Archive

“Chasing Life” recap (1.12): Parting is such sweet sorrow

Previously on Chasing Life, April went to chemo for her leukemia, Brenna went to meet her secret half-sister only to find out she was a super biatch, Greer’s parents banned her from seeing Brenna because they think she’s a bad influence, Doctor Uncle George confessed his love for Sara, and Leo agreed to get surgery on his tumor, only to flatline on the table.

When we open, April is post-chemo, tying on her head scarf and putting on fake eyelashes. She goes to the doctor-the increasingly wonderful Dr. Susan Hamburg-and finds out that even though she’s in remission, there’s a 60% chance the cancer could come back. If it does come back, April will need a bone marrow transplant, for which she only has her mother, the half-match, as a donor option. Luckily for April, she’ll have plenty to keep her mind off things, because she’s returning to work tomorrow, the very first possible day that Dr. Hamburg would even allow.

Unluckily for April, right at the beginning of a potentially budding romance, Leo had to go get himself all comatose. He’s been out for about two months.

A bewigged April takes her little desk box and walks to work, slowly but surely, trying to keep her head up, though it looks downright exhausting. She takes a deep breath and looks at her office building like it’s a mountain she has to climb. Once finally inside, her coworkers try to be supportive but end up being kind of weird and rambly. Except for Danny of course, because a douche can’t change his stripes, even for a friend with cancer. But it works out because he has the intel April needs: Mallory got herpes, the old boss retired, and the new boss is a young guy who is too busy for his own good. Even Raquel is as nice as she knows how to be, so pretty much everyone is great except Dom, who walks by in slow motion and barely gives April a half-smile.

Across town, Brenna and Keiran are hanging out, and Brenna is checking out his new girlfriend. Brenna teases him and asks if he’s sure she’s straight because Brenna is sure this girl has flirted with her before. They laugh and joke about how mature they’re being post-breakup, and I would have to agree.

Brenna is excited that Greer is coming back soon from the exile her parents sent her on, and Kieran asks if she’s worried about Greer’s parents. Brenna says they can kiss her ass, because nothing is going to get between her and her Tennis Love.

At dinner that night, April brings up her remission and the odds she’ll need a bone marrow transplant and suggests possibly calling Natalie to find out if she’s a match. Brenna points out that Natalie is the mayor of Bitch City so almost definitely won’t agree to help and also probably drugged her girlfriend so how about they don’t do that.

But Sara says they have to at least try. She agrees to call her dead husband’s baby mama, because she’s the best mom ever. Unless you count her own mother.

Sara gets Olivia’s information from Doctor Uncle George, who starts to tell her things like her profession, her mothering tactics, and her favorite color before Sara stops him and changes her mind about wanting more than just her email address. Instead, they make out because apparently Sara and George have gone full kissy during the hiatus, though they haven’t told the girls, based on the fact Sara nearly jumped out of her skin when she thought she heard someone coming. Probably because that would probably be hella weird for them, since when you’re little, your close aunts and uncles tend to feel like they’re related to both of your parents, so later in life seeing them make out could potentially be traumatizing.

Later, Grandma helps dictate a fake nasty email to Olivia, and then says she accidentally hit send, sending Sara into her second close call with cardiac arrest in just a few hours. Luckily, Grandma was just kidding, because she’s hilarious.

April goes to talk at the comatose Leo, complaining about how Dom avoids her at work and also might already be moving on with other girls who kind of look like Effy from Skins, and at the mention of her ex’s name, Leo opens his eyes. April finds Beth and tells her Leo didn’t say anything, but wonders if the timing was a purposeful spike in brain activity at the mention of Dom, or if it was just a coincidence. (Beth and I both think it was a coincidence.)

Meanwhile, Greer goes to meets up with Brenna, who is eagerly awaiting her return. Brenna can hardly stand to wait until Greer is fully seated before she starts rambling, wanting to know all about England and please say she didn’t make out with any British girls because no one can follow that accent.

