Nurse Jackie Recap: Repercussions

So last we saw them, Jackie was making a well-shit,-I-never-saw-this-coming face at her boss, as she stood in his enormous living room, over his unconscious junkie of a son. She didn’t see it coming but we did, and now we get to see the fallout from that entire twisted situation. First things first, though: gotta make sure Charlie’s still alive and kicking. To this end, Cruz rushes him to the shower, where Jackie promptly scalds them both by dousing them in water from the wrong tap.

This won’t exactly look good in that character reference, Jacks.

Charlie comes to, spluttering and yelling, focusing that teen angst right in the face of his daddy’s third degree. He does more harm to Jackie, however, when he yells that it’s easier to get drugs when you’re fucking the pharmacist at the hospital where you work. We all knew that little skeleton could only stay in the closet for so long, and I guess she knew it too, because Jackie just turns off the water and asks where she can find some towels. There’ll be time enough to discuss Eddie’s penis once Charlie recovers.

She puts in a call to Zoey first, who’s probably now Grace and Fiona’s favorite caretaker. She’s got things settled–school lunches packed, kids asleep, abortion-free Dirty Dancing watched–so Jackie’s able to stick around and help with Charlie. I’ll bet it’d help any custody case to have an unpaid, live-in nanny/nurse who’s somehow a better and more present caretaker than either biological parent. She facetiously tells Zoey she’s on a hot date, which Zoey buys, and we get to see some really adorable family photos of Cruz and his much younger, much less inebriated son. It looks like they were close at least at one point in their lives, and I have to wonder again: what the hell happened with Charlie’s mother?? She must have been a nightmare if Cruz managed to get full custody. It’s worth noting also that there aren’t any current father/son pictures on the walls.

Now that Charlie is lucid, Cruz is starting to process the whole “my employee and my son are rehab buddies” thing. Jackie’s defense is valid: she didn’t know the two Cruzes were in any way connected. I think that’s easy enough to believe, because if she had, she sure as shit wouldn’t have stuck around to greet the elder Cruz, right? She reassures Cruz that she’s completely sober, and Cruz wants to know how she can be if Charlie’s not. Well, Cruz, how much control do you think she has over your son? How much control do YOU have over your son?

See where I’m going with this?

They’ve become a weird team, though, united in their concern for Charlie, who’s all subdued in his Motley Crüe tee shirt. That’s weird–is the Crüe suddenly relevant again, or is that shit considered vintage now? And if so, how damn old am I? Christ.

They talk/bully him into going back to rehab, and Charlie miraculously consents to go–on the condition that Cruz doesn’t fire Jackie. He agrees, and you just know that one’s going to stick in his craw. He’s going to lose his mind later on, once he realizes how much shit happened without his knowledge, but for the moment he just wants to see his kid recover. He owes Jackie big time, and he knows it.

She’ll be wearing that “who, me?” look around him for years to come.

Determined not to waste any time, they march Charlie down to Wexler House as soon as it’s light, and Laura is waiting there to greet him–for the FIFTH TIME. Jeez, Charlie, show a little restraint around the narcotics, will you? Five rehabs by your 18th birthday? Time to get some new life goals, pal.

Charlie breaks my heart, though, along with his dad’s–he refuses an awkwardly offered hug, and the look on Cruz’s face is just…ugh. He looks so downtrodden and devastated, like he’s trying to figure out the exact moment he lost that little boy in the pictures. Jackie just stands there, trying to blend with the gate, and the whole scene just makes my stomach hurt.