the hospital no matter what, he tells her she’s going to have to do just that!

Harbert:  I need you take over the department – Gina’s job.

Unfortunately for Leanne, she doesn’t have a choice.  She’s technically still under contract, and he needs someone who knows the E.R.  It’s just until Dr. Marc Taylor (Kevin Dunn) can return from his suspension though.  Still, Leanne always hated the decisions Gina had to make for the hospital, now she’s going to have to walk in Gina’s shoes!

This was a master stroke I did not see coming!  Sure, we knew the show wasn’t going to let go of one of its lead core cast, but switching her from an active teaching E.R. doctor to an administrator can change so much in the dynamics.  Character-wise this new job certainly isn’t Leanne’s choice, but in the long run it might be good for her.  She needed to step back from the intensity of the emergency room, but at the same time, Angel Memorial is the family she adopted when hers was killed.  Walking completely away may not have been the best thing for her.  Storywise, I don’t know how long this will last, or where it’s going – but I’m excited about it!

R.I.P. Gina Perello

The next person to be questioned is head nurse Jesse “Mama” Sallander (Luis Guzmán).  His interview gives us how Malaya ended up in the E.R. – she walked herself in, crying in pain and shock with blood pouring from her side.  She  is able to tell Jesse who stabbed her and that she hit a security button on the way down. also managed to hit a security button.  It gets super intense fast.  Neal gets her on a gurney and to center stage – where Mike and Christa are still working on Gina.  Malaya registers Gina on the other table, and then starts crying about how something told her to run and that, “he’s still out there” when another gurney being pushed by Angus with a nurse on top of the body doing chest compressions comes roaring into center stage.  It’s Gordon!  

As soon as Malaya sees Gordon she goes ballistic and they have trouble getting her still enough to staple down the wound.  She’s (naturally) freaked out, Jesse says they can finish the dressing off of center stage, and she’s rolled away.  Neal turns to gown up and help Mike with Gina.  

At this point we’re sent back to the board room.  Now Neal is being questioned with Mike.  The big issue is of course why they didn’t wait for surgery.  Neal says “surgery couldn’t get there on time” – but Harbert cuts in that Campbell disagrees.  Leanne then cuts Harbert off, and we cut back to this scene:

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The gravitas of Gina’s death is done well. This was traumatic for the entire E.R. department, and the visuals do more than any dialogue could have. What’s especially heartbreaking is Christa doing the chest compressions on Gina’s killer and sobbing as she does – but she never stops doing it. That’s important for later.

There is also a small piece of information to hold onto in terms of the witch hunt in the boardroom. We get to see that not only is Dr. Campbell an arrogant jerk, but we see that the assessment of Mike and Neil is correct. Gina had been without a heartbeat for 21 minutes – and surgery had just gotten there after having been paged over 15 minutes prior. If they hadn’t tried anything, she would have been called dead way before Campbell ever got there. Earlier the message Campbell sent was that he was closing on another surgery when he was paged. Why is he contesting this? Could he have handed it over to a resident and so he’s trying to cover his butt. We don’t know, but the fact is he did not get down there in time to have been able to help Gina – if she could have been helped. That’s the other issue no one is talking about. By the time Gina was found…it may have already been too late. There’s no one to blame for that except for the man who killed her – Gordon Heshman.

Dr. Campbell however, is in the boardroom laying on thickly that it’s the doctors in the E.R. that are to blame. He goes on and on, but finally brings it down to this:

Campbell: They weren’t the iceberg, but they certainly weren’t the rescue ship she needed.

Yeah, well the rescue ship was taking his sweet time upstairs in the O.R. – should they have not at least tried to pull her out of the water? I can tell I’m going to hate this new character. I suspect that’s the point of him in the narrative, so in that regard, he’s doing an excellent job! Later his speech to Neal and Mike about all the famous people he’s operated on, is truly nauseating. He talks about all the experience and better equipment that Gina could have had upstairs. Dude, if she could have gone upstairs they would have sent her!

