The episode started with Proctor (Jeremy Northam) describing the victims he and his team had helped the day before to a room full of potential financial donors. He set the stage for the medicine, outlining the conditions of the three primary casualties, and promising us that by the end of the episode someone would be dead. I particularly liked that one of the guests guessed that the homeless man with a nail through the foot would be the one to die because he seemed the least likely, and on these shows, that's usually how things work out.
As the show progressed, for once we had to learn to love the casualties as we went. We hadn't had a chance to learn much about them before the accident occurred, but as they were operated on, as their situations became more serious, or less serious, we still became invested in their survival. Particularly as the weight of knowing one would die followed us throughout.
The most memorable and hilarious moment was when Proctor used the chicken dinner at the fundraiser to demonstrate surgery techniques, which was followed by a flashback to the day before in which Proctor had tried to decline giving the speech, threatening the likelihood of him doing such a thing.
As we neared the end of the episode, our 3 primary victims seems like to survive, and the confusion of we the viewers was matched by the donors. Only then were we reminded of a 4th casualty, the mother of a 2-month-old, who had been involved in the accident, but mistakenly taken to a different hospital. She arrived at the hospital too long after the accident, and she could not be saved. And although we hardly knew who she was, we were devastated all the same.
Quality writing, interesting cases, just enough amusement to get us by - those are the qualities needed in this kind of show, and Miami Medical proved yet again that it has them.
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