Loveday Writing

This was another episode revolving around a theme, this time: grief. I’m going to review it character by character.

Wayne, Matty, and Mira – The episode kicks off with Wayne and Matty on their way to a patient, with Matty talking to Graham on the plane about Wayne’s grief. Matty then decides to join Wayne on a road trip to Menindee for the smoking ceremony for Timmy, which is only attended by men.

As the ceremony is about to start, Raylene, the nurse who dismissed Timmy and put him at the back of the clinic in the previous episode, shows up, wanting to pay her respects, but Wayne kicks her out. Later, Wayne runs into her in the hallway where she tries to simultaneously pay her respects, apologise, but also excuse her actions. Wayne severely reprimands her but ends up collapsing with chest pains. When he collapses, his friend, Malcolm, who tried to calm him down, calls Matty for help.

Matty, Malcolm, and Raylene take Wayne to the Menindee clinic to treat him. Matty tries his best to treat what appears to be a heart attack. Back at the base, due to the lack of planes available to them, Graham and Leonie have no choice but to get Mira to land the plane she is flying with Eliza on board, to treat Wayne. Eliza, Chaya, and Pete debate whether to hide it from her, but Pete decides they should tell her, as she would find out eventually. Graham warns her about fog near Menindee and not to land the plane there if she can’t see the runaway at 300 feet. Mira desperately tries to land, but ends up asking for an alternate runway, Graham organises for Darren and Taylor to drive them to the clinic.

Meanwhile, as Matty is treating Wayne, Wayne sees Timmy sitting at the end of his bed. When Raylene tries to insert an IV into Wayne’s arm, he sees her hands are shaking, her grabs them, and nods at her. When Eliza, Pete, Chaya, and Mira arrive, Eliza eventually diagnoses Wayne with Takostubo Cardiomyopathy, also known as Broken Heart Syndrome – Wayne’s heart is enlarged due to the stress of his grief over Timmy, but he will eventually recover.

Towards the end of the episode, Wayne and Mira are back home and Wayne tells her about seeing Timmy, and that he wanted Timmy to take him away. Wayne also voices his fears about not knowing how to be a parent as Timmy helped raise Darren, but Mira tells him that she doesn’t know how to be a parent either, and that they will learn together. Pete later comes over with salmon, telling Wayne to take a break, Wayne then tells him he is considering taking a permanent one, especially due to the racism he has experienced over the years, despite his highly important job.

When Wayne tells him that the smoking ceremony didn’t happen, he, Pete and Darren go to Menindee to have it and say goodbye to Timmy.

Eliza, Pete, and Chaya – This marks the first episode that the three of them are working together purely by themselves. They are treating Glen, a 41-year-old patient with schizophrenia who presented with a knife wound to his chest.

When they go to see Glen, he tells them that his brother, Mobby, stabbed him in the chest. Glen then tells them that Mobby is trying to steal opals from him. Chaya’s skills are put on display as she keeps Glen calm and engaged in a conversation, as Pete and Eliza examine him. When they step out into the hall, Chaya tells Eliza and Pete that she thinks the delusions he is currently experiencing are a result of the attack, not the other way around. When Glen starts moaning in pain, Eliza tests him for a pneumothorax and sure enough, he does have one, however Mobby also shows up, aggressively looking for him.

Eliza, Pete, and Chaya manage to sneak Glen out of the hospital, complete with Chaya putting her acting chops on display, as she distracts Mobby by pretending to be a relative grieving over a “dead patient.” Later, Eliza and Chaya discuss Pete being reminded of Nate’s mental illness and death when dealing with Glen.

As they are making their way to the plane, Glen demands his phone, which is at his and Mobby’s house. Pete sneaks into the house to get the phone, but Eliza and Chaya notice Mobby returning. Eliza manages to distract Mobby by asking for directions long enough for Pete to sneak back into the car and they manage to get Glen to Dubbo for surgery. On the plane, Eliza and Chaya bond over Chaya’s acting skills, as well as being in the same school play.

Later, Pete tells Eliza that she made the right call by not allowing him to treat Nate after the car accident, and apologises for running off earlier in the day. Eliza also tells him that the critical incident review she completed on his conduct at the White Cliffs Rodeo is going to clinical governance the next day, with her recommendation that nothing could have been done differently. Afterwards, Chaya comes by to see Pete and they agree to label each other as a couple.

Darren and Taylor – Taylor tries to help Darren deal with his grief over Timmy by being kind but also reminding him that he can’t avoid it, which is what she tried to do when grieving over her parents’ deaths. Later, when prepping a plane, Darren accidentally steps on a gas task, which allows toxic gas to get out and leads to the base being evacuated.

When Darren and Taylor are making their way to the smoking ceremony, Taylor asks him when he’s going to Dubbo. Darren tells her he doesn’t think he can anymore and asks her about Cameron as he calls her. Taylor explains to him that Cameron is a client and that he called her an angel when he first saw her, saying it the same way her mother would, and that he reminds her of her father.

At the end of the episode, Darren gives Wayne and Mira some chicken and corn soup he made and tells them that he’s thinking of sticking around for a while. Afterwards he sees Taylor and she tells him that it’s okay to go, but she’s not leaving as she needs to stay and lean into her grief.

Leonie and Graham – They were kind of in the background in this episode, with Leonie constantly offering donuts to everyone, especially to Wayne, to try and help out. Graham also asks Darren to keep an eye out for his toy nomad (good luck charm) that he lost, believing he didn’t stick it back on in the cockpit properly.

Later, when they find out Wayne is going to make a full recovery, they hug and Graham goes in for a kiss, but Leonie resists and walks away.

Overall, I felt that this was a good follow-up episode after Timmy’s death, in the context of exploring grief. We get the exploration of immediate grief with Wayne and Darren, and how it can seriously affect one’s health and major life decisions respectively. We also get the exploration of grief in the long-term with Taylor being reminded of her parents’ death through Cameron, and Pete being reminded of the circumstances of Nate’s and Rhiannon’s death through treating Glen. Interestingly, the medical drama was somewhat light in this episode, even though Wayne became a patient and Glen (and Mobby) posed a major safety risk to the team – the stakes with Wayne’s health were never particularly high as he was never going to be killed off due to being a main character, and despite how high stakes the Glen/Mobby situation appeared to be, it ended easily and somewhat quickly.

On smaller notes, Darren and Taylor’s break up honestly wasn’t that surprising as their relationship has barely been focused on this season. I’m also not particularly invested in Chaya and Pete’s “romance” for pretty much the same reason, and I personally get the feeling Pete and Eliza will get back together eventually. The only romance I’m interested in is Graham and Leonie’s, which is only just getting started. They’ve clearly been good friends for a long time and I’d actually like to find out more about their back story.

If this season has just as many episodes as the previous one, we’ve only got two episodes left to go, it will be interesting to see where it goes from here.

Stray Observations:

-Matty refers to Graham as “grey beard.”

-Graham’s favourite type of donut is Boston Cream.

-Chaya was Gilmer in Saint Catherine’s much-lauded Year 10 production of Godspell. Eliza acted in the same play at her high school but played the role of Jesus.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “Never underestimate the value of a well-timed bakery treat.” (Graham to Leonie on the donuts she is offering everyone)
• “Anyway, sleep well, and thanks for saving my arse.” (Pete to Eliza)
• “As yet uncategorised sexual partner, it’s like something out of a Jane Austen novel.” (Pete to Chaya on her label to him, before they decide to become a couple)