So Help Me Todd Season 1 Episode 17 Review: The First Date is the Deepest

At first glance,  So Help Me Todd Season 1 Episode 17, “The First Date is the Deepest,” is an episode you might not want to watch before having surgery. By the end of the episode, it’s one to avoid if you want to keep your romantic hopes high.

Ryan is a young autistic man, and a client Margaret has worked with before. Now he comes to her in the wake of his mother’s death—the very next day, in fact—with a settlement offer from the hospital where she died in a routine surgery.

This much of the story is effective in tragedy. It  moves into something much more chaotic when we learn that the surgery happened at the hospital where Allison works, and at the hands of a male doctor she’s friends with. And by “friends” I mean…

…Honesty, it’s not clear. The revelation that Allison is now spending her nights in a small room in the hospital is only one of the more jarring bits of the hour. The outlook for her marriage is dismal, but I trust she hasn’t done anything with Ross yet. That last word is the key one.

She faces plenty of vexing questions about the matter, mostly from her mother, and for several minutes in a wildly unprofessional courtroom scene. By this point, Margaret and Todd should be happy she isn’t trying to cast them from her life, too.

The true outcome of the case is a mostly an over-the-top mess, even if it does spare Ross. I suppose the good news is that we needn’t fear robots or bad surgeons: just doctors who would murder a patient and frame their colleague for the sake of a promotion.

Watching Allison’s marriage likely crumble, one might hope to find a more effective love story elsewhere. Well, keep hoping. For one thing, Susan tells Todd they can no longer be friends in light of recent events, and the moment is forgotten before we can even process its weight.

You can probably guess what to expect from Margaret’s first real date with Gus. The first sign of trouble here actually takes places between Todd and Beverly Crest, who asks him to vet potential candidates for partner at the firm. These don’t include his mother, but they do include her new beau.

We are not given an sufficient answer as to why Beverly, who has encouraged Margaret in the past, is suddenly looking elsewhere. Todd might have a bias in saying that his mother is by far the most qualified candidate, but that doesn’t make it less true.

He reveals the truth after some half-hearted attempts at investigating (and one painfully awkward encounter with Gus). It’s bad enough that it happens just as the date is getting started. It’s worse that we learn Gus knew all along.

This is another eyebrow-raising moment. I can see Gus not acknowledging the offer itself, given he dismisses it as unserious. Believing that he’d dismiss Margaret’s feelings about it, especially after putting in the work to get her on the date in the first place, is another matter.

Either way, the result is the same. Unless a redemption arc is in the cards, Gus is hitting the road. Margaret deserves better. She, Allison, and all the characters on this show just deserve to be happy, in and outside of their relationships.

The end of the season looms in just a few episodes now, so I’m afraid we’re going to see drama favored over that happiness more often than not. Todd does at least step in to be a good son in the last scene. We’ll have to take these moments where we can get them.

 

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So Help Me Todd  airs Thursdays at 9/8c on CBS.

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