#Nurses Season 1 Episode 2 Review: Undisclosed Conditions

We knew Grace kept a few secrets after watching Nurses Season 1 Episode 1, but it turns out she wasn’t the only one. On Nurses Season 1 Episode 2, we learned that four out of five of our favorite nurses have secrets. 

Grace’s secret might not even be the biggest. Granted, hers is pretty big. Still, it’s a close thing because Wolf’s secret is huge regarding his past and future.

Keon’s secret was by no means small, and while Naz’s was relatively minor, it still told us a lot about her character. 

You’re only as sick as your secrets. They can isolate you, or leave you paralyzed. If you’re not careful, secrets can become your entire identity. But you only have to be brave enough to tell one person, and then it isn’t a secret anymore.
Grace

Learning people’s secrets is one of the best ways to get to know them. Good characters are also the backbone of any good show, and now that we know those four a little better, we can see that this will be a spectacular series.

So, let’s start with Wolf. Like I said, his secret is pretty huge, but it raises him so much in our eyes. On Nurses Season 1 Episode 1, Wolf was like a lost puppy, with no clue what he was doing, but desperate to please. 

We had much of the same here. He lost a patient. Not call-it lost, lost-and-found lost. However, he was also maybe the only one who could get through to that patient. 

It’s hard not to be surly when your body is failing you. Gabby, played by Anwen O’Driscoll from Burden of Truth, felt miserable and alone.

Some of her behavior was hard on her parents and her health care providers. But you can’t just call someone with a chronic and possibly terminal illness out and tell them they’re selfish.

Gabby: Is this the part where you give me a pep talk about how life is precious or something?

Wolf: Nope. This is the part where I tell you to stop being such a selfish dick.

That is unless you’ve been chronically ill and possibly terminal yourself. Wolf’s been there because he had leukemia as a kid.

While he’s no longer living on borrowed time, he has to spend money he doesn’t have on illegal drugs to make sure it doesn’t return.

When we saw him popping pills as the show began, with Grace’s voiceover about secrets playing, it was hard not to jump to the worst conclusion. But Wolf needs those pills.

His life has been hard, and it still is. He has every right to be mad at the world. Instead, he chose to enter a field where the primary purpose is to care for people. Not just that, but he chose to be best friends with the very surly Ashley. 

Ashely: You know, if you side-eye any harder, they’re just gonna spin the whole way around.

Wolf: Huh? What? Ashley, I was just, you know … The, uh … Ash, you’re the kindest, most loyalest person I know, but when you don’t like someone …

Ashley: Look, I do not have to be nice to her just because she’s your new bestie.

Wolf: Are you jealous? Come one, you know I’ll always love you first. Come, hugs.

Ashley: No, no, no, you are so lucky it is impossible to give someone a wedgie in scrubs.

He’s patient with her, but he also calls her out when she’s not nice. He offers her hugs and encourages her to play nice with others. 

Ashley isn’t the only person he’s sweet either. Despite his best friend spreading stories about her, he offers to listen when he sees Grace sitting alone and looking panicked.

It’s not because he’s curious, and it’s not because he’s prying. He’s kind!

This boy is a cinnamon bun. Seeing how much he cares for people, despite his life being pretty terrible, makes it impossible not to love him. He’s definitely in the right field.

Keon, unlike Wolf, is in perfect health. My money was on him having to quit football because he had some career-ending injury. I was close; there was a career-ending injury. It just wasn’t him who had it.

Keon: That Queens game? That insane tackle? I walked away, the other guy didn’t. He doesn’t walk at all anymore. Spinal cord injury.

Trent: Damn. I didn’t … I didn’t know.

Keon: That was the angle. Hit him just right to fracture a C5 vertebrae. It was just a routine play for me, but changed his life forever

Trent: That’s not your fault, man. You know that, right?

Keon: I quit football because I wanted to be a nurse. I don’t want to hurt people anymore; I want to help ’em.

The guilt that guy feels has got to be insane. His joke on Nurses season 1 Episode 1 about his family just being happy that he wasn’t breaking bones in his new field doesn’t feel quite so funny anymore.

What’s frustrating is, Keon chose this. He’s not some washed-up sports star. He really wants to help people.

Yet everybody still sees him as Mr. Football. They don’t take him seriously when he’s so serious about wanting to help people. 

On top of that, he had to watch his friend go through something tragic. Learning you can’t have kids when that’s all you’ve been wanting, and you can’t afford other avenues is heartbreaking. Life for these nurses is not easy.

Keon: In school they teach you about risk. You think you know everything can change in a second, but you don’t. Not really, not until it happens. How do you do it? How are you not afraid all the time?

Dr. Banks: You are. You’re afraid so much it becomes a part of the ir you breathe. You feel it, and then you push through anyway for your patients.

