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“Complications” recap (1.7): (John’s) a firestarter, twisted firestarter

Previously on Complications, there were a heck of a lot of assumptions made. Bridget thought John was a drug addict. (False.) That jerk of a detective (I dislike him so much that I’m not even going to look up his name) thought John was working for a gang. (Semi-true?) Gretchen thought Jed was a bit of an idiot. (True. Sorry, Jed.)

Two Years Ago

Gretchen arrives at a country club in a car that has definitely seen some better days. She’s meeting Wes, who you may remember as hat dude whose laptop Gretchen dumped into a fancy fish tank one time. Gretchen is not into small talk, and she immediately wants to know what the fuck is going on with the patients she referred to him. They didn’t get any treatments, but they all got billed. It’s a scam! Wes is a scammer!

Wes has been billing Medicare for nonexistent treatments and he assumed Gretchen knew and was referring patients to get some cash, but Gretchen swears that she had no idea. Wes says he heard about Gretchen, how she’s a bad girl turned good nurse. (More of that backstory, please!) Wes tries to give her money, but she doesn’t want to take it. Wes is like, “Hey, listen-I know you’re broke af. You can’t even get custody of your sis.” Gretchen finally takes the money, probably because she has a heart of gold and wants to take care of her sister. (I still miss you, Ingrid.)

Present

Gretchen is visiting with Jed at the prison, and he is just bugging out. The cops think he stole records and they also allegedly found some drugs in his desk. Jed’s court-appointed lawyer told him that he could get a deal if he named an associate, but otherwise he’s looking at ten years. Gretchen’s just like, “Oh, so that’s how it’s gonna go down?” Jed says doesn’t want to turn her in, and there’s a lawyer who can potentially help him out-but he’s really expensive.

Gretchen calls John up as he and Sam are getting ready for an event. She tells him about the situation with Jed and asks him for $30k. She’s all, “Listen dude, you’re a doctor and you look hella rich. Help a sister out.” John says there’s no way he can swing the money, so Gretchen tells him that she might know a way to make quick money. Honestly, I’m not that sure why John agrees to help so readily. I guess he’s concerned that Jed is going to rat him out, too?

John and Sam are at some fancy event that John has to make a speech at, and Sam sees Bridget across the room. She wants to catch up, because it’s been AGES, DAHLING, but John’s just like, “NOPE NOPE NOPE” and pulls her away. He ditches Sam with some old rich couple, which is the worst thing you can do to your wife at a fancy event, and then goes to talk to Bridget. John is all, “Please BE COOL for once in your goddamn life and don’t tell my wife what’s up.” Miraculously, she doesn’t tell Sam, but it’s probably because they get called to their seats and she doesn’t have time.

John gives his speech; he talks about Becky and what it’s like to have a sick child. Through the speech, he tries to earn some sympathy points with Bridget and that seems to work. (Bridget’s secretly a big softie, but she doesn’t know how to express her emotions and, instead, she focuses on rigidly following any and all forms of rules or regulations, because those are safe and clean. Maybe. IDK, I haven’t thought about it much or anything.)

The next day, just after Ollie mentions that his friend doesn’t eat dairy, Sam is stopped by the police officer outside their house. He tells her that since Sam has been so nice to all the cops, he wants to warn her that the police detail was pulled. Sam wants to know who made that decision, but the cop doesn’t know. Probably the taxpayers, Sam, because that shit must’ve been unnecessarily expensive.

Sam calls John from the car and asks if he knew the police were being pulled off their guard detail, but John says he didn’t know anything. Sam wants to call the station and check in, but John manages to convince her not to worry, telling her their alarm system is hooked up to the police station so it’s all fine. As he hangs up, Gretchen arrives with Wes, who is such a smarmy bastard. Even more smarmy than I originally thought.

