Jac Naylor is my queen

Holby City - China Crisis

Oh, my, what a delightful New Year episode!  Well, half of it, anyway.  I refer to the conference.  Although, seriously, who on earth would hold a conference over New Year in the real world??!!  Does this actually happen?  Because it’s insane.  And this from someone whose wild partying days are over!

The car journey was brilliant - Sacha’s delight at his own mix tape, combined with Ric and Jac’s disgust - but then not being able to help joining in occasionally had me grinning like mad.  And Jac’s facial expressions are quite literally epic - here and at several other points in the episode.  Not to mention her acting like a stroppy teenager for the first part of the conference.

It was good to see Arianne Cornell again, I liked her when she was fixing Connie, and I liked the hate/not really hate relationship she had with Jac.  Tom Campbell-Gore - well, it was interesting to see him again, I won’t go so far as good because he was never one of my favourites first time around, but old faces popping up has always got to be a positive.  And I did appreciate the mention of Zubin Khan (who was a favourite, and certainly someone I wouldn’t be sad to see popping up during this 20th year celebration!).  Also the fact they were competing for the Anton Meyer award for surgical innovation - absolutely loved Anton Meyer as a character.  Another one I wish I could see again.

I’m glad we got to the bottom of Jac’s mood, I’m glad it wasn’t just her cold - and I’m glad it was made clear that she didn’t have a problem with Jonny marrying because of him.

Tom’s wife Mica cozying up to Ric to steal his ideas, oh my god, so obvious!  But a bit perfect that Ric fell for it.  Because if anyone would let his interest in the ladies overrule any sense he had, it would be Ric!

I am really pleased that Sacha finally won something and wasn’t just the buffoon second place that he’s so often portrayed as.  However, I did find his presentation to be really uncomfortable.  I totally agree that mental health shouldn’t be a dirty secret, but I’m not convinced that it was the right forum for him to share that - and I would feel the same if he was talking about an accident he had been in, or a surgery he had needed.  I do wish he had won through his admittedly rough draft idea alone, and if the reveal was important, that it had been done at a different moment.  Maybe the acceptance speech.

I loved the three amigos shoving open the door to the celebration, all dressed up in their party gear, and the camera angle as they said ‘Let’s do this!”.  And Jac’s face as she begged to be rescued.  And most of all, at the end, when Sacha was playing the piano, and Jac was falling asleep on his shoulder, just hitting the high note when nudged.  Pure gold.

OK, now to the not so brilliant half.

Cameron is back, with a new found confidence, which is great.  Morven dumped him for a tattoo’d bar man, ok, fair enough.  He’s heading up to Darwin, yes, I’d say this is good, not sure I want him playing opposite Serena.  Especially after he told her that Bernie was missing her - and although she didn’t say it, he could tell.  And Serena’s reaction to this?  Looking away for a second, then ignoring it by deflecting onto Cam’s failed relationship with Morven.  I guess I should be grateful Bernie even got a mention, but I’d have been a lot more grateful if Serena had appeared for a second to actually care.  Although she did look rather nice, leaning forward on the desk in that shirt…

Oh, I forgot, Serena’s earlier conversation with Cam, ostensibly about his work in Jamaica. when she said “There’s more to the job than chasing excitement, you know!” felt like a dig at Bernie.  At that point, I half thought she did care.  But then later in the office wiped that.

The whole Greta accident storyline was a bit of a miss for me.  I suppose it was intended to balance out the humour of the conference storyline by being all stressful and hard hitting.  That, combined with echoes of Elinor’s death for Serena.  But the whole thing just fell a bit flat.  I didn’t feel fear or panic, or really any tension.  I fully appreciate it may just be me, I’m full of a cold at the moment, so perhaps I’m just not as drawn in as I may otherwise be, but whatever the reason, the drama of this particular situation just passed me right on by!