‘Private Practice’ season 6, episode 9 review: Sheldon’s earth-shattering story

After watching Tuesday night’s new episode of “Private Practice” season 6, there is really just one reaction that we have: why does this show have to end? This Sheldon-centric episode was a marvel in storytelling, and in between Paul Adelstein’s performance and the script, it was easily the best episode of the season and one of our personal favorites ever.

Let’s start with the sad news: at the start of the episode, it was revealed that Sheldon had cancer, but for whatever reason his fear of coping with it led him to make the decision to keep the news a secret from his friends. The only person that he had to cope with? A woman at the same clinic named Miranda who was going through some terrible times of her own with breast cancer. For a few minutes, their scenes together were delightful as they went from people who barely talked to kindred spirits; but then, they stopped talking altogether when she said that she was terminal, and she painted a very grim picture of the world. She tried to turn things around the next day, but he wasn’t interested; and then, she was gone.

Even away from this story, it is pretty easy to say after this episode that Sheldon is a hero. He never gave up on the hope that Sarah was alive after her abduction from the hospital, and after figuring out over time that the guilty party was one of his own patients, he put a plan in place in order to stop him … and after careful planning (and getting a 5150 on his patient), he was able to convince the police to go in and save her.

Odds are, you were probably crying by the time Sarah was found, and you were then bawling by the time that Miranda came back into the clinic at the end of the episode. Turns out, she was only just gone for one day, and Sheldon decided immediately that regardless of whether or not she was dying, he had to have her with him every step of the way.

Was this one of your favorite “Private Practice” episodes ever, even if the Charlotte and Cooper story was pushed back? If you want to see some more “Private Practice” scoop about the just-wrapped series finale, you can do so over here.

Photo: ABC