Season 2, Episode 17 – Good Hands

The episode opens with Joan waiting for a critically ill patient to arrive for emergency surgery. As soon as the patient arrives, it’s clear that he and Joan know each other well and that he asked for Joan specifically. His name is Javi. 

After hearing Jake’s concerns about Joan last night, Amy confronts her as she prepares for Javi’s surgery. Joan says she has MDS, but it’s indolent. She says she just got diagnosed a few weeks ago, well after she took the job at Westside, and hasn’t had a chance to tell Michael. Javi knows about her condition and came to her for treatment anyway. Amy takes Joan at her word and offers to help with the surgery, trying to stay close to the situation. Joan refers to Jake as Amy’s boyfriend, so clearly they’ve moved past the pretense that Jake and Amy aren’t together. 

During the surgery, Joan handles a difficult and unexpected medical situation with calm and perfection. Amy calls it amazing. After the surgery, Joan runs into the bathroom, sick and exhausted. She gives herself a shot and puts the syringe into the disposal container. From outside the bathroom door, Amy asks Joan if she’s ok and is skeptical when Joan says she’s fine. 

Richard and TJ get assigned to treate a high-profile tech tycoon. He threatens to leave the hospital unless they think outside the box to treat him. TJ suggests an option that is risky but innovative. Richard doesn’t agree with it. Max agrees with TJ because he wants to please the tycoon, thinking he’ll donate millions of dollars if he has a good outcome. The patient asks if TJ is doing this to please Max, or because he thinks it’s right. TJ says he’d never do anything he doesn’t believe in. Richard bows out of the case in protes. The tycoon crashes due to the treatment TJ and Max were pushing. Richard saves the day with his medical knowledge. He warns TJ that he needs to learn how to push back when patients or administrators try to dictate treatment. 

Nora and Michael work with a divorce mediator. Michael says he’ll sell the house and give her half the proceeds. Nora tells Michael to stop being so good to her because she needs to hate him. In a later scene, she apologizes and says she hopes that selling the house gives him a fresh start because he really needs that. 

In flashbacks to two years ago, we see Joan working with Javi on a medical mission. She gets a call from her son Ethan, saying that her grandson is very sick. She tells Ethan to go to Westside and ask for Amy. As Amy treats Joan’s grandson, Ethan expresses his frustration that his mom isn’t on her way home to help him. Amy calls Joan and tell Joan that she should come home. After some time (weeks?), Joan arrives home from the medical mission and shows up at Ethan’s house. He says he’s done with their relationship and doesn’t want to see her anymore. Joan says he isn’t the son she raised if he doesn’t understand why she couldn’t abandon her responsibilities on the medical mission. He says she barely raised him at all… 

Rachel calls Jake from a cafe near the hospital. She’s freaking out because her biopsy results aren’t in yet. He doesn’t hesitate when she asks him to meet her. At the cafe, he orders Rachel an ice cream sundae because that’s what he does for Mia when she needs cheering up. Amy texts Jake to say that Javi’s surgery went well and asks if everything is ok because she heard he left the hospital. He says it’s a family thing, but gives her no details. Finally, Rachel’s biopsy results come in while she’s at the cafe with Jake. She does not have cancer. 

Prompted by memory flashes of Joan lying on a couch and saying how tired she is, Amy goes to see her new neurologist for TMS treatment. She says she needs the full context of this memory urgently. During the session, Amy remembers Joan revealing her MDS diagnosis. It’s the same scene we saw as a flashback in Season 2, Episode 3. This happened during Amy’s lost years, so obviously it was well before Joan took the Chief job at Westside. 

Amy tells Joan what she remembered. Joan continues to deny how sick she is, so Amy goes into the hospital bathroom (where Joan went after Javi’s surgery) and empties the disposal container. She finds syringes labeled as steroids. Holding back tears at this point, Amy confronts Joan, saying that she will burn herself out in weeks with that dose of steroids. Joan says it’s her own choice how to spend the time she has left. Amy asks if Ethan knows what’s going on. Joan says he doesn’t return her calls. This is the first Amy hears of the rift in their relationship. 

Javi takes a turn for the worse, and his condition stumps everyone. Sonya comes to Joan with evidence pointing to tuberculosis. Joan agrees, impressed with Sonya’s diagnostic skills, and says they are going back in for another surgery. Calling in every available surgeon, Joan successfully performs life-saving surgery on Javi while everyone gathers in the IMO to watch it on livestream. Returning from his outing with Rachel, Jake walks into the IMO and is surprised to see Joan performing another surgery. He tells Amy that they need to do something, even if it means going behind Joan’s back. Amy decides to call Ethan. Later, Ethan shows up at the hospital, catching Joan off-guard in the hallway. She nearly bursts into tears of shock and happiness. They embrace.

Jake comes clean to Amy about Rachel’s cancer scare, explaining that he was with Rachel today and has been supporting her for the past week. Amy recalls Jake saying he was in radiology with a patient (Season 2, Episode 15), and he confirms that he was actually with Rachel at that time. Jake says Rachel asked him not to tell anyone about her situation. Amy’s face reveals her mixed emotions, but she smiles and says she’s fine. She’s just glad Rachel is ok. Jake has a hard time believing that (and so do we). 

Sonya and TJ share their first kiss in the locker room. 

At the end of the episode, Joan calls everyone into the IMO and makes a moving farewell speech to all of the nurses and doctors. Acknowledging her illness, Joan announces that last night was her final surgery and next week will be her last as Chief. She says being a doctor was the privilege of her life and thanks everyone for making her time as Chief so unexpectedly meaningful, but there are more important places for her to be right now. She looks at Ethan. Amy holds back tears.