The Knick: Start Calling me Dad review

Who knew that a show about a historical hospital could be so creepy? Here's Gerri's review of The Knick episode 6...

I am delighted to report that in the last episode of The Knick, everything went to hell. That means in this episode, we get to see the characters burn. We last saw Gallinger holding his meningitis stricken infant, knowing full well he gave her the virus.

Poor Gallinger. He should be the shining star; I mean his life sure looked perfect on paper. Handsome young surgeon with the pretty, spitfire, young wife. He was right on track, about to play second fiddle to Thack as a Knick physician. And then everything went to shit. Within a matter of weeks he loses his lofty position, his cool in the surgical theater, and finally his baby girl.

Talk about horrifying. What is happening to Gallinger is a thousand times worse than any zombie apocalypse. Especially since he, as a doctor, should have known better. How do you live with yourself after something like that? Whatever else happens in the series, I have a feeling that Gallinger’s upward trajectory has been permanently arrested.

Sister Harriet suggests a source of redemption, offering one of the foundling children to the Gallingers as a way to mitigate the loss of their daughter. The daughter Mrs. Gallinger believes God will heal (resurrect).

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Speaking of burning, Edwards is having a bear of a time wrestling with the unending oppression he faces at both at work and at home. What he does not wrestle with is showing Thack his sub-basement operating theater, once he is discovered. Edwards has no problem telling his boss to go fuck himself. He manages to convince Thack not to shut down his clinic, to acknowledge the accomplishments he has made in his surgical dungeon, to coauthor a paper about his new hernia surgical procedure, and to invite him back up to the “lily white” operating theater.

Anti-climactic resolution to Edward’s situation? You might think so, but having Edwards earn his place based on his merit instead of through some heroic deus ex machina plays nicely with Thack’s ability to think outside social norms, despite his constant, casual, racism. Meanwhile. the weasel administrator is like a tidy little grease fire who might have given himself a tidy little brain tumor when he had an x-ray of his head made (which apparently took an hour, yeesh).

And no one burns more brightly than Thack. The episode begins ominously enough, with Bertie being summoned to the Knick in the dead of night. Thack has spent the weekend experimenting with surgical technique and inflating balloons in hooker vaginas. Yes. You read that right. It makes perfect sense; Thack reasons that he can save the pregnant women who keep dying on his table by putting pressure on the inside of the wound, hence the balloons and the vaginas. Too bad the Knick’s budget does not allow for pregnant hookers. Maybe they could make some extra money selling Thack’s miracle liniment oil…which is being hawked by what appears to be a pharmaceutical rep who is even slimier than the weasel administrator.

Poor, sweet, Bertie. The only one at the Knick not on fire. No, he just smolders for Nurse Lucy. But I get the feeling that she only has eyes for one man at the Knick. Thack. And why not? For a cracked out egomaniac, Clive Owen is still a hottie. He and Thack solve the placenta previa dilemma, to great acclaim, but now Bertie is Thack’s protégé. I have a feeling that position comes with a subscription for addiction.

It looks like Bertie isn’t the only one smoldering. No, Robertson’s future father in law appears to have a burning in his pants – for her. So much burning, in fact, that he walks in on her while she is in her underwear, and lays his ownership of her relationship with his son on her. Talk about skin crawling. I might have to rewatch The Knick this Halloween; it has become utterly creeptastic!

@AtTheKnick Fun Fact: ‘Typhoid Mary’ Mallon was a cook who infected at least 53 New Yorkers.

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Rating:

5 out of 5