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Private Notes
What do medical schools look for in a prospective doctor? You’d think it would be book smarts, high marks, and a basic type-A personality. Then why the crazy interview questions? Most of the candidates are baffled by the process. All they can do is hope to find the right answers—and that who and what they are will get them over the bar and on their way to being a doctor.
The first day of anatomy class has everyone’s undivided attention, except for Charlie’s—he has pressing family business to attend to. Gina almost becomes the early first victim of medical school’s high attrition rates until an unlikely rescuer talks her off the ledge and back into class.
The students are introduced to one of their constituencies—a First Nations community—by participating in a moose hunt complete with ritual preparations, the dispatching of the animal, and the enjoyment of the spoils. Gary and Farida’s beliefs clash, and, back in town, Gina walks in on a pharmacy robbery.
A clinic is set up in a former construction trailer in a remote community. Melanie oversteps her authority and confronts a miner she believes is abusing his wife. Eva is surprised when one of the clinic’s patients is her ex-lover and band mate, and a goat is Charlie’s reward for a job well done. Strapped for cash, Gina takes a job modeling for a life-drawing class.
Students have their first encounter with difficult medical conditions— dementia and terminal cancer. While caring for an elderly dementia patient, Gina and Melanie have an argument over Melanie’s apparent reporting of a wife abuser. Charlie and Farida have different ideas about how to help a single mom with cancer deal with her kids.
Dr. Helvi’s sister is in prolonged labour, and Gary and Cameron are brought in to assist. Eva and Nancy are on rotation in the maternity ward at the Sudbury hospital, where Eva helps a couple of young Aboriginal teens through their ordeal. Nancy comes face to face with her past, while Gina gets a reminder from the registrar that her tuition is overdue.
The students head 5,000 feet underground to understand what it means to be a miner. Charlie witnesses a death and Melanie comes face to face with the man she falsely accused of spousal abuse. Gina gets a shock when some unexpected visitors turn up at her life modeling class.
Gina receives a surprise letter from the registrar: her tuition has been paid in full and she has no idea by whom. Charlie’s failure to save a dying miner sends him into a deep depression. Dr. Healy and Nancy attend to a famous Aboriginal artist, while Dr. Helvi deals with a miner who might (or might not) have swallowed some precious gemstones.
At Thanksgiving, Eva brings Gary to the reserve to meet her family and share some moose meat. Eva gets an unpleasant surprise when she finds her ex high on “bath salts” and her cousin Trevor dealing the deadly substance. Nancy hosts a Thanksgiving dinner and opens up to Farida—after being introduced to medical marijuana. Cameron receives an unexpected visitor at his studio, and Charlie gets an avian prescription for his depression.
Healy and his students head into the Northern bush to learn survival skills. Nancy and Healy find some common ground, and Charlie gets an unpleasant surprise when he’s forced at gunpoint by a trapper’s wife to perform some delicate surgery. Gary returns to Australia to attend his grandmother’s funeral. There, he runs into his ex-fiancé and her husband and discovers he’s been misled by his parents.
The students get a firsthand look at their future as they spend a day in a seniors’ home. Gary returns to the place of his birth and is introduced to his Aboriginal family for the first time. Nancy has Healy look at her plumbing, and Eva makes a trip to the Sudbury correctional facility.
Prepping for the final anatomy exam is Gina’s worst nightmare—she’ll have to see Juliet’s face and to dissect and extract her brain—and she doesn’t know if she can handle it. Plus she’s at her wits’ end wondering what to do with her “gift .”Charlie’s wife presses him to get a vasectomy. Rumours swirl about Healy and Nancy, while Gary and Eva get a lot closer than they ever would have imagined.
A memorial for cadavers Romeo and Juliet is set for a cold and snowy spring day. Gina has a plan for her “memory diamonds”—to send them back to the earth at the memorial service. Charlie’s goat has other ideas. Cameron realizes that he’s been tricked from beyond the grave, and Gina gets a nasty shock when she meets Juliet’s living, breathing twin sister.
