Review: St. Denis Medical, “You Got to Have a Plan” | Season 1, Episode 9
Death comes to St. Denis
Since basically the first episode of St. Denis Medical, I’ve wondered when and how the show would tackle death. It’s a major, inevitable part of working in a hospital and something that every medical show has to figure out how to address in some kind of meaningful way eventually. I still remember watching Scrubs’ stellar fourth episode “My Old Lady” and being blown away by how masterfully it approached the idea of doctors losing patients. Given that St. Denis has pointedly avoided having any patients die in its first eight episodes, I assumed the show was going to go for something similarly poignant and memorable for its “first” death. And while that was perhaps an unfair expectation to place on the show, I’m not sure what St. Denis gained by waiting so long to finally tackle the topic.
In fact, “You Got to Have a Plan” sends some pretty mixed signals about whether this is supposed to be a Special Death Episode or just another random wacky sitcom outing, whic…