Wes explains to John that he basically wants them to steal drugs for him, but uses way more words to try and make it not sound so illegal. John is outraged, can you believe it?! LOL @ John, again making arbitrary decisions about what’s moral and what’s not. Gretchen thought that John would be down with this plan, because they’d be stealing cancer drugs for people who need them, people like his daughter. John says no again and storms off.

John gets to work and immediately approaches Bridget. They go to a private room and he spins her a yarn about how all the gang members being around triggered a panic attack. He claims that he snuck off to give himself a shot of an anti-anxiety drug. She’s asks him to explain the morphine she saw, but he says he doesn’t know and it’s wasn’t his. Bridget claims that she wants to believe (like a regular old Mulder), but with everything that’s happened, she has to report him. He’s like, “Uh, wait! Here! Take some of my blood and test it.” Finally, Bridget relents and takes the vial of blood.

Gretchen goes to visit Jed in the clink, but a prison guard informs her that Jed is gone because he paid his bail. Gretchen thinks that seems very unlikely because Jed is extremely broke, so she goes to Jed’s house. At first, she thinks he took the deal, but, nope! Actually Wes bailed him out. (Sidenote: Jed’s cat seems really unhappy right now. I feel like the stress of this situation can’t be good for her. Or him. Is there a name? I’m not sure.)

Back at the hospital, John is paged to radiation, but it was actually just Wes’ doing. Fucking Wes apparently bailed Jed out in exchange for information, so now he knows about Antoine Tyler. John is like, “You are getting mixed up with some dangerous people, you shouldn’t have done this.” Wes is like, “Welp, OK, I guess I’ll tell the police then!” They play telephone chicken until John agrees to help.

John goes home that night and makes some detailed pro/con lists of potential crime outcomes to figure out how to go about stealing the drugs. Because it’s always a good idea to get your illegal activities down on paper. Sam comes by to tell him that she likes watching him work (YEAH, SHE DOES) and asks what he’s doing. John lies to her, as per usual, and she continues to be sweet. John, just tell her! Sam’s cool as hell and could probably help your dumb ass out.The next day, John presents Gretchen with his chosen action plan, which is to make a drug order and then follow the truck and then IDK what. Gretchen also had a plan, which was to break open a pharmacy warehouse door with a crowbar. I like Gretchen’s plan better. Gretchen’s girlfriend, Liz, comes out mid-scheming and she’s not happy about the situation. She reminds Gretchen about lunch with her brother, but Gretchen she can’t make it. Liz is like, “Of course you can’t.” ::dramatic sigh::

As they’re leaving, John asks if Liz is Gretchen’s roommate and Gretchen, seriously, says, “Yeah, she’s my-that I sleep with.” Gretchen’s the best. John makes the derpiest of derpy faces and Gretchen’s just like, “Let’s go follow a van even though your whole plan is stupid.”

Meanwhile at the Ellison household, Ollie’s stupid non-cheese eating friend can’t come over because his parents are obviously dicks (which we already knew because who would deprive their child of cheese for no reason!?). Sam says she’ll call the parents and sort it out, but then gets distracted by a black person driving by. “Heavens,” she thinks to herself, “A black person! In my neighborhood?” Then she clutches her pearls and drives away.

John and Gretchen are sitting and waiting for the delivery van to move. Gretchen is antsy, but wearing an adorable hat, but then John’s like, “Blah blah, medical comparison to our current situation, blah, we gotta wait.” John asks her why she’s friends with Wes, but she is NOT friends with him. He just happens to have money. John stops Gretchen from lighting up a cigarette in the Benz just before they see their drug crates start to get loaded up into a van.

Meanwhile, Sam drops Ollie off at some kind of practice, IDK probably lacrosse or something (update: it’s tennis, but, you know, same basic idea), and then calls Kyle. Ugh I was hoping we’d seen the last of Kyle. Sam asks if he removed the cops from their house and Kyle’s like, “Listen, Sam, I was really upset that you wouldn’t touch my weiner, and I’ve been a real dick throughout this whole show, but HOW DARE YOU insinuate that I would ever hurt you!” Sam’s like, “I’m sorry, I was just really thrown off because I was racially profiling some black people in my neighborhood and assuming they were gang members.” Ugh, I thought I liked you, Sam.