Greer quietly mentions she didn’t, the smile on her face at Brenna’s enthusiasm tinged with a strange sadness. Brenna doesn’t stop to breathe and continues on, inviting Greer to be her date to a fundraiser where her uncle will get an award. When she finally stops long enough for Greer to speak, she tells Brenna that her parents haven’t forgotten about their new rule the way they had hoped. They’re more obsessed than ever with her doing well in school, and she can’t afford to risk them cutting her off before they pay her college tuition. Greer says she’s not like Brenna, she can’t stand up to them, and she doesn’t see another option. Brenna looks absolutely devastated, and Greer leaves her with an apology and a lingering look.

April’s new, self-important, kind of insensitive boss gives her an assignment because she tells him she’s up for the challenge even though it’s her first week back from having cancer, but she flubs the assignment because her recording device didn’t work (I’ve had that nightmare) and her chemo made her too forgetful to be able to piece together anything usable. Danny basically tells April she’s screwed, and she dreads the next day’s staff meeting.

Until then, there’s a gala to enjoy. Brenna is there, looking mopey and having apparently just told April and Grandma about Greer. April apologizes and tries to make the age-old joke that a perk of being bisexual is that there are double the chances of meeting someone else. Too melancholy to put up a proper argument, but ever the advocate, Brenna points out that it doesn’t quite work that way before swiping some champagne to drown her sorrows.

Dr. Hamburg shows up and sees April itching at her wig. She forces April to chug a glass of champagne (doctor’s orders!) and take off her wig; she’s in a room full of oncologists, they have seen much worse. So before giving a speech about her Doctor Uncle, she takes it off, revealing a cute little fuzzy hairdo.

After the speeches, Dr. Hamburg talks to George and says she doesn’t know how he does it, working with children. It’s hard enough talking to April, a 20-something, and not being able to promise that everything was going to be okay. Which is really unfortunate because I kind of really need her to tell me everything is going to be okay.

The next day at the Carver residence, Sara tells the family that Olivia and Natalie are coming to Boston so that Natalie can get tested to see if she’s a match for April. While April looks relieved, Brenna looks less excited about the visit from her secret sister.

At her staff meeting, April has to admit that she bombed her interview assignment, but Raquel steps in and uncharacteristically saves the day, saying the article was overdone anyway. After the meeting, April goes to thank her, but Raquel brushes it off as nothing; she just hates the new boss and his inexperience in the field more than she hates April.

Back at home, Brenna is still really sad, but Grandma says she can’t just give up like that. She has to fight for her girl!

When Grandma was in the navy, Brenna’s grandfather served under her, and it took a full year of persistence before he finally stopped yes ma’am-ing her. A new light seems to spark in Brenna.

That night, when Olivia and Natalie come over, Sara and April do their best to make polite small talk, but Olivia is uncomfortable and Natalie is campaigning for a second term as Bitch City mayor so she really pulls out all the stops. Before someone dies of embarrassment, first OR second-hand, Sara gets a phone call. Brenna was caught breaking into Greer’s house and the police have been called. (This news downright delights Natalie.)

At Greer’s, the cops ask Greer’s parents if they want to press charges, a question that outrages Sara. Brenna was climbing the trellis to see her lady love, not breaking and entering. Greer’s mother is all ready to ship her off to juvie, but Greer’s dad decides to use this opportunity as a warning, and that next time they WILL press charges. Sara doesn’t think that will be an issue, because doesn’t want Brenna anywhere near those psychopaths anyway. When Brenna gets up to leave, Greer’s hand instinctively goes towards Brenna, but she thinks better of it and pulls back. The two girls exchange sad looks as the fates (okay, their parents) rip them away from each other yet again.

The next day, Olivia brings Sara flowers that represent healing and apologizes that her daughter is the absolute worst. Luckily, she managed to convince Natalie to agree to do the test, because she knows that if the tables were turned, she would want the same for her daughter.

April goes back to Leo to fill him in on the craziness in her life and while she’s mid-rant, he opens his eyes and speaks. At first he says, “Who is Leo?” because apparently they didn’t remove any of his sense of humor when they removed his tumor.

What did you think of “Next April”?

Here are some of our favorite #ChasingLesbians tweets from this week:

Lesbian Apparel and Accessories Gay All Day sweatshirt -- AE exclusive

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button