Polite Dissent

Episode Title: In Which Dell Finds his Fight

A mediocre episode of Private Practice. The writers were clearly trying to tug the heartstrings with Dell’s grandfather but weren’t able to pull it off. Frankly, they didn’t even reach maudlin.

Dr Addison Montgomery and Dr. Naomi Bennett
Cathleen and Geoffrey, the couple who were having difficulties with vaginismus is a previous episode, are back to talk with Addison. They are concerned about fertility, and even though they’ve only been trying to conceive for 2 months, Addison agrees to go ahead and run some fertility tests. Cathleen’s tests are fine, and in fact show her to be ovulating. Geoffery’s sperm count, on the other hand, is zero. Addison and Naomi suggest adoption or using a sperm donor (though it might have been a good idea to work up why Geoffrey was sterile; it might have been something correctable). Geoffrey declines adoption because he knows that Cathleen wants to experience pregnancy. They look though the “Catalog” but can’t decide on a sperm donor. Geoffrey has the bright idea to use his brother Mark as a donor since that way the baby will have genetics close to his. Just as Cathleen is ready to go through the procedure, she and Geoffrey simultaneously tell Naomi to stop — as they both realize that they don’t want to use Mark’s sperm after all (because he’s a jerk, and they seem to believe that jerkiness in an inheritable trait).

Addison suggests a surgical procedure to look though Geoffrey’s testes to find some viable sperm and then use that to fertilize one of Cathleen’s eggs. As luck and prime time television would have it, Addison is able to find a single sperm and when they implant it into one of Cathleen’s harvested eggs, they fuse and the egg miraculously and instantly divides. The egg is implanted back into Cathleen and she leaves the office already feeling pregnant.
Since when is Addison a Urologist? She shouldn’t be poking around down there with sharp instruments without the right training.
The fertility treatments scenes were wrong on so many levels, it makes my head hurt just to think about it. Suffice it to say, real world fertility treatments bear little — if any — resemblance to what the episode showed. It is never a waltz in, waltz out sort of treatment.
Success rates with a single implanted egg aren’t particularly high, and in fact the odds are against Cathleen having a successful pregnancy. But then again, in an earlier episode, Naomi guaranteed she could get a couple pregnant and no real world fertility specialist would ever say that.

Dr. Sam Bennett
Dell comes to Sam because he is concerned about his grandfather Wendell. Dell has noticed that his grandfather often has bruises he is reluctant to explain and suspects that he might be a victim of elder abuse in his nursing home. Sam interviews and exams Wendell and his friend Nate. He does find a few scattered bruises but his patients assure him that they are not being abused. Sam is inclined to believe them, but Dell is convinced something is wrong. Naomi tells Sam to trust Dell, so Sam checks out the medical records of Nate and Wendell and finds a suspicious number of minor injuries over the past several months.

Sam and Dell go to the nursing home (after hours, of course) to check things out, but discover that none of the residents are in their rooms. They manage to track them to the back of a storage room where the residents are holding a boxing match featuring Wendell and Nate. Dell and Sam intervene, but it’s too late. Wendell hits Sam with a strong blow and he goes down — and stays down. Sam checks him out and realizes something is wrong with Nate’s heart and calls for an ambulance.

It turns out that Nate has suffered a heart attack. He does not fare well at the hospital and eventually dies. Sam reports to Wendell and Dell that Nate had a long history of heart problems and was “living on borrowed time”; he tells Wendell that he shouldn’t blame himself for Nate’’s death (whereas I think Wendell should bear much of the blame — it was his punch that finished Nate off after all). Wendell gives an (allegedly) impassioned speech about growing older that boils down to “carpe diem.”

Dr. Cooper Freedman and Dr. Peter Finch
In order to proved to Charlotte that he can be “bad,” Cooper — with help from Pete — runs a parenting workshop for new fathers. Not only is Cooper’s seminar in direct competition with Charlotte’s, but he steals her list of participants. They are not the best teachers in the world, but that works out all right, because they don’t have the best students either.
Naomi, Miss “I-can-guarantee-you-a-baby”, lectures Cooper about the cost of insuring a parenting class. A parenting class? I guarantee they are much more likely to get sued for unrealistic promises and infertility than anything taught in a parenting class.
I can’t be the only that finds it hard to believe that Charlotte would just shrug off a loss of $27,000 and a blow to her esteem in the hospital just for sex with Cooper.