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“Complications” recap (1.09): Breaking Point

Previously on Complications, Gretchen was a bonafide hero and saved John’s ass when he traipsed off to North Atlanta to try and singlehandedly stop a gang ambush. Meanwhile, John’s many, many lies finally caught up to him and Sam confronted him about WTF has been going on lately.

Nine Months Ago

The Ellison family are all headed to the lake for a good old fashioned family vacay. It’s late when they arrive, but Oliver wants to walk down to the lake. Becky, however, is clearly not doing well, and she’s too cold and tired to do anything but sit by the fire. Becky asks her dad why she got sick, but he doesn’t really have an answer for her. Cancer has made Becky a bit nihilistic, tbh, but John tries to convince her that everything happens for a reason-even if they don’t know the reason yet.

Present

It looks like John really did tell Sam the whole truth, because Sam is pissed as hell and wants to know what the actual fuck John was thinking. John tries to explain that he was tired of feeling helpless, and he just wanted to do something. Sam’s like, “Yeah, I totally get that feeling, but you have committed so many crimes! Like, all the crimes!” John’s all, “Listen, if you had any idea how convoluted the plot has been, you wouldn’t have been able to stop either.” Sam tells him they can figure this out, but they’ve got to do it together.

John takes a quick shower to show off his hot bod, (Get it, Paige Turco!) before he and Sam discuss next steps. She’s trying to find a place outside of town for them to lay low, but John is worried about her job. They’re interrupted by Oliver, who can’t sleep because of all the police cars outside the house. Detective Fuckface is at the door to serve John with a subpoena to testify at a preliminary hearing for one of the gang members. It’s pretty amazing that the hearing is happening TOMORROW, considering the timespan of this show is, like, a couple of weeks (I think). The American judicial system is nothing if not speedy! (LOL JK)

LawyerSam is straight up pissed that Detective Fuckface showed up at their door with approximately half of Atlanta’s police force just to serve a subpoena. And also, she doesn’t think John’s testimony is even necessary in the case, but the Detective claims the DA wants a “respectable” doctor on the stand. The next day, Sam is still angry. She tries to do some extreme lawyering to get John out of testifying, but nothing is working. John tries to calm Sam down, because he just wants to go and get it over with.

Over at Gretchen’s house, Jed has officially eaten all of the cereal- even the flakes with crunchberries, you guys. It’s bad. Jed is trying to convince Gretchen to give him some more drugs, but this is not Gretchen’s first rodeo. They’re interrupted by Gretchen’s phone ringing- it’s Ingrid! Hey Ingrid! I missed you.

Anyway, Ingrid is getting kicked out of rehab because she let a recovering friend of hers sleep over. Gretchen starts to yell at her, but Ingrid asks what Gretchen would’ve done in her place. Gretchen takes one look at the stray she brought in (Jed) and realizes she should maybe shut her mouth. Ingrid is still packing, but she’ll be over in an hour or so. Before hanging up, Gretchen tells Ingrid that Jed is at the house detoxing, so she can’t do anything to fuck that up.

Meanwhile, John has driven to the park where Antoine was shot so he can talk to Darius. John explains that he thinks Antoine is doing much better and should go home soon, but Darius thinks John is just trying to back out of their agreement-especially since he heard someone warned the other gang about the ambush. John’s like, “Yeah, I did that, and I got a broken rib because of it! Also, they’re making me testify at a trial! I’m in a bad way, bro,” as the tiniest violin plays in the background. Darius relents and says they’ll take Antoine home, but if anything happens to the kid, John’s dead.

At the court, Sam tells John that the questions should be pretty easy and short, because they just need to prove there’s enough evidence to warrant a trial. As they’re walking toward the courtroom, they run into a bunch of gang members trying to intimidate John. No one really seems to care that this is happening until John raises his voice a little, and then a mostly-useless cop comes by to “break it up.”

On the stand, John answers the prosecutor’s questions easily: yes, the defendant attacked him. John and another doctor restrained him, but the defendant had a knife and cut John. Open and shut case, right? WRONG. The defense attorney starts in on John and paints the scene a little differently, claiming that John aggressively swooped in on a patient that wasn’t even his, less than 24 hours after he killed another Latino youth. John’s like, “Uh, the fuck bro? That was self defense!” But the lawyer keeps badgering him until the judge finally steps in. He’s heard enough-the case will be going to trial. I’m, like, 98% sure this isn’t how trials work, but what do I know!

