AUS Television: Offspring, Episode 2.1 & 2.2

Offspring
Series Two, Episodes 2.1 & 2.2
Original Air Date:  May 16, 2011

Nina Proudman is living a happy life in Baltimore, Maryland when she receives word her father has had a heart attack.  She returns to Australia and finds she must make a choice about whether to return to the United States or remain in Australia with the family and job she loves.  Meanwhile, Billie and Mick are trying to have a baby but receive disheartening news.

Nina looks out upon Baltimore thinking of her life there thus far.  She's been in Baltimore for five months, had zero panic attacks, has delivered 68 babies, has 3 1/2 new friends, has had 3 flings with quite nice men (no major sparks but at least the men were unmarried and not her sisters ex and refrained from blowing anything up) and her sexual performance while in the U.S. is an 8.  She's grounded, centered and living in the moment confident she can hang onto it when she receives a text to ring home as her father has had a heart attack.

Nina returns to Australia and is met at the airport by Billie.  On the way to the hospital, she tells Nina they've done another battery of tests on Darcy and they're just waiting to hear.  Their mother is stoic then just falls apart.  She's left messages for Jimmy online in hopes of contacting him as he's still overseas.  Billie tells her to check out what she's been doing in the backseat.  Nina retrieves a folder where her sister has been organizing a family archive containing key documents, photographs and family memories.  Billie can't identify one of the photos and makes a note to ask Darcy, something Nina questions if the time is right for or not.  Billie advises that Nina doesn't need to return and take charge as she's been the one holding the fort while Nina has been away and Jimmy's been up the Amazon.  As her sister is talking, Nina closes her eyes and remembers her life in Baltimore and how she felt while she was there until Billie stops the car hard upon arriving at the hospital.

Nina goes to her father's room and gives him a hug and kiss.  He apologizes for her having been dragged back home.  He tells her how the heart attack happened.  He took Ray to the park and while playing a game with him he played with the other Proudman children the heart attack happened.  He asks her to do him two favors:  stop Billie hassling him about photos and papers as it's making him feel as if he's already dead and most important, go to Geraldine's house and fish her wedding ring out of the S-bend.  She tossed the ring in there 15 years previous after finding out about one of his affairs.  Now, he wants to ask Geraldine to renew their wedding vows and he needs the ring.  Billie enters the room and straight away asks Darcy to identify some pictures.  She tells Nina to find the cardiologist as she should be their medical translator.

Nina leaves the room and sees Cherie in the hall.  The two women hug and Cherie tells her Ray is at day care as she's starting back to work.  As Cherie is giving Nina a Rescue Remedy, she sees the cardiologist coming down the hall and points him out to her.  Nina and Dr. Forbes discuss her father's condition as Billie and Cherie look on.  Nina returns to the ladies to tell them it looks like Darcy might need another procedure and Dr. Forbes will make that decision this afternoon.  Billie is shocked at how calm Nina apparently is over their father possibly needing a bypass and as she's giving her sister a talking to about her 'detached attitude' Nina zones out to Baltimore once again.  Billie asks her what she's doing and Nina tells her she's using her imagination as her ally as she needs techniques to survive re-entering the family.  Nina wants to go home and get a shower and meet Billie later to talk properly.  Billie warns her sister to pay no attention to the boxes and musical instruments all over her flat as she and Mick have been living there the past few weeks as part of the plan to do things the right way.  She can't get pregnant until they have enough of a deposit for their own place so Mick has been taking extra gigs and landscaping jobs and they've sublet his place to some French-Canadian acrobats.

In the lift, Nina contemplates going to obstetrics to visit her old coworkers.  The thought of running into Chris Havel crosses her mind but she decides to go anyway.  She receives a warm welcome from everyone, including Dr. Klegg.  Kim, who is sleeping under the nurses station is awakened to feed her baby.  As she's listening to the group talk about Dr. Klegg's willingness to have hormone injections so he could share in the breastfeeding (something he points out isn't beyond the realms of possibility, anatomically speaking), Nina looks around hoping to catch a glimpse of Chris Havel.  Zara asks if she's back for good and she explains she's there because her father is sick and has been invited to stay on in Baltimore to participate in some fascinating research projects.  She has great options and hasn't decided yet.  Klegg tells her it's a shame she missed Chris Havel before he left.  He moved to Brisbane last Tuesday as his wife got a job there.  Nina, shocked by the news of Chris' leaving excuses herself saying she needs to make a call and goes out to the balcony where she stood so many times to think.  Zara follows her out to tell her they all figured Chris had stayed in contact with her and asks if she's alright.  Nina says she is and when Zara goes back inside, she tells herself she is and goes back to Baltimore in her mind.  She's drawn back to reality by her phone ringing.  It's a clearly distraught Jimmy asking about their father.  After finding out Darcy is still alive, he asks Nina if she can come downstairs and rescue him.  She goes down and finds he owes the cab drive $80, which Nina pays.  Jimmy gets out of the cab and gives his sister a hug while a girl he brought home with him gets out and retrieves their luggage.  Jimmy quickly helps the girl throw their bags out of the trunk and Nina tells him to go upstairs and she'll take care of the bags.  Jimmy kisses his girlfriend then goes up to see his father.  The girl introduces herself to Nina as "Tammy".

