The episode begins with a Dr. Simon (Carla Gugino) discovering a liposuction patient dead in the recovery room. The man, George Flanders, is a patient of Dr. Burt Peters (Bruce Davison), who is in the midst of checking his investments on the Internet when his patient's death is discovered. When the hospital board convenes to go over the patient's death, Dr. Peters is nonchalant and arrogant and we find out that he had triple-booked surgeries for the time of Mr. Flanders' operation and that he hadn't actually performed the procedure. The other staff members react with a mix of anger and shock to what occurred and Philip is left to decide whether or not he should take punitive action towards Dr. Peters. At the end, Dr. Simon informs Mr. Flanders' wife that she should seek legal advice.
In the second plot, a priest, who turns out to be Jack's parish priest, comes into the emergency room with a severed penis. The priest informs Jack that he was mugged by a parishioner who proceeded to bite his penis so that the priest could never inform the police of what had occurred. However, Jack informs the priest that the hospital is obliged to inform the police of any crimes and so the priest must tell his story. Later, after the priest has had his penis reattached, Keith tells him that he will be impotent unless he has another operation, but that the next operation might seriously affect his urinary function. The priest opts to have the surgery, later explaining to Jack that he is celibate but that his celibacy is a choice and a sacrifice, and he wants to continue to make the sacrifice.
Finally, a 7-year-old boy, Henry, with a cleft lip, is seeing Lauren Holly's character to have his cleft lip repaired. However, upon further examination, she finds that he also has a disorder of his connective tissue and requires immediate heart surgery. When Geiger suggests that Dr. Albrigetti (Barbara Hershey) perform the surgery instead of himself, Philip questions him and Geiger reveals that 7 years ago he lost a patient with the exact same symptoms. Later, when Geiger's daughter Alicia is talking to Henry, both Henry and Alicia convince Geiger to assist because "he's the best". In the end, the child survives the procedure, despite some complications during surgery.
Alright, now onto my commentary. The first thing I really noticed about the "new and improved" Chicago Hope was that the credits have been changed (well, obviously, considering the old credits are technically obsolete. The new, third version of the theme song has been jazzed-up but still has a hint of the old theme. Anyway, the actual appearance of the credits reminded me instantly of the credits for The Practice. Which prompts me to ask: Is David E. Kelley trying to recreate the hit he has with that show?
Furthermore, I noticed that Aaron's disposition has gotten more of an edge. True, Aaron has always been a little snappy, but now he's being downright mean (eg. chewing out Dr. Kingsley for crying after his patient died). I did like his sarcastic exchanges with both Dr. Peters and Dr. Simon, though.
My only other complaint is Alicia. First of all, the actress seems a bit on the old side for the role (Alicia should be about 5 years old). But mainly I found her rather annoying. The thing is, I guess she's basically filling the role of Sarah Wilmette. Mae Whitman is an amazing and dynamic actress and at the moment, anyway, the girl playing Alicia is not living up to that.
Aside from those parts, though, I did enjoy the episode. Having Mandy Patinkin back is great. In fact, when he was operating on Henry and almost lost him, it was almost reminiscent of the episode "Leave of Absence", which is arguably the best CH episode ever. Geiger is egotistical, sarcastic, domineering and hilarious - he makes the show fun. As for the new characters, I already feel myself warming to Barbara Hershey's character, but I'm still uncertain about Lauren Holly and Carla Gugino. Holly seems a bit to "cool" for a show whose characters have, in the past, almost always been conservative. However, she might also bring the humor and interest to the show that the radical nurse Marisella brought several seasons ago. Gugino has annoyed me so far, but I'll wait for a few more episodes to make any further judgements about her or any of the new characters.
All in all, the eppy wasn't as bad as I had feared it might be, and some parts were great. I guess I'm just sentimental, but I miss those missing 7 cast members and it will definitely take some getting used to to have the show without them. Ah well, so far I think it's safe to say, at least, that Chicago Hope is still worth watching.
