The Night Shift season 4 episode 2 review: Topher’s fate; is Paul back?

At the end of The Night Shift last week on NBC, the good news was that TC found Syd alive. Unfortunately, this does lead us now to the bad news: He was still in danger in Syria, and there was a reasonably good chance that they wouldn’t make it through alive.

As they continued to struggle in Syria, there were many questions that the two of them faced, including how they were going to make it out of their situation alive. It certainly didn’t help that TC was shot, and that he still was beholden to some sort of moral code to help all in need. Eventually, he and Syd did find a way to a camp where there was some proper medical attention. They were starting to have a chance to recover, and also figuring out what some of their future would be. For TC, he still wanted to be out there and fight the good fight. For Syd, she started to realize that this life wasn’t for her out in the field.

Logistically, this move made sense given that Jennifer Beals is not a series regular on the show, so the writers were going to have to figure out a way to write Syd out for the time being. For now, we’re just glad that she didn’t die.

As for TC, let’s just hope that he doesn’t get himself almost killed again in the near future.

Back at the hospital

Scott was doing his part to keep things smoothed over when it comes to Julian and the hospital; clearly, he understands that politics are very much important when it comes to keeping things together. Jordan was trying to deal with both Julian and also a wide array of patients, whether it be Mac (who she credits for her even being there) and then some of the patients from the amusement-park accident that took place at the end of this past episode. Drew put himself in harm’s way, regardless of what anyone thought of him doing so.

The patient Drew became most attached to tonight was Abby, a young woman who was struggling as a result of her own recent choices. The two parties did form a bond, but this storyline was one that did get at times lost in the shuffle — for reasons that are going to become apparent by the end of the episode with the news about Topher. This is the difficulty sometimes with patient-of-the-week storylines; yet, they are also a part of the lifeblood for any medical drama and need to be there. Trying to focus things back on Drew was as smart of a move as the show could make.

Who is Cain, really?

Mark Consuelos’ character made an impact in the early going, and there was quickly some tension between him and Kenny. Cain was far more trained medically than he was letting on, and there was clearly some jealousy and frustration on Kenny’s part when it comes to that. Some of Cain’s training specifically came through when one of the patients went through cardiac arrest and there was nobody around in order to help.

Eventually, Cain admitted that he was an attending back in Mexico, and that he had worked his way to America but was unable to go through the entire program again. After that … Jordan fired her? Well, he overstepped, and technically he did something that constituted a serious offense.

Well, here’s the problem for Kenny: It turned out that Jordan went ahead and hired Cain as a resident, seeing his qualifications and realizing that the hospital needed doctors.

Is Paul back?

The best news of the night was clearly Paul slowly working himself back into life at the hospital. Jordan manipulated him ever so slightly to get him attached again to being around the hospital, that way he was not going to be able to step away from it even if he really wanted to.

Scott tried to come up with a solution to Julian, one that included Paul reporting to him so the father vs. boss debate would be settled a little easier. It’s too bad that Julian was having NONE OF IT and continued to be a heel in a way that only he can. It was actually Paul himself who told his father that they needed to be able to separate work from family. Right before an operation (perfect timing for a heart to heart, no?), the two had that conversation that they needed to some time ago. Now, they can actually work together and help people in a way that they should have a long time ago.

In the end, Julian actually took Scott’s deal, and allowed him to handle Paul more on a professional level. Scott’s got a new position, though it may be one that causes him to focus more on the job than Jordan.

The big shocker

Topher is dead. It was dropped at the tail end of the episode, right when everything was going so well at the hospital. We knew than Ken Leung was leaving the show, but this was still a devastating way for the character to go. It was still a great episode, but one with a very sad conclusion. Grade: A-.

Where do things go from here?

If you head over to the link here now, you can see a further preview of what’s coming on the next new episode of The Night Shift. (Photo: NBC.)