#Transplant Season 1 Episode 11 Review: Orphans

Bash is finally getting help! Transplant Season 1 Episode 11 opens with Bash talking to Dr. Mitchell, the psychologist at York Memorial who offered his help to Bash in the past.

While we don’t get a handy “earlier that day” timecard on our screens, it soon becomes clear that the episode’s events take place before Bash’s own trip to the doctor.

After what we learned on Transplant Season 1 Episode 10, nothing Bash says to his psychiatrist was particularly ground-breaking. We were assuming PTSD, but the good doctor prescribed survivor’s guilt instead.

As physicians, we’re trained never to show weakness. This, despite the long hours, patients’ lives in our hands, their deaths on our minds. We’re taught to suck it up and roll on to the next. But that’s unrealistic. The weight of the job gets to us all. Not just doctors who come from war zones.
Dr. Mitchell

We knew he discovered his mother’s dead body. Survivor’s guilt makes sense. Still, it needed to be said.

Bash needed to say everything he said in that room. He needed to unload, and now he needs to start to heal.

The question becomes, how? Well, don’t ask me; I’m not a doctor.

Bash getting help is a good thing, but as anyone who has been to therapy can tell you, just going isn’t enough. Bash has to want to get better. He has to be willing to make changes.

We now know that Bash’s issues stem from him, thinking he doesn’t deserve help. That being the case, him doing the work to help himself seems less likely. We shouldn’t count him out yet, though. This is Bash we’re talking about.

Bash: Nicole asked me to contact her mother. Our social worker is trying to reach her.

Marty: Thirteen years she’s been in max. Mother never showed, not once.

Bash: You said earlier that she was getting out. Her release is soon?

Marty: Statutory after two thirds of her haul. Never slipped up once, until now. Nic was a kid when she came in. My own daughter was just born at the time. Anyway, she worked hard to change. But bringing this trouble on herself? You see that when they don’t wanna go. When they’re scared to.

Bash’s inspiration to seek help came from a woman who also didn’t think she deserved help. A girl who killed someone when she was barely legal with prompting from an abusive boyfriend.

It sounds like Nicole and her boyfriend were running a Bonnie and Clyde act, with Clyde taking advantage of Bonnie.

She seemed nice, but we saw that more from her police escort. He clearly cared about her. Usually, the media portrays wardens and the like as borderline abusive. This made it look like he considered her basically his daughter.

It was a very sweet relationship, but it might not play so well given the current political climate regarding law enforcement.

Nicole and Bash may have been scared of making changes, but Mags seems to be putting her all into it. Her wake-up call on Transplant Season 1 Episode 9 has her cutting back on work.

Dr. Mitchell: That’s heartbreaking.

Bash: She shut down. She wouldn’t discuss any other treatment options with me after that.

Dr. Mitchell: Why do you thnik that was?

Bash: With her prison term coming to an end, I think that she thought if her mother would forgive her, that she would deserve to get out.

Dr. Mitchell: Same reason she was starting fights. Because your patient didn’t think she deserved her release.

Bash: And knowing that her mother wouldn’t come, even when she was so sick, made her give up on life.

She’s clearly glad to be back in emergency medicine, but she’s trying to avoid collapsing again. It’s not just about overworking, though.

Mags had a return patient, the firewoman, Jessica, from Transplant Season 1 Episode 6. Jessica has COPD, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Her lungs may recover, but if she keeps working as a firewoman, she’ll die.

Obviously, Mags sympathizes with her patient. Jessica can no longer do her job, and she realizes she has nothing else in her life. Doesn’t that sum up Mags?

June also realized that it’s important to have friends and a life outside of work. She’s not that weird, awkward kid anymore.

On Transplant Season 1 Episode 1, when we first met Mags and June, they seemed kind of like frenemies. They were work rivals, both trying to impress Dr. Bishop. Still, there was a similarity there, both in their interests and in their drive.

Dr. Bishop: Dr. Curtis, take point.

Bash: Sir, I’ve done a REBOA before.

Dr. Bishop: Then you’re not missing out, are you?

Now, Mags seems to be reaching out to June, cultivating a friendship, and June is reciprocating. It’s nice. They both deserve to have a life outside the hospital.

Of course, making friends with your co-workers might not follow you if you lose your job. Then again, making friends with people you don’t work with might mean you never see your friends. It’s a quandary.

Theo’s work choices might mean he never sees his family. That’s already basically true, but now it could become permanent.

I gotta say (sorry, Theo) that I side with Melissa on this one. He really did not handle things well. If it was as important to him as we know it is, he should have brought it up again. Instead, he decided without her.

Theo is a nice guy. Not in a toxic way or anything; he’s genuinely nice. That’s not bad. However, it would appear he’s also nonconfrontational, which can be a problem, especially in a marriage.

Theo: Wait, you, you bribed him?

June: I tried. It didn’t work.

Theo: So, you’re saying he was thirteen?

June: Chelation therapy’s not gonna be easy for a kid his age, but given how extensive his lead poisoning is, he may need it.

Theo: Okay, so then why are you calling me?

June: Because he won’t talk to me.

Theo: You, you called me to ask how to talk to your patient?

June: Well, I mean, normally I deal with adults, okay?

Couples need to be able to talk and to fight. They need to communicate to figure out their lives.

Theo didn’t communicate. He just did what he wanted, and he hoped Melissa would go along when he left her no other choice. That’s a Jerk move, dude.

While Theo’s relationship is going the way of the Spartans, Dr. Bishop and Claire are having a bit of a renaissance. I didn’t really think they were over when Claire said she needed time on her own. Or at least, I hoped they weren’t.

I’m glad I had hope because it seems I was right. They are getting back together!

Dr. Bishop is getting all his ducks in a row, likely just in time for his injury from Transplant Season 1 Episode 1 to come back in play.

Dr. Bishop: What does your patient say?

Bash: Not much. She’s afriad, disengaged from her treatment,

Dr. Bishop: People don’t always want the things they need, huh? Talk to her. Get her consent.

They keep hinting at it. It is going to be a thing, mark my words. In the meantime, he and Claire can enjoy each other’s company.

There were a few other nice scenes, like the one Theo shared with Amira. He really is good with kids.

June isn’t, or at least she didn’t think she was. She seems exactly like the sort of person who wouldn’t like kids, and I don’t mean that as an insult. She’s a good person, though, and with some advice from Theo, she got through to Glen.

His case was a little disturbing, but I guess it could happen. I suppose we should be grateful it wasn’t anything in the museum that made him sick.

The episode ended with hope and a new beginning for all … except Theo. Now it’s just a question of how long it will last. Will everybody continue to work on their issues, picking up momentum, and moving forward? Or will they stall?

Bash: How’re you feeling?

Ms. Spencer: Like I lost the fight.

Bash: I’d have to see your opponent to know for sure.

MS. Spencer: I guess if I don’t make it, we’ll know she won.

Bash: Well, let’s not call it just yet.

What do you think, Fanatics? Can Mags make a life outside work? Will she and June become BFFs? Will Theo work things out with Melissa? Will Bash work on himself?

Let us know in the comments, and remember, you can watch Transplant online right here via TV Fanatic.

Transplant airs on Tuesdays at 10/9c on NBC.

Leora W is a staff writer for TV Fanatic..