Season 1, Episode 3
Date of release: August 30, 2024 (Netflix)
Written by: Carlos Ruano
Directed by: David Pinillos
”Right-wing politicians who want to privatize everything. You're more worried about numbers and budgets than about people's well-being.”
I may have missed it before, but this episode firmly established Patricia as a right-wing politician who works on privatizing healthcare, making her the supervillain for the doctors and nurses at the hospital. However, her story could still go either way – she has a job to do, so she does it, but since she has been diagnosed with cancer, she could also realize what it means to be a healthcare worker, and come out on the other side of the discussion about whether or not healthcare needs to be privatized. I can't imagine that question being answered this season (the first scene of the show makes the assumption that it's Patricia who is on the operating table when the clock strikes midnight), but it could be a meaningful story for her. Then again, she is a right-wing politician, and those generally don't change their tune because of experience.
Rodri has succeeded in his suicide attempt, which I see as the point of no return for the characters when it comes to the strike. Any American medical drama would have slotted his jump off the hospital roof at the end of the first episode, which is why I'm glad that Rodri was at least a character for two episodes, almost making me think that he would survive – although that would have been miraculous, considering how far down he fell. That he survived initially seemed like a stretch, but that was a needed plot device to have Jesica feel the fear before feeling the despair and sadness of losing her brother.
Meanwhile, the show already has the twists to fill an entire season of DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES. I definitely missed that Joana's alleged rapist in the previous episode was Leo's son, but this episode had me realize the connection between some of the characters. Jesica has a fling with hospital director Lluis, who was (still is?) Leo's husband, who are the parents of the kid accused of rape by one of Leo and May's patients, with May and Rocio being together and expecting a baby, and Rocio possibly being clued in already that Quique is a troublemaker who was at fault for Oscar's drug overdose, which Oscar's mother Pilar wants to find the culprit(s) for to rip them to shreds. Three episodes in, and there is already a season's worth of drama in the plot.
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| Jesica is the first character in the show to feel the pain and sorrow of losing a loved one. |
