Best Medicine returned for season 2 last week and gave viewers the biggest plot point so far. Now, everyone in Port Wenn knows that Dr. Martin Best (Josh Charles) has a blood phobia. What does life look like for Martin now? “Breakin’ In Is Hard To Do” shifts focus a bit to his personal life. (Though the reference in the title doesn’t turn out to be true, unfortunately.) Best Medicine Season 2, Episode 2 generates as much interest in the character relationships as the medical mystery. Maybe even more.
MORE: Did you forget what happened last time in Port Wenn? Just read our review of Best Medicine Season 2, Episode 1 to catch up!
“Maybe this is a sign.”
There are two medical cases Martin must tackle in this episode. They actually play into each other nicely, and they’re both dramatic, too. First, someone commits a string of robberies across Port Wenn. The pharmacy, Martin’s practice, and the Salty Breeze restaurant are all hit. While that’s going on, a woman named Gina (Nadia Dajani) brings a food truck into town and sets it up right next to the Salty Breeze.
She steals their customers, but she also starts repeating what she hears, which Martin figures out is a symptom of Tourettes. This symptom helps locate the thief. Martin’s cases usually involve Port Wenn’s residents more closely than these do, but I like how the writers connected them.
As for the thief, it turns out to be college kids at a remote cabin outside town who snuck away during a school trip. One accidentally shot the other with a gun and needed medical supplies. They didn’t seek help because they weren’t supposed to be there, but their situation demonstrates Martin’s medical detective skills in a unique way. He typically has a patient he can assess face-to-face.
This time, the clues tell him the problem, and then he has to track down the patient. This case also has a time constraint. When they stole morphine from the pharmacy, they accidentally took Louisa’s (Abigail Spencer) fertility medication, too. She has a 36-hour window to take it.
MORE: Now that the new season of Best Medicine has begun, read our list of What We Want to See in Season 2 and keep track as you watch!
“I will not give up hope.”
This plot point obviously heightens the drama of Louisa’s storyline, which in turn develops the relationships in the Louisa/Martin/Eden situation. Eden finds out about Louisa and Martin’s kiss from the first season (good), but she also helps Martin through his blood phobia while he helps the gunshot victim (not good). The most important moment comes when Louisa has her own panic attack about taking the fertility medication.
She wonders if the theft was a sign that she shouldn’t be a mom, and now it’s Martin’s turn to calm Louisa like she’s done for him in the past. His encouragement has a lot of subtext that sounds like, “This is the reason we’re not together right now so this has to happen for you.”
In fact, Martin is the one who gives Louisa the injection. Even though the medicine simply prepares her eggs for retrieval, this moment feels more significant to me. Mark spends a lot of this episode mistakenly thinking the medicine will make Louisa pregnant. It’s used for humor, but it’s not lost on me that MARTIN IS THE ONE WHO GIVES LOUISA THE MEDICINE.
If Martin and Louisa are not endgame, why doesn’t Eden just give Louisa the injection? She is the fertility specialist, after all. This is a deliberate choice. Shippers like me can definitely look at this moment as Martin giving Louisa the baby she wants.
MORE: Season 1 ended a long time ago but you can read our review of Best Medicine Season 1 Episode 13 to remember all the details!
“You’re one of us. You belong here.”
As for the town’s reaction to Martin’s blood phobia, this episode begins with something Martin doesn’t like. They play a prank on him with fake blood. He’s angry about it until Louisa explains to him its their way of accepting him. Martin plays his own prank on Bert (John DiMaggio) at the end of the episode.
To me, this says a lot about Martin’s connection to Port Wenn. It’s stronger than he thinks. Eden may want him to leave, but that becomes less and less likely as time goes by. Sarah insists Martin is “Port Wenn, through and through” in this episode. He won’t admit it yet, but I think it’s true, and Martin will eventually understand that.
Someone who is NOT Port Wenn through and through is Eden. There are red flags all over the place with this woman, like what she says to the town when they prank Martin. (“A bunch of horny teens getting butchered at a summer camp? That’s funny.”) Or when Martin investigates the break-in at his practice and she pulls out a switchblade. Or when she takes her own cutlery to lunch with Sarah. Eden is nice to Elaine in this episode, so she isn’t a bad person, she’s just not Martin’s endgame.
Eden and Martin don’t break up, though, despite what the title might suggest. (The song is called “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do,” after all.) I hope Best Medicine continues the engaging emotional development of Season 2, Episode 2 in future episodes.
Best Medicine airs on FOX at 8 PM on Tuesdays and streams the next day on Hulu.
