Loveday Writing

This episode had many reveals and once again, I’m going to review it character by character.

Eliza and Pete – Eliza and Pete are forced to work together on the retrieval of a little boy, Otis, who is possibly suffering from a head injury or snake bite. Eliza and Pete constantly argue about the diagnosis on the way back to the RFDS plane, with Pete arguing that it is a snake bite by one of the most venomous snakes in the country and they need the anti-venom for Otis, and they can’t wait for him to get to Dubbo hospital, which is what Eliza wants. Eventually, Pete manages to convince Eliza to let him get the anti-venom before they leave, however Eliza ends up with a scratched eye on their way back to the plane due to riding on a dirt bike back to the plane.

Things only get worse mid-air when Otis is given the anti-venom but turns out to be allergic to it, which leads to Eliza and Pete having to treat him with anti-venom and adrenaline at the same time, until he stabilises.

Whilst they wait to see Leonie at Dubbo Hospital, Eliza bring up to Pete whether they are going to talk about their past or not. They end up arguing about a trip to England that Pete was supposed to take, but didn’t make it due to his limited time off and Eliza having too much to handle at the time.

Pete also gets a phone call informing him that an investigation is being launched into the White Cliffs Rodeo incident and his conduct.

Wayne, Matty, and Graham – Wayne, Matty and Graham are assigned a prison transfer with a penetrating abdominal injury. When Wayne bonds with the prisoner, Troy, who talks about camping at a nearby area they are flying by, he asks Graham to take a minor detour to do a flyover. Graham initially refuses but relents, however this leads to a bird hitting and cracking the windscreen, which forces Graham to make an emergency landing.

Whilst Troy enjoys the emergency landing, mainly due to his guard having a panic attack throughout it, Graham manages to successfully land the plane. However, it turns out that the guard’s heart rate is through the roof due to a condition called SVT (a heart condition). When Wayne explains the treatment to him, the guard makes a racist remark towards him and wants to hear from a different doctor. Wayne FaceTimes Eliza, who puts the guard in his place and praises Wayne as one of the best doctors in the state. Wayne ends up treating the guard by throwing an esky full of ice on top of him (when I Googled whether ice or cold water is an effective way to control or treat SVT, I found that apparently it is, as ice can stimulate the vagus nerve, helping the heart return to a normal rhythm).

Graham ends up telling Wayne and Matty about Leonie’s surgery in Dubbo, as they were going to Dubbo Hospital before the detour. Graham pulls rank on Wayne to get them to Dubbo that night and Wayne agrees without hesitation.

Leonie – Eliza takes Leonie to the airport so she can board a plane to Dubbo for her surgery. Graham manages to make it just in time to give her a toy nomad plane as a good luck charm. Leonie spends most of the episode offscreen, with Pete informing Eliza during her FaceTime call with Wayne that a blood vessel was nicked during surgery. When everyone makes it to Dubbo, Eliza reveals that the surgery finished with the bleeding stemmed. The episode ends with Leonie regaining consciousness, grateful that everyone was there with her.

Wayne, Timmy, and Mira – Wayne starts his day at his place trying to scare what turns out to be a mopoke away from the house. Mira wants to talk to him about her pregnancy, although doesn’t tell him she’s pregnant. Timmy then surprises them as he’s in town for a quick work visit.

Wayne examines Timmy, and when he mentions the mopoke, Timmy tells him that it’s a sign that he needs to make things right with God, like he did when he quit drinking. When Wayne is looking in his go bag, he discovers he grabbed Mira’s by mistake, which leads to him finding the pencil case with the pregnancy test inside. He calls Mira and tells her that he knows. She tells him that she didn’t know how or when to tell him, as she knew he didn’t want to juggle work and children again, and that a baby would put both of their careers on hold.

Later in the episode, whilst they wait for Leonie to come out of surgery, Wayne and Mira decide they don’t need to make any decisions yet, although Mira already seems to be thinking about baby names.

Taylor and Chaya – They barely appeared onscreen in this episode, as they stayed in Broken Hill doing a mental health consult for Johnny. Cameron shows up to flirt with Taylor, joking about getting a tour of the base from her, only for her to actually give him one. When he tries to kiss her, she finds out that only Johnny is there for the mental health consult. Taylor rebuffs him as he didn’t keep up their deal of him seeing Chaya for counselling.

Overall, this was a good but not great episode. I’m glad that Leonie’s diagnosis is out in the open, and that Wayne is aware of Mira’s pregnancy, I also appreciated a reappearance by Timmy (even if it was brief), and the mopoke running gag. I also appreciated the twist that the prison guard was racist and the problem passenger in the prison transfer, as opposed to the prisoner himself. However, I felt that the medical action was lacking, as well as the appearances of Taylor, Cameron, and Chaya. I also felt that Timmy’s reappearance was too brief and he was underused.

Stray Observations:

-Apparently, Graham has hit a kangaroo, horse, deer, owl, and now a mopoke in his flying history.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “Time’s money.” “I thought you said it was relative?” “Today it’s money.” (Graham-Pete-Graham)
• “Oh, how walk of shamey was that?” “I was wearing a footy shirt, so pretty shamey.” (Pete-Chaya, on Chaya running into Taylor in the morning after her hook up with Pete)
• “Prepare the cabinet for awkward silences, I mean landing.” (Mira to Pete and Eliza at the end of their flight)