Under the Reds

This episode was somewhat of a departure for us as it would have been for most series. Rarely does a hero, even one with Jarod’s incredible gifts, have to face his mortality and the reality that as hard as we try, sometimes we fail.

Jarod’s selflessness and multifaceted character was greatly on display in this one as well, as was the opportunity to let people within the Centre learn more about each other, themselves and in so doing, more about Jarod.

The bad guys in this show were particularly heinous – EMT’s that were putting their injured patients at risk by not taking them to the nearest hospital but to ones further out from which they got kickbacks – an action that left the victim in this episode in a coma. Try as he may Jarod cannot reverse the coma and the parents of the victim decide to pull the plug and give their son’s heart to a boy in Cleveland so that he could live. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house when that scene was shot or when it aired. It was a very powerful moment in the series.

Equally as powerful was the fact that during all of this Jarod also took the time to try and give Sydney the chance to speak with his long comatose brother. Jarod’s unyielding desire to help others regardless of what they had done to him or if he knew them at all is an aspect of his character that never failed to amaze and inspire us. Episodes like this had us digging ever deeper to mine everything we could inside these characters – and the more we dug the more amazing gems we found.

The man on the stretcher that Jarod helps in the body of the show is Jerry Mitchell, father of one of the creators (guess which one). Never one to let nepotism stop him, Doctor Sarah Corey was played by Katie Mitchell, Steve Mitchell’s older – much older – sister. Katie also played a doctor, albeit an evil one, in the second season plastic surgeon episode NIP AND TUCK, as well as a kidnap victim in the fourth seasons episode entitled CORN MAN A COMIN’. Did I mention that she is much older?