Mario and Heather overhear the conversation and Mario correctly calls the man “a joke.” Heather defends him and starts spouting out all the man’s accolades and achievements.

Mario: Does he make you say all that during sex?

That, is my line of the night!  I don’t think I’ve been this proud of Mario since he defied Neal and went to recuse that special needs kid.  Heather is totally blinded by this guy’s resume.

More of the Blame Game

Mario

Mario is the next person on the board’s hit parade.  After Mario vouches for what he saw in the E.R. – doctors Leighton and Hudson doing everything possible to save Gina’s life (with an off-side comment about Campbell “covering his own *ss”).  Christa briefly in this interview with him, and the board wants to know how come he and Christa don’t remember treating Gordon – who was using a different name – two months prior.  Mario, (who I am really loving in this episode) snaps back with the fact that he treats over a hundred patients a day, so no, he doesn’t remember a guy he treated two months ago.  He’s not about to take this crap on.

Still, after being shown some charts.  Mario does remember the patient.  He’d ingested some “Mexican rat poison” that was illegal in the United States.  We see Mario and Christa dealing with him when first brought in,  and Mario and Jesse dealing with him later.  Gordon (using a different name) had said he’d had some street vendor tacos, but when Jesse had wanted to call the sheriff, he’d declined.  It was at that point that the guy had asked for “Dr. Pineda.”  Jesse and Mario had both laughed it off and told Gordon he wasn’t allowed to pick his doctor.  In the flashback Gordon looks dejected. Clearly he’d taken the poison in the hopes of getting to Malaya.

Christa

Unlike Mario, the board doesn’t have any problem making her feel guilty.  She’d heard Gina yelling in the locker room about an hour before the attack, but didn’t think anything of it because she’d heard Gina yelling at people all day. Christa softens what she meant, but we get it. Gina was someone who tended to yell at people.  That day she’d had a thing with Christa, and then Christa had heard the exchange between Gina and Malaya.  This meeting leads to Christa having to disclose her relationship with Neal – because that’s the discussion she’d had with Gina.

The flashback shows Gina being sarcastic about the situation, but she tells Christa that if the relationship is going to continue Christa and Neal will have to fill out paperwork for the human resources department stating they are seeing each other.

Gina: Either you disclose it to H.R., discreetly – or I will make an example of you two.  Or, you could break it off.  Those are your options.

Again, no one likes to speak ill of the dead, but Gina really got off on wielding that sword of authority. Oftentimes it’s not that she was making the wrong call, but way she made it was snarky and kind of mean. For instance, she could have immediately outed Christa and Neal, but she’s giving them Christa and Neal a chance to handle things.  At the same time, her power-tripping cost a patient her life two weeks prior, and she’s just a bit too satisfied about proving herself right about the relationship – even though she was wrong about Christa’s medical instincts.  Christa is free to go, but she’ll be brought back later for more questioning.

Malaya

This next round of questioning really ticked me off – and probably everyone watching as well.  Harbert and his fellow board member go and interview Malaya in her hospital bed.  She’s got one eye completed messed up and swollen  Leanne is there as well (thank goodness).

Harbert:              Dr. Pineda, we are trying to understand what happened to Mr. Heshman before he was brought into trauma one.

Board Member: We know this is difficult.

Harbert at least looks sorry about having to do this.  Truly, this second guy is so unbelievable in his sympathy I just want to smack him.  I swear he must be related to Dr. Campbell because he’s got that same kind of smug and condescending vibe.

Malaya however, is brave and determined to get through this.  The depiction is brutal and disturbing. Gordon slams her against a car, punches her in the face several times, rips down her pants, and starts raping her. When Malaya continues to fight back he pulls out a knife and slashes her across the stomach. That’s when someone out of nowhere knocks Gordon off of her and a voice tells her to run!  She does.

Who Saved Malaya?