In Darcy's room, Jimmy reads his father a note he scrawled in the margins of a newspaper after learning of his heart attack, crying as he reads.  Darcy tries to get Jimmy to stop reading but he continues anyway.  In the hall, Tammy tells Nina how when she saw Jimmy she knew he was the one she was put on earth to be with.  Nina stares off into space for a second thrilling Tammy as Jimmy said Nina 'goes into her head', something Tammy thinks is cool because she's doing it right in front of her.  Jimmy steps into the hall to tell Nina their father wants to ask her something.  Darcy whispers to his daughter to get Jimmy out of there as he's reading him the eulogy from his funeral and not to forget Geraldine's wedding ring.  Nina takes Jimmy out of the room telling him their dad needs to rest up.

At a table outside Nina asks how long the two have known one another.  Jimmy says he first saw Tammy two weeks ago.  She had just broken up with the guy she was traveling with and a week later, the two of them were canoeing through the Amazon when Jimmy got the message about Darcy.

Nina is walking along the sidewalk talking to Billie on the phone when she runs into Mick.  The two hug and continue walking.  He tells her Billie missed her a lot while she was away almost like when Rocket punishes him for going away.  Billie looks up from her work on the family archive and sees Nina and Mick walking together and laughing.  The three go to a cafe where Billie begins to nag Mick about not being late for a gig as it pays serious money.  When Nina comments that something Mick said wasn't in sarcasm, Billie remarks that Nina of all people is defending Mick.  Mick jumps on Billie's comment and she must produce a voucher for him, which he tears up.  Billie explains the actions in that they didn't want his sex with Nina to be a constantly oozing sore in the relationship so they developed a containment method.  He issued her 10 vouchers.  One could be used every time Billie played the "sex with Nina" card against him.  After the batch they currently have, there will be no more playing the "sex with Nina" card.

Geraldine arrives in her kitchen to find Nina under the sink digging the wedding ring from the S-bend.  She hugs her daughter and asks why she was in the S-bend.

In Darcy's hospital room, Mick is playing the guitar for him as Darcy looks over some of his music.  Darcy asks Mick if he kicks the bucket, will he finish writing the songs for him, which he promises he will.  Darcy tells him that he knows Billie is hard work but it will be a big relief for him to know Mick will stick with her.  Mick tells Darcy he is going to.

Geraldine knows Darcy is after the wedding ring.  She thinks the heart attack is her fault as he had chest pains after their last fairly vigorous encounter and she laughed it off as heartburn.  Nina assures her mother it isn't her fault.  Geraldine begs her daughter to talk Darcy out of making the romantic declaration, something Nina doesn't want to be asked to do.  Her mother asks if she's seen Chris Havel yet and Nina informs her he's moved to Brisbane.  Geraldine suggests Nina lie down there for a few hours but Nina leaves saying she has something to do.

Nina takes the wedding ring to her father and asks if he should hold off proposing for the moment causing him to ask if Geraldine said something.  She tells him he's all churned up at the moment and that she can be the guardian of the ring for now.  He gives it back to her and she puts it on her finger.

In the lift, Nina drops the wedding ring and the handsome young man in the lift with her, Dr. Fraser King (Jay Ryan), picks it up.  He asks if she's Nina Proudman and when she confirms, he introduces himself.  They make small talk about their first weeks on the job and her press around the department.  She drops the ring again and she starts talking and cannot stop.  She tells him about her parents being estranged, or were since they started having sex again and that her father wants to propose to her mother again.  As he compliments a paper she wrote on gestitational diabetes, she imagines him standing in the lift, completely naked and holding a file folder in front of him.  When the lift stops, he steps into the hall telling her he'd love to chat with her about the whole Baltimore experience.

