Nurse Jackie: Pill-O-Matix

It seems to me that watching Nurse Jackie is an exercise is miscalculation. Sometimes the show miscalculates how effective a certain plot elements or line delivery is going to be. I've been quick to point these moments out. But tonight, I feel like I've been miscalculating Nurse Jackie myself. Things I never thought would work managed to be interesting in this episode and while I'm not ready to eat crow on a lot of my complaints, I am willing the entertain the idea that this show's lemons can be dehydrated, pulverized and turned into Country Time by next Summer.

Case in point, Mrs. Akalitus was not only not an offensive waste of time in this episode, her character was actually put to good use and given a surprising amount of nuance. I can't believe I just wrote that. Up until this episode, her role as the ER administrator hasn't gone beyond being an ineffectual bad-guy bureaucrat. This time around, she actually got to seem capable and even sympathetic.

How so? Well, it was finally Eddie's last day at All Saints. He's getting replaced by a pill-dispensing computer, but it's not the famous Pixis that everyone's been talking about. Instead, it's a generic budget version of the same machine, wrought with all the lazy code and iffy design concepts one might expect. All the same, Akalitus quietly searches for a new pharmacy position for Eddie, which is basically splitting the difference between the evil of replacing him with a soulless machine and the good of valuing him as a member of the staff.

As for Jackie, she's just dealing with the fallout of all of last week's bad decisions. She makes an ass of herself at the tap lesson, makes careless mistakes around the hospital and (speaking of miscalculations) has to fight off Dr. Cooper's childishly misguided advances. I hope beyond hope that the latter fizzles out to nothing as soon as possible because it is neither funny or dramatically useful.

My chief miscalculation about Nurse Jackie has always been and forever will be Zoey, who has turned into arguably the best character on the show. She gets a lot of choice lines in "Pill-O-Matix" and even one steely gaze after one of the patients, a film critic with a broken arm, admits his hate for all things feline. I'm also going to applaud the writers for Zoey's abrupt realization that Thor is gay. While I can't say that the joke, funny as it was, justifies such a broad, redundant character as Thor, it came awful close.

The episode ends, as it frequently does, at Kevin's bar. The only difference this time around is that Eddie spies Jackie through the window with her husband and daughters. I feel like this moment deserved more than a quick footnote, but I'm sure we'll be seeing more about it later.

Best Moment: Zoey, Thor, Momo, pizza.

Notes: Victor Garber's film critic was a bit broad, wasn't he? I can't believe that a TV show in 2009 is still using the "unbelievably pretentious guy" archetype, even for a bit part. Also, I'm glad Momo got to have his own interstitial plot. That character deserves more time to develop.

Episode Rating: 3.5/5- I always want Nurse Jackie to be a lot more punchy than it is, so I'm never really blown away by an episode. It just isn't sharp enough for my tastes. I'd say the show is still finding its footing, but an entire season is a long time to get there. The stuff that works is just fine, but the rest just doesn't push hard enough.