Revisiting Kingdom Hospital – episode 11

Matt's closing in on the final stages of Kingdom Hospital, but chances upon an episode lacking in, well, much of anything...

The crowds are still outside Kingdom Hospital, people united to witness the second coming. New Jesus. Jesus 2: The Revenge. It doesn’t seem to have happened though, and police are on hand to disperse the crowds and get things back to normal. One cop in particular seems to take things a tad too seriously, though, and proceeds to spur his horse through the crowds, “busting heads” with his truncheon. Later, this same cop is struck by something that could be lightning, or an act of God. He is left having a seizure, and rushed into the waiting arms of the Kingdom. Following his brain surgery, the man says he wants his name legally changed to Paul, which is the same name as the evil ghost boy. Suspicious. Christine Draper has put a paper forward to be published, however it would seem Stegman has stolen her idea and taken the credit for it. So, Dr. Hook wants to find the copy of the Mona Klingerman report, the proof that Stegman ignored advice ad operated on the wrong side of Mona’s brain, thus leaving her permanently brain damaged. Dr. Elmer sneaks into medical records, gets the report and gives it to Dr. Hook. Mission accomplished. In return, Elmer gets the key to the fridge housing the decapitated head he cut off the homeless man that looked like his twin. However, the headless body soon finds the head, and takes it back. Once more, through the power of thought alone, it seems, Dr. Lona and Elmer end up in the morgue, and the only way to get back seems to be to start having sex. This seems to be a recurring idea with Stephen King. Does anybody remember the ending of It, where all the children had to have sex in order to escape the sewers? Hmmm. This is probably the weakest episode so far. It feels somewhat as if the plot has been lost, like somebody’s mind is wandering. When the episode finished, I was left trying to recall what had happened for this review, and was left with nothing more than a series of loosely-connected babbling images that swayed all over the place and didn’t make much of an impact or take the story forward. The references to King himself are growing a little tiresome, too. At least two times now, a character has said “This is like something from a Stephen King novel!” Nudge nudge, wink wink. Very funny. Nothing truly great to write home about in episode eleven, then. Let’s hope episode twelve is better…