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“Complications” recap (1.8): Retaliation, thwarted

Previously on Complications, there were a bunch of gang shootings, so John pretended to be a drug addict, because that was a better alternative than the truth (which is that he’s kind of working for one of the gangs). Sam is starting to wonder if she can trust John (eh, prob not, tbh) and she’s turning to KYLE (ugh, whyyyyy?) instead. Meanwhile, Gretchen continues to be an all around wonderful badass/secret softie.

Present

That dude that kind of almost shot Gretchen that one time (but then protected a little boy and beat up a pedophile instead) comes waltzing into the hospital. He’s visiting someone named Menendez, who got shot in the spine. The dude tells Menendez that there will be vengeance! As Commander Tiny Nugget Jellybean (aka Lexa) would say, “Blood must have blood,” and all that jazz.

A doctor standing by the nurses station seems to be listening to their convo (in Spanish), so I assume we’ll be coming back to this later.

10 Hours Earlier

Unfortunately for psychiatrist Dr. Laster, John’s back in therapy. He’s a dick to her within the first minute, so it’s good to see nothing has changed on this front. She calls him on his bullshit and asks why he’s wasting their time. He gets all huffy, but she’s like, “Uh, remember when I kept secrets that literally could’ve put you in jail? I think I’ve earned a little bit of trust.”

John tells her a half-truth then: Bridget thinks John has a stress disorder because John had to save lives, dammit, but he couldn’t tell her the truth about it. John has some flashes of all the crazy shit he’s done over the past few weeks. The doctor is like “Okaaaaay, so maybe you do really have PTSD.” John is still convinced that he’s helping people and generally feeling better, but Dr. Laster is like, “Dude, you’ve got a disease.” (Yes, that’s my second School of Rock reference in as many weeks. Whatever.) John does not want to hear that, so he leaves.

In other news, Gretchen isn’t wearing a shirt.

Also, she’s on the phone with some stoned-sounding dude called Stevie trying to secure a car for Jed so he can drive to Denver. Jed, meanwhile, is not doing so hot. Instead of packing, like he’s supposed to be doing, he’s super high and knocking beer bottles over. Gretchen yells at him for taking too many drugs, but then Jed falls down and it basically looks like this:

Over at the hospital, John arrives at the emergency department for his shift, Dr. Laster’s words ringing in his ears. He’s stopped on his way in by the eavesdropping doctor from the beginning of the episode. This new doc, Paul, tells John about how he overheard some of the gang members talking to one another in Spanish. He couldn’t get the whole conversation, but he definitely heard some words that made him think the gang is planning a retaliation.

John responds to this is a very un-John-like way: He asks Paul if he reported the information to the cops. John! Who do you think you are, all of a sudden? That was such a reasonable response! The new doc is like, “Actually, no. Word on the street is you’re hip with the gang cops, so I was hoping you’d take care of it so I didn’t have to.” John explains how that is the opposite of true, and Paul is basically just like, “Uh, okay then. Maybe I heard wrong? Let’s pretend this never happened.”

John, however, is super not good at the idea of letting anything go, so he researches some of the gang patients. I don’t even know what search term he used to get that particular set of patient files—”gangbanger, maybe?” Anyway, Quentin comes by to tell him to forget about those patients and focus more on their Tapas date later, which sounds just fantastic. John clicks a few more patient files before hearing Dr. Laster’s voice again and logging off.

Meanwhile, Gretchen is speeding around town with a bloody and barely conscious Jed in her front seat. She calls John, but he’s with a patient so he blows her off the first time. She calls again and this time John deigns to answer her, so she explains the situation. She tells John to find one of the new nurses and ask them to sign him out some drugs, and then to meet her outside the hospital. John huffs and puffs, but he gets the supplies.

When Gretchen and Jed pull up a few minutes later, John is not too happy to see them. He doesn’t want to treat Jed next to a dumpster, but Gretchen tells John that he has no idea what she went through to get Jed there. She says she paid some kids on the street to lift him, which I really wish we could’ve seen. John still doesn’t want to do it, but Gretchen reminds him that Jed’s on the lam from the law, see? And, also, John hasn’t been the most responsible human lately, so he can just STFU and do it.

