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“Complications” recap (1.4): Sister, sister

Previously on Complications, John begrudgingly agreed to keep an eye on Antoine while he’s recovering. Gretchen almost killed a guy, but only had like half a fuck to give about it. Bridget just will not give up on getting to the bottom of the weird medical record situation (which John and Gretchen are responsible for). Also, John and Gretchen got into a fight and it looked like the vigilante duo may have broken up for good.

Six Months Ago

John and Sam are arguing about a lot of things-John’s work schedule, group therapy (and how John thinks it’s bullshit)-but it’s mostly them just not being able to deal with the death of their daughter, Becky.

Sam feels very alone, as evidenced by the next scene which shows her at group therapy by herself. Kyle is there too (ugh Kyle), and he tells the group about a cooking class that his wife signed them up for before she died. He and Sam exchange meaningful glances and, after the meeting, walk down the abandoned hallway together as Sam shares a story of her own. The lights are turned off and Kyle kisses Sam. Initially, she pulls away and he apologizes, but then she kisses him back.

Present Day

We’re back where we were at the end of last week’s episode: John asks Gretchen for help, and she basically just says “nope” and also, “fuck you.” John follows her into a patient’s room, and explains the situation: Bridget knows someone was transferred to the other surgical center. If she finds out it was Antoine, everything is totally fucked.

Gretchen agrees that yes, that would be bad, but she doesn’t know how to fix it. John suggests that they move Antoine to a hotel room and steal medical supplies, but Gretchen is like, “Yeah, don’t you think maybe Bridget would notice that?” She says she might be able to swing something, though, and promises to make some calls as the two of them are interrupted by an incoming trauma case.

The patient is a 19-year-old girl who jumped into some barbed wire while running from the cops. There is a ton of wire in and around her leg, and the girl is freaking out. John and Harper attempt to cut the pieces of razor away from her leg, but the girl, Tanya, is still very agitated. They’re about to knock her out when John realizes her BP is low; the girls are probably already high.

John talks to the other girl, Mandy, who accompanied Tanya to the ER. First, Mandy says that she’s not even really Tanya’s friend, but eventually she comes clean about the fact that Tanya was probably powerballing (coke + H, which the internet tells me is heroin. Thanks internet!). John notices that Mandy’s nails are funky, and says she might have endocarditis, an infection of the heart valves that might have come from dirty needles.

The ER is packed (again!), but John manages to bribe a nurse (with red vines, yuck) to move a patient so he can get Mandy a bed and order some tests. Bridget is nearby during John’s exchange with the nurse and is vaguely menacing as she asks him if he solved the case of the mystery patient files. Bridget wants answers, dammit. Anyway, when John goes back to find Mandy, she is gone.

While John is looking for Mandy, Sam calls him. She wants to know if they can just re-gift a bottle of wine for that dinner party tonight, but he is barely listening and doesn’t even know what party she is talking about. He blows her off, telling her to use whatever wine she wants, and hangs up pretty abruptly. Guess who’s waiting for her in her office when she gets off the phone? YUP, it’s Kyle. (ugh)

He says he was in the neighborhood (sure, buddy) and wanted to give her something in person: It’s the entire Antoine Tyler case so far. Leads, suspects, other law stuff, etc. She wants to know how he got this since he’s not on the case and he’s like, “I mean, it wasn’t a big deal or anything, but I’m basically a hero and had to call in a lot of favors because I’m a very important man. Just FYI, I’m important. And a hero. No big deal, though.”

Sam says thank you, and he’s like, “Okay, well, now that I’ve done my important hero deed for the day, I guess I should go. But not before I extend our conversation awkwardly and talk to you about the group therapy sessions that you no longer come to.”

He badgers and guilts her into agreeing to go out for a drink sometime soon. What a guy, this Kyle.

Meanwhile, Gretchen pulls up to her house and sees that her front door is ajar. She calls her girlfriend, Liz, to see if she’s there. Liz is not there, and she also isn’t buying it when Gretchen says that everything is fine. Gretchen does some quick lying, and, even though Liz still doesn’t believe her, she tells Liz that she’ll see her later and hangs up.

