Red Band Society: Season 1/ Episode 12 – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

Overview

As Red Band Society preps for its final goodbye, it tries to leave us with a bit of faith that things will end better than it begun for those we have fell in love with watching.

Topic 1: You Got To Have A Little Faith – Jordie and Leo

Topic 2: Love Is Imperfect In Setup, But Immaculate While In The Moment – Kara, Dash, and Nurse Jackson

Review (with Spoilers) – Below

Topic 1: You Got To Have A Little Faith – Jordie and Leo

With the death of Hunter, partly due to Dr. McAndrew [1], and now Leo’s cancer coming back, Jordie has lost faith in Dr. McAndrew. Something his abuela says he does far too often whenever he doesn’t get the answers he wants. Hence why he took himself, a minor, from Mexico to California without approval, or even letting his grandmother knowing. But this time, after Dr. McAndrew apologizes to her about not contacting her, or making sure Jordie did, she decides to try to reassure Jordie’s wavering faith, and make sure he can get the surgery.

As for Leo, with his cancer returning comes him going into depression. After all, he thought he was leaving and now he is stuck once more. Though with Jordie’s renewed faith in Dr. McAndrew, and his spirit being given the energy it needs to push forward, he tries to push Leo out of his mindset. Leading to one of the two moments in the episode which may get you teary eyed as he vows to support Leo as Leo supported him.

Commentary

While it always sucks when shows end during their first season, or before you can get storylines fully developed and get to see the ending, sometimes being left wanting more is better than a show overstaying its welcome. And, right now, all I can hope for is that episode 13 gives closure and hope. For with Leo back in battle for his life, and Jordie on the way to having surgery too, we are left hoping that when all is said and done, these boys will wave goodbye to us from within the hospital, sober and awake, and not as they walk toward the light.

Topic 2: Love Is Imperfect In Setup, But Immaculate While In The Moment – Kara, Dash, and Nurse Jackson

To begin, let us speak on Nurse Jackson and Dr. Naday. Their relationship has had many road bumps for with her trying to wait for normalcy before they start dating, and him trying to look for opportunities to just see her, things are difficult. After all, he is asking for lunch dates while Nurse Jackson is looking for a dead child’s shirt because his mother wants it before she buries her son. Plus, he wants to talk about work, and know how she is, while she is still processing everything and trying to not let it affect her to the point of deciding to just quit. So it makes getting together hard, at least until she opens up and decides to be vulnerable with him and allow him to join her when it comes to Hunter’s funeral.

And before we talk about Hunter and Kara’s final moments, let’s go into Mae (Jessica Lu) and Dash’s relationship. Something which apparently has been going on for around a year, while Dash was trying to hit on any girl who seemed like they would sleep with him. Now, as for the reason why he actively pursued cheating while dating Mae? Well it is because she has cystic fibrosis as well. Meaning, according to him, that being in the same room is dangerous for they could infect each other and it leading to death. Despite this though, after he explains to Mae all he has done, and why, they kiss. Sharing perhaps the first taste of love either has experienced due to their condition.

Leaving us with the heartbreaker. With Kara getting her heart transplant it means being in the empty white hospital, where Charlie was stuck during his coma. But rather than be alone, Hunter is there. If only for one reason: to have Kara accept his heart. Something she feels undeserving of due to her sleeping with Leo, but she is forgiven. In fact, he doesn’t seem to care. He just wants to make sure Kara keeps on living. So, in order to convince her, he takes her to her happy place: Paris. A place where, as a young child, her dad took her to prep her for his divorce from her mom. But before the divorce was revealed, she was in bliss. She felt like she was in a movie and now got the chance to share such a moment with Hunter. Something which leads her to think about just dying so they could have more moments together, but he sways her to keep on living. If only because he doesn’t want her to die for him, but live for him, leading to another teary-eyed moment.

Commentary

Though I have cried before watching this show, knowing it is ending makes each scene just a bit more impactful. Especially for Kara since she has evolved so much over the course of the season, to the point her storyline seems perfect – almost mini-series perfection. For while this isn’t written like something Emmy or Golden Globe worthy, there remains a sense of heart that many shows don’t have since they focus more on entertainment. Making each relationship, whether platonic or romantic, seem like it is made to do more than be a ship, OTP, or what have you. For the main idea is to show the need for intimacy to get through tough situations vs. for the sake of dealing with being horny. And while Red Band Society did have the Emma love triangle, at the same time it was because Leo and Jordie needed her. Not just because she was cute and available.

Things To Note

[1] Dr. McAndrew and Dr. Grace have a conversation which makes it seem aggressive chemotherapy was the reason for Hunter’s live failure, which may have been caused by Dr. McAndrew.

Charlie can now move his hands and arms, and I expect he should be walking around, if not talking, by the final scene of the next episode.