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“Complications” recap (1.03): Hostage Taking 101

Previously on Complications: Dr. John Ellison saved a boy, Antoine, from a drive-by shooting and, doing so, inadvertently got himself entangled in some gang warfare stuff. Also, Nurse Gretchen was (as advertised) “reckless, but capable.” I want her and Dr. Bridget to have angry sexual tension for, like, maybe half a season before giving into what they really want and doing it. Also, Gretchen may have killed a guy.

15 Minutes Ago

Gretchen and the dude from the hospital records room, Jed, show up at Hillary’s boyfriend’s house. Jed pops a pain pill. This is a judge-free zone, but maybe now is not the time, Jed? They inform Seth, the boyfriend, that they’re there to get his ex-gf’s stuff. Seth is really not happy about the situation. He tells them to get off his property and then, because everyone on this show goes from 0-60 in about 1 second, he pulls a gun on Gretchen.

Gretchen is ready to leave, but Jed is like, “Nah. Instead I’m gonna attack him.” They fight for the gun and Jed breaks Seth’s finger. Gretchen packs up Hillary’s stuff and they’re just about to leave when asshole douche Seth starts talking about how everything was Hillary’s fault and she begged Seth to forgive her. What a fucking textbook abuser. On that note, why didn’t Gretchen get the cops to come with her to Seth’s house? Seems like that would’ve been a lot easier. Anyway, Gretchen snaps and smacks Seth in the head with a waffle iron and he falls through a glass table. So maybe she didn’t kill a guy. Yet.

Present

We’re back where we ended last week’s episode: John gets off the phone with Gretchen, lies to his wife, and heads over to Seth’s place (which looks like a butcher shop, tbh). John arrives and immediately sees that there’s a blood clot blocking Seth’s airway. So he STICKS HIS FINGERS INTO SETH’S MOUTH AND PULLS IT OUT. Hang on, brb, while I gag.

Okay, so, that was terrible. Anyway, Seth’s breathing again, so John tells Gretchen to just call 911 because he’s gotta jet. Gretchen, however, is like, “No way, Doc. You’re taking care of him until we can convince him not to tell on us.” John is all, “MORALS! PRINCIPLES! HOW DARE YOU, I WILL NOT!” but then Gretchen reminds John that he happens to be the one who is late for a gang member rendezvous. John’s like, “Okay, touché.”

At the hospital, the sister of Henry, the diabetic patient who OD’d, is waiting to see Bridget. She received a notice of death for Henry, but then, later, a new bill stating that he’d been transferred to another surgical center. She’d been hoping that the notice of death was a mistake, and she asks Bridget how her brother died. Bridget tells her what happened, that he overdosed on some pills from another patient. The sister freaks out, basically like, “YOU WERE RIGHT THERE AND YOU LET HIM DIE AND FUCK YOU.” Bridget has sads.

Over at the Ellison house, John’s dad shows up to fix the back door because the alarm company won’t come to install until it’s fixed. John’s dad asks if John is okay with him being there and helping, and Sam is basically like, “Welp, he’s not here to deal with it so IDGAF.”

Back over in the bloody murder room. Seth is starting to come to. Jed, who is super high, is barely holding it together, which is really harshing Gretchen’s mellow. Jed gets a call from work and Gretchen’s like, “Act normal, bitch.” Jed tries his best and tells his boss that he’s sick, but his boss is freaking out because an ER doctor is poking around and some patient records are missing. Gretchen tells Jed to fucking pull himself together, get himself cleaned up, and go fix this.

Meanwhile, John arrives at a diner to meet up with some known gang affiliates. He’s like, “Thanks for everything guys, but I’m going to take a hard pass on all this gang stuff. OKBYE.” They tell John no, actually-instead of that, he’s gonna meet Antoine’s dad (who is in prison). John tries to get out of it by saying he’s in the middle of dealing with an emergency, but they again say no and take him anyway. In the car, they make some chit chat andDarius asks why John became a doctor. He says it was to help people. Darius is like, “Shit, I’ve got too many people to help already.”

John is interrupted by a phone call from Bridget. She explains what happened with Henry’s sister and wants to know how the double billing happened. John explains that with all the commotion that night, he must’ve cancelled the transfer too late so they accidentally billed it. Bridget does not like that answer at all; she is very wound up about the whole thing.

At John’s house, his dad and son work together on fixing the back door. Sam gets a call from Kyle. Ugh, Kyle, woof. He flirts with her, of course. Kyle can get right the fuck out of here, I don’t have time for him. Meanwhile, John’s dad gets the inside scoop from Oliver: John didn’t just yell at the burglars to leave the night of the break in, he had a full on conversation with them.

Back at Seth’s house, Gretchen snoops around the house while Seth writhes around in pain as he wakes up. She’s like, “Let’s play a game where you show me how well you can lie before I bring you to the hospital.” Seth is fucking awful at that game, and he falls back to sleep.

Gretchen gets a call from Jed, who is freaking out at the hospital. He tells her that Bridget is looking into Henry’s case, so they are pulling all the patient records from that night. Gretchen is like, “JUST DEAL WITH IT,” but Jed is, like, super fucking high. He also warns Gretchen that if Wes bills Medicare today they are screwed. Gretchen tells him she’ll deal with that, and she leaves a message for this mysterious Wes character.Over at the prison, John finally meets Antoine’s dad, Easy. John tells him that he can’t do it, he doesn’t want to be part of this anymore. Easy asks him to take care of his son, father to father, but John is like, “Your kid isn’t even in my hospital! I literally cannot be his doctor.” Easy starts telling a charming anecdote about his dog. The pup was really vicious to everyone, but nice to him! When he brought home baby ‘Toine, the dog loved him too! Oh, this is just a lovely tale about love and friendship.