She returns to her flat and is met by Rocket.  She hears Billie and Mick having sex and, as she walks through the room, hears another couple.  She realizes it's Jimmy and Tammy.  She thinks about how in the face of death rampant sex is understandable with the urge to connect to some primal force.  She goes in to take a bubble bath and wonders who she will cast in her own fantasy.  She first thinks of Dr. Andrew Rochford but he's not the right choice as she needs the fantasy to feel more earthy and achievable.  The second guy is turned down because if he talks in the fantasy he'll wreck it.  Third, Zara shows up and, while Nina would love to make the play, she sadly turns it down.  Fourth, she opens the door to find Chris Havel standing there and then immediately closes the door again.  The next time the door is opened Dr. Klegg is standing there to let her know the offer is still there.  Next, the handsome cardiologist, Dr. Forbes.  He's a maybe but it feels wrong since he's her father's doctor.  Lastly, she sees Dr. King and he kisses her passionately.  She enjoys the fantasy even though it definitely feels wrong as he's too young.

After her bath, Nina looks through the mail and finds a letter from Chris Havel.  He didn't want to disappear without an explanation and tells her an opportunity came up for Alice in Brisbane and he decided to take a job there as well.  He thought it would be easier for everyone, including her.  She'll always be very special to him and he wishes her much happiness.  She sits by the window crying as Billie and Mick come downstairs.  He's on his way to a gig and he orders him to ring her when he arrives so she knows he made it.  She changes her mind and wants him to ring her halfway there but only if he pulls off the road because he can't crash and die on her.  Mick kisses Billie and leaves the flat with Rocket.  When he's gone, Billie sees Nina has been crying and Nina hands her Chris' letter.  She reads over it then tells her sister she should have had sex with Chris a while back and flushed him out of her system as the sex could never have been as good in real life as it would have been in her fantasies.  She insists Nina now needs to cut the cord and burn Chris' letter, something Nina doesn't want to do.  Nina's phone rings and it is Cherie telling her Darcy had another heart attack.

The girls arrive at the hospital and Nina is met at the lift by Kim.  They need her help in obstetrics as they are short on doctors and Dr. King, who is still under review, is the only one there to deal with a breach birth.  She drags Nina to the room where she helps Dr. King deliver the baby safely.  She then runs to Darcy's room and arrives to find the rest of the family there and Darcy gone.  Cherie tells her they've taken him for tests.  Billie wishes she hadn't sent Mick away as he really loved Darcy and would want to be there; she needs him to be there.  Geraldine runs into the room and Tammy points up saying "he's gone" leading her to think he died.  Nina corrects her and comforts her mother.  Rocket runs into the room next and Mick follows shortly telling Billie they need to revise the plan as life is short and he should be with her at times like this.  Later, Dr. Forbes enters the room to tell the family they cleared the blood clot and, while they were there, managed to stint the other lesion.  There's no need for a bypass and Darcy is fine.  Everyone is overjoyed and Nina, who is sitting on Darcy's bed, begins to cry uncontrollably.  Billie comforts her sister while Sam arrives to lend support to Cherie.  A very drugged Darcy is brought back into his room where he takes the opportunity to propose to Geraldine.  After a few moments of apparent thought, she eventually agrees.

The family celebrate later at the pub where Nina gets very drunk.  Billie again tells her to burn the letter and Nina says she'll file it away in the defunct relationship archive as it doesn't feel right to burn it and throws the letter in the trash.  While it isn't as much fun as burning, Billie thinks it's a wise decision.  When Billie gets up, Nina pulls the letter out of the trash.  She lays down on the couch she's sitting on and decides she doesn't to give up delivering babies and wants to say 'yes' to being sucked back into the Proudman family vortex.  Jimmy covers Nina up as she smiles happily thinking "I'm home".

Nina remembers her childhood when her mother went to the doctor because she was pregnant with Jimmy.  Geraldine allowed both of her daughters to come into the room and listen to the babies heartbeat.  Billie was uninterested but Nina was fascinated and decided right then and there she wanted to be an obstetrician.  She relates the story to Frasier King over coffee.

Mick arrives at the doctors appointment at a fertility clinic with Billie.  She wants to do the talking as she told them they were trying to get pregnant for six months instead of two weeks so she could get the appointment.

Nina gives Frasier tips on how to introduce himself to women and their husbands.  She watches as he confidently walks in and greets a woman there to have her baby.

