Plot
In tonight's busy quintet of storylines Hawthorne is attending to a sick teen, Ray is attending to a VIP patient, Candy is being manipulated by Larry, Kelly is being afflicted by a patient's worrywart wife, and Isabel is starting her new job at Richmond Trinity. All of the nurses are dealing with the administration's time consuming crack down on filling out log sheets of their activities.
In the main plot Hawthorne is dismayed to learn that a teen she's known since birth, Amy, is back in the hospital. She was born with a congenital heart defect that required multiple surgeries but this time it's her brain that's the culprit. While they await her results Amy shares pics of herself and her boyfriend and laments her parents overprotectiveness and that she's no longer a baby. It turns out Amy has a rare disorder called AVM which essentially means stuff in her brain is all clumped up. Unsurprisingly, her parents are distraught.
Enter new hotshot neurosurgeon Dr. Phillips (the delectable Michael Ealy.) When he is short with the parents and demands the surgery be scheduled immediately without giving them time to sit with the news or seek another opinion Christina goes to talk to him. When she overhears that he can't wait to do the surgery the next day because he's appearing on the "Today" show she gets all up in his grill and he is unapologetic. She is not pleased. When she finds out that rock star doc has never done the surgery it is on.
So, of course, she goes behind his back, sends Amy's films to a world-renowned AVM surgeon at Johns Hopkins and arranges for Amy to go there. As Christina is packing her up to go Phillips comes in and confronts them. Amy can't believe Christina did this since she really wanted to stay at Richmond Trinity where she is comfortable. She speechifies that perhaps it will be good for Phillips to do the surgery so he can learn and the next time this happens the young patient and their parents will know they are in good hands.
The surgery goes well, natch and Christina and Phillips reach detente. But, it turns out that what Christina did was illegal and the hospital suit is one mad man, dressing her down in Wakefield's office and asking if he should turn her in, which he is legally bound to do but would open the hospital up to a world of hurt. Wakefield says he shouldn't. Christina says he should do what he thinks is best. He decides against it but tells her to stay home the next day and think about what she's done.
While all of this is going on Wakefield and Ray are trying to keep secret from Christina that Amanda is in the hospital for a biopsy. At first she's her cantankerous self with Ray but he ends up charming her with light flirting and sincere support as she discusses how the biopsy was the beginning of the end for her son. Christina, of course, finds out that Amanda is there and comes to offer her support. Amanda tries to be all "your not my daughter-in-law anymore so you don't have to care about me" but Christina schools her and Amanda is grateful and asks her to stay as Wakefield delivers the news. No cancer. Amanda goes back to being her bitchy self with Ray lest he think he has a friend in one of the hospital's influential board members.
Candy has been overpaid this week, as if she's still on the graveyard shift and goes to see Ray's nemesis, Larry in Accounting to get it fixed. Larry claims it will take a mountain of paperwork to fix so what Candy should do is just take her extra money and take him out for a beer. Candy offers to go out with a group of nurses but Larry says he's no good in groups. Ray is steaming mad and goes to try and scare Larry away from taking her out by claiming to be friends with Amanda Hawthorne. Larry acquiesces until he realizes that Ray broke patient-nurse confidentiality to tell him that and so not only will he take out Candy he bribes Ray to keep his secret.
Kelly is trying to be a good girl nd fill out her log sheet as requested but it's causing her to fall behind at work. Among her patients is a seemingly mute Asian man with a gross infected in-grown toenail and an annoying wife who's all over Kelly about complications, dosages, and attentiveness. When the man has an allergic reaction to the antibiotic prescribed the wife accuses Kelly of negligence, says she's going to sue, and snipes that she was probably on a coffee break or having sex in a closet instead of attending to her husband. Kelly shows her the log sheet that shows no breaks or sex closets. And Bobbie shows the medical history that the wife filled out, leaving "known allergies" blank. They agree that everyone makes mistakes. Bobbie is hopping mad about the log sheet issue but Christina has no time to deal with it since she's got her hands full with the shady Amy dealings. Bobbie points out that once again Christina is exhibiting the hypocritical do as I say-not as I do behavior. Later, they make up.
Formerly homeless Isabel, mother of Moses, has shaped up enough to get a job at Richmond Trinity with recommendations from her doctors, folks at the shelter, and Christina. When she's given her nametag and apron for her job as a lab messenger by Christina and told she has "colleagues" she is thrilled. She gets her marching orders from a lab tech who reminds her that certain labs need to be put on ice. She goes about her day happily until that one mean nurse is late with her labs and asks Isabel to wait. Given strict instructiong to be on time Isabel says she can't. The mean nurse yells, condescendingly, at her to stay put even though it is she who is late with the samples. Isabel seethes. When she gets back to the lab she discovers she forgot to put one of the tests on ice so it is ruined and has to go back to the mean nurse for another one. She doesn't want to. The lab tech says she will lose her job if she doesn't. She returns for another sample and mean nurse is mad, huffing about the quality of the help around here. Isabel gets up in her grill pointing out that two months ago she was homeless and pregnant and now she's got her life together so maybe the mean nurse needs to take out her aggression elsewhere since Isabel is trying to get it right. The mean nurse is chagrined and goes to take another sample. Comically, Isabel tells her to put some hustle into it this time.
Cast
| The Sense of Belonging | |
| Season 1, Episode 5 | |
| Air date | July 14,2009 |
| Written by | Anna C. Miller |
| Directed by | Mike Robe |
| Episode Guide | |
| previous All The Wrong Places |
next Trust Me |
| Jada Pinkett Smith | ... | Christina Hawthorne | |
| David Julian Hirsh | ... | Ray Stein | |
| Christina Moore | ... | Candy Sullivan | |
| Suleka Mathew | ... | Bobbie Jackson | |
| Hannah Hodson | ... | Camille Hawthorne (credit only) | |
| Michael Vartan | ... | Dr. Tom Wakefield |
Guest Starring
| Michael Ealy | ... | Dr. Phillips | |
| Vanessa Lengies | ... | Kelly Epson | |
| Aisha Hinds | ... | Isabel Walsh | |
| Jillian Armenante | ... | Cheryl Brooks | |
| Matt Malloy | ... | Larry | |
| Cassi Thomson | ... | Amy Johnson | |
| Julia Campbell | ... | Beth Johnson | |
| David Rees Snell | ... | Dan Johnson | |
| Lauren Tom | ... | Mrs. Tanaka |