Emily Owens: Car Accident and a Jaw Tumor

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

If I didn't know there were only five episodes of this medical drama remaining, I think I'd drop this series. Emily has become too confrontational with Cassandra (and Micah, for that matter), her musings have finally gotten annoying (though I know that happened for most people seven episodes ago), and Will's flip-flop attitude toward their relationship isn't even that interesting. In this episode, Will can't decide if he wants to study for the big exam using Emily's notecard method or Cassandra's app. Has he never managed to come up with his own style of learning in twenty years? Plus, Tyra's "I know enough to pass" perspective on the test made it seem like it wasn't going to be incredibly difficult anyway. The medicine scenes were a bit more jolting than the average for the CW, but they're not the sort of situations that you can really repeat without having the longevity of ER. Are any TheTalkingBox readers still tuning in to Emily's latest drama, or have you torn yourself away quicker than I?

Emily Owens, M. D. "Emily and... the Car and the Cards" (S01E08): Emily is great at taking tests and has a categorized notecard system, which Will thinks of borrowing. [I was one of those kids who just rewrote everything over and over.] Cassandra teases them about being old-fashioned, brandishing her app that contains all 1500 questions that have ever appeared on the in-service exam. In contrast, Emily's cards are based on the 574 questions that have appeared in the past ten years. Will decides to try the app instead, but Emily becomes overly paranoid over her cards, even thinking that Cassandra stole them when she really just picked up the wrong lab coat. [ouch at Dr. Mendari hearing Emily complain about the exam being scheduled after an all-night shift.] Will is awkward all episode and eventually confides in Emily that he was in an accident in high school where his girlfriend died, and he struggled seeing something similar happen. [yeah, I pointed that out before talking about the patient. deal with it.] 

Patient 1: A seventeen-year-old girl (not wearing a seatbelt) was in a terrible car accident, with a pole still protruding from her abdomen. [holy cow!] Emily preps the parents (Will can't bring himself to do it) and brings them to see their daughter, who promptly apologizes for lying over her whereabouts. [of course. we have to add every extra ounce of drama possible.] Everyone must be very comfortable not to jar the patient, but when the pole won't fit in the MRI machine, they have to have a maintenance man saw off part of it. [I'm SHOCKED that doing so didn't hurt anything!] The scan shows that the pole hit just about every internal thing it could, which is bad news. The boy driving has been in trouble with drugs before, so Will tests him, though he turns out to be clean. His nose begins bleeding, and Emily winds up diagnosing him with lupus, which gave him the double vision that caused the accident. [figures.] Meanwhile, the surgery on the girl takes so long that the team rotates multiple times. The end result is that her spinal cord was injured and she may be paralyzed, but she has feeling in her lower extremities after a while. [that would've been sad if they did all that work and she ended up unable to move.] 

Photo: Jack Rowand/ The CW.

Patient 2: A woman with constant jaw pain has a CT that shows a growth. But, she's supposed to be traveling soon and wants to wait on the biopsy. After her boyfriend is out of the room, the model expresses concern about a potential scar on her face. [haha at Emily pretending to be thrilled for her potential engagement.] She has the biopsy (because it won't leave an external mark) and it reveals cancer. Of course, she refuses to have part of her jaw removed and wants an alternative treatment. [not gonna lie, I'm just as shocked as Emily about this!] Emily suggests that even weeks could make a big difference, and then she seeks Micah's counsel. He tells her to stop judging the patient and reaffirms their mentor/mentee relationship is nothing more. [ouch!] She says that it sucks, because she liked being friends. [blah blah blah.] Emily talks to the resident again, and says that it's better to be alive than smart/pretty, but the model still decides to seek out the other treatment first.