Kyle tells Sam that someone on the Gang Task Force made the order to pull the cops. Sam doesn’t understand why, since John just answered some questions and cleared up a misunderstanding. Kyle scoffs and is like, “Oh, is that what he told you? I can’t tell you what happened because I’m an upstanding guy, but, here, let me give you the detective’s info. That’s the professional thing to do. You go ask John about him and see what happens.” And then Kyle hung up, sat back at his desk, and twisted his mustache maniacally.

The crack team of Gretchen and John are still tailing the van to see if it drops the drugs off at their hospital, and they’re also bickering. Gretchen is a woman of action, while John is a planner. The van stops at a diner and the driver goes in to get some lunch. A large truck blocks the van from view inside the diner and Gretchen decides it’s a good time to break into the van and just steal the drugs. SO SHE DOES-she just bashes the back window open, opens the door and takes them. <3 Gretchen

John is very meowy about the situation, but Gretchen is like, “Listen, man, bitches get shit done. Deal with it.” They drive for, I guess, a bunch of hours because now it’s dark. They stop in the dead center of a parking lot, which seems awfully conspicuous to me. John gives Wes his best tough guy glare while carrying the cases inside. Wes mentions that if they ever want to do business with him again he is definitely down, but John yells at him and then they almost fight. Boys, amirite? Gretchen breaks it up, takes Wes outside, and tells John to finish unloading.

While John’s unloading crates, he notices some dye in the fridge and gets suspicious. He checks some patient records, and none of them are getting better. In fact, they’re dying. John puts two and two together and realizes that they are diluting the drugs. John absolutely loses it and just starts smashing things. WHAT ARE YOU DOING. WHY. STOP. WHY. DO NOT LIGHT THE PLACE ON FIRE, JOHN.

John comes out to the parking lot and tells them both that he knows the clinic is diluting the drugs. Gretchen had no idea and asks Wes if John is telling the truth. Wes does not give a single fuck about patients as long as he is making that sweet, sweet fancy fish tank money. But then the building starts flaming and John pulls a gun on Wes, and I guess Wes does give a single fuck about continuing to live. John tells Wes that if he contacts either of them again, John will kill him. Gretchen is just like, “OMG, dude, I can’t believe you got mad at me for breaking into a van. YOU JUST COMMITTED ARSON.” They jump in the car and speed away as fire trucks blare their sirens in the distance.

Later, Gretchen goes to Jed’s house to fill him in on the situation. Jed doesn’t know what to do, because he has no money for a lawyer. Gretchen’s A+ legal advice is to jump bail and leave town, because probably no one will really look for him. She lists all 99 of her problems and tells Jed to go live his truth in Denver. It’s the dream, really. She’ll even look after his cat! D’aww, Gretchen.

On his drive home, John gets a call from Bridget. His tox screen came back negative-he was telling the truth. However, Bridget is still concerned about his alleged PTSD. She tells him that if he has another panic attack, he has to come to her. He also has to go back to counseling every week until the doctor says he’s okay. He accepts, telling Bridget that he’ll make an appointment and then thanking her.

Back at John’s house, Sam is just staring at the detective’s contact info in her phone and hoping that no more minorities drive through her neighborhood. When John walks in, he asks her what’s up. She tells him what happened (which, to be clear, was that a car drove down her street and the driver looked at her). She says she wants to call the gang detective, but John says that he’ll call and take care of it himself. Sam thinks to herself, “OHZ NOEZ, this is exactly what Kyle said would happen!”

Tune in next week to see how Jed’s cat adjusts to his/her new life with Gretchen, because I assume (hope) that’s what the entire episode will be about. You can find me on twitter @jennalykes.

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