BWW Recap: RED BAND SOCIETY Searches for the 'Sole' Survivor

Welcome back Stranger Friends, the RED BAND SOCIETY has met once again on FOX and the show brought the drama in its dramedy format to this episode. The theme of the week was, drumroll please, shoes! Well, not shoes exactly, (although the opening sequence was all about everyone from the knee down) but the deeper meaning of that time honored cliché, don't judge a person until you have walked a mile in their, yada, yada, yada.

I shouldn't get so picky about moving the story along this early in the season, but I love continuity, and I just didn't get how we went from Leo waving at Jordi from the waiting room as Jordi went into surgery last week to having his leg amputated to stop his cancer growth, to Leo, Dash, Emma and Kara hanging out on the hospital's front lawn, as Leo tries to hit golf balls with his new prosthetic leg. Leo makes a good speech about how they should be there for Jordi, and how the others take for granted the simple process of waking up and putting both feet on the ground as you get ready to start your day.

Soon Leo and Dash are both back up in the waiting room as we see out the window there is a college frat house directly across the street from the hospital. Leo looks over a bit wistfully and has a brief flash back to when he was playing soccer and had a full head of hair. Grumpy Cat, a.k.a. Nurse Jackson, reminds Leo that he should be getting used to his new leg up at Physical Therapy, but Leo says that he is the only one that knows what Jordi is going through, since he has already been through it, and he is going to be the first person Jordi sees when he wakes up, that was their promise.

Jordi still has his humor in tact as we see him in the operating room and zoom in on his legs to find he has written, "Not This One," on his good leg. Dr McAndrew, (I am trying to get #DrMcCutiePie trending to no avail,) tells Jordi to find one strong happy thought to get him focused through surgery. He picks winning his school's talent show in Mexico, where he sang one of his original songs, and the anesthesia kicks in. It's Jordi's turn to go "In Between."

Charlie is there to greet him, and tells Jordi that he is there to keep his mind off what's going on. He has checkers. Jordi realizes it's our favorite narrator, "Coma Boy," the title which Charlie is slowly accepting, but Jordi soon starts to feel faint. We zoom back to the operating room where we find that the cancer has spread, the leg won't be coming off, but that is not good news. For anybody.

It's time for Emma's weigh-in, and we see the first doubt in her quick wit as she slowly assesses her thin body in the mirror, then drinks a liter of water and hides two rolls of quarters in her clothes. She is able to fool a supportive Nurse Brittany into thinking she has gained a pound, but snarky-as-ever cheerleader Kara, stops mid-Stress Test where she has just snarked the Nurse for wearing Crocs, (hmm, another shoe reference,) and immediately calls her out. They are interrupted as Kara finds out she has visitors, her moms.

Kara's moms are High-larious!! We find out Kara's birth mom has married her former nanny, and Kara seems none too happy about it. Kara's mom is soon engaging Nurse Kenji on how they can get Kara a new heart, "Do you take plastic?" As Kenji tries to explain there is no preferential treatment in the organ donor directories, we find that the moms have connections. "We share a trainer with Ellen and Portia," and "We are OUT magazine's seventh most powerful lesbian couple in Southern California." They are soon plotting how to set up the next "Awareness Campaign," to help Kara, and their clever Twitter handle, #HeartandSoul. Looks like the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.

Leo's day is about to get ugly. First he notices that Emma has a different RED BAND on than he originally gave her, and finds out it's from Jordi, sending a pang of jealousy, and then #DrMcCutiePie, (I'll get it trending somehow,) tells Leo, without letting him know about the spread of Jordi's cancer, that no case is the same, and he did not do the surgery he wanted to do and Jordi still has his leg (pang number two). This causes Leo to go into a tailspin and take his new leg for a walk with Dash over to the frat house we saw earlier. Too much alcohol, Dash leaving mad, a pretty blonde that he insults, and Leo finds himself on the floor in the frat house, unable to get up.

Finally we get Round One of Emma and Kara (Snark vs. Wit) as Kara tries to escape to Emma's room to get away from her moms. There are a couple quick jabs about the other's families, including Kara admonishing Emma that, "We didn't all grow up on a very special episode of SEVENTH HEAVEN," but we really get a little background on how Emma's parents used to be a family that did lots of things together until everything became about her eating disorder. And Kara shares how her mom is only interested in her when it has benefits. After Emma tries to talk Kara's moms into listening to their daughter, it backfires as they tell Kara she needs to be more like Emma. This leads to Round Two that actually ends up with a little thawing, and who knows, maybe a friendship just might happen.

Jordi is wondering where Leo has been, wondering if Leo is mad he kept his leg, and finally is told that the reason he kept the leg is because the cancer has spread. Jordi again says that he has no one to call about the upcoming challenges he is now going to face, maybe protesting just a little too much, hmmm. Jordi is told he will have to start Chemo and then possibly another surgery.

Time to find Leo, and as Nurse Jackson and Kenji scour the hospital, Nurse Brittany finds Dash and goes to the frat house to bring him back. After a funny exchange of Brittany being mistaken as a stripper for the party, and her admonishing the coeds on the dangers of drinking, Dash and Brittany find Leo and help him back to the hospital, just as Nurse Jackson is about to call a full scale search, "Code Purple". Brittany covers for Leo, lying they found him at the coffee shop down the street, and gets her first praise from Nurse Jackson. Later Leo admits to Jackson that as much as he wanted to be there for Jordi, he was hoping Jordi would be there for him, and he wouldn't be the only one with the cancer and the missing leg. She lets him know they are all there for him, and everybody else, but tells Leo, "You can't run away from your life, you have to claim it."

The show ends with Leo finally getting to Jordi's recovery room as the two begin to go over their "bad day". Ending his own bad day, Dr. McAndrews is sitting at a bar alone, nursing a drink, as he slowly notices an attractive brunette sitting a couple of stools down. Cue soft music, and we're out.

This weeks Fave Quotes:

Charlie, commenting on Leo getting the news that Jordi did not need his leg amputated:
"One of the hardest things in a hospital is someone else getting exactly what you want."

Emma momentarily bonding with Kara:
Emma: "When you opened up to me earlier it made me feel a little differently toward you"
Kara: "Like a lot prettier?"
Emma: "I used to think your soul was black, but now I think it's more of a charcoal grey"

This weeks Questions:

Why does Jordi insist he has nobody to contact to visit him?

When are we going to meet Leo's and Emma's parents?

Who is the attractive Brunette?

Be sure to leave any comments you have about this weeks episode below, or tweet them to me at @leftofstr8 or @BWWTVWorld. Until next week Stranger Friends.

Photo Credit: Carin Baer | FOX

To post a comment, you must register and login.