Billie, as planned, does the talking with the fertility doctor until the lifestyle questions are asked.  Neither Billie or Mick answer very well when she asks about exercise.  Then, Mick tells the doctor he's on anti-inflammatory medication after breaking his wrists last year.  Mick then offers the information he used to smoke joints, a lot of them in his younger days, when she asks if either of them smoke.  The doctor suggests they do a semen analysis, something Billie says they can do today.

The woman's labor intensifies and as Cherie is calming her, Nina continues to instruct Fraser.  When it's obvious the figures aren't what they should be, Frasier informs the woman they'll need to do a Cesarean and Nina tells her in 15 minutes she'll be holding a perfectly healthy baby.  After the procedure, Nina and Cherie step out onto the balcony where Dr. Fraser King is the subject of conversation.  Nina thought it would be distracting having a student but she feels she makes better choices knowing he's there and watching.  When she's at the store choosing something to eat she, at first, chooses something unhealthy.  After imagining the look on Fraser's face at her choice, she puts it back and chooses something healthy.

The next morning, Fraser catches up to Nina as she's arriving at work and gushes to her over a case he is working on.  When he walks away, Zara and Kim both comment to her that he really wants her.

Mick starts working on collecting the sample for the fertility doctor when he's interrupted by a call from Billie.  She hangs up and he continues and is interrupted yet again by Jimmy and Tammy at the door.  They want to stay there but he tells them 'no' and goes back to what he was doing.

Nina is having a meal with Cherie and Sam who are arguing about the fact Sam wants Cherie and Sam to move in with him.  Cherie turns her attention to Nina telling her there were some major 'love eyes' going from Fraser that morning.  Nina changes the subject back telling Cherie it would be good to tell Darcy that night she and Sam want to move in together.

Billie arrives at Geraldine's house to take Darcy to the cardiologists.  Darcy suggests that the family sing seven songs, as a family, covering the history of the marriage at the re-commitment ceremony.  Billie asks her parents if they were heavy pot smokers when they were young.  Darcy says he didn't care for it but Geraldine liked the occasional smoke which angers Billie.

Mick gets ready to take the sample back to the fertility clinic but his vehicle won't start.  He calls Billie who can't come get him and tells him to run the sample to the clinic.  Mick, who is wearing thongs, does as she instructs.

At Dr. Forbes' office, he needs another 10 minutes before their meeting.  While he's out, Billie calls Mick.  He answers but can only breathe heavily from all the running he did.  She asks if he made it but he cannot answer.  She asks him to give her one big wheeze if he made it, which he does.

Fraser and Nina talk on the balcony at the hospital and he talks to her about how everyone told him being in obstetrics would kill off his love life.  He comments on her as she's beautiful, crazy smart and could have anyone she wanted.  He asks if she'd wished she'd chosen something a bit saner.  She sometimes does but there are moments at work that make her remember why she loves her job.  He tells her that Kim and Zara re-enacted Nina's relationship with Chris Havel for him.  She tells him hooking up with someone from work can bring up a whole set of problems and he asks what if she's really smart about it, which she thinks sounds like a pick up line.  Her phone rings saving her from the conversation.  It's Billie calling to say she's found Nina's future husband.  Dr. Forbes is the male version of her and obsessed with her and she's arranged a date for he and Nina and she and Mick for the following day.

At Nina's flat, Billie points out what she should wear for the date.  She explains how Dr. Forbes is the perfect man for her.  The first sign was when she saw an owl on a shelf behind his desk.  Then, during the checkup, he asked detailed questions about the family to suss out if Nina is single.  She implied subtly Nina is unattached.  Finally, she asked him to dinner the next night with she, Mick and Nina.  When he got nervous, stumbled and used more words than necessary Billie knew it was perfect.

Darcy is playing with Ray at Geraldine's when Cherie chooses to tell him Sam wants her and Ray to move in with him.  Darcy gives his blessing while Geraldine sits outside smoking.

Billie arrives home to find Mick watching television with his bandaged feet up.  He tells her the swimmers are in and they should get a call in a couple of days.  Billie informs him they're having dinner tomorrow night with Nina's future husband.  He picks her up and carries her upstairs.

Nina and Fraser are walking and having a coffee talking about work when Dr. Forbes runs up to speak with Nina.  Fraser introduces himself to Dr. Forbes who mentions the date they have that night.  On the obstetrics floor, Fraser questions Nina about not recommending workplace dating.  She explains that it isn't a date as Dr. Forbes is her father's cardiologist and technically, they don't work in the same place.  Cherie comes out of a woman's room and brings Nina and Fraser up to date on the patient.  She then tells them she saw bruising on the woman's back when she was changing into the gown and the couple are hardly speaking.  Fraser asks Nina what they do and she answers their first priority is to deliver a healthy baby for now they focus on that.  They enter the room and Nina speaks with the woman but her husband answers all the questions.