Malaya’s rescuer was Angus!  It’s now his turn to explain what happened. He had found Malaya’s phone in the break room – something she did often – so he went to try to catch her before she left.  It’s not explained, but my guess is that because this happened often he expected Malaya to be on B4 – and thus came out on B3 to flag her down.  (That’s the only thing that makes sense.)  Anyway, thank god he did!  He comes out into the garage just in time to see Gordon hitting Malaya and launches himself across the parking lot knocking Gordon off of her and down to the ground.

Angus tells Malaya to run, but at that point he doesn’t know she’s been slashed.  Malaya drags herself away and Angus turns to deal with the man on the ground.   He rolls Gordon over and discovers that when Gordon fell he had impaled himself in the neck with his own knife.

Once again we get Harbert asking open-ended leading questions.  This time the question hanging in the air is how the knife got in Gordon’s neck.  Angus is flustered and says,”they wrestled” but from the flashback get that  Angus didn’t even know Gordon had a knife until he saw it in Gordon’s neck.  Leanne shuts Harbert down and tells Angus he’s not being accused of anything.

Narrating the flashback, Angus says that he tried to stop Gordon, but that the guy just pulled it out of his neck. Obviously Gordon was not a man who watched a lot of procedural television.  Like, you never pull out the object you’ve been impaled out because you’ll bleed out – which is exactly what starts to happen.  Angus tries to keep pressure on the wound and as a pair of security guards – guns drawn – come running from the elevators he screams for a gurney.  Angus finishes the story in the boardroom.

Angus:  He lost pulse. I couldn’t start CPR because I had to hold pressure too.  I tried to do both. When help arrived I started CRP, and then we got him to center stage.

The room is silent.  Angus is clearly upset as he relives it.  Even this guy is moved!

Angus:     …Maybe I could have done more…but I, I was out of my mind.

Malaya & Jesse

This small scene is one of the saddest ones for me to watch.  After his interview Jesse comes in to check on Malaya.  She wants to know how Angus is.

Jesse:  He doesn’t like being called a hero.  I guess he’s going to have to get used to it.

That’s when Jesse blames himself for what’s happened!  He feels he should have known “something was up” because he’d seen Gordon asking for Malaya.  Malaya cuts him off – because she feels that what happened to her and Gina is her fault!  This is heartbreaking, infuriating, and brilliantly done by Chandra.

The first time I treated him, he flirted with me.  He hugged me.  I had a twinge that something was off, but I didn’t listen to it.  I felt bad for him.  I encouraged him.  Then in the parking garage, I knew something was wrong.  My skin was crawling, but still, I had to be polite!

Jesse immediately corrects her about this.  This is not her fault.   It is Gordon who takes the common decency of a good person and turns into this horrible thing.

Everything in Mama’s chat is true and helpful, but let us be clear.  What happened to Malaya was not a random act.  Nor was it because this guy felt rejected by Malaya or other such nonsense that’s sometimes used to blame the victim.  Gordon stalked Malaya before she’d ever met him!  Although the mentalities are certainly related this isn’t an assault of opportunity by some angry misogynist that plotted to kill any random woman he ran into that day ( see: The Santa Barbara Killer).  A stalker singles out their victim long before the victim may even realize it.  What Gordon did is a deliberate move by a deranged individual who felt he had the right to control Malaya.  Either Malaya would go out with him, or he’d just take what he wanted and then kill her for saying no.

This is from the Presidential Proclamation – National Stalking Awareness Month, 2015

Stalking is a pattern of unwanted contact — which can include text messages, emails, and phone calls — that causes an individual to fear for their safety or the safety of loved ones. While young women are disproportionately at risk, anyone can be a victim, including children and men. Individuals who are stalked often know the perpetrator, but stalkers can also be acquaintances or strangers. Stalking is a serious offense with significant consequences. It is often detrimental to the physical and emotional well-being of the victim, and some are forced to move or change jobs. This behavior often escalates over time, and is sometimes followed by sexual assault or homicide.

