Remember to breathe while watching 'Private Practice'
It's all about babies and sex this week on Private Practice, in that order, with a gun thrown in for a little drama. And it's not the couple you think it is having the sex, but I'm darn happy about it.
Spoilers ahead. Do some Lamaze breathing. In, out, in, out.
Three babies, three very different deliveries, and truthfully, none of them remotely realistic. I know it's TV and all, but have none of the people connected to this show ever given birth? We've already wondered if any of them know a professional woman... so maybe they haven't. Or maybe they all had C-sections or something. Anyway, I found myself laughing at these storylines, even when I shouldn't have been.
Susan, a young pregnant widow, comes in with a birth plan the length of her arm, which means nothing on the birth plan will go as prescribed. Her husband, a police officer, was killed in the line of duty, and his buddies (led by Kevin, played by David Sutcliffe, most recently seen on Gilmore Girls, may it rest in awesome TV heaven) want to be a part of Susan's labor and delivery. One of them even offers to be in the room with her during delivery. She, however, wants nothing to do with them. But after a heart-to-heart with Pete, and Addison climbing into a birth pool to give her support during the final pushes, she gives birth to a baby boy who is welcomed by the police officers.
Dell gets the opportunity to deliver the fourth child, and the first girl, to a woman so used to labor and delivery everything takes about six minutes (but she didn't recognize she was in labor in the first place. Whatever.) When it seems the ultrasound was mistaken, and the fourth child is another boy, Mom freaks out, and demands a girl. With the help of Violet, Cooper, Naomi, and Dell, she tells her husband that he needs to be more of a husband and father, and less of a buddy to their hellion sons. If I were the mom to those three sons, I'd be demanding a girl too, but wow, what an easy and fast turnaround on the dad's part. I'm still not sure what the point to this storyline was, if only because they thought they needed yet another birth on this episode.
Sam gets called by a patient to a liquor store, where he finds Kelly (played by Sara Gilbert, the infamous Darlene on Roseanne) has shot her boyfriend in the leg, and has gone into labor. Kelly is upset that her boyfriend has left her, with no money and no means of taking care of the baby. Sam delivers the baby on the floor of the store. Oh, and I forgot to mention Darlene, I mean Kelly, pistolwhipped him in the middle of a contraction, which comes in as the most plausible birth moment of the show.
Violet and Cooper decide to become Friends with Benefits, but Cooper tells her he can't go through with it... after he's already seen her naked. That just set them up for marriage. Addison and Pete make a date to Do the Deed, but Pete stands her up, visiting Violet instead to confess that he and his dead wife had been trying to get pregnant. That just means he needs a lot more therapy, since we already know he hated his dead wife. Cooper retreats to Addison's house, where they share a pizza and commiserate.
But in a fabulous last minute scene, Naomi jumps Sam after chewing him out for delivering a baby without help, while the mom held a gun on him. Because a pistolwhipped, adventurous Taye Diggs is an even sexier Taye Diggs.
Now, I'm starting to think that when Addison and Pete finally do get it on, it's going to be boring. They're overtalking it. You can only have so many unfulfilled sexy, non-subtle moments without consummation before it just becomes pointless. But I'm very anxious to see what happens between Naomi and Sam now. It's going to break Dell's heart, but that's ok. Naomi needed sex more than any of these people, and basically, I'm just glad someone on this show finally hooked up.
What did you think of tonight's episode? Do you miss Gilmore Girls too? Did you find Cooper's change of mind endearing or tedious?
A combination of both. because if Cooper had backed out before seeing her naked maybe he could have saved some face but at the very least he should have gone tit for tat and dropped his drawers for a few minutes so Violet wouldn't have felt used and humiliated. Quite frankly if she had already gone that far I think the time was past and you're only going to hurt her in the moment, no matter how you'll feel later. Plus even as a 20 year old I find Amy Brenneman smoking hot (and I really wish ABC still had the stones to do the kind of scenes she pioneered on NYPD Blue. Then we really would have seen something). As for Pete and Addison, IDK. I think the Violet/Cooper thing is far more interesting and I'm glad they're tapping into it.
glad to see this improve. Thats the truth.
To be honest, the hottest thing in this episode was David Sutcliffe standing around. He so needs to be back.
I'm all for Naomi/Sam, but I feel bad for Dell. Yeah, I do.
I loved the 4th son mini-arc and have actually seen the equivalent of her reaction - 'put it back and pull out a girl! I want pink!' My wife and I cracked up over that.
I didn't care that much for the convenience store baby arc, but at least it was a medical story instead of the usual soap opera stuff. I did like the fact that Sam had to call Naomi for advice and the 'Dr. Phil' line was great!
Violet and Cooper was bittersweet and sad.
The best part was with the poor widow, overcompensating to control her grief. Pete and Addison were wonderful together in those scenes.
The best part of this show is when the medical issues bring the doctors together, because otherwise it might as well be called the Horny Women's Chat Club.
Why were Naomi and Sam divorced again? There sure doesn't seem to be any reason those 2 are separated...
Kiley, I'm not sure what you find so unbelievable about the birth stories. Have you got children?
As a mother who has had a similar situation to the widow I did find this very well done. And yes Addison getting into the tub would have calmed anyone down under those cir***stances. It made her feel more comfortable and not alone. I defy any women to say that at some time during labour they didnt want to stop and not give birth.
I also have a friend with 7 boys who desperately wanted a girl and reacted the same way with #7. It was very hard for her to bond with the baby.
As for the husbands behaviour you cant really say it was part of the birth so it doesnt count as unrealistic as far as the birth is concerned.
I cant comment on the robbery birth as I have no experience in that area (never robbed a store) All I can say is that fast as it may have been we must remember it is a TV show and concludes in an hour.
Cooper went straight to Pete and told him about his friends with benefits deal with Violet?! How cr*** was that?? And then he couldn't go through with it? What a bastard - I've gone right off him.
In fact the men didn't come off too well at all in this episode. The whining, mean spirited man who got Darlene pregnant then left her penniless and the controlling, patronizing police officers who wanted the poor widow to her her new baby their way but no-one thought to help her through her grief first.
And the poor Mother who had too many sons and an ineffectual husband. At least all the men turned out alright in the end.
I hate to attack the writers when they're on strike but really, what kind of a midwife are they trying to turn poor Dell into? He may be young but he's a young adult and he's fully trained as a midwife so, in his job why is he so like John Ritter constantly prat-falling over everything and panicking - it's so out of character. And why was Addison in the birthing tub instead of "touchy, feely" Pete? Addison's the baby professional Pete should have been doing the hugging. And, what's with Addison turning down a genuine prospect of a real date with darling Christopher from Gilmore Girls for Pete who just wants to "see how it goes" after all her protestations of 'wanting more'? I was not impressed with the writing this ep as all the characters personalities seemed upside down but whomever's idea it was to get Taye Diggs' shirt off I thank you so very much!!
Yep, I have two kids. I think I just have a thing against TV versions of birth. It all seems so hurried and edited. I should get over it.
I actually liked this episode the best. I never really wanted Christopher to end up with Lorelai on Gilmore Girls but as an LAPD officer in his uniform, David Sutcliff, was HOT. I could see him and Addison being together. I really hope they bring him back. And Sam/Naomi was great too. It was a good episode.