Good Sam Review: A Light in the Storm (Season 1 Episode 9)

Good Sam Season 1 Episode 9, “A Light in the Storm,” encourages unlikely pairings and surprising character developments in the series’ first two-part event. 

Everything with Caleb and Malcolm is fun and brings a bit of levity to an otherwise stressful episode.

It’s enjoyable to watch their biased perceptions of each other fall away — especially for Caleb from Malcolm.

Not to mention, Lex and Joey’s multiple check-ins with each other feel like breathers for the characters as much as they are for us. 

There’s no better way to force people to see their colleagues, friends, and family in a new light than trapping them in a hospital during a snowstorm.

To some degree, this episode’s constrictive setting makes it feel similar to a traditional bottle episode.

Good Sam often struggles to take its characters outside of Lakeshore’s walls.

But, the impossibility of that in this episode makes that less of a narrative weakness and more of narrative strength.

Additionally, “A Light in the Storm” continues Sam and Caleb’s friends-with-benefits situation, and its circumstances make its potential longevity intriguing.

On the one hand, it’s always refreshing to see a woman unashamed and in charge of her sexuality on TV.

On the other hand, it’s fascinating that Good Sam doesn’t ignore the possibility of their sexual relationship being solely a trauma response for Sam.

Also, Sam’s reminder that she can’t get emotionally involved doesn’t erase her knowledge that Caleb already is emotionally involved. 

Good Sam seems to be aware of this element of their partnership, too. 

Of course, Caleb agrees to their dynamic despite or maybe even because of his feelings. So, they’re consenting adults, and that’s how it should be.

Nevertheless, it’s challenging to imagine an end to their scenario where Caleb isn’t hurt — assuming Sam doesn’t eventually reciprocate his romantic feelings for her.

Consequently, watching Caleb and Sam together feels like waiting for the other dramatic shoe to drop — whether it has to do with their potential future as a couple or their general wellbeings as independent characters.

As usual, Sam and Griff find themselves debating their stance on the moral line between good and bad. Subsequently, they continually overlook the more common reality of living in the grey.

Sam experiences that grey in her profession when she makes the difficult decision to keep the remaining blood supply for Kevin instead of Lex or Joey’s patients.

Her decision is in good faith, but she makes it knowing that two people who deserve to live may not get the chance. 

It’s the kind of tough, stressful choice that usually only arises in such conditions, like the ones in “A Light in the Storm,” and it’s a leader who has to make the defining call.

There’s a beat when Griff volunteers to make the call for her, but Sam doubles down on her responsibility to do so. Sam and Griff work very well together for the most part during Kevin’s case.

Their dynamic in the episode is a lot of the same, but it does have a different edge.

Griff and Vivian’s secret is out in the open, and the hospital’s current situation — and its current patients — don’t give Sam and Griff much room to avoid each other.

So, they work together to save Kevin, who survives heart surgery after a nearly fatal car accident. The full-circle, poetic circumstances of such a medical case are not a coincidence to Good Sam.

Griff’s reckoning with that is fascinating since it’s not overt, much like most of Griff’s outward-facing persona. 

Griff’s dynamic with Kevin allows Jason Isaacs to let his character’s tough exterior down a bit. It’s nice to see him crack jokes with Kevin to boost his spirits.

Pairing Griff up with a child patient is an excellent way to chip away at his ego — especially a child that has so many parallels to a young Sam.

The most rewarding element of Kevin’s case (besides his survival, of course) comes after Griff spends the night with Kevin because his parents can’t be with him.

Does that sound familiar? 

Griff admits to Sam that he let her down and agrees they should talk about the accident when she’s ready.

He uses vocabulary that reflects his ongoing sessions with Asher Pyne, which is huge considering Griff’s resistance to see therapy’s merits. 

While it’s a bit of a letdown that Good Sam doesn’t check in with Griff at one of his sessions before the hospital’s havoc, it’s good that the show cements proof he is doing the work to be and do better.

Plus, Griff takes full responsibility for his role in the accident and upholding the lie to cover it up for 20 years, and that’s no small feat.

The emotional gut-punch comes when Griff tells his daughter that he understands if Sam wants to cut him off, but she shouldn’t do the same to Vivian. 

He can’t preserve his relationship with Sam unless she wants to do the same, so he vouches for Sam to rebuild her relationship with her mother.

Jason Isaacs and Sophia Bush are always great together, but this scene is especially emotionally effective.

There are a lot of pregnant pauses in that scene, and they don’t leave any unintentional awkward tension in the air. Instead, they elevate the scene by underscoring one of Sam and Griff’s most vulnerable conversations so far.

Understandably, Sam will come around to both of her parents in due time. A twenty-year lie makes it a little difficult to have a civil conversation with them. 

Good Sam knows this and lights a fire under the snowstorm by creating a cliffhanger that leaves Vivan’s life hanging in the balance until the finale of this two-part event. 

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Good Sam airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on CBS.

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