‘Nurse Jackie’ recap: Jerks, nice guys and swearing

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Jackie has done some horrible things in her time. There’s the lying, the infidelity, she has stolen pills from the hospital and men having epileptic fits, kept money meant for her daughter’s education to feed her own habit. She nearly tore her family apart, and you have to think she is partially to blame for Grace’s anxiety issues. At the same time, Jackie has done incredible things (saving lives, dishing out great advice, putting jerks in her place), but it feels like it is getting a little out of balance.

A good example is when Jackie went after the man yelling at the waitress at the beginning of the episode. While Jackie and O’Hara are enjoying a nice lunch, celebrating their new closeness now that O’Hara has apparently forgotten all the things that made her lead Jackie’s intervention, they’re interrupted by another diner loudly complaining about the lack of chicken in his salad. Jackie dives in with stern talk and gets the waitress an apology, but not until the man reveals himself to be the world’s biggest creep. But he has to be. Since Jackie has done all these horrible things, it only feels good to see her tell off a jerk if that jerk acts worse than Jackie herself. Those people are hard to find.

Yes, Jackie’s got her life basically back in order. Kevin seems placated for the time being. She and O’Hara are back to being best friends. Plus she’s got pills stashed in every nook or cranny of the house. Good times. The only problems Jackie has right now is a sister-in-law staying with them that likes to pass out in her clothes, and an ex-lover co-worker who hasn’t quit making googly eyes at her. Nothing Jackie can’t handle. Unless, of course, they come together.

Kevin seems awfully keen on making that happen. He invites Eddie over to celebrate the job at All Saints he “just started,” but it is more Kevin’s plan to get Eddie and Tunie together. A pretty good plan at that. They seem to hit it off right away. Though if Eddie can’t seem cute to a recently single and often drunk woman staying with her brother’s “perfect” family, he’s got problems.

Jackie doesn’t really pay much attention to the budding romance. She’s too preoccupied with the fact that Kevin donated one of her drug stashes to a clothing drive for the needy. It doesn’t matter how needy these people are, Jackie needs those pills more, so she goes back to get them.

Overall an easier day for Jackie. A well-deserved break after the past few weeks of putting out fires.

Elsewhere in All Saints: The big news around the hospital is that Akalitus offered O’Hara the title “Chief of the ER.” When word finally reaches Dr. Cooper (from Sam who tells with a hint of glee), Coop decides to throw his hat into the ring for this position (hopefully it didn’t match that shirt he was thinking about buying). Akalitus wants O’Hara to take the job, but she’s not above getting overtime out of Coop in the process.

Speaking of Akalitus, her Michelle Obama obsession continues. Bellevue has started a campaign against childhood obesity that’s good enough to make Zoey feel sad, so Akalitus gets the fundraising machine started to help All Saints compete. She goes as far as hanging up a thermometer drawing to show the total amount raised, and when O’Hara points out the phallic shape of the drawing, Akalitus even uses that to milk a couple grand out of the doctor. Fundraising at its best.

And Zoey just kind of marched around the hospital nonstop. Partially because she’s working her first double and partially because she has a new odometer she’s trying to get the most out of. No new developments in the Zoey/Lenny romance, but we did learn that she worries about being a sweaty bride.

The patients: Even tonight’s patients weren’t much of a hassle for Jackie. First she got a man who collapsed on his way to a job interview who turned out to be the world’s nicest guy, and then she dealt with an expectant father who was having dry heaves because he didn’t know how he was going to take care of his new child. The first guy just needed a new prescription and some kind words. The second got a Valium drip and a big whiff of new baby smell. Easy as pie. There wasn’t even all that much gore, unless you count the woman getting her hand stitched up with Dr. Cooper’s magical little stitches.

Curses: Was it just me or did there seem to be a whole lot more swearing in this episode of ‘Nurse Jackie’? I’m sure there have been plenty of obscenities in ‘Nurse Jackie’ before, but tonight it seemed a little heavy on the four-letter words. Patients didn’t want to deal with this S, Zoey announces she is MF-ing speed, Kevin swoons over how F-ing good the pie is. I know we’re on premium cable, so swearing is expected, but it almost seemed like the cast just now realized that they could, so they were sneaking in all the curse words they could.

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-Andrew Hanson