Emily Owens: Micah Makes his Move

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

This. If the substance in this episode had been present in the early episodes, we might not be looking at the end of this series next week. Cassandra breaking up with Will because he won't stop being friends with Emily, Micah doing odd favors for Emily while waiting to make his move, Emily's heart breaking when a patient's condition is worse than expected, and Tyra moving out of her father's house and in with Emily. This is all dramatic gold, people! Yes, it took time for the Will-and-Emily thing to play out so that both Cassandra and Micah could do those things. But why couldn't Tyra have caused more stress for Emily six episodes ago? Why did we have to wait until now for a mass transit accident to bring patients flooding into the hospital? It's Denver! It's been snowing for about three months now! Surely a bus could have crashed before the end of January! It's not like they gave us huge holiday episodes to work around or anything! Anyway, I need to stop analyzing how the writers could have done this medical drama differently. I'll be picking apart Monday Mornings soon enough!

Emily Owens, M.D. "Emily and... the Perfect Storm" (S01E12): Drama first! Tyra runs out of gas and her dad helps her out, though she feels like he treats her like a kid. [...why call your dad then? call a friend!] Apparently, she still lives at home, so to change things she's going to crash with Emily before getting her own place. Emily, meanwhile, is busy reorganizing her new office space as Gina's research assistant. It's a glorified supply closet, but Micah still tries to impress her with a new office chair and a poster. [awww. I loved that!] Micah actually decides to make his move and kiss Emily, but they're interrupted by Tyra wanting to "go home" and Will, who was just dumped by Cassandra because she doesn't approve of his friendship with Emily. Also, Emily tells Will that she's over him, and we learn that she met her musician father once when she was five. [finally! episode 12 and we learn something about her family!!]

The medical parts of this episode stem from a commuter bus accident, and Emily is put in charge of ER triage.

Liane Hentscher/ The CW

Patient 1: A returning soldier with a head wound that turns serious. Emily and Cassandra drain blood from near his brain in an MRI room, but he later has surgery. He doesn't want to  worry his father, who has a heart condition, but the man finds out and walks several miles through the snow to get to the hospital. [wow. also, I liked hearing Cassandra admit that there are things at which Emily is superior.]

Patient 2: A young medical student with a very injured arm. She can't wait until her dad can be there to go into surgery, so she bears it alone. [that's gotta SUCK!] There's complications and Emily had to relay surgical directions to Gina from a specialist on the phone. [if this doesn't make me relive the flory days of ER...] The patient winds up losing her arm, and Emily is heartbroken, as this will likely prevent her from achieving her dream to be a surgeon. [and, of course, all true ER fans flash briefly to Dr. Romano...]

Patient 3: A blind man with an ill guide dog. Emily and Will treat the pooch in Emily's new office, and Tyra and Cassandra wind up helping, too.

Patient 4: A pregnant woman needs an emergency c-section. Her premature baby winds up in the NICU, but she hemorrhages and dies. The father no longer wants the child, so it's up to Tyra and her father to convince him to at least wait 24 hours before making any decisions. [holy moly that must be terrible! you'll always remember your wife's death on your child's birthday!]