They pump some drugs into Jed and he wakes right up. His nose hurts! Aw, yeah buddy, it sure does. John tells Gretchen that Jed still needs to be checked out further, but Gretchen’s like, “Yeah, whatever, let’s go back to the part where we talk about you blowing shit up. You’re losing it, man.” John says he knows he’s out of control, but he’s handling it. Gretchen wants to know more about his therapy sessions, but John tells her to mind her own beeswax and then storms off.

Later, at Tapas Date Night, Quentin is charming the entire table with tales from his work in New Orleans after Katrina. He went down to volunteer and almost got fired, but, luckily, Sam wrote a scathing legal letter that saved his job. John asks Quentin why he went down to New Orleans, and Quentin says something about God, IDK I kind of stopped listening at that point. Anyway, John has a bunch of flashbacks again and then Quentin mentions that if he didn’t save those people, it was actually like he was killing them. Not sure if that’s sound logic, Q.

John goes out to his car under the guise of getting a jacket, but he actually tries to call Darius using the cell phone the gang left him in the first episode. Darius is in a meeting, though, so John leaves a message for him to come meet at the hospital tomorrow morning. Sam comes out to check on John; she’s obviously suspicious of his behavior lately because he’s shady as hell.

The next morning, Sam looks through the Antoine Tyler case file that Kyle gave her. After perusing it for a few minutes, she decides to give horrible Detective Holden a call. NO. BAD IDEA, SAM. She tells Holden that she wants to come in and discuss her “family’s safety” without her husband present. Holden is into it—he tells her to meet him at a nearby diner. (I hope it’s the same diner where Gretchen and John robbed a van in the parking lot!)

Meanwhile, back at Gretchen’s house, Jed is healing up after his nasty tumble the day before/also going through withdrawals. He feels bad for sweating all over Gretchen’s sheets, but he’s in no shape to travel. Gretchen gives him some Tylenol and tells him he’s gotta get clean before he leaves. Jed wasn’t quite aware he was an addict, but Gretchen assures him that he, in fact, is. Also, they establish the fact that Gretchen’s girlfriend definitely hates Jed.

Later at the hospital, Gretchen approaches John and asks him for some drugs to help Jed’s withdrawals. As per usual, John is morally opposed to anything shady that he didn’t think of first. Gretchen reminds him that getting Jed out of town is super important and, again, he is in no place to judge considering he carries a gun in his medical bag. John relents, but is interrupted by a phone call: Darius is outside waiting. Gretchen knows about the gang cellphone—so she confronts John, but John blows her off and walks away.

Over at the diner, Sam and Holden are meeting. Sam wants to know why they removed the police detail from her house, and Holden explains to her about how money doesn’t grow on trees. They only provide protection for cooperating witnesses. Sam’s all, “Well, John is cooperating!” Holden thinks the idea of John being cooperative is hilarious, and asks if she knows anything about her husband’s drug problem. She says he doesn’t have one and Holden’s like, “Welp, if that’s the case, and I thought it might be, your husband is in a lot of trouble.”

Said troubled husband is currently meeting with Darius and another gang member to tip them off about the Locos retaliation. At first, Darius doesn’t think the information is important, but John mentions something about a party in Vine City and Darius gets serious. They’d been planning a memorial service for CJ in Vine City. Darius wants to know who ran their mouth about it, but John tells him to just cancel the memorial. Instead, Darius is going to be ready to attack the Locos when they come.

John doesn’t want there to be a slaughter, so he tells Darius that if he goes through with the plan he will stop taking care of Antoine. Darius is basically like, “Stay in your lane, Doc, and let me deal with this.” Darius tells John the only way to stop him is to shoot him, so he holds a gun out for John. John can’t pull the trigger.

John goes back to the ED to find Paul. He asks him for the name of the gang member he overheard talking about retaliation. Paul super doesn’t want to get involved, but he reluctantly gives John the name. He tells him that the kid left yesterday, though, so he’s going to have to check with the nurses for contact info. There’s no info on the patient, but John checks the visitor log and finds that a Pastor came by. John heads off toward the Pastor’s church and doesn’t even thank the nurse for her help. (Tsk, tsk.)

