Hawthorne’s return to the hospital is established with a casually pleasant but awkward encounter with her estranged husband Tom, and a few staff, in which she informs Tom that she is taking Camille to school over the weekend.
Tom’s friend, Tony, is admitted to the ER. He impaled himself working on a fence and refuses medical treatment rather than suffer a slow demise from Lou Gehrig’s disease. His wife, played by Kimberly Elise (Set It Off, Diary Of A Mad Black Woman), convinces him to have the operation.
Afterwards she confides in Tom that while Tony was serving in the Gulf War, she got pregnant by another man. “Never once did he make me feel ashamed,” she explains. The light bulb goes off in Tom’s head, since he is divorcing his cheating wife, Hawthorne, without hesitation.
Meanwhile our insecure CNO, Bobbie, is mulling over her future at James River. She and boyfriend Steve decide to take a trip to London, but without a definite return date. Hawthorne visits Bobbie’s office to tell her she is doing a “fantastic” job as CNO, apologizing for any discomfort she may have caused. Tom later confides in Steve that he wishes Christina had fought for him the way she fights for everything else.
Nick’s partner shows up at the hospital telling Christina that he hasn’t seen or heard from Nick in four days. Then he warns Hawthorne to be careful and on queue, we see the creepy lumberjack/leprechaun looking man roaming the halls of the hospital.
With just a few minutes to spare in the finale, Tom goes to Christina’s house and apologizes for being stoic and distant when she needed him most. He tells her he “loved” her, tried to protect her, and hopes one day they can put it all behind them. But aside from a hug, neither of them calls off the divorce.
As Tom leaves, Nick shows up. They stare each other down without a word. Nick is looking…different, like he’s on something. Christina is taken aback by his appearance. She asks twice if he’s OK and he doesn’t respond. She asks if he has been drinking. He tells her to sit. He asks her if she is scared of him. Nick is on some stuff. He pulls out a gun and points it to the center of his chest and tells her, “this is where we live.” He leaves.
Christina locks the door, hears a gunshot, screeching tires, and runs outside. Nick Renata has been shot! Christina starts to scream while she holds, what appears to be, his lifeless body. Roll credits. This leaves a lot of questions.
Did Tom shoot Nick Renata? Did Nick shoot himself? Or did the lumber-chaun get him? What exactly did she put in that letter last week that set Renata off? Will LisaRaye return to slap somebody for all of this foolishness? We’ll have to wait until next season to find out.