The prosecutor chimes in, all, “Oh, btw, we decided that Dr. Ellison can’t leave the area until the trial is over! Surprise!” Sam tries to intervene to say that there are serious safety concerns, but the Judge turns her down and grants the travel restriction. WHAT THE FUCK. In what world would this happen? Why would the judge be so unwilling to hear about safety concerns when John killed a gang member and is now testifying against another? It is totally valid! And why is this detective so evil? Honestly, at this point, what is he even hoping to accomplish? Does he think John will become so afraid that he’ll have no choice but to help him with the investigation? The more likely outcome is that John will be murdered, so that’s not very helpful either.

Anyway, after the hearing, John goes to his dad, Gary’s, house and there’s a cute dog there which helps to settle down my rage. John is, all of a sudden, real interested in telling the truth, so he comes clean to his dad, too. John wants to know if the family can stay at Gary’s place until things blow over. At first, his dad is all like, “WE’RE AT WAR NOW, SON” but John reminds his dad that he is not a soldier, and he’ll just take the lodging, please and thank you.

Meanwhile, Sam goes to visit KYLE UGH. She wants to know if he will talk to the judge and try get him to lift the travel restriction. Kyle, however, is like, “No can do-sville babydoll. This is a big case, and, also, remember how you wouldn’t have sex with me?” Sam is like, “Oh, okay, cool-so I guess you getting your weiner touched is more important than whether or not I die?” Kyle meows about how it’s Sam’s husband’s fault, and hopefully Sam will now see him the way I do: as a moustache-twirling supervillain.

Over at the hospital, Gretchen hears from another nurse that John is off the schedule for a couple of weeks. Gretchen is intrigued, but can’t ask any questions because Ingrid calls her in a panic: Jed is hallucinating and freaking the FUCK out. Though she’s not sure it’s the best idea, Gretchen tells Ingrid where a stash of valium is. She tells Ingrid to only give Jed two pills, and to be good.

The phone call is interrupted by Bridget, who strolls over to confront Gretchen about some not-by-the-book issues. Yes! My bbs. Bridget is sort of a bitch, and I love it so much. She asks Gretchen about medicine that she called in-I assume it’s whatever she needed for Jed to get clean. Gretchen tells Bridget that it must have been a mix up and that she can call the pharmacy, but Bridget interrupts with such a world-weary sigh and tells Gretchen that she’ll take care of it. Like, she takes care of everything. Gretchen kind of rolls her eyes. Yes. Gimme. More. Of. That.

Anyway, Gretchen texts John that she was able to get an IV pump for Antoine, but won’t be able to get medicine because Bridget is all up in her business (and not in the fun way). John tells her that he’ll figure it out, as he continues to pack up some things to take when they leave the house. He finds Becky’s old teddy bear in the closet, and decides to take it.

In the car, John calls a friend at another hospital to try and score some medicine for Antoine, but he is unsuccessful. As he hangs up the phone, a couple of gang members in a Mustang ram the back of his car. John decides to speed up, but his rental car isn’t really built for outrunning a ‘Stang. He accelerates without paying much attention to where he’s going, runs a red light, and gets T-boned by a truck. Ack! John!

At the hospital, John seems mostly okay, if not a pain in the ass patient for Dr. Bridget. She’s trying to check him out, even though he insists he’s fine. Bridget of course notices the day-old broken rib, and of course presses him about it. John claims he fell down while playing with the dog, but Bridget isn’t stupid. Gretchen looks on silently until Bridget leaves, but then asks John what the fuck happened. He tells her, and she wants to know what he’s going to do next. John doesn’t know, so he has some flashbacks to try and figure it out.

John calls Sam and tells her about his car accident. She is concerned and wants to go pick him up, but John tells her not to. He compares the current situation to Becky’s illness. When she got really sick, they tried to focus on all the things that were going wrong, but the core of the problem was the cancer. John tells her he has to talk to someone, and then does the standard “If I don’t come back, know I love you” thing. Sam takes it much better than I would’ve expected. After hanging up, John starts to record a message for Detective Fuckface in the event that he gets brutally murdered.

On his way out of the hospital, John finds Bridget. She tells him to get his injured butt back into bed, because he needs proper treatment, darn-it, but John is like, “Can you, one time, STFU about following procedure and just listen to me?” He gives her the phone with the recorded message on it, and tells her to make sure it gets to Detective Fuckface if something happens to him. Bridget can’t believe he’s asking her to do this, but John explains it’s because she’s not directly involved and he trusts her. She stands a little straighter at that and accepts the package, but not before informing John that she is “very upset with him.” John knows. It’s a cute moment.

