Loveday Writing

This episode was all about bad decisions and accountability, and again, I’ll review it character by character.

Pete – As he was put front and centre in this episode, I’ll start with him. The episode kicks off with Pete and Eliza treating local drag queen, Dolly Hardon, for a dislocated shoulder on the side of the road, and then taking them on the plane. Dolly explains to them that the Desert Dolls party that is taking place at the local pub later that night is a fundraiser for cancer research and they are performing and hosting.

Pete and Eliza part ways, as he takes Dolly to the Desert Dolls event, and Eliza transfers a patient on a ventilator after a drug overdose. Pete is then surprised to see Johnny, Taylor, and Cameron on the dance floor, and then unimpressed when he sees Taylor and Cameron kiss, believing she has crossed a line as he is her client, but Chaya points out that he hasn’t been her client for months.

When he sees Johnny run off the dance floor and into the pub’s hall vomiting, he starts to treat him. He quickly discovers that he is experiencing drug-related symptoms. Not long after he starts treating Johnny, Marla starts to experience symptoms, only hers are worse as she took more pills. He asks Cameron, Taylor, and Henry to get ice from the bar to cool Johnny and Marla down. Pete then asks Cameron what was in the pills, believing he brought them. Cameron tells him repeatedly that the pills weren’t his. Pete then asks Taylor how many she took, but tells him she didn’t take any. The pills are eventually revealed to be MDMA.

When Matty comes into help and says that one of Marla’s symptoms contradicts the usual symptoms of an MDMA overdose, he calls Eliza and asks if the overdose patient she is transferring had a full drug screen. She tells him that the patient tested positive for PMA not MDMA, as well as oxycodone, which explains the contradictory symptoms.

After the paramedics arrive and Cameron leaves, Pete and Taylor get into a huge argument over Cameron. Pete tells her that she crossed a line with Cameron, but Taylor calls him out on his hypocrisy due to his relationships with Eliza and Chaya, and the conclusions he jumped to about Cameron and her. When he mentions Cameron’s history of mental illness and violence, he then has an argument with Chaya, as he read Cameron’s file and possibly blew up the relationship she has with him. Chaya tells him that he is the one with the problem and knows nothing about mental health.

Afterwards, he thanks Henry for his assistance. Henry then tells him that Eliza came back to Australia for him. Henry also tells him that he told Eliza he would move out if she went on the trip with Pete. Henry tells him that his travels around the world have changed him and that Eliza never got that in her youth, but that her time in Australia might be her chance to live her own life.

When Pete sees Cameron sitting alone across the street, he offers to give him a lift home. Cameron tells him about his guilt over Johnny’s injury and Pete tells him it’s not all his fault, as he was the one that botched his treatment.

The next day, Pete tries to talk to Taylor at home, but she tells him that she is getting her stuff and is staying with Chaya for a while. When he goes into work, he runs into Eliza, as Leonie wants to talk to both of them. He asks her if she managed to spend some time with Henry, and she says she did. He tells her about Henry’s apology the night before and asks her why she didn’t tell him the truth. She tells him that if Pete thought that Henry hated him then their relationship wouldn’t have had a chance.

Leonie then calls them downstairs to an office, where Pete is told that a complaint has been made about his treatment of Johnny by Johnny’s family, as his comments to Cameron about his treatment of Johnny made it back to his family. A review will be conducted and until it has finished, Pete is suspended from practising medicine.

Eliza – Eliza spends most of the episode treating patients and in the air. She bonds with Rhys, the patient kicked in the chest by a horse, over divorce and their kids. Whilst she doesn’t give Rhys her phone number, he gives her his business card.

When Eliza and Mira overnight in Adelaide, Mira admits her fears about being a parent and still maintaining her career. Eliza tells her that becoming a parent will expand who she is as a person and she can have it all, but not all at once.

Henry also arrives to surprise her with a quick visit, although they only get to spend a short time together due to Eliza having to spend the night in Adelaide.

Matty – Matty is revealed to be living with Pete, which is surprising as Mira and Wayne offered him a room at their place. Matty is forced to step up and host Desert Dolls, although he only has to do it briefly, as Dolly arrives as he gets started. He later assists Pete with treating Marla’s MDMA overdose.

Taylor – Taylor and her friend, Marla, are seen partying with Cameron and a now fully-recovered Johnny at her house. Marla gives them pills to try, although Taylor doesn’t take any as she gets drug tested at work.

Taylor, Marla, Cameron, and Johnny are then seen partying at Desert Dolls, before Johnny and Marla fall ill due to the drugs, although why Cameron wasn’t affected, is not made clear, as he also took one of the pills.

After her massive fight with Pete, Taylor decides to live with Chaya for a while.

Graham and Leonie – They spent the episode in the background. When Graham awkwardly tries to talk to her at work, it doesn’t go well, with Chaya asking what’s going on between them.

Later, they leave Desert Dolls early to chat in private. It’s during this chat that it’s revealed Graham has two daughters and he used to struggle with anxiety over dying during a flight gone wrong, but he managed it by having his toy nomad, given to him by his daughters, nearby, which he still hasn’t found yet. Leonie tells him about her struggles with anxiety and second guessing herself since the surgery.

Wayne and Mira – Wayne was mostly absent in this episode, with him finally being seen towards the end of the episode, returning from Dubbo as he was helping Darren move into his new place there. Mira picks him up from the airport and reveals that she quit (or at least went on maternity leave), due to her pregnancy-related struggles in the air the previous day, and asks him if he wants to watch movies with her.

Overall, this was a solid penultimate episode. Pete was put front and centre now that Wayne has quit (or perhaps gone on extended leave, this hasn’t exactly been made clear) and experienced solid character development, as he shone as a nurse but also let his judgement of Cameron and Chaya’s mental health treatments for Cameron get the better of him when dealing with the MDMA overdose. It will be interesting to see where his relationships with Taylor and Chaya, as well as his career, goes from here.

I found Leonie and Graham awkwardly trying to deal with their near-kiss in the previous episode to be poorly executed. Despite their best efforts to clear the air, there is still unresolved tension between them and due to this poor execution, I felt that this subplot didn’t really add anything to the episode.

Mira’s choice to quit or at the very least go on maternity leave was not that surprising, as her pregnancy was going to catch up with her and hold her back in the plane eventually. With Wayne mostly absent and now her choice to either quit or go on leave, it will be interesting to see if they appear next week. Perhaps there will be another time jump and she’ll give birth to their daughter.

On smaller notes, there seemed to be some minor continuity errors in this episode, with Matty living with Pete instead of Wayne and Mira as he planned with little explanation as to why the plan changed, and the mention of Darren being gone for months only for Wayne to return from Dubbo as he just helped him move into his new place. The setting of this season, time-wise, has been all over the place, and this episode made it feel even more so.

It will be interesting to see how all of this ends with next week’s finale.

Stray Observations:

-Pete has been trained to land the RFDS plane in case Mira is “drunk, incapacitated, or dilated at 10cm.”

-Apparently, Red Hot Crack was Dolly’s first drag name.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “Are you sure you don’t want ketamine?” “Not ‘til the after party.” (Pete-Dolly Hardon on Dolly’s shoulder pain)