Holby City Review E30 S20:- Two for Joy
Rather a sunny start to the episode, blue skies and sunshine, add in face shots of Dom and Lofty and it's quite the nice start to this weeks insert of our characters at Holby. The couple are sat on the bench together, or on top of the bench that should be, both of them talking about dreaming of if they were in Italy and not just about to go into work, Dom making quite the little speech about how he likes the smell of lemons, refreshing taste there Dom, both guys in very good moods as they resign themselves to the fact that they do indeed have to go into work to start another shift, but they're happy so it's not as bad as it might be.
Lofty is seen in the locker room just before the start of his shift, a ring box in his hand with his grandad's ring inside, Donna comes across this scene and steps in for a moment to ask about what he's going to do with it, leading Lofty to reveal that he's going to propose to Dom today or that's his plan, but he need to get permission before he does.
The good mood is continuing with Henrik up on Keller this morning, the Swede is at the nurses' station humming happily to himself, Roxanna comes on the ward and hears his humming, remarking that he's happy, to which he says he is. She then smells his shaving balm and he asks her if it's too strong, she tells him that it isn't too strong, that it's very nice and it suits him, he thanks her and then with a big smile to him she leaves the station with her file, Henrik seems rather flattered at her compliment, could he get used to more of Roxanna's compliments?
With Carol being called to Holby by Lofty, they talk about him wanting to propose to her son, this leads her to ask a few questions to him about the actual reasons behind the proposal, she says that she doesn't think in all honesty that Dom would be the marrying type, this comment from his boyfriends mum seems to knock Lofty off track compared to before he started talking to her, will this put him off at all or make him have second thoughts? She says that Lofty isn't Dom's usual type and she knows that her son can be somewhat of a nightmare but Lofty seems to have the measure of Dom and that they have a good connection, and that she thinks that this means more than her permission for them to get married, not the best with words are we Carol.
Jac and Gaskell can't reach an agreement on who should perform their own surgeries first on a patient, should it be Jac to repair his heart or Gaskell with the mans spine, because of this conflict there's a meeting arranged for a second opinion, Ric being the person to give the verdict and deciding vote. After looking over the patient and what the details of the case are, Ric decides that Jac should be the one to be given it and go first in order to mend the mans heart before anything else, Gaskell is clearly not happy at the decision, when is he ever happy when he doesn't get his own way? Ric says that it's life before quality of life and that's why Jac should do it, not one to not have the last word, the Professor tells Jac that he'll page Abi so she can be on standby, letting Jac know that it isn't actually that long ago that she herself had surgery that he performed and that it's to be on the safe side, is it really though, or are you just annoyed that you didn't get your own way.
Dom is unconvinced that Carol being on AAU doesn't mean that she's really ill in some way and just isn't telling him, especially as he found out that Lofty has been the one 'taking care of her'. Despite her telling him several times that she's fine, he won't hear what she's saying to him, so much so that this leads her to march out of AAU with him to the privacy of the stairs and reveal that she isn't ill and that Lofty asked her to come to Holby, but also that she's sworn to secrecy as to why she's actually here and she's not going to tell him the exact reason why, that he has to work it out for himself. After a few minutes his mum's words hit home and he realises that she isn't actually ill, but she's here because Lofty wants to propose to him, quite a shocked and surprised look spreading over his face.
Julie the patient on the bed across from Essie has rumbled that the former staff member turned patient doesn't actually want to leave the hospital, but she wants to stay and is doing her best to make sure she stays for a little longer. Also she's seen that Henrik changes when around 'his elfin friend' meaning Roxanna and has he thought about telling her, although he doesn't acknowledge much of what she says directly to him, we do see a flash of something cross the Swede's face at the mention of the neurosurgeon, could she have got the right end of the stick Henrik?
Dom is up on the ward to see Essie, well not really, he's there to tell her about his talk with Carol and how he doesn't know how he feels now he knows that Lofty wants to propose to him, especially since they're due to have lunch together anytime now. Down in the peace garden we go and Lofty has set it up all nicely, bunting, boxes of lemons from Pulses, and a couple of cycle bikes for added good measure, this leads to them discussing the elephant in the room or in this case garden, with Dom not coming across and giving off signals that he's thrilled at the idea, this causes Lofty to say that it's been a bit of a rush the whole idea of marriage between them, that he's been wanting to do something with his grandad's ring since he got it from Sheilagh, Dom agrees sort of before heading back inside, I get the feeling Lofty didn't really mean what he said there and that he does want to marry Dom.
