TV Review: Painkiller Jane - "Friendly Fire"

Betrayed – but this time not by the scriptwriters. This episode reaches emotional depths heretofore unexplored in the series. Note it just doesn't attempt emotional depth, it reaches it.

Events start out innocently - or at least drunkenly - with Maureen, Riley, and Jane out on the town and Maureen, with a glazed shine in her eyes, is sitting, finishing up on a chameleon tattoo. Riley's the cheap drunk and completely wasted and Jane's the responsible one - or at least her ability to recover from body damage might take away the effects and eliminate all hangovers. Hey, now that’s an ability.

We segue from Maureen getting ready for her date with a motorcycle and its rider and Jane helping Riley get in a taxi to her waking up to her alarm.

Wait, that beeping is hospital monitoring equipment and she's sans glitter-red lipstick from the night before. Oh, and she's chained to a bed. No one, not her nurse or German-accented doctor will answer her questions. But she is taken out of her restraints and flexes her unflattering hospital gown-wearing self while sitting inside a big, empty room.

Wait, she has a whole ward to herself?

We see Nurse Wells eavesdropping on doc and another doctor talking about treatments. Expecting another insane patient, she's surprised that Jane was let out of her restraints. Later, she's surprised how much medicine they want to give her - dangerous levels. It's ten large needles full of a drug that she knows should cause huge pain, but doc knows Jane and knows it doesn't matter. He drills into her leg and a few minutes later Nurse Wells goes to clean up the needle entry sites and doesn't see the tracking marks she expected.

Vasco, tired of being cooped up, starts walking the second floor. Her door is unlocked, but most other doors remain locked. A quick change into hospital maintenance staff clothes and she heads for the exit but pauses until she sees Strikeforce Vicodin colleague Dr. Seth Carpenter. He's told by another doctor in the parking lot that she's still unconscious so she decides to surprise him with the news that she's not.

Dr. Seth trumps that surprise by dropping a bombshell and shouting for help. She gawps at him and asks, in so many words, what the fuck? Through a pitying glare, he puts her in her place: "What do you expect Jane? How should we treat you after you killed Riley?"

Wha-haa-haaa? Wow. The weasel one is gone? Of course, he 's one of the few characters with, well, character.

Article Author: Temple Stark

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