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‘Good Sam’ Recap: Season 1, Episode 11 “Family/Business”

This week’s episode of Good Sam was as drama-filled as ever, with crises, crushing secrets, and crazy tension abounding. Read on to see what happened in this week’s episode of Good Sam.

Mind Your Ps and Qs — Proctorships and Questionable Sales

Griff has completed the requirements outlined by his proctorship and is set to get his credentials back. But after Sam is informed by Malcolm that Tina Kinglsey has gotten ahold of the EMS field report from Sam’s childhood accident, which proves Griff was drinking and driving, it seems like she’s going to use it against him to keep him from advancing — to try and kick him out of the hospital even.

Griff confronts Tina, asking her to put their differences aside and not take the report public, as it’s going to hurt the hospital as well as him. She informs him she doesn’t want his reputation tarnished; she wants him to leave quietly. Her stake in Griff saying siyonara? It will make the hospital easier to sell … come again?

After some digging, Malcolm and Byron, who’s returned, discover the sale is contingent upon Dr. Jack Hendricks, an unknown cardiothoracic surgeon, being implemented as the chief of CT. Something’s not adding up. Rumors about Jack Hendricks and the hospital sale start circulating around, and everyone is on edge.

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Griff does some digging, and Vivian tells Sam about Dr. Hendricks … who is very much a nobody. Never having practiced in the state and running a department a third of the size of Lakeshore’s, it seems that the equity company looking to buy is run by the doc’s aunt. Ah, good ole fashioned nepotism. Vivian and Sam make plans to tell Malcolm.

Malcolm confronts Tina, who seems more concerned about getting revenge on Byron for allegedly shorting her in the divorce settlement than looking out for the hospital employees and mending her relationship with Malcolm. Storming out, Malcolm runs into Caleb, who’s looking for Sam. After Caleb asks if an obviously distressed Malcolm’s okay, Malcolm blows up on him, stating they’re not friends — revenge for Caleb blowing up on him after interrupting a conversation with Sam, perhaps.

When Malcolm recounts his conversation with his mom to Sam, Sam is understandably shocked and wonders if Tina’s lying about her reasons. The two reasons that she could be getting some sort of kickback payment for brokering the sale and plan to dig to find evidence.

Danielle Blancher/CBS

Malcolm finds that Tina’s been getting “consultant fees” for all of her sales help, and running the money through the foundation in order to hide it to boot. Malcolm brings it to Byron. Malcolm apologizes for not trusting Byron and letting him down, but Byron says he’s proud of Malcolm for being a good man who sees the good in others. He didn’t let him down by thinking Tina could change. They plan to try and stop the sale.

At the board meeting, after Byron discloses Tina’s involvement, the board votes to decline the sale and take disciplinary action against Tina at a later date. The meeting starts to adjourn, but in comes Griff, just having heard a conversation from Sam talking about how keeping his secret was negatively impacting her life. He tells the board how Tina was able to put the deal in motion — by lording his secret over his head. As Sam and Vivian watch in awe and something akin to horror, Griff tells the board about his DUI to free his family of the pressures the secret has put on them.

Malcolm and Sam cheer each other up with a wholesome conversation about how the crazy events of the day went. Sam goes to see Caleb, who was one of many putting out feelers for a new job in the event of a sale and had been contact be Harvard Memorial for recruitment. He asks Sam if she was even concerned that he was thinking about moving halfway across the country. She isn’t ready to weigh in on his life-changing decision like he wasn’t ready to in the very first episode before Griff was shot. The two part frustrated, and Caleb applies for the Boston Memorial job.

Griff and Vivian celebrate stopping the sale and Griff coming clean with the board with a drink. Vivian says that day, Griff was acting like the man she married, not the one she divorced. Griff jokes about hoping his key card to the hospital works in the morning. Vivian takes his glass and tells him they should worry about tomorrow tomorrow. The two gravitate towards each other before falling together, sharing a passionate kiss. Lex sees everything through the window, obviously shocked and distressed, before the screen goes black.