It turns out that Essie doesn't want to leave Holby to go home, due the fact that she'll be on her own, this is something Julie manages to get out of her, both women it turns out are widows and therefore have an understanding of the pain and grief, as well as the loneliness that comes with suffering such a tragedy, Julie wears her wedding ring around the chain that is around her neck, Essie's on her hand. Essie drawing on the chat with the other woman concludes that she must go home and that Holby is still her family, both women sharing a caring and supportive squeeze of one another's hands as Julie heads off for her cancer surgery with Henrik. You've definitely got a family at Holby Essie!
Fletch is finally getting to speak to Jac to talk about how she's been behaving towards Nicky of all people during the day, the director of nursing tells her to use him as a punch bag and not the other staff, that they're all just trying to help her and that she shouldn't tread on them just to enable her to climb back up to where she was before her surgery, his little speech has the desired effect of keeping Jac quiet and giving her some much needed food for thought given how she's been behaving and lashing out at people over the course of the shift, if anyone was going to tell Jac then it was Fletch!
Henrik is back on fine form and being the wise man that he is, he speak to Dom about what's been happening to cause him to not be as focused today and be running around the hospital and not be on the ward all the time like he should have been. Dom tells him about Lofty and the proposal, leading Henrik to ask him if he wanted Lofty to propose, that that certain things in life are rare to get or to have the chance of at all, this seems to strike a chord with Dom and he heads out of the theatre before the surgery even starts, being encouraged by a smiling Henrik, Mr Hanssen you are the best!
Emerging from her office Jac approaches a now wary Nicky, we'd be wary too if Jac came up to us after how she'd been during the shift. But instead of shouting or critising her, Jac tells her well done for telling Fletch to shut up during the earlier surgery they performed together that she knows now that Nicky did have her back today and because of this and the other things the F2 has done over the shift that she's a surgeons surgeon, before departing again, it seems Fletch's talk had some effect on and made Ms Naylor rethink some things!
Gaskell is speaking into his beloved dictaphone in his lab again, oh if that little machine could talk, then he'd not be in Holby much longer! He talks about how he's seen over the course of the day that Jac is loosing her grip of things such as pens etc, is it to do with her 'simple functions and actions' that the implant is starting to effect only a couple of weeks after surgery and that if this is the start, what could it mean for her in the long term? He says that given the nature of her symptoms, he's going to hope for the best for this side of things, this doesn't sound very promising to me Professor, and are you going to inform the woman herself?!
We end the episode back in the peace garden where we started, Lofty is tidying up what he'd set up at lunchtime for them both, both men start to talk about what's happened during the day between them, with Donna, Essie and Carol and a few other staff members looking on from the main entrance of the hospital. They discuss how this is quite a new situation for both of them to be in, Dom says how good Lofty is to him and that he didn't think he'd ever have this sort of thing, before getting down on one knee in front of his boyfriend, the gesture somewhat surprising Lofty, seeing Dom do this he himself mirrors his action and brings the ring out of his pocket, in tandem they ask each other to marry them, to which the answer is yes, followed by a loving kiss between the loved up couple, cue the cheers and clapping from the little audience that they seemed to have gathered. With big smiles now on their faces they get on the cycle bikes and started happily riding around the car park in circles together, it seems that while although it wasn't a 'traditional' marriage proposal it was rather a sweet one and it's nice to see some happiness once again for a couple in Holby! Will there be more happiness next week for some of our other characters, who knows, but I for one am looking forward to see what else is thrown at us next week!
Congratulations Dom and Lofty!
Lofty is seen in the locker room just before the start of his shift, a ring box in his hand with his grandad's ring inside, Donna comes across this scene and steps in for a moment to ask about what he's going to do with it, leading Lofty to reveal that he's going to propose to Dom today or that's his plan, but he need to get permission before he does.
The good mood is continuing with Henrik up on Keller this morning, the Swede is at the nurses' station humming happily to himself, Roxanna comes on the ward and hears his humming, remarking that he's happy, to which he says he is. She then smells his shaving balm and he asks her if it's too strong, she tells him that it isn't too strong, that it's very nice and it suits him, he thanks her and then with a big smile to him she leaves the station with her file, Henrik seems rather flattered at her compliment, could he get used to more of Roxanna's compliments?
Jac and Gaskell can't reach an agreement on who should perform their own surgeries first on a patient, should it be Jac to repair his heart or Gaskell with the mans spine, because of this conflict there's a meeting arranged for a second opinion, Ric being the person to give the verdict and deciding vote. After looking over the patient and what the details of the case are, Ric decides that Jac should be the one to be given it and go first in order to mend the mans heart before anything else, Gaskell is clearly not happy at the decision, when is he ever happy when he doesn't get his own way? Ric says that it's life before quality of life and that's why Jac should do it, not one to not have the last word, the Professor tells Jac that he'll page Abi so she can be on standby, letting Jac know that it isn't actually that long ago that she herself had surgery that he performed and that it's to be on the safe side, is it really though, or are you just annoyed that you didn't get your own way.
