Dr. Ryan Clark wasn’t the only one mad at the jungle tonight. It seems as though everyone in Off The Map has something stewing inside of them.
As mentioned in a previous review, this current Shonda Rhimes project keeps making people draw Grey’s Anatomy comparisons — and if that’s true, then it is certainly fitting that each character has his or her share of secrets. And infatuations. And unfulfilled lust. Hence the hacking down of large plants to blow off steam. It’s like the jungle version of eating a pint of Ben and Jerry’s.
A traveling dental clinic brings Ed Begley, Jr. to the jungle (and for once, someone speaks Spanish!), where Mina begrudgingly assists as his dental hygienist. There she is introduced to “Abuelito,” an adored elderly schoolteacher in la ciudad. When complications arise and it is discovered that Abuelito has oral cancer, he admits — after a flurry of loopy confessions about the gold in his fillings not being his — that he is actually a Nazi who has been in hiding in South America for 64 years. And these doctors thought they had problems!
Mina must grapple with what is “right,” which led to her demanding that he be treated in order for him to face the consequences of his past. However, I was pleased to see that she is at least attempting to improve her bedside manner by telling the children who adore him that it was a tooth infection that required special care, and also by admitting to Abuelito the story of how she lost her residency and how she’s not running away from her mistakes. It made me kind of like her more.
Lily accompanies Charlie and Ben to San Miguel to fetch some medication, and the scene in which she goes ballistic on the clerk makes me think that she isn’t really like Meredith Grey, but more like Lexie Grey. There’s something about her naivete, her initial timidity, her bookishness and her harried look under pressure that is reminiscent of Lexie. Meredith dominated the hospital from the beginning, but Lexie had to earn respect; that’s what Lily is discovering for herself here. And, like Lexie, she can really give someone an earful if they piss her off.
Lily walks in on Ben tending to “a patient,” who ends up being his wife — hello! I thought she was dead. Turns out he’s been keeping her hooked up to machines “in a minimally conscious state” for the past five years. Whoa. And why, you ask? ‘Cause he just can’t let go? Because he’s a hero? Well, no. “There’s also the big fat check that I take out of her trust fund. She bankrolls the clinic, Brenner. That’s why she’s here. That’s why we’re still married,” Ben tells Lily.
Meanwhile, in a really amusing — yet stupid — storyline, Tommy tends to Elan, a patient whose, um, member was engorged after a spider bite (“Is that why they call it a banana spider?” Tommy kids. Boy, is he not funny!). There’s not much to that, other than Tommy telling this story about losing his virginity to a college senior after his “flag won’t fly at full mast,” during which the exasperation on Zee’s face is just hilarious. Well, either that, or she was annoyed at having to drain fluid from some guy’s penis. But still, it was kinda cute how Tommy put aside his feelings for Elan’s girlfriend Alma in order to encourage him. Whatta guy. Zee, in a separate scene, joins Ryan in decimating yet another bush because she’s frustrated with the “friends with benefits” BS with Otis. So I guess nobody’s really getting what they want.
While the episode honed in on many of the characters’ demons, none were so chilling as Otis’ fear of drug relapse. In a tender moment between Otis and Mina, she holds his hand while he endures a wisdom-tooth extraction without narcotics. I really hate the sound of a dental drill, but I’m gonna have nightmares from that one.
And, if the show really is a bizzaro Grey’s, than that open-air bar shack with the twinkly lights is Joe’s, where the crowd gathers after a hard day’s work. Lily meets Mateo, a smokin’ hot local, who buys her a beer. (Was I the only one who noticed the double meaning of “good mail?”) He calls her a hero, but, like the rest of the characters, she’ll have none of it. However, he insists that it’s been a “two-cerveza day” and buys her another beer. Now that’s a good male.
Clacked by Rachel Blum-Jose 
on Feb 03, 2011 @ 01:51 EST5EDT