For more info on the crime of stalking you can check out this website: www.asecurelife.com

The Code Black writers have done an excellent job with this story, not only in showing the behavior of a a stalker, but in Malaya’s reactions to Gordon and being sexually assaulted.  Feeling that the early advances shouldn’t be something to make a big deal over is a typical response to a person being stalked.  Victims of stalking and/or sexual assault often wonder if they did something to cause it to happen to them, and the way that Malaya blames herself for Gina’s death is also something that common (www.musc.edu ).

Christa – Part 2

The board is still looking into everything and being accusatory.  When Harbert took Leanne out into the hall earlier he said that he was treating Mike like a criminal because that’s how Mike would be treated in court.  I did try to keep that in mind.  Maybe some of the callousness and attacking tones of these interrogations  are because of that – but it’s still awful!  Sometimes rules need to be broken!

Christa is brought back into the room because they wanted to  suggest that she and Angus didn’t have any attending supervision while working on Gordon and that perhaps they weren’t qualified to have been doing so!  Leanne, of course, shut that down.

However, the next line of questioning is trickier, because someone on staff overheard her Christa say this to Angus while treating Gordon:

I can’t believe we have to save this guy.

The flashback for this shows Christa totally working to save Gordon.  However the board is asking if the fact that Malaya was her friend and she’d been the one to find Gina could have affected her working on Gordon.  Leanne, keeps voicing her disapproval of all of this!

Neal

Neal is brought in to describe what he saw and heard when Angus and Christa were working with Mike to save Gordon.  While he didn’t hear Christa say that, he testifies that he saw Angus and Christa, “Move heaven and earth to save his life – regardless of what he’d done.”  He’s then asked to talk about what Mike did with Gina before he got there to help.

Neal praises Mike work, noting how amazing it was that he was able to do what he did given that Mike isn’t a surgeon.   Mike brought Gina back from “certain death” and kept her alive long enough so that there might have been a chance for Dr. Campbell to have been able to do something to save her life. (The, “if he ever got there” was missing from that statement!)

Harbert says Campbell disagrees, and Neal loses it!  He points out that Campbell has a reputation of being an “egomaniac of the highest order” and that Campbell’s accusations have nothing to do with Gina.  He’s right of course, but Harbert tells Neal that he can’t do any more surgery at the hospital unless he’s “expressly given privileges.”  Leanne’s hands are tied on this.  What it means is that unless Campbell grants Neal privileges.  What a total…jerk.

Neal agrees to this, but he’s upset in that british stiff-upper-lip kind of way.  However, right before he leaves, he turns around tells the room that he and Christa are in a relationship and hands the board the papers Gina had given to Christa. They’ve both signed them!  It’s the second time Leanne is blindsided by some news, but she gets over the shock it makes her smile.  She’s happy for them.

Christeal

Neal handing in those papers are the ending of a relationship crisis that was weaved throughout the episode.  Here’s what happened.  After Christa got the forms from Gina she brought them to Neal.  Although she was annoyed by the whole thing she didn’t think it would be a big deal to sign them – especially if it meant not having to have it publicly announced by everyone.  Neal however, took one look at the papers and balked!

Neal:     Well, we should probably talk about it.

Christa: Why? It’s not a marriage license.

Does Neal not want to be connected to Christa?  That’s sure what it looks like to Christa!

 

I couldn’t believe it either! I’m still not sure if this was:

• his natural British cautious vs. her practical American sensibility,
• a men are from Mars women are from Venus thing, or
• he really had doubts about having a written public statement saying he was dating Christa.

Whatever it was, it hurt and infuriated Christa!  She walks away from his in disgust.

You know what?  Take you time.  I wouldn’t want you to sign anything you’re not ready for.

