S12 E11 (15 Nov 97) : Bad Company by Robin Mukherjee
Episode Summary
Terry Fuller is a clown who has fallen from about five feet and injured himself a bit. He, however, is a bit tachycardic as well and all of a sudden he vomits blood all over Jack. They find out that he has got a gastric ulcer. Claud, a man who has been performing as a clown together with Terry, comes to visit him, thinking that as soon as Terry is okay they will go on working together. In the end Terry admits that he has got a new job and that Claud from now on is on his own.
Christine Reed and some friends of hers go to her parents, who are priests, to beg for money. Her mother is about to give some, until the father comes and chases them away, saying they have nothing to give. They end up in a fight outside the house and one of the man pulls a knife out. Christine, accidentally, gets some cuts from the knife and is brought into hospital. After quite a while she becomes unconscious and Baz notices a knife wound behind her ear, going all the way into the brain. George blames herself for not noticing it earlier, even though she knows that nothing could have helped Christine. Christine’s father is, on the other hand, blaming himself for not understanding Christine and being the reason why she ran away from home, years ago. His wife then tells him that she has been visiting sometimes in the days when he has been away and that Christine has a little two-year-old son called David.
Tim is trying to find his older sister Sharon, who he has not seen for years after their parents split up and he was put in foster care. He eventually finds her, but she does not want to have anything to do with him. Andy, a young man working at the same place at Sharon, decides to give Tim a lift to the railway station. Sharon and Tim are still more or less fighting and in the end Tim ends up jumping behind the steering wheel. Sharon also jumps into the car and they start a wild drive that ends up in Tim crashing the car. Andy gets face and chest injuries and does not survive. Tim has fractured his hip and Sharon has only got some cuts and bruises and Sharon is unsure whether she wants to be in contact with Tim, saying that she treated him as her son until she got enough of it.
Elliot tells [ID 318]Jack[/ID] that the sister of Hannah Thomas, a patient from a few weeks earlier, has called. Elliot also says that he has got some new information, saying that Hannah Thomas was diagnosed in a haste without proper examination and that they records subsequently had been altered to cover the mistakes that had been done. He also says that he has had some complaints about Jack’s conduct and that he should think of how he treats the other members of the staff. Elliot does not tell him who has given him this information, but Jack immediately suspects Charlie.
Later on Jack tells Charlie off in front of half the staff, and some of the patients, saying he does not expect the staff to be good, but at least to be straight. Charlie is trying to explain that he covered for Jack, putting his own career on the line for him. Baz interferes, revealing that she was the one who had been talking to Elliot in order to set the records straight. Jack is hurt, saying that he had trusted her loyalty but that he obviously had been wrong, before storming off to treat a patient. Baz tells Charlie that she could not see him taking the blame for something he had not done, but Charlie says that she does not understand what she has done. Charlie is the only one who Jack told about his girlfriend disappearing and her being pregnant with his child and that he was upset because of this that time he was treating Hannah Thomas and this is something Baz does not know.
Towards the end of the shift Jack tells everyone that he is leaving and wishes Baz good luck. He picks up his stuff from his office and puts them in his car and drives away, despite everyone trying to tell him that there is no need for him to resign, but they, then again, do not know that he has decided to leave to try to find his unborn child and the mother, wherever they are. Jack is not the only one leaving; Liz tells Josh that she has handed in her notice, because she cannot any longer stand constantly dreaming about accidents.
Patients
– Terry Fuller, a clown who has had a five-feet fall, turns out to have a gastric ulcer as well
– Christine Reed, a young woman who together with some beggars goes to her parents to beg for money, gets some knife wounds when they end up fighting
– Andy, a boy that gets face and chest injuries in a car crash, dies
– Tim, another boy that gets a hip fracture in the crash
– Sharon, Tim’s sister that Tim came looking for, gets some cuts in the RTA
First Scene/words
[It’s evening and a boy, Tim, is knocking on a door. A guy who is taking some things out of a car starts talking to him.]
Andy: Oi, do you want something?
Tim: I’m looking for someone. Sharon Tyler? She used to live here.
Andy: Who wants her?
Tim: Is she here?
Andy: It depends who wants her.
Tim: Could you tell her it’s Tim?
Andy: You can tell her yourself.
Last Scene/words
[Jack walks walks out of the hospital, carrying a cardboard box with all his things.]
Sharon: So, what happened? You give me all that stuff and then you shove it. What about caring? Now I thought you cared about all these people.
Jack: I think maybe I care about someone else more. I’ve got a family, Sharon. Out there, somewhere. I’ve gotta find them, that’s all. There’s a lady and a child she’s gonna have. I should be with them.
Sharon: What about this place?
Jack: They’re survive.
[Jack gets into his car.]
Sharon: No, I’ve been thinking about Tim.
Jack: Nothing’s worse than being alone.
Sharon: He’s not gonna be alone, people will be crawling all over him.
Jack: Maybe not. But you will. That’s not a life.
[Jack drives away.]
Notable Facts
– The registration of Jack’s car is N981 FPX.