Holby City S19 E44 - Go Ugly Early
This was a review I’ve really not looked forward to writing. I’m not sure I’ve done that well at keeping a secret of how much I adore Bernie Wolfe, so I’ve been geared for pain. BUT, I shall cover the other stuff first.
Jimmer. I’m oddly fond of the fruitcake! Although I missed his sidekick double-team act! I imagine he must be SO much fun to write for! I was really pleased to see him back, and of course, appreciated that he was drafted in to help with the light relief storyline which was needed to balance the high drama of departmental closures (sob). I’m not entirely sure what the intention was with the whole Dom/Lofty drama though. I feel like there was supposed to be a point and I missed it? Ah, well.
Guy Self is a twisted little gnome, and Ollie really needs to grow a pair. I get the whole wanting your in-laws on side as much as possible, but since even Zosia has no time for Guy, was it really necessary to go to such lengths? And even if he felt he needed to try, once rebuffed, could he not have just walked away? And to have spilled all that stuff which was not entirely his to share as well? I am excessively self sufficient and private, so perhaps it hit me more than it might others, but I’d have never forgiven Ollie for that. Goodness me!
Jac had a few seconds of awesomeness, for which I felt huge gratitude. Faced with a gaping hole that is the loss of Bernie, I need at least one gorgeous, kick-ass woman to get me through the Holby week, and that brief moment helped a fraction.
That man who tried to control his wife! HOW had she let him get away with that for so long! SO glad she told him what for when offered the bovine patch! People really do have the strangest relationships.
So, Nina the Snake was not quite a total and complete snake after all. I still won’t ever forgive her though. Bah.
Aand, on to the inimicable Bernie Wolfe. It takes an exit episode to have more than a few minutes of her, but by god did she remind us this week of how she can act. I felt the empathy and waves of yearning for her old army life reaching out through the TV, her retorts were utterly on point, her passion and fury were palpable, and she stood with her hands in her scrub pockets just enough to make me feel so good whilst feeling so bad! It was delightful to have Serena so blatantly mentioned from the beginning of the episode, but again, just so sad that it takes an exit episode of her love to bring her to the forefront of people’s minds again. The shot of Bernie stood looking around the now empty trauma unit was really painful - although we’d already seen it in the summer trailer, watching it in context was so much harder. I was really happy to see Ric fighting in Bernie’s corner (after their initial antagonism when she first joined on Keller), and was actually pretty blown over that she should offer his resignation to enable her to keep her position. That scene where Hanssen revealed that to Bernie - I also thought Hanssen was superb, his face when she stormed out and he knew immediately he’d lost one of the most kick-ass surgeons he had...
I loved the running scene at the end, I swear Ric’s legs are more hairless than mine (TMI, sorry!), and Hanssen in running shorts was just great. It goes without saying that Bernie in running clothes made my entire week (and I have to acknowledge that I’d have happily watched an entire hour of her running!), however short the scene. Her goodbye to Ric actually made me cry, which was a bit of a shocker, but it was rather well played.
As to the actual nature of her goodbye - I’m getting vibes which suggest that people are pretty happy with the fact that she’s taking a brief vacay to go grape picking with Serena before heading off to do humanitarian work in the Sudan. Yes, it’s fab that she’s actually in touch with Serena, that they’re in a place where Serena is happy to see Bernie and all. But (and yes, I know it’s a drama etc etc, and I admit I may be a bit of a hopeless romantic, damn my stupid naive soul), but I can’t help feeling sad that she’s then leaving Serena again to head off to Africa. Let me first say that it’s far better than I feared through much of the episode - her obvious nostalgia and desire for her old army life left me fearing that she’d be reenlisting and heading back to eg. Kandahar, which is a far more ‘locked in’ future, so France and then Africa is a far more hopeful outcome. And I guess Serena isn’t ready to come back, which means she probably isn’t ready for a full on relationship yet either, so it’s not like Bernie could’ve stayed in France with her - and nor should she, because that would be completely subsuming her own self for the love of Serena, totally unhealthy. So it’s fair enough that she should then go off and pursue something for herself... Oh, I don’t know. I’m just gonna lay it on the line and say I’m team Bernie forever, team Berena too. Whatever that means. And I’ve just realised I’ve rambled FAR more than I ever have in one of these post-ep opinions of mine, so I’m sorry to anyone who ISN’T Bernie obsessed, back to normal next week, for now, gonna go drown my sorrows!
