A slightly different start to the episode this week, in a different country all together and hospital with Gaskell, text on the screen letting us know it's Hospital de Santa Lia in Lisbon, 5:01am, Gaskell himself stood in front of a woman patients bed, holding her chart from the foot of the bed, he writes 'No Change' again in red biro under a succession of the same phrase it seems has been written for quite a while recently, after this as he leaves the room and then goes to leave the hospital a man appears from behind him asking if something is more important.
Roxanna and Meena are next on screen, Meena having brought coffee for Gaskell to the lab, but being informed by Roxanna tells her that he isn't there as she leaves said lab, Meena makes a comment about it being make or break for the trial if the up and coming operation doesn't work. Outside Gaskell himself has pulled up in the carpark and has changed his previous ID badge to the Holby one, burning the candle at both ends?
After Gaskell joins Roxanna and they talk to the patient who is due to undergo the operation, Mara Sandhurst, he is talking to her like it's all fine and definitely going ahead, which isn't quite the case since they don't know for certain she's fit enough and without infections etc to undergo any kind of surgery. Walking away from Mara and into the corridor, Roxanna points out to him that he can't just act like her operation is just going ahead when it's not certain too yet, not listening to her at all he carries on walking down the corridor.
Dom has been given a patient called Roger, the older man is at the moment somewhat of a mystery in terms of diagnosis for Dr Copeland, so he orders a mix of tests to be done to see if that sheds anymore light on what could be wrong, at the same time as he does he's paged a message that is to say that his Hep C results have come back, what is the verdict and outcome of these?
Serena delivers the news that Dom does in fact have Hep C, telling him that they've got to wait and see if it clears by itself naturally in six months and then if not they act when they know the result of waiting for that period of time. Not really giving an answer, he simply says he must get on and leaves the office, almost in a state of denial.
In the lab Abi has arrived where Roxanna is currently working, and she starts asking and questioning why Gaskell is going down the route he is in terms of treatments he's engaging in and then asks if Roxanna trusts him, before she can answer Gaskell appears into the lab asking who Abi is talking about, not answering his question she informs him that she herself has signed off of his trial and that it's all down to him now, but that the board will be watching as she leaves the lab. He asks Roxanna what Abi wanted down here, Roxanna simply says Abi was just reminding them who was in charge, not actually telling him why she came down, doesn't trust him enough it seems to tell him the real reasons. Meena is then next in the lab telling them both that there's a problem with Mara, what could this mean for the impending operation?
With Mara being diagnosed with a water infection and having a temperature, Roxanna tells her that they'll have to weigh things up before proceeding any further with the planned operation.
Roger starts to laugh when Dom reveals to him that he's found out that he's got Hep C after a needle stick injury at work, and tells the younger man that he should just accept the result he's been given and if he does then so will everyone else around him, could Roger have a point?
Wanting to err on the side of caution, Roxanna says that they'll have to postpone Mara's operation, saying that if they didn't and went ahead and something happened in theatre then they could be seen as negligent, Gaskell ignores her concerns and caution, telling her to prep Mara, before reading an urgent text from Leo telling him that he needs to talk to Gaskell, has something even worse occurred in Portugal?
On the phone Gaskell is informed by Leo that the woman patient has multi organ failure and that any of Gaskell's suggestions he puts forward are simply dragging it out before Gaskell informs Leo that he himself is the cure for this patient, does he honestly think he can save her?
With Gaskell out of the picture at the moment, Roxanna tells Mara that there's a delay at the moment, but everything will be fine, Mara senses something is wrong and asks that the neurosurgeon just tells her what the problem is. Back on the phone Leo tells Gaskell that he'll end it for the woman and will have no more of Gaskell's false hope, giving Leo some more instructions he then ends the phone call as Roxanna appears on the stairs and ends up following him as he walks off.
Dom is talking to Henrik about his Hep C status and says he's waiting for Henrik to give him some words of wisdom, the older man telling Dom that he'll figure something out himself, has Henrik lost faith in that part of himself or lost that actual part of himself that used to offer pearls of wisdom to his friends and colleagues when he was CEO.
