Loveday Writing

When Eliza is shown around the base, she (and the audience) are introduced to the other characters: Dr. Wayne Yates (Rob Collins) who believes Eliza took his job, Rhiannon (Kate Mulvany) the base’s tour guide, Leonie (Justine Clarke) the base’s manager, Pete (Stephen Peacocke) one of the flight nurses, and Mira (Ash Ricardo) one of the pilots. The team place informal bets on how long Eliza will last.

Eliza tags along with the others to treat Hariette, a woman with a broken leg, whose condition worsens to expressive dysphasia, which turns the return RFDS flight into a medevac. Hariette is taken back to the base, where Eliza (with the assistance of the crew) use a mixture of engineering and medical tools to relieve the pressure on her brain, whilst FaceTiming with a neurosurgeon. When Eliza finishes and Hariette’s condition improves, the crew are clearly impressed by her work.

We then get more of an insight into the characters later that evening when they go out for drinks to officially welcome Eliza to Broken Hill. We find out that Mira and Wayne are together, and that Rhiannon and Pete are in-laws as Rhiannon is married to his brother, Nate, who Pete has a distant relationship with. We also find out that Eliza has a son, Henry, and Rhiannon uses her tour guide skills to give Eliza a brief history lesson on the RFDS. While Rhiannon jokingly charges Eliza twenty dollars for the story, Eliza lets her keep it as she ‘earned it’. While they are getting a drink at the bar, Leonie tells Eliza she read articles about her husband, but hasn’t told anyone else about it, again the story of Eliza’s husband and why he is in the news is yet to be made clear.

Eliza and Pete briefly talk, with Eliza asking Pete what the deal is with the Southern Cross, before they end up hooking up, something I admittedly wasn’t expecting to happen. After Eliza leaves to go home, she calls her friend, Julie, in London, leaving a message to tell her what happened. When she gets home, she finds Henry asleep with his laptop, when she picks it up, she finds he has been attempting to talk to his father.

The next day we see a car crash head-on into a tree, however when Eliza and Pete’s plane lands, it’s revealed the crash is not the site they have been sent to, rather they have been sent to an accident involving an overturned caravan. As they are about to leave with their patient, Wayne calls Eliza to inform her that Rhiannon, Nate and their teenage daughter, Taylor, were in the car that crashed into the tree. Eliza tells him that their patient isn’t stable and they have to keep going, keeping Pete from going to the scene. Meanwhile, Wayne and the crew attend to the scene, where they find Nate has instantly been killed, Taylor has minor injuries, and Rhiannon’s breathing is shaky and rapid. We see that Wayne and the crew manage to stabilise Rhiannon’s breathing.

While they are flying their patient back to base for transfer to a hospital, Eliza tells Pete about the crash. Pete wants Graham, another pilot, to turn around, but Eliza says their patient isn’t stable enough. When they get back to the base Pete hands over their patient, while the other plane with Rhiannon, Nate and Taylor inside, lands nearby.

When Pete finishes the handover and runs over to the other plane, the coroner van is following behind him. The episode ends with the reveal that Rhiannon has also died.

Overall I felt that this was a strong pilot as the show’s premise and characters were established, however there were enough cookie crumbs dropped for the viewer to remember but not get the full details of, to keep them intrigued enough to watch future episodes. We are not told how or why Rhiannon died, and we are not given any details on Ed, nor any details on why he and Eliza have split.

As I’m a writer and not a doctor, I’m not going to comment on the medical accuracy on the show, however as the real-life RFDS were heavily involved in the production of the show, it’s definitely a safe bet that the medical accuracy would pretty much be perfect. I also appreciate that the medical scenes were realistic but not too graphic.

I’m looking forward to reviewing the rest of the season.