At some point, Antonie developed an allergy. Oh. Oh no. Instead of taking ANY steps to work on the situation (like allergy medicine or trying to find the dog another home) HE JUST FUCKING SHOT IT. You’re dead to me now, Easy. Dead. I guess the point is that he really loves his son, I don’t know, HE SHOT A DOG THAT LOVED HIM UNCONDITIONALLY. Anyway, he tells John that Antoine is his responsibility and he better not fuck it up.

Gretchen, meanwhile, left Seth alone and bleeding on his couch, I guess, and went to go see Wes, whoever he is! She tries to get his attention, but that dude is in the zone. So Gretchen fucking smashes through his glass door, as you do. She asks if he billed yet and he says he’s about to. She tells him that he can’t do that or they’ll all be arrested. He seems to think it’s NBD, however, and tells her she’s just being paranoid. She’s the one who came to him looking to trade patient records for cash after all. Honestly, I have no idea what kind of scheme they are running. Something about billing? IDK. What I DO know is that Gretchen has zero time for his bullshit, so she dumps his laptop into his fish tank and swaggers her way out of there.

Over at the hospital, wounded little tattle tale Bridget goes to talk to the Dean or the Chief or whoever she is. She wants JUSTICE for John’s behavior! It’s against the rules, goshdarnit, and he’s bad for the hospital. The Dean/Chief is like, “You sure this isn’t maybe about you feeling guilty about losing a patient, or…?” Bridget is like, “NO HOW DARE YOU. I like order, and that’s all there is to it.” The lady is like, “But aren’t you and John bros from way back?” Bridget’s all, “Listen: The rules are more important than friendship.”

Meanwhile, John high tails it over to Seth’s house, and, at first, all he finds is a bloody mess and no humans. He hears Seth crying from another room and finds him tied up with an extension cord. Wow, Gretchen! His finger is all sorts of nasty, because he lost circulation and got Compartment Syndrome, I guess. John cuts his hand down and starts treating him.

Gretchen is supposed to be a nurse, right? I mean, that is her profession, yeah? She’s definitely got the reckless thing down, but the capable bit is still yet to be proven. She shows up a minute later and starts immediately screaming at Seth. John pulls her aside and is like, “WTF were you thinking! After this is cleaned up, I want nothing to do with you.” Gretchen’s like, “Fine by me, dude. You were the one who asked for my help in the first place!”

While they’re arguing, Seth escapes. They follow him in John’s car, and Seth starts driving erratically. Gretchen thinks maybe they should just run him off the road, and John looks at her in disgust. I guess maybe he forgot about how he KILLED a guy just the other day and then did a bunch of other illegal things.

Luckily for John, they don’t even have to try to run him off the road, the idiot does it himself. He drives into a ditch, but doesn’t die. Gretchen just wants to cut and run, but John is all, “Meow! I have to save his life!” Instead of that, though, he just threatens Seth by showing off his gang affiliations and how good at doing murder they are. Seth is like, “Okay, fine, sure. I’ll tell them whatever you want.”

Later, Gretchen gives Hillary the stuff they took from Seth’s house, and Hillary has no idea what she went through to get it. She then goes home to have a beer and contemplate her day, which was chock-full of almost murder, as MS MR’s Hurricane plays in the background. Her girlfriend kisses her on the head and hugs her, like this behavior is pretty normal for Gretchen. Sorry girlfriend, you seem sweet based on those 15 seconds of screentime, but as of now I’m still firmly rooting for Gretchen/Bridget (Bridgen? Gretchet?) to happen.

John arrives home to find his dad, Gary, there playing cards with his family. They tell John about how they fixed the door, and John walks his dad out. Gary asks him about what is going on. John tries to make some excuses, but his dad pushes. Apparently Gary used to be an addict and he did something terrible at Becky’s memorial. Clearly, John hasn’t forgotten or forgiven him.

It’s a new day at the hospital. Dr. Quentin tells John that they were all briefed on his “breakdown” and they were told not to treat him too weird-so he should definitely expect a lot of weirdness. John has a pretty light load, and he’s having a good day until he overhears Bridget.

She will not give up on Henry’s case; she’s like a dog with a goddamn bone. Bridget maintains that the reason she’s so invested is because it’s not good for the hospital. Sure, Bridget, it has nothing to do with your feelings-we definitely all believe you. John says she should let him take care of it, because he feels responsible. She tells him how bad it is, apparently someone was transferred under Henry’s name. Finally, she relents and tells him she wants answers tomorrow. OR ELSE.

He sees Gretchen and asks her to chat real quick, but she’s basically like, “FUCK YOU. You said we were done, so figure it out yourself.”

A couple of notes:

1) I realized that maybe why I like Gretchen so much is the fact that she has a tribal armband tattoo around her right bicep. Can you remember who ELSE had that kind of tattoo?

2) I just found out that Dr. John is married to April O’Neil (aka Abby from The 100 aka Zoe Morgan from Person of Interest aka Paige Turco) IRL! I’m not sure if he’s good enough for her, but, then again, I don’t really think anyone would be. ALSO, Dr. John voiced Batman in some animated films, which is quite fitting, really.

3) I’ve noticed some people live-tweeting this show . Do y’all want to think of an AE hashtag? Let me know @jennalykes.

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