BWW Recap: Nurse Jackson Get's To 'Know Thyself,' on RED BAND SOCIETY

If you were ever wondering why RED BAND SOCIETY is such a fantastic show, you don't have to look past tonight's episode to find out. Nurse Jackson has her backstory filled out; Emma and Leo have their first "date;" newbie patient, and bad-boy, Hunter, leads an adventure; and there's something funny going on in the, "In-Between." Rounding everything out, we have some more funny moments with Nurses Kenji and Brittney.

Last week's suspension of Nurse Jackson by Dr. McAndrews is not going over well with our teenage residents of Ocean Park Hospital, who start to rally together to make a plan, or a list of demands. McAndrews is persona non grata, and can't even get his weekly taco from the food truck arranged. We start to see all the little things that Nurse Jackson has her finger on the pulse of, and it slowly starts to spin out of control, starting with the kid's meeting to figure out what to do about the situation as Leo gets pulled out by a surprise visit from some old school friends.

Leo grabs Emma's hand and pulls her to meet his friends, and she is not quite sure if she is ready. As they meet Leo's two friends, Emma's fears start to crystalize as she finds out the game plan, they are all going to go out to lunch, not the first idea that someone being treated for anorexia would have preferred. The lunch goes as awkward as you can imagine, especially with Leo's friend who seems to have a serious problem of not filtering as she talks and then never stops talking. You have to give Leo some credit, he was saying most of the right things at each juncture, but it was still not enough, and some of the silence Leo let linger was deafening to Emma. Strangely enough, the motor-mouth friend, basically called Emma out on all of her own demons she was imagining with Leo and they both end up sharing a cookie in the end, a HUGE step for Emma. Talk about sweet.......hmmm double entendre much Scott?

As Leo and Emma go on their date, Hunter, the new boy with the bad lungs, talks the remaining RED BAND'ers, Kara, Jordi, and Dash, to go on a "real" adventure. While they sneak through the hospital, stealing some scrubs along the way, we find out that Hunter really was supposed to be getting some new lungs when he was wheeled next to Kara last week as she was getting her pacemaker surgery, but the lung ended up being bad. After donning the scrubs, Hunter takes them into a real operating suite as a procedure is going on, forcing them to look at their operations they face from an outsider perspective. Of course they got caught in this little adventure and in a mad, "Dash," to get away, Dash is not doing so good, since he missed two oxygen treatments without Nurse Jackson's watchful eyes. Dr. McAndrews is able to save the day, but he is not a happy camper. It also brings the RED BAND SOCIETY back together again.

Throughout the episode we get to see a little bit of Nurse Jackson at home. Her niece is visiting and we first find out that Jackson is paying for her room and board at college while her dad pays the tuition. A Nurse Kenji and Brittany intervention is attempted and we find that Jackson also had a once promising career as a backup singer, and after a Kenji challenge, they end up being at karaoke to prove it. Let's just say that lil miss Academy Award winning actress can SANG! The singing got cut short as her sister passes away while she is rehearsing, and that, and innate love of children drove her to being the nurse she is today. An emergency call from the duty nurse, brings Jackson back to Ocean Park and a final showdown with Dr. McAndrews. Turns out it was him that had the duty nurse call and they he takes Jackson off of suspension as they realize, they both need each other.

Alright, the way to my heart is John Hughes movies, and the ending of the episode this week was pure THE BREAKFAST CLUB, and it was a perfect love letter to Nurse Jackson. Also, as Dash is recovering from his incident, he steps into the, "In-Between," which is looking a little darker than normal, and he is calling out for Charlie. Surprisingly he is nowhere to be found, and as Dash goes from one hallway to another darker one, Nurse Jackson goes in to check on Charlie before she goes home, as she says goodbye, she looks down and Charlie is staring up at her, blinking. Goose Pimples!

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What I Liked:

I really got an appreciation for cheerleader, Kara, as we get introduced to Hunter a little more. Where she is all snark and funny, Hunter comes across as just mean and bitter, and they make a good contrast.

The longest episode outside of the hospital yet. The Nurse Jackson back story was a great way to introduce elements that don't have to do with sickness and was actually fun.

I am so glad they did not drag out this fight between Jackson and McAndrews. These kids need them fighting together and that was the point of this whole episode, and it worked.

Questions:

How long will Emma's new found courage to try food last?

Charlie's awake? How we going to keep him with his fellow patients now?

Since Nurse Jackson can sing, when is the "very special musical episode" airing? Kenji can choreograph!

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