‘Royal Pains’ season 8, episode 5 review: Hank helps his former mentor; Evan, Paige try IVF

The 101st episode of “Royal Pains” aired on USA Wednesday night, and we would say for the most part that preparing for the future was the main theme. Each character did so in their own way, and they all managed to move forward by the end of the hour … albeit in very different ways.

Let’s start here with Hank, mostly because we got a chance to see him once again take stock on what his life was. He had no real permanent residence, no stuff, and didn’t even have a long-term relationship. After saving the life of his former medical mentor, he realized this more than ever since the man thought that Hank more so than anyone had it all figured out. He realized that his goal set had changed, and he never really allowed himself to permanently settle into the Hamptons … until now. He’s ready to finally commit to life like never before.

Meanwhile, Hank tried to use this former mentor in order to lend Divya a helping hand with her schooling, provided of course she still wanted it. At the end of the episode, she did confirm that she was not going to Stony Brook for the time being.

As for Evan and Paige, they are currently in the thick of IVF, waiting to see if there are some sort of results coming for them. There’s nothing for certain just yet, but we have more hope for them than we have at any point in the past two years. Divya’s baby shower ended the episode after a series of medical mishaps, and Jeremiah gave Divya and Raj a rather lovely gift in the form of a series of video messages from her friends. While we expected Dr. Sacani to end up with Divya at times in this series, this video still showed a significant evolution for him as it proved he was capable of significant emotional and social bonds. That was not always guaranteed.

In the end, we do think this episode was a lovely hour, one truly fitting the show, and a reminder of why we enjoy the show so much: The characters. Episode Grade: B+.