At the pub, Mick receives a call from the fertility doctor.  She wants to see both he and Billie to discuss the results of the semen analysis.  She thinks it might be good to speak with them individually at first and she prefers to discuss things in person.

Fraser tells Nina the bruises visible through the back of the gown are really bad.  He asks if they call in the social worker but she tells him they can't do that yet because before anyone can do anything Kate needs to acknowledge the bruises were inflicted so they are going to wait for the husband to leave the room.  The two of them will leave and since Kate has spent the most time with Cherie they will see if she will open up to her.  Fraser is clearly unhappy with how the situation is being handled.  Later, Cherie tells them she got Kate to speak but she claimed she was getting out of the bath, slipped and hit her back on the taps.  Nina goes into the room and sits down with Kate telling her she's in a safe place and they're all there for her; she's there for her if she needs any kind of help.  Kate tells her she just wants to have the baby leaving Nina few options.  Nina goes back into the hall and tells Fraser they need to prep for an epidural.  He's angry they can't deal with the situation head on as he knows the woman is being abused.  Her husband walks up behind Fraser and asks if everything is alright and Fraser comments 'you tell me, mate'.  Nina pulls Fraser away telling him to go do rounds as he's no longer part of the delivery and goes back to the room with the husband.

When Nina takes Fraser home that evening she gets out of the car and tells him she understands his feeling of wishing he could do more.  But, they always can't do more.  He starts to walk away and she asks what he would have done as she genuinely wants to talk it through.  He admits he doesn't know.  He's still angry and comments he didn't know they also had to protect wife bashers as well as deliver the baby.  He starts to walk away but turns back and apologizes and takes her into his arms and kisses her.  She pushes away and he tells her she knocked him out the first second he saw her and every day it gets more and more intense.  He takes her in his arms again and kisses her and she returns the kiss.  She pulls away citing her date with her father's cardiologist.  Fraser asks how they are leaving things but she only tells him she'll see him at work.

Billie arrives home from a run and starts to run upstairs but Mick stops her.  She asks why he isn't changed for their dinner date and he tells her he was called into the fertility place with his results and they've got problems--he's got problems.

Nina arrives for dinner with Dr. Forbes and finds Billie and Mick aren't there.  The two of them talk and have a drink and Nina and thinks Dr. Forbes reminds her of her when she likes someone.  They talk and realize they have a lot in common.  She calls Billie to see why she's late.  Her phone rings and when she answers it it is Dr. Fraser saying he's at home and can't stop thinking about her and asks if she can come over.  She almost drops the phone and turns to see Billie and Mick walking in.  The four sit down at the table and Mick and Billie are clearly having a problem.  Billie starts to cry.  She gets her composure and starts making conversation again.  Mick tells the others they just found out he has dud sperm, drawing a reprimand from Billie.  Billie starts crying again and Nina comforts her while Dr. Forbes watches the scene before him.  Nina's phone rings and she's called into work by Zara.  Dr. Forbes walks Nina to the hospital and he asks her how long she thinks she'll stick with obstetrics as most change fields.  He comments she must get tired of screaming, hysterical women.

Billie confesses to Mick that she had two abortions when she was 17 and 19 and she's always feared someone would tell her she can't get pregnant.  Mick asks if his problem is a deal breaker for them and she tells him the point is they both have pasts and she loves him.

Dr. Forbes tells Nina he'd love to catch up again when they can find a night without a birth or family crisis, something she comments counts out most nights for her.  He sympathizes with her on the family front as he has a bi-polar brother, an alcoholic father and a mum who was a 1970's bikini model.  He strictly limits seeing them to Christmas, Easter and his mum's birthday.  When they arrive at the hospital, he asks if she knows when she might be free.  She thinks that while he's charming, rich and interesting he's dismissive of obstetrics and doesn't like crazy families.  She says she might have to let him know and they part ways.  She enters the hospital and goes about her routine thinking of what she will say to Ben Forbes.

Offspring airs on Mondays at 8:30 p.m. on Ten Network.
Official Site:  http://ten.com.au/offspring.htm
The Internet Movie Database:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1530541/
TV Rage:  http://www.tvrage.com/shows/id-25992