Previously on Night Shift: The show started off with a promising premiere but since then has plummeted downhill faster than Lindsay Lohan's sobriety. This week's episode wasn't as bad as last week's or the second one, but it still wasn't good. I still think the writers didn't sit down and map out a 13-episode arc, because the show doesn't hang together week to week, and there's no character development that you would expect from a weekly drama. The only real constant is Patrick and Robin's ridiculously redundant and increasingly nonsensical bickering. This week, there wasn't even any charming banter to help balance it out. Sigh.
We open with what initially looks like a grainy dream/nightmare
sequence (like last week) involving Robin and Patrick's patient dying.
But then Robin is sitting in Dr. Ford's office with Ford and a hospital
lawyer to say that what happened at the hospital that night is a major
catastrophe, so the grainy footage is apparently a flashback. Then we
cut to Robin carrying coffee to the nurses' station, and it's clear
we're going to be doing the whole "show the conclusion first and then
the many hours leading up to it" thing that every drama in the history
of the world, including GH itself during the last sweeps period, has
done. A total lack of originality by the GH team. Who could have seen
this coming?!
Also in the hospital, Patrick is flirting/talking with Leyla. Robin sees them, overreacts significantly, and gives his coffee away to Jolene before storming off. Who could have seen this coming?!
Spinelli is doing his usual thing, following Jason around like a (really weird) puppy. He shows the hitman/janitor the latest version of The Saga of Stone Cold, the video game that looks like you would play it on a Commodore 64. Jason is angry Spinelli didn't delete the game. Spinelli is stoked to have improved the game with a new "uber villain" named The Cackling Clown (based on that bizarre patient from last week), complete with an animated disembodied clown's head graphic. I will be seeking a new blog and column collaborator, because somewhere in New York, Mallory just had a stroke.