In pursuit of a retreating Gaskell as he heads for the lab, Roxanna asks him what is more important than Mara at the moment, also telling him that she feels he's rushing things and isn't properly invested, both of them heading back up to Mara as Gaskell says he'll show how invested he is. When they're back with Mara, Roxanna asks the other woman about her background and what happened to her, also why she is so nervous, since she doesn't actually know this, only the medical side of things. Mara goes on to tell her story about an argument she had with her ex fiancee when they were in a car and he was driving, that he got so mad that she was going to take a job in New Zealand that he ended up crashing the car with them both in it on purpose injuring Mara badly, the young woman gets upset as she tells her story and we see that Roxanna too is upset at the plight and suffering the woman in front of her has endured, apologising for what she's been through. Mara then explains that because of all this trusting people takes a bit of work, Gaskell says that he can cure her, this statement making Roxanna look straight at him, almost a look of surprise at his claim.
Still curious about seeing Lofty talking to Roger before, he asks the older man what he and Lofty were talking about, finding out that Roger is Lofty's music teacher and that Lofty failed his saxophone exam, leading the music teacher to inform Dom that not everything is about him, this seems to give Dom some food for thought about things. This in turn leads Dom and Lofty to talk in the office about everything, Lofty telling Dom that his Hep C status doesn't change anything for him and Dom agrees he still feels the same, the pair of them finding some common ground to work forward from.
In Mara's operation she ends up crashing and arresting, leading the team to have to shock her back to life in a touch and go situation, after the surgery has been done, Gaskell and Roxanna are putting their gloves and hats into the bin and discussing how everything went, she says that the graft he used caused Mara to arrest which he deflects from admitting to, and that the whole thing was a disaster and given how things went she could be at serious risk of brain damage, which considering Mara nearly died she's spot on about, also that due to the operation it could mean the project over as well as Mara's life over and what is more important than that, he bluntly says that it isn't over and that the project won't be over either, but that if Roxanna can't see that before walking out and not looking at her, seemingly not liking her challenging him and his rather off hand judgement with things, leaving her to sigh heavily and roll her eyes, has she finally hit her limit with his methods or is she very close to hitting said limit?
Fletch is also trying to do some damage control with Hannah's dad Oscar as he is due to make a complaint about the hospital since Hannah came back in and is having another operation, he tries to speak to him and tell him that they're all trying to do their best for his daughter, that Abi is doing all she can as Hannah's consultant to make the young woman better, will his dad to dad talk convince him not to complain and cause trouble.
With Mara now in intensive care after her surgery, Roxanna, Gaskell and Meena go to see how she's doing and how the surgery actually went for themselves, Mara now has feeling in her feet that she didn't before due to her accident, Gaskell asks Roxanna to do more tests to see if the operation has actually worked before he leaves the room. Abi is on the staircase near the ward and sees him drive out, checking her watch and frowning as she does so, then has a talk with Fletch on the stairs about the complaint Oscar was going to put in but now isn't after Fletch's talk with him, he then tells the CEO he wants Donna to get the senior staff nurses's job and to his surprise she backs him and his decision, praising him on his management decisions, could she have a soft spot for the director of nursing?
We come to the end of the episode where we started, Gaskell has made his way back to the hospital in Portugal and is talking to Leo, Leo telling him in no uncertain terms that he feels Gaskell has cheated this woman patient, because it turns out the hospital in Portugal think that Fiona survived and isn't actually dead, maybe this persuaded the hospital to let him take on the current lady patient. Leo also tells him that all this that's happening is hiding the truth and that it's actually Gaskell playing God, Gaskell isn't in agreement with his colleague and tells him firmly that he'll save this woman and all the next ones after her, not seeming to believe him or wanting to listen to anymore, Leo leaves and Gaskell comes to be stood at the woman's beside with her chart in his hand ready to write on it again, the question is what will he write and an even bigger question is who is this woman who he is seemingly so desperate to save? It is more personal than he's saying? Will someone be able to stop him running riot and doing what he wants in order to fulfill this bizarre obsession of playing God? Can Roxanna and Abi maybe team up to stop him?
So many unanswered questions, some of which might start to be answered soon, I myself am looking forward to next weeks episode!
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