The Mob Doctor Season 1 Review “Change of Heart” – No Cliffhangers, Just More Randomness

The original subtitle to this review was going to be “I’m Glad the Mid-Season Break Is Here,” since the show won’t be back until early November. Even still, you would think the show would end with some type of mid-season cliffhanger, but there’s not really much of anything that leaves you hanging on the edge.

Moretti–played by one of my favorite people, Michael Rappaport–is back, and he’s out for blood. He’s looking to get even with one of the mobsters that ratted him out long ago. So he gets Franco to tail this girl named Peggy. Turns out Peggy is the daughter of said mobster and one of the most cold-blooded moments of the show’s short life thus far, Moretti tells the mobster via webcam to kill himself with the gun he lovingly packaged for him, or he’ll kill Peggy in front of him. Yes, the mobster killed himself in front of his daughter, allowing Moretti to make two points at one time–1) He’ll do worse to you what you do to him if you happen to cross him and 2) He will make you fear him so you won’t do anything to cross him. Of course, I don’t condone violence, but since we’re talking about mobsters, his actions are exactly what I expected from a show about mobsters, and since he seems to be the only bad guy willing to truly be a bad guy, he’s my favorite character.

Constantine is a close second, even though he has yet to truly kill anybody (he was my favorite mobster when I thought Moretti was dead, but whatever now). All Constantine’s been doing is making moves for some hazy overarching grand scheme to take back the neighborhood. I couldn’t even tell you what he did exactly in this episode. The most he did was see about getting a prostitute (played by another favorite person, Jurnee Smollett) some OB/GYN care, since she’s about to have a baby that has breached (more on that little plotpoint later). The prostitute is connected to a high-profile Chicago politician, who can’t let his wife know about his illegitimate child. Somehow money is involved, as well as the potential for the child to be adopted, because of course Constantine wouldn’t sell the kid on the black market. He might be a mobster who supposedly has blood on his hands from evil past deeds, but he’s no devil.

The catch is that after Grace and her sidekick Rosa (someone she put in danger by taking her to a mobster’s house) deliver the prostitute’s baby and then have to conduct an emergency hysterectomy (even though they aren’t trained in either discipline), the prostitute has a “change of heart” and wants to keep her baby. Since the child is the only one she’ll have now that she’s had her hysterectomy, she wants to raise it herself. Again, wait until the end of this recap to see what I have to say about Grace birthing a baby and performing a hysterectomy, because I’ve talked to the only medical expert I know–my dad.

Anyway, Grace acts idiotic and goes against the mob (or rather, Constantine’s) wishes and somehow finds a way for the prostitute to escape with her baby. When Constantine finds out, you would think he would throttle her, or at the very least, slap her around for messing with his well-laid plans for world domination. But no. He gives her money instead. Sure, it’s probably blood money, so there’s probably going to be something she has to do later on. But whatever, right?

Before I leave the mob side of the episode for good, let me also state that Franco is working for both Moretti and Constantine, but as to whose side he’s really on remains to be seen. However, it’s plainly obvious that he’s on Grace’s sweet side–that triangle I was warning you about is happening in full force now! The plans that have been laid are now reaping their evil, destructive fruit! How volatile will Brett finally become after seeing his beloved girlfriend in the arms of his former flame over and over again? Only time (and the necessary story boost to attempt to clot hemorrhaging ratings) will tell.

Meanwhile, doctor stuff happens. To be specific, Grace’s crazy high school friends get injured during a pub crawl–one has to have stitches in his head, the other one is losing cerebrospinal fluid through his nose and needs emergency surgery. We find out that even though the cerebrospinal fluid friend is going to be okay, he also has a timebomb in his head. I’m assuming it’s some type of tumor. He has a 10 percent chance of dying from it, and he and his wife decide to take those odds, because the alternative–surgery–could mean loss of vision, hearing, stroke and death. Oh, and we’re supposed to care about the fact that the dude’s wife and Grace are also friends from high school.

We also get a new character in the form of a heart surgeon, played by Shohreh Aghdashloo (yet another favorite). There’s a minor subplot involving Olivia and Lady Heart Surgeon, showing how inept she actually is at performing surgery despite her Hermione Granger/annoying teacher’s pet act. It doesn’t really factor into the story. I’m not even sure why Aghdashloo’s character was in this episode. Maybe we’ll see her again.

Okay, we’re now to the part in which I dictate what my dad has told me about surgeons. You’ll hear a lot about my dad in a few days when I start recapping Chicago Fire. Actually, if you’ve read my TV Equals interviews concerning Chicago Fire, you’ve already heard about him. Just to keep it short, I’ll say that he has dealt with fire and medical emergencies for almost every day of the week for the past 16-20 years.

My dad said that for Grace to be able to be able to correct the position of the breached fetus as well as birth the baby could be possible, but only if she had been shown actually studying the discipline. Otherwise, she shouldn’t be anywhere near a woman in labor–she should call the paramedics instead (she eventually considered calling the paramedics when the girl was hemorrhaging; she should have called way before).

Also, my dad informed me that Grace performing a hysterectomy is possible, since it is a type of surgery, but not probable since she hasn’t really studied that particular surgery. As you probably already know, there are specialized areas surgeons perform in. Some are heart surgeons. Others are brain surgeons. Others are hysterectomy surgeons. What kind of surgeon is Grace? I don’t know, but I know for doggone sure she’s not a hysterectomy surgeon–she was telling Rosa about remembering what they learned from medical school to be able to do the surgery. She most certainly isn’t an OB/GYN. Is she a brain surgeon, since she was offering medical advice to cerebrospinal fluid dude? She could be a heart surgeon, since she was sitting on Lady Heart Surgeon’s meeting. I don’t know. I do know that I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting an all-purpose surgeon. That would be a ton of medical knowledge to know.

I know this is getting really deep on a show that doesn’t care about realism, but that’s just how I roll when it comes to dissecting shows. I like for things to be at least a little realistic for me to suspend my disbelief on other areas of storytelling.

Okay, it’s recess time! Have fun playing until November, when it’ll be time to sit in on another lesson of caring for the mob.