John is outside the hospital, about to call a taxi, when Gretchen comes out to ask where he’s going. John tells her that he’s going to the prison to talk to Easy, so Gretchen replies that, in that case, she’s going with him. She tells him that Samaritan Hospital regulations require that all doctors have to be assisted by a qualified nurse during life-threatening procedures. Listen, I know that’s kind of cheesy, but I’m going to be honest with you: I said “Awwww” right out loud. First Bridget, and now Gretchen being adorable assholes?! I can’t handle it.

On the way to the prison, Gretchen opens up to John a little bit about her past. She spent some time as a kid in this part of town, and her foster parents there were creeps. John wonders how people like that are let into the system, but Gretchen reminds him that there are a lot of kids that need homes and not very many good men in the world.

Back at Gary’s house, Sam is anxious about John and his “mission,” which she doesn’t even know much about. As they’re talking, Gary notices that his dog is barking up a storm, so he subtly tells Sam to take Ollie and hide in the den. Gary sees someone outside and instead of, say, calling the police, he loads what looks like a shotgun. I guess that soldier training must be kicking in, y’all, because Gary just shoots the first thing he sees move on his property. It’s KYLE! Hah! Kyle is unharmed, if you’re worried about that sort of thing.

Once Kyle gets back inside the house, he apologizes to Gary and explains that he just needed to talk to Sam. Kyle is drunk and Sam is pissed as hell at him for showing up there. She’s like, “Pretty sure I was quite clear when I said it was over.” But Kyle’s all like, “Well then why did you begrudgingly come to see me and ask me for help protecting your family?! OBVIOUSLY that means you want me.” Sam shuts him down once and for all (I HOPE), and Kyle finally leaves with his tail between his legs.

John and Gretchen arrive at the prison and meet a guard who has already spoken with Darius. The guard sneaks John in through the infirmary using his hospital badge, and leaves him with Easy. Easy is not happy that John came to see him, but John has zero fucks to give. He tells Easy that he’s going to be talking to the police the next day and there are two ways it could go down.

  1. John tells them the whole story, and the Gang Task Force destroys everything that Easy has built.
  2. John tells them part of the story, that he approached Easy and Darius about helping Antoine of his own free will.

Easy is like, OR option 3 where I have you killed before you tell the police anything. How about that one? John tells Easy that if anything happens to him or his family, a phone recording explaining everything will be given to the police. Easy takes the deal, but reminds John that things aren’t always this simple. Much ominous, very scare.

After dropping John off, Gretchen arrives back at her Home for Wayward Recovering Addicts. She calls out for Ingrid, and is panicked when no one responds. She finds her sister a moment later though, sitting by Jed’s bedside and taking care of him. Ingrid didn’t take any of the pills, and she tells Gretchen to count them if she doesn’t believe her. Gretchen does believe her, though, and tells her sister how proud she is of her.

However, Ingrid is more worried about Gretchen than herself. While Jed was hallucinating, he said some shit that did not sound good. Ingrid’s like, “Sis, if I’m telling you that you’re in too deep, maybe you need to re-evaluate your life choices.” You’re not wrong, Ingrid. Gretchen doesn’t want to talk about it, though, so she tells her sister she’s going to take a shower.

John gets back to Gary’s house to find Sam waiting for him outside. They embrace lovingly and John is ready to go inside and get some goddamn sleep (for once), when Sam says she needs to tell him something. The something is that she had an affair with Kyle after Becky died. John does not take the news very well, and tells Sam to leave him alone. (I like to think at least part of his terrible reaction is based on the fact she cheated with KYLE ugh.)

As he’s sitting outside his dad’s house crying, John receives a call. It’s Darius-he just heard the news from Easy that he has to try and make peace. Darius is unhappy with this turn of events and makes it very clear that he now considers John an enemy. I’m kind of bummed about this, because I was hoping John and Darius would end up as, like, an odd couple BrOTP. Oh well.

Next week is the finale, y’all! What do you think is going to happen?! I feel like so much craziness has already gone down, I’m not sure how they could possibly top it. Everyone just keep your fingers crossed from some more excellent Bridget/Gretchen interactions.

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