Date of airing: April 26, 1997 (CBS)
Nielsen ratings information: 13.36 million viewers, 8.9/16 in Households
This episode was creeping even closer to becoming a version of TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL than maybe the episodes “Hoops” or “Gun” ever did, because this episode went straight into the system of belief, “the man up there,” and the issue of faith versus fate, and what Gary can do about it when he is forced to make a decision about which life to save. In the context of the series itself, it was a great episode, albeit a bit of a repeat of conflict, since Gary had to make a choice of the level of “damned if you don’t, damned if you do” in the episode “The Choice” already, which means the writers have decided to reuse the same premise for two episodes within the same season. But this time around, it’s almost like the choice was solely in Gary’s hand, as he was actively thinking about what to do. He had an impact on both kids’ lives and he had the opportunity to decide over their fates as directly as he ever had the opportunity to do so before. Back during “The Choice,” the choice was made for him when he noticed the little girl biking away from the L train station, but in this episode, he was sitting nervously and anxiously in a chair, contemplating the choice he had to make, which kid to save, what to do right now. And judging by Gary rocking the chair while talking to Robert Picardo’s character, it must have been a harder choice to make, considering he was pretty much led to the girl on the bike in “The Choice,” the paper having made the decision for him back then, and the paper now letting him make that choice on his own.
Sometimes, it makes me wonder how much the paper is directing Gary to certain spots. Headlines changes on a whim and when the story needs it, and for this, we have to go back to “The Choice,” where the headline about the plane crash didn’t appear on the title page until after Gary has already skimmed through the paper in the morning. This episode employed the same development: Rachel’s heart transplant was identified coming from the hold-up suspect Gary already read about after he read that Rachel was getting a successful heart transplant. Not to mention that the paper sent Gary to the bridge to get run over by the car in the first place, which was yet another example of the paper leading Gary to where he needed to be to save lives more efficiently – in this case, he needed to be in the hospital with Rachel, to possibly build a greater emotional connection with her and be her true guardian angel. And here I am, armchair-reviewing this show, thinking about the previous recipient of the paper. How did Lucius Snow deal with the dilemma of having to choose between two lives, and how common an experience was that for the man?
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| Never interrupt a girl from reading the daily newspaper! |
Once more, the headline changed after Gary read it and before he did anything. Which makes this episode even more connected to “The Choice”, and showcasing once more that the writers knew how to handle the headlines as a plot device, when to change them for Gary to be put in front of a difficult decision. Unfortunately, the change of the headline was very much predictable. At first, he saw that Rachel got her new heart and the transplant was successful, but minutes later he saw the actual headline, which was the initial kickstarter or the dilemma plot that makes or breaks the entire episode. I have seen my fair share of ER to know that one kid’s death is another kid’s life – “The Miracle Worker” from ER’s fifth season is an entire episode that spends time with that premise. Yes, it’s all very convenient, and it’s a cheap way for the writers to get to the point and the drama of it all, but it was still working, because after all, it’s always better when the show gets away from the “guest star of the week” look and instead focuses on life-changing decisions Gary has to make.
Of course, everything had to fit together – the paper leading Gary to a non-accident, and the actual accident being the preamble to the story of the two teen carjackers. I kind of liked that part of the whole saga, but in hindsight, maybe this B story was a little too small to count in the bigger picture, especially since Tommy’s death was only a plot device to have Gary make his decision in the first place. Not to mention that the teenage boys became actual characters more than halfway into the episode, which is a bit too late to truly make them count. But you had to have noticed again that the paper wasn’t just giving Gary the headlines, ready to change for the better. The paper sent Gary to Rachel – maybe without that, Gary wouldn’t have developed up a connection with the girl, and learned about her medical situation, so that the episode could lead to another moment of Gary walking into a hospital to tell a doctor that something is seriously wrong with a kid. Yes, it’s “The Choice” all over again. And I can understand why the writers decided to rip the story off for another episode, since “The Choice” was a memorable hour of the series. But it’s a shame that Tommy and Eddie’s story didn’t get more screentime, since Tommy looked like he would have been a perfect guest character for a TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL-type hour.
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| Gary is dealing with his second Sophie's Choice this season. |
Of course, this hour was absurd when it comes to the medical part.
The doctors just talked to Gary about Rachel’s medical issues, which
they weren’t allowed to do. They broke medical confidentiality and could
lose their license because of it. Also, what was actually happening to
Gary when he got shot, but not hit (according to Tommy)? Apparently, it
was brutal enough for Gary to be knocked out for about two hours and for
Robert Picardo’s character to believe that he almost didn’t make it.
And let’s quickly forget that Gary, seemingly close to death after that wound which was not caused by a bullet from a gun, immediately opened his eyes and was talking with the
doctor after coming “back to life.” Watching EARLY EDITION while being a big fan of and nerd for ER makes the medical storytelling in a
non-medical drama super weird and absurd. And one might wonder if
writers could have learned something by watching some of the more
realistic medical dramas on television, just to put the realism of the
field into an episode. Heck, EARLY EDITION had CHICAGO HOPE to look up to, just to keep the CBS synergy going.