Meanwhile, Sam and Holden have gone back to the police station. Holden walks her through the evidence, and Sam thinks it’s all circumstantial. Holden is like, that might be true, but it doesn’t change the fact that I think your husband is working for a gang. Sam doesn’t really trust John right now, but she’s still not willing to sell him out to the Detective. Holden wants Sam to convince John to come clean, but Sam thinks that if John is involved, doing so will just entangle him deeper. She tells Holden no, and storms off.

Back at the hospital, Quentin asks John where he’s been. John tries to make up some BS about why he needs to leave, but Quentin isn’t stupid. John tells another half-truth: he made a mistake and he needs to leave so he can rectify it. Quentin tells John he’ll cover for him, and John takes off while Gretchen looks on curiously.

Gretchen follows John to the parking garage and asks him to explain what’s going on. He tells her that he’s driving into Loco territory, even though they know his face (on account of that time he shot one dead and beat up a bunch of others), and he’s going to tell the Pastor what he knows so he can hopefully prevent a bloodbath. Gretchen tries to convince him not to go, but John is like, “It’s my duty, blah blah,” and he drives away.

John makes his way to the church and finds the Pastor. He tells the Pastor that the other gang knows about their retaliation plans. The Pastor doesn’t want to get involved, but after hearing the intel, he tells John he’ll try to talk to them. He also asks how John knows about it, but John won’t say. As John is walking back to his car, he calls Quentin and thanks him and lets him know he’s on his way back to the hospital. As soon as he hangs up, John is confronted by some gang members. They tell him he made a big mistake (huge) coming into their territory, and then punch him in the face and drag him away.

Sam is waiting for John at the hospital, and Quentin comes out to see her. He’s like, “Ohhh, yeah, wish you’d called first. John’s kind of MIA? Don’t worry though, it’s probably fine.” It’s also crazy busy in the ED, because they’re down a doctor, so Quentin can’t stay long to talk to Sam. He tells Sam he’ll let John know she stopped by, but Sam is going to wait instead.

Meanwhile, Gretchen is hot on John’s trail. She finds his parked car, but can’t find John- that is until she notices him getting beat up through a hole in a fence. She whips out her trusty tire iron and smashes right through John’s car window to take his gun out of his medical bag. She sees one of the gang members pull a gun on John, so she runs over and tells the gang members to freeze.

They do freeze, but they also don’t really seem afraid of Gretchen. She may have a gun, but they have a bunch of guns. While their attention is diverted, however, John kicks through the closest guy’s leg and he goes tumbling to the ground. John gets his gun and now the other gang member has no choice but to drop his weapon. Gretchen helps John up and, together, they make their way back to the cars.

Back in the hospital parking garage, Gretchen checks out John’s wounds and cleans him up. He has a broken rib, but, luckily, nothing more serious. He thanks her for saving his life, but she wants to know whether she saved him for nothing or if his plan worked. He tells her that he won’t know for sure until the night is over, but he thinks it worked. Gretchen gets choked up, (because she’s a MARSHMALLOW, you guys), and John tells her that everything is alright. She does the thing where you change the subject because you don’t want to talk about the actual think that might make you cry.

John limps his way back to the ED to check in with Quentin. He’s like, “Everything’s fine, tralala. Took care of that important patient issue and now I’m just going to do some more medical doctoring.” Quentin, however, informs John that his wife has been waiting for him and she knows he was out of the hospital. Quentin also gives John a tip: make sure your explanation/excuse for her is better than the one you just game me. Quentin is a true bro.

John finds Sam and starts attempting to lie, but Sam stops him and tells him that she met with Detective Holden. She tells John that she needs to know what’s been going on, for real, and she needs to know right now. John asks her to sit down and then goes back to the beginning of the story, claiming that he needs to tell Sam what happened after he saved Antoine Tyler.

Do you guys think John is really going to tell Sam the whole truth? How’s Jed’s cat doing, do you think? Also, where was Bridget this week??? Hopefully we’ll get answers next week. Until then, you can catch me on twitter @jennalykes.

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