Life was once very easy for Nazneen, though. She had it so good; she never had to change her own sheets! Now she doesn’t know-how. 

It made sense for Sinead to get upset. That’s the job. If you think you’re “too good for” it, you don’t belong there. It’s thankless, hard, and gross, but man, is it important! I’m glad she drove that home.

There probably won’t be many code browns on screen because who would want to watch that? Still, zeroing in on the gross and menial stuff nurses have to do was a great move.

As for Nazneen, thankfully, she wasn’t trying to avoid work; she didn’t know how to do it. It’s not as uncommon as one might think. Many people never learn basic tasks because they don’t have to, and then when they have to, they freeze.

This is your mess, and you’re gonna clean it up if I have to watch you do it! Go on then, get to it! You think changing a bed or cleaning up puke is beneath you? This is nursing, this is what we do. When a patient is sick or scared, we reassure them that someone sees them, lets them know they are more than their illness.
Sinead

As someone who grew up with a dishwasher and is still trying to master washing dishes by hand, I can sympathize with Naz’s plight. It’s embarrassing to admit you struggle with adulting, especially when it’s your job.

Thankfully, Sinead was understanding. It was a bonding moment between two impressive ladies that nobody should underestimate.

Grace and Ashley’s moment was far from a bonding moment. Ashley didn’t have a secret, and she didn’t have much else to recommend her to the audience either.

Wolf may have surprised me in this episode, but I’m still waiting for Ashley too. She’s not the nicest person, and she doesn’t seem to like her job or follow the rules.

She can be petty, jealous, and downright mean. She also spread stories about Grace and wouldn’t respect her patient’s choices.

Grace: You do not get to tell someone else’s secret.

Ashley: Oh, come on. I wasn’t going to. Someone should tell him. It’s cruel to lie.

Grace: We don’t get to make that decision, Ashley; people keep secrets for a reason.

Ashley: Like when they don’t want everyone to know they almost killed someone at their last job? I heard you left sponges in a patient after surgery.

Grace: Whatever you think you know, whoever you think that I am, you’re wrong.

Her only redeeming quality is that Wolf love’s her, so there must be something there we’re not seeing. Hopefully, we’ll see it soon, because I’m up to here with this girl.

Finally, Grace’s secret. Or, rather, secrets. We already know one, from Nurses Season 1 Episode 1, we know she’s seeing someone who is not exactly single.

We also know that she used to work in a prestigious OR and left for some reason. Now we know the reason. 

She left sponges in a patient. She knew telling would get her canned, but she also knew not telling would harm the patient. So she spoke up.

But wait, there’s more. Grace didn’t leave those sponges in the patient because she was negligent. She left them in because her rockstar boss, Dr. Hamilton, moved from sexual harassment to sexual assault in the OR.

Grace: Before today, I hadn’t been in the OR in over a year. Last time was a routine surgery, but I made a mistake, a big one. And I had.a choice: I could either keep quiet and protect myself or I could tell somebody. It’s the scariest thing that I ever did, but it saved the patient’s life. And I got fired.

Maki: Do you regret it?

Grace: Not for a second.

It would be hard to focus on operating if your boss was raping you while performing it. What an entitled A#@$! How do we live in a world where he can get away with that?

Now, it’s his word against hers, which means she’s screwed. Because he’s a rockstar among rockstars, and she’s the girl who deals with code browns.

Grace may not want our sympathy, or Ashley’s, but she certainly has our respect. These nurses may not be rockstars, but they are superheroes. 

At least Grace has her boyfriend (and his fiance) to make her feel better. She isn’t without options, though. She and Dr. Evan Wallace have gotten awfully chummy. I wouldn’t be surprised if we got a love triangle out of all that flirting.

Dr Wallace: You know, a lot of people don’t like working in the ER. It’s too hectic, too risky. But me, I like how simple it is. No matter who or what comes through that door, I have one job; just keep them alive.

Grace: Yeah. Feels weird not to do that.

Dr. Wallace: Doctors and nurses practice different medicine. I can stitch them up, send them off to surgery, even restart their heart, but once they make the choice to refuse those options, my work for the patient is done.

Grace: Yeah, but mine isn’t.

Speaking of, will Dr. Banks and Keon just make-out already? If it wasn’t obvious before, them seeing each other half-naked sent a clear message to the audience.

I’m all for them getting together, partly because it’ll keep the actress around. Plus, the chemistry is through the roof!

What did you think, Fanatics? Which secret surprised you the most? Do you love Wolf? Respect Grace? Relate to Naz? How long do you think until Keon and Dr. Banks to hook up? And will Ashley redeem herself in coming episodes?

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

Nurses airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on NBC.

Leora W is a staff writer for TV Fanatic..