Once again, Margaux and I are left reeling by The Knick.
Trevor: What an ominous title for a deeply unsettling hour of The Knick. For the first time the show really, truly looked outside the hermetically sealed bubble of the titular hospital, and man it’s dirty. Also, literally dirty, as the unpaved roads sent up clouds of dust that obscured everything.
Margaux: Somehow, the real world of The Knick, outside of the hospital is much more gruesome than anything we’ve seen in the surgical theater.
Even though a lot of “Get the Rope” was extremely difficult to watch at times, the race riot at the center of the episode is another great example of the show using a historical event to ground the characters.
Trevor: And not to be “that guy,” but it was pretty chilling to see, in the wake of all the unrest in Ferguson. Granted, a lynch mob is a whole different story, but the ugliness of racial tension in America is apparently a tale as old as time or some shit.
On a brighter note, it was nice to see Thack and Edwards becoming closer – they even had friendly banter! Also, it drove that clean-shaven asshole Gallinger crazy, which was just aces.
Margaux: The Knick does basically everything it sets out to do very well but the cherry on top are when they broach topics of race and women in the workplace. It’s just relevant now as it was then. At every turn, The Knick shines as so much more than just a “hospital drama”.
I thought Clive Owen gave another all-star performance this episode, from his surprising (and to Everett’s dislike) bonding and ribbing with Edwards to undermining Barrows in defending Algie’s clinic. I love the mutual respect between the three doctors (Thack, Edwards, and Bertie) and it seems like Gallinger is literally and figuratively shoving his way in and it’s not working.
Trevor: It’s not, and that goes back to what The Knick has to say about race and race relations. In the pilot, Thack basically told Edwards that he’d be deputy chief when hell froze over, now not only are the two of them palling around, but Thack is even helping at the, sigh, Negro hospital. Bertie has come around as well, praising Edwards’ suction device as “brilliant.” Gallinger is quite literally the last to show up, and (once again, quite literally) is getting left behind.
(That’s not to say that Gallinger is a racist caricature; Eric Johnson is doing fine work in the role.)
Margaux: Gallinger has…a lot going in his life, personally and professionally, I can see him cracking under the stress very soon. But it is satisfying to see him get a little taste of his own medicine (SEE WHAT I DID THERE?!?!). When the hospital is being taken over by angry rioters, Gallinger is relegated to nun security guard to ensure the African American patients get out and stay out of harms way.
Trevor: It’s amazing that The Knick can take a character like Gallinger, the first (and if I’m not mistaken, only) white doctor to use the N-word in Edwards’ presence (to his face, actually) and get us to the point where we’re thinking “Well, Gallinger’s got a lot on his plate, let’s try and see it from his point of view.” With the exception of the rioters (in particular the widow Sears), The Knick is pretty bereft of despicable characters, and I got a good sense of that in the “gang’s all here” shot on the stoop at episode’s end.
Margaux: Oh my God widow Sears, that bitch. I wanted her to get punched right in her pushy, little racist mouth. I couldn’t believe how she so easily encited a race war over a dirty cop – he was soliciting a prostitute for crying out loud, it was uncomfortable to sit through the Irish Catholic racism. At one point, after the mob attacked an innocent man on a bicycle, I wrote “what is this? 12 Years a Slave? Jesus.”
TreVOR: The racism endemic in those Old World cultures is always seemingly glossed over, and you’re right, it’s super uncomfortable to watch. But it’s not like it was unique to the Irish and the Scots; New York in 1900 was a fucking powder keg already.
But it was really nice to see Cleary exempt from that, and his attitude gave “Get the Rope” one of its few moments of levity: Cleary pulling the ambulance by himself.
Margaux: Could Cleary have looked any MORE badass than that shot of him pulling the ambulance ahead of everyone else? It was really refreshing to see Cleary show (for lack of a better word) softer side that we’ve only seen occasionally when he spends time with Sister Harriet. And speaking of Harriet, her marching the less sick patients over to the church was priceless. Just her and her crucifix warding off the heathens.
Trevor: Yeah, that was pretty awesome. Everyone at the Knick stepped up their game, even (in a way) Barrow, who ran to check on his prostitute girlfriend Julia after hearing a patient cheerfully say that he was going uptown to join in on the gang rapes. I also liked that one lonely shot of Bertie performing surgery back at the Knick, as if the show wanted us to know (or remind us, really) that Bertie is fully capable of holding down the fort. The Knick has a lot of respect for its characters, and even in one shot that couldn’t have lasted more than ten seconds, Soderbergh was able to convey that feeling.
Margaux: Heart warming moments are few and far between on The Knick so I really appreciated Bertie’s quiet victory, if anything, he proved to himself that he’s far more capable than those around him might give him credit for.
Trevor: Speaking of heart warming, I loved the staff’s reaction to Edwards’ secret clinic. With the exception of Barrow, they were all thoroughly impressed, which was probably a big factor in him and Cornelia bumping uglies at the end. Thank God they did, too, because the sexual tension in that scene was killing me.
Margaux: Right? Cornelia and Edwards hook up was more of a “FUCKING FINALLY” moment than it was shocking. I mean, getting it on on the surgery table doesn’t seem super sanitary but whatevers. The turn of the century looks pretty gross by and large anyway.
I did like that Cornelia and Edwards relationship was juxtaposed with Eve Hewson and Clive Owen’s uh…slightly less romantic deflowering. Excuse me, I need to chop off my hands for typing that.
Trevor: I will say this, though, Owen’s delivery of “I can make it painless and perfect” was pretty seductive. Sorry, I’m getting a little hot and bothered. I’m only human!
Margaux: Clive Owen and Idris Elba, if Sean can’t ever find me one day, I’ll be at one of their houses.
Trevor: So will I. Eating zza.
Margaux: Fuck this, how did you work in my second least favorite word into this review? I hate you.
Trevor: That’s why they pay me the big bucks (actually I get paid in scrip, which is only redeemable at the GAMbIT company store [there is no company store]). Anyway, you wanna talk star count? I’m becoming worse at writing with every sentence.
Margaux: Sure, my shoulders are getting tired from carrying you through this one anyway.
“Get the Rope” was a shocking and an uncomfortable hour of The Knick, which is saying a lot, considering we saw a botched C-section in the pilot. Four and half stars.
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