Private Practice – Violet kisses a colleague, Charlotte takes a pregnancy test

(Season 2, Episode 9 – “Know When to Fold”)

“If your boys swam through my weeds and got me pregnant, I am going to make you suffer every step of the way.” – Charlotte to Cooper

First things first: Do I like Addison’s new haircut? Yes! It makes her look more professional and, well, bright and shiny. She was due for a little makeover, and I like it.

Everybody had a storyline in this episode, and I like that rather than focusing on just one or two characters. Both Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice are good about that, and it keeps things moving along at a nice clip.

Charlotte’s new practice on the fourth floor is alive and humming now, and it looks like there will be plenty of drama involving the competing practices. Like Addison’s patient tonight with stage two ovarian cancer. Addison wanted to do a hysterectomy and attack the cancer aggressively, but the woman opted to go with one of Charlotte’s doctors instead, participating in a clinical trial.

They really walked the line on this story, because while the trial helped to reduce the tumor, the woman still ended up in surgery. It seems like the writers are trying to leave all options open on the medical front, which is good. In some cases, surgery and traditional medicine is the way to go. But it can also work in conjunction with more alternative treatments. And like Addison told this woman, there are other ways to have a family besides the biological way.

That meshed with Del’s story about creating a fee-based adoption service within the practice. I wondered if the girl would end up backing out, which would have been a blow to Del, but things worked out fine with the adoptive parents. It sort of elevates Del a little bit in the practice, too. He’s generating ideas to keep the practice viable and also providing a good service for patients.

We also had Charlotte throwing up (not normal) and being bitchy (normal for her), and she finally took Cooper’s advice and took a pregnancy test. Negative. But it got the two talking, so you feel like maybe they still have a future. And it was funny how Cooper gave her back a big box of all their sex toys, which she ended up puking on. A little irony there, perhaps?

Sam and Pete’s bicycle-racer patient was interesting – one of the moral medical dilemmas of the episode. Should they have helped the guy win that race, even though he ended up in the morgue? It’s a tough call, because he likely would have gone elsewhere if they had denied treatment. And I guess his wife ended up with the winnings. Is that a cold way to think of it? Yeah, maybe, but the guy accomplished what he set out to do – even though he ended up dying in the process. He knew the risks involved.

It also helped Sam get over his block about learning how to ride a bike. And how sweet to see Naomi helping him. I still think there’s a future for those two.

I feel bad for Violet! She definitely deserves to get some – and have some companionship, as well – but things just haven’t worked out in that department. Well, until tonight. At first it seemed weird, her hooking up with Pete. Like a brother and sister. But, hey, it could work. At any rate, I like them better together than Pete and Meg. And they certainly seem like a better match then Violet with the new fourth-floor therapist, Sheldon. That seemed a little icky to me, for some reason. Like he was more of her dad or something.

What did you think of tonight’s episode? Do you like Violet with Pete? Do you think Charlotte and Cooper will find their way back together? And do you like Addison’s new haircut?!

Clacked by Jane Boursaw
on Dec 11, 2008 @ 10:00 EST5EDT