Joey and Isan

Joey has reverted to early-seasons Dr. Costa in terms of the toxicly competitive attitude he was sporting. He’s bitter about Tim cheating and channeling his anger into beating out Isan since the events of the last episode. Speaking of Joey and Isan, the two residents are bumping heads in a major way, with conflict at every turn. It comes to a head after an argument as the two start grappling before being separated by Sam. Fussing at the pair, Sam makes it clear the pair are going to work together on this case, as she’s not losing another resident.

Despite this, the two continue to fight, with Joey making comments about Isan’s patient dying on the table and Isan making comments about Joey’s failing relationship. Isan is worried about the possible sale of the hospital, with Joey having put in his head that other places won’t take him in the wake of his patient’s passing.

The two continue to fight, culminating in Sam laying into them when they start arguing in the OR, threatening to kick them out of the surgery and her program if they keep it up.

Lex

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Returning to the ER for her second day after transferring her specialty to trauma, Lex finds herself working with the big boss, Dr. Nicholas Vega, an abrupt man who knocks her down a peg after she questions him in the heat of the moment during an emergency procedure. Vega makes her fill out the patient’s discharge paperwork, and right as he leaves, he collapses outside. Vega blames her.

Back in the ER, Lex catches that the patient has swollen ankles and thinks it might be heart disease. They wheel him up to imaging. Dr. Kace stands up for Lex, telling Vega that she respects the hierarchy and just wants to help. The patient passes out in the scanner. Lex rushes to help him. Back in the ER bay, the patient passes out again when a woman walks past with a crying baby. Lex theorizes loud sounds are triggering extreme vertigo in the man and causing vasovagal syncope. The first time he passed out, it was around their newborn grandchild; the second, after hearing a piercing ambulance siren. The problem appears to be in his ear. They discover a small bone in the man’s ear is eroded and call for an ENT. He’s going to be fine.

After leaving the patient, Vega talks about having a mentor early in his career that made snarky comments about needing praise and didn’t dole out praise very often. Lex comments that it sounded like Griff to which Vega confirms it was. But Griff called and recommended Lex with high praise. Vega tells Lex if she’s half as good as Griff says, she’ll make it in trauma.

Lex seems to have mixed feelings. She’s grateful to Griff but is still going to lay into him when she gets off shift. Lex thanks Kace for helping her get through her shift. He asks for her help in return, revealing HE was the guy Tim hooked up with.

Case of the week

Chloe, a young woman with cystic fibrosis, is getting a living lung transplant (a lobe) from her long-time neighbor and friend, Yolanda. However, during pre-op procedures, the team notices Yolanda has a fever, meaning they can’t operate. Chloe is worried she won’t get her transplant. Later Yolanda’s fever has gone down … too much. She’s hypothermic.

Meanwhile, Chloe has to be put on a vent, which she’s terrified of, as most CF patients don’t come off it once they get on. Caleb and Sam try and troubleshoot what’s causing Yolanda’s symptoms. The only “risky” thing she’s done lately is make out with a guy she didn’t know at a party her roommates threw for her when they found out about the lung transplant match. Yolanda has a seizure. They’ve ruled out mono and MRSA and plan to check for STDs and meningitis. Isan and Joey are still fighting while taking care of the patient, and Sam is fed up.

After Yolanda sneaks into Chloe’s room, the team learns from a guilt-fueled monologue that Yolanda took ecstasy at the party — something that wouldn’t show up on a regular tox screen. Thinking the MDMA withdrawal has led to serotonin syndrome, the team sets out to run some tests and hopefully get the surgery back on track.

In surgery, while transferring the lung lobe, Isan and Joey get into it again, and Sam finally lays into them both, threatening to kick them out of her rotation and the ER. Isan also realizes the rumors about Dr. Hendricks were true after a stray comment from Griff and storms out, saying Sam lied to him.

Scrubbing out, Griff overhears Sam telling Caleb that lying is her new normal, between covering up the sale from Dr. Shah and keeping Griff’s secret. Cue him storming into the board room and starting the cascade of events disclosed above. The surgery is ultimately successful.

Good Sam airs on CBS on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Stay tuned for our continued coverage on the series, including episodic recaps and more!

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