Saving Hope

On the way to their wedding, Dr. Alex Reid and Dr. Charlie Harris' cab is T-boned. The driver of the other car's lung collapses, and Charlie springs into action - showing why he is the Chief of Surgery at Hope Zion hospital - inflating the lung on site. He saves the woman, but something is wrong with Charlie. He loses consciousness and is rushed to Hope Zee with Alex at his side.

Alex has taken to sleeping in Charlie's ICU room, and her devotion to her comatose fiance causes interim Chief of Surgery, Dr. Dana Kinney, to challenge Alex on her ability to be a doctor while keeping a bedside vigil at the same time. Alex's day doesn't get any better when Charlie's ex-wife, Dr. Dawn Bell, arrives to check in on him.

Alex is riding high after Charlie's hand moved. She's convinced: he is coming back. As she begins to mull taking time off to spend with her recovering fiance, she is tasked with diagnosing a patient who already has several surgeries under his belt. His mysterious symptoms do not seem to connect, but is Alex's head in the game or the clouds?

After finding out that Charlie's condition hasn't improved, Alex is growing concerned about his chances of recovery. Her worries are exacerbated when she detects a crackling in Charlie's chest. Does he have pneumonia? To keep her mind active, an already exhausted Alex takes an overnight shift in the ER.

When Alex falls asleep during a big case presentation, a suddenly sympathetic Kinney orders Alex to go home and get some rest. While the surgeons of Hope Zee prepare for a high profile hand replantation, Joel realizes that Kinney is giving Alex's rival surgeon, Tom Reycraft, a tryout for Alex's position.

It has been six weeks since Charlie's accident, and Alex suddenly realizes: she's late. Before she can bring herself to take a pregnancy test, Alex is paged to the ER where a man has been brought in by ambulance with rebar sticking out of his chest. Complicating matters is the man's strange case of memory loss - and stranger yet, he is smiling when he should be screaming in pain.

Sandhya, a beautiful young bride to be, comes into Hope Zee for a routine procedure to remove a benign tumor.When complications arise during her surgery, Alex rushes to save her life. Sandhya stabilizes, but in an event that is a little too familiar to Alex, she slips into a coma.

The gloves are off as Alex and Dawn lawyer up and head to a hearing that will determine who Charlie's legal decision maker will be - a ruling that could determine whether or not life saving treatment will continue. The tribunal hears the passionate testimony of Charlie's fiancee and ex-wife; both claim an intimate knowledge of Charlie's end of life wishes, and neither will compromise.

Charlie's ex-wife, Dawn, has pulled the plug on his ventilator. All that's left now is to wait for his breathing to stop. Devastated, Alex vows to stay by Charlie's side. Meanwhile, Charlie - resisting his death - bumps into Mack MacIlreath, a recently deceased colleague, who has come to help Charlie die. Alex decides to lawyer up and appeal to the Consent and Capacity Board.

Returning to the OR for the first time since breaking his hand, Joel lifts the scalpel, leans in and...completely freezes. He leaves the OR, claiming his hand is compromised, but Kinney knows Joel's problem isn't physical. Kinney decides that Joel needs to get away from the hospital, and invites him to come with her on a CME (continuing medical education) expedition to her hometown of Elsinore.

When a passenger on a Denver-bound flight becomes seriously ill, the plane is forced to land and the passenger is rushed to Hope Zion. After an emergency surgery, the patient dies. What happens next shocks the staff of Hope Zee: the doctor who accompanied him off the plane starts showing similar symptoms.

When Shahir tells Alex that Charlie is still a six on the Glasgow Coma Scale, she is not ready to give up the fight. She asks Shahir to perform Deep Brain Stimulation on Charlie - an extremely experimental procedure that could cause brain damage. As the electrodes reach Charlie's thalamus, Shahir begins to crank the voltage - and Charlie finds himself launched into visions of his past.

Following the events of the night before, it's a new game at Hope Zion. The fate of Alex and Charlie's relationship may have now been decided and Alex, with the same spirit that once made her Chief Surgical Resident, takes charge of the situation - pressing onward. But while charting the course of her own life, Alex is faced with the grim task of telling a bride-to-be that she is going to die.