Gretchen then pulls out a tire iron from the back of her jeep and goes charging into her house like a total fearless boss ass bitch. She sees a broken window and hears someone in her kitchen. She raises the tire iron, ready to strike-but it’s just her sister, Ingrid!

Ingrid broke in because she got kicked out of rehab, but, before Gretchen can flip out on her, she adds that the reason she got kicked out was because Gretchen didn’t pay the bill. Gretchen calls the rehab and, after some initial confusion because Gretchen and Ingrid are half-sisters with different last names, she convinces them to hold a bed for Ingrid. The catch is that she has to pay up nearly $10k by the end of the week.

Ingrid thinks the apartment looks clean, so she assumes Gretchen is still “banging that blonde chick.” You are correct, Ingrid. Gretchen makes her sister come with her to run an errand so she doesn’t drink all the vanilla extract and steal her jewelry (because that is a thing she’s done before) while she’s gone. In the car, Ingrid tells Gretchen that she thinks one of their old foster families might be bank robbers just to get her to smile. They’re pretty cute, y’all.

They arrive at a cosmetic surgery center, and Gretchen tells Ingrid to stay in the car or she’ll “run her over with it.” I really like the sibling chemistry between Jessica Szohr and Tiffany Boone. It’s not an easy dynamic to get right, especially not straight out of the gate, but I am enjoying how they’re both playing it.

Gretchen goes inside and asks the surgeon, Dr. Blair, if he’ll take in Antoine. He tells her there’s a big difference between accepting under the table nose jobs and sheltering kids with gunshot wounds. He says he can tell she’s keeping something from him, which is why he fired her in the first place. She snaps back that she thought he fired her because she slept with his ex-wife. Gretchen is just the best. Finally, she lays it on the table: She knows Dr. Blair needs money, so she wants to know how much it’s going to take. That number is $25k.

Meanwhile, Sam and John are at a very boring looking dinner party with a lot of lawyers. (No offense to lawyers-I married one!) John is mid-fake smile when he gets a text from Gretchen. He asks her how much it’s going to take to get Antoine moved, and, after a moment of contemplation, she tells him it’s $35k.

Important-looking-guy at the head of the dinner table (who hasn’t shut up yet) comments to John that their discussion must seem trivial compared to what he’s been through lately. He then goes on to talk about a paper he read that compared gun violence to a spreading infectious disease. John tries to be polite, but then the dude remarks that the kid he saved (Antoine), is a carrier, and will probably grow up to be a victimizer. John loses it a little, and I don’t blame him a bit.

At home, Sam is angry at John for his reaction. After Becky’s death, everyone at work treated her like like glass and she only just started getting back to normal. She wishes he had exercised some self-control and she worries that he’s starting to shut her out again. He apologizes and tries to explain that he’s scared what the douchebag at dinner said was true.

The next day, John meets with Darius and CJ at the diner. He tells them what’s up- he needs $35k ASAP so they can move Antoine somewhere safe. Darius tells him it’s possible, but John is going to have to come along and help “scrounge it up.” That doesn’t sound good.

Elsewhere this morning, Gretchen is on the phone arranging transport for Antoine while Liz sleeps next to her. Or, Gretchen thinks she’s asleep, because as soon as she hangs up Liz asks her what’s going on. Liz is very suspicious of what’s been happening lately, but Gretchen just tells her that she’s doing what she has to do. Because they are lesbians, they are distracted by a cat. Jk, jk, but seriously… Gretchen’s cat, Measles (d’awww), is outside and neither woman let her out.

Gretchen gets up and storms out of the bedroom, assuming Ingrid, who is asleep on the couch, accidentally let out Measles when she snuck out to try and score drugs. Ingrid says she’s been asleep all morning, but when Gretchen explains the cat thing she changes her tune. Okay, fine, she maybe stole a cigarette and went outside for a smoke-is that, like, a federal offense now? She accuses Gretchen of looking for an excuse to kick her out, but Gretchen is just like, “I’ve got a lot on my mind. Quit smoking.”