Julie the patient on the bed across from Essie has rumbled that the former staff member turned patient doesn't actually want to leave the hospital, but she wants to stay and is doing her best to make sure she stays for a little longer. Also she's seen that Henrik changes when around 'his elfin friend' meaning Roxanna and has he thought about telling her, although he doesn't acknowledge much of what she says directly to him, we do see a flash of something cross the Swede's face at the mention of the neurosurgeon, could she have got the right end of the stick Henrik?
Dom is up on the ward to see Essie, well not really, he's there to tell her about his talk with Carol and how he doesn't know how he feels now he knows that Lofty wants to propose to him, especially since they're due to have lunch together anytime now. Down in the peace garden we go and Lofty has set it up all nicely, bunting, boxes of lemons from Pulses, and a couple of cycle bikes for added good measure, this leads to them discussing the elephant in the room or in this case garden, with Dom not coming across and giving off signals that he's thrilled at the idea, this causes Lofty to say that it's been a bit of a rush the whole idea of marriage between them, that he's been wanting to do something with his grandad's ring since he got it from Sheilagh, Dom agrees sort of before heading back inside, I get the feeling Lofty didn't really mean what he said there and that he does want to marry Dom.
It turns out that Essie doesn't want to leave Holby to go home, due the fact that she'll be on her own, this is something Julie manages to get out of her, both women it turns out are widows and therefore have an understanding of the pain and grief, as well as the loneliness that comes with suffering such a tragedy, Julie wears her wedding ring around the chain that is around her neck, Essie's on her hand. Essie drawing on the chat with the other woman concludes that she must go home and that Holby is still her family, both women sharing a caring and supportive squeeze of one another's hands as Julie heads off for her cancer surgery with Henrik. You've definitely got a family at Holby Essie!
Fletch is finally getting to speak to Jac to talk about how she's been behaving towards Nicky of all people during the day, the director of nursing tells her to use him as a punch bag and not the other staff, that they're all just trying to help her and that she shouldn't tread on them just to enable her to climb back up to where she was before her surgery, his little speech has the desired effect of keeping Jac quiet and giving her some much needed food for thought given how she's been behaving and lashing out at people over the course of the shift, if anyone was going to tell Jac then it was Fletch!
Henrik is back on fine form and being the wise man that he is, he speak to Dom about what's been happening to cause him to not be as focused today and be running around the hospital and not be on the ward all the time like he should have been. Dom tells him about Lofty and the proposal, leading Henrik to ask him if he wanted Lofty to propose, that that certain things in life are rare to get or to have the chance of at all, this seems to strike a chord with Dom and he heads out of the theatre before the surgery even starts, being encouraged by a smiling Henrik, Mr Hanssen you are the best!
Emerging from her office Jac approaches a now wary Nicky, we'd be wary too if Jac came up to us after how she'd been during the shift. But instead of shouting or critising her, Jac tells her well done for telling Fletch to shut up during the earlier surgery they performed together that she knows now that Nicky did have her back today and because of this and the other things the F2 has done over the shift that she's a surgeons surgeon, before departing again, it seems Fletch's talk had some effect on and made Ms Naylor rethink some things!
Gaskell is speaking into his beloved dictaphone in his lab again, oh if that little machine could talk, then he'd not be in Holby much longer! He talks about how he's seen over the course of the day that Jac is loosing her grip of things such as pens etc, is it to do with her 'simple functions and actions' that the implant is starting to effect only a couple of weeks after surgery and that if this is the start, what could it mean for her in the long term? He says that given the nature of her symptoms, he's going to hope for the best for this side of things, this doesn't sound very promising to me Professor, and are you going to inform the woman herself?!
We end the episode back in the peace garden where we started, Lofty is tidying up what he'd set up at lunchtime for them both, both men start to talk about what's happened during the day between them, with Donna, Essie and Carol and a few other staff members looking on from the main entrance of the hospital. They discuss how this is quite a new situation for both of them to be in, Dom says how good Lofty is to him and that he didn't think he'd ever have this sort of thing, before getting down on one knee in front of his boyfriend, the gesture somewhat surprising Lofty, seeing Dom do this he himself mirrors his action and brings the ring out of his pocket, in tandem they ask each other to marry them, to which the answer is yes, followed by a loving kiss between the loved up couple, cue the cheers and clapping from the little audience that they seemed to have gathered. With big smiles now on their faces they get on the cycle bikes and started happily riding around the car park in circles together, it seems that while although it wasn't a 'traditional' marriage proposal it was rather a sweet one and it's nice to see some happiness once again for a couple in Holby! Will there be more happiness next week for some of our other characters, who knows, but I for one am looking forward to see what else is thrown at us next week!
Congratulations Dom and Lofty!