After the meeting the first meeting  with the board, Neal went after Christa but she didn’t want to talk to him.  He thought she was upset because she was blaming herself for not going in to check on Gina when she heard the yelling, but that’s not it.  She’s tells Neal that she’s feeling guilty because with all the tragedy going on around her, she’s wondering what the heck is going on with them!  Neal doesn’t know what to say to that.

It’s during that second meeting as he’s defending Christa that he comes to his senses.  He’s thinking about how sad and lost Christa looked about them, and how amazing she was in the E.R. and how amazing she is – period.  That’s why he turns in those papers.  Really, some things are a no-brainer!

The Fall Out

• Mike sees Leanne walking out in a suit and complements her on in.  Really, he’s there to ask her to not fight being the hospital administrator because he needs her there.  Leanne says there’s no way she could leave Angels giving  the wreckage of all that’s happened.  She’s staying.

• Jesse tells Angus that Gordon isn’t doing well.  Even though they’re in a hospital and in the business of saving lives, he’ll be happy if Gordon doesn’t make it.  He says it would be better for Malaya, and for Angus.  He can tell Angus is still shaken up by everything.

• Heather tries to make nice with Mario, but he isn’t having it! Not only is she sleeping with attending, but the attending is the enemy!  Heather seems somewhere between hurt and annoyed by this, but, sorry, Heather – you brought it on yourself!

• We get to see just how sleazy doctor Campbell is when Heather goes up to see him.  It looks like Heather was sleeping with him to get more surgical time.  Was it the only way she could get surgical time?  I wouldn’t put it past this guy.  We’ll have to see what the full story is, but the way Heather looks at him makes it seem like for the first time she sees just what an arrogant & pompous man he is.  (The other thing I’m wondering is if those disclosure papers are going to come up again later – as in Neal was above-board about Christa while Campbell has been on the downlow with Heather.)

• Leanne goes out to the cemetery where Gina was buried…and finds Harbert there.  That’s when she realizes that he had been involved with Gina.  Suddenly some of his behavior makes sense.   He wanted to find a reason for her death.  She can understand that.  It’s all on her face though.  all she says is, “I’m sorry for your loss.”  Leanne came to the cemetery because she “never got to say goodbye.”  Neither did he – because no one knew about them.  It’s this quiet and powerful moment.  One that suggests that maybe these two will be able to work together after all….

The Wrap Up

Back at the hospital Angus comes to Malaya’s room with her favorite burger.

Malaya:  You didn’t happen to get a milkshake with that did you?

Angus:   (produces the milkshake) What kind of friend do you think I am?

Malaya:  The best kind.

Angus isn’t just there to bring her food though.  After assuring her that she didn’t abandon him by running when he said to, and reminding her that Gordon hadn’t managed to kill either of them, he tells her that Gordon is dead.  It’s a tender scene with her head on his shoulder.  Best friends forever – Malaya and Angus!

Later we see Angus walking in the hospital lobby where his  brother is waiting for him:
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Oh. My. God. The shock of this information rocked everyone watching. Now, the title makes total sense! “Diagnosis of Exclusion” – the diagnosis Angus makes. He’s a doctor who excluded the man who raped and tried to kill his best friend – and was still threatening to kill her – from his role as a doctor. It’s his Hippocratic oath, isn’t it?

Out of curiosity, I looked up the modern Hippocratic Oath. A these three sections jumped out at me:

…Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.

May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.

Clearly, Angus broke the third point, because Gordon asked for help and got the opposite. It’s the other two that some might see as gray. Certainly Mike does. When he tells Angus that he didn’t just save Malaya, but all the other women Gordon would have gone after in the future it’s along the lines of Angus having done something good for society. Still, Angus didn’t just not do anything.  He held Gordon’s hands down so that he couldn’t apply pressure himself.  ABC has a show called, What Would You Do?  I honestly don’t know. However, I’m not a doctor either.

This story is far from over.  What happened in this episode is going to be affecting  all of the characters for a long time (hint, hint, CBS) – especially Malaya and Angus.  I can’t wait to see how Code Black moves on from here!