Across town, Sam drops by at Kyle’s house on her way to work. He invites her in, but she declines. She just wanted to tell him in person that she will not be attending the drinks date that he bullied her into accepting. He’s like, “What? Why? I’m such a nice guy, we’re just going to be friends!” She calls bullshit on that, and says that John needs her right now. He asks her what about what she needs and then tells her he loves her. Ugh. Sam, I get it if you’re not into John because he’s being a shady motherfucker, but just not Kyle. Please? She walks away without responding.

John rides with Darius and CJ to an apartment building that looks full of guns and drugs. They go into one of the apartments and ask a guy to pay his dues for Easy’s son by giving them all the cash they have on hand right now. They have $31k, and Darius tells them it’s not enough. They pool their pocket money to make up the difference, but it’s clear no one is happy about it. The main guy questions Darius, telling him this isn’t how the system works.

Once they have the money, Darius beats the crap out of the dude who talked back to him. The system, Darius says, is about doing what you’re told. John stops Darius, but not before he fractures the guy’s skull and causes a seizure. John tells them that they have to bring the guy to a hospital, because he’s the one taking care of Easy’s son and he says so, basically. Darius agrees, but not before reminding John that he’s not the only doctor in Atlanta.

At the hospital, bashed-skull-guy is admitted and, in the locker room, Gretchen wonders if John knows anything about that. John just gives her a duffel bag full of cash and asks her to tell him when Antoine is moved. Gretchen says she will and tells him a patient is looking for him. It’s lost-Mandy! Her chest hurts and she thinks maybe he was right about that heart infection. He tells her she’s going to be fine.

Later that night, Ingrid accompanies Gretchen back to the cosmetic surgery center. She waits in the car while Gretchen oversees Antoine’s transport and gives Blair the money. He says the money is dirty, but she tells him to stop complaining. He also invites Gretchen out for sushi sometime and she literally says, “I don’t like sushi, I don’t like guys, and I don’t like you.” What a treasure!

In the car, Ingrid sees the bag of money and asks if it’s for her rehab. It is, Gretchen tells her, and she’s about to take Ingrid back there now. Ingrid asks where she got it, but Gretchen is like, “Trust me when I say you don’t want to know. I just want you to be okay.” Ingrid feels guilty and comes clean: Gretchen was right to accuse her of buying drugs, because that’s exactly what she did.

Back at the hospital, John looks in on Mandy, who seems to be doing fine. He finds Bridget in the office, and explains what happened with Henry’s paperwork. There was a gunshot victim, a John Doe, admitted at the same time Henry was supposed to be and the surgical center mixed up the files. Bridget is suspicious, but John continues, apologizing for the whole incident. John tells her that if he keeps digging, it’s probably going to cost some innocent guy his job and he doesn’t want someone else paying for his mistakes. Bridget finally relents; she doesn’t want that either. She tells him not to let it happen again.

CJ and another gang member are in the middle of a discussion about Battlestar Galactica (we’ve all been there), when they see a suspicious looking guy hanging around the burger drive-thru. The other guy is freaked out by him, but CJ assures him that it’s probably just some crack head that he shouldn’t worry about. Pretty sure you guys should worry.

Over at the Ellison house, John arrives home to find Sam sitting at the table waiting for him. They need to talk, she says. Sam starts, but John interrupts and tells her what happened with Mandy. He tells her that she came back because she was in pain. John explains that he has been trying to ignore and avoid the pain of losing Becky for so long, but now he realizes that maybe pain is important. He apologizes and they kiss and start to undress. Damn, Dr. John got some abs. (Get it, Paige Turco!)

Back at the drive-thru, a woman comes up to CJ’s car and starts talking to them. CJ thinks she’s a hooker, and is like, “Thanks, but no thanks.” She says she’s not a hooker, but keeps talking to them while the sketchy crack head is still loitering. Once the woman gets their names, she pulls out a gun and kills them both. Panic ensues, and it’s clear that the drive-thru employee definitely gets a good look at the killer’s face.

BTW, we’ve had two excellent nominations for Complications live-tweeting: #compligaytions and #complezcations. Vote in the comments and I’ll tweet the winner before next week’s episode!

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