Welcome to La Clinica Cruz del Sur, located somewhere in South America. It’s D r. Lily Brenner’s (Caroline Dhavernas) first day. She’s joined by two other newbies, infectious disease pro Mina Minard (Mammie Gummer) and Tommy Fuller (Zach Gilford), who is all about plastics. This trio gets a glimpse of what jungle medicine will be like when an amped-up surfer gets decked his doctor. Call it tough love. Hey, sucker punching the guy was the only way to get him to chill long enough to yank the giant stingray out of his leg!
The rookie jungle docs meet the folks who’ve been there awhile. Dr. Ben Keeton (Martin Henderson) is the hunky humanitarian who founded the clinic. Dr. Otis Cole (Jason George) is the tough ex-Navy medical officer. And Dr. Zee Alvarez (Valerie Cruz) is a top herbal medicine guru who is tired of training the revolving door of Americanos who can’t hack Third World life. But that won’t happen with this new crew, right?
When Ben gets a call about an injury in the jungle, Lily goes along for the ride. She had no idea it would be on the back of his motorcycle. It’s the only way to travel the roads, if you can call them that. The status of the patient is a little up in the air because he’s stuck in the middle of a zip-line 80 feet off the ground. There’s only one doctor who’s light enough to zip out there to help the guy, and it’s not Ben.
Lily makes a harrowing journey to save her panicked patient, Ed. Ben is impressed and Lily is surprised that her new boss knows this isn’t her first time in the jungle. Ed has also been here before back when his wife was alive. He returned to seek out a place his wife dubbed “firefly lake” because of the glow from the water below. It’s where he wants to say goodbye to her. Unfortunately, Ed’s internal injuries may make that impossible.
When Ed starts to crash, he needs blood the clinic just doesn’t have. Ben improvises with coconuts. You heard us. Coconuts! The water in the green ones has the same electrolyte balance as blood plasma. Good to know. Coconuts—they’re not just for pina coladas anymore!
After surgery, Ed wants to go to the firefly lake for his wife. It’s his last chance. Both Ben and Otis think it’s too risky. But Lily refuses to let Ed’s wish die. She passionately says, “We saved his life today. Now we can give him a chance to move on with it.” A short time later, Lily, Ben and Ed are paddling out to the firefly lake.
The lake’s water illuminates with a magical, glowing color when the microorganisms are disturbed. Ed pours his wife’s ashes into the lake. She’s with the fireflies now. When Ed is airlifted away, Lily tells Ben she left the jungle before because she lost a patient. Actually, he was more than a patient. He was her fiancé.
Mina treats an elderly woman with a cold who just won’t leave the clinic. It’s a good thing she didn’t, as there’s something else wrong. Mina saves her, but is still very upset. She spent her first day looking for rare, complicated diseases and she almost lost a woman to asthma. This has happened before. Back in the States, she misdiagnosed a young boy as having the flu. The kid later died. It’s one of the reasons she ended up here.
Mina gives the elderly woman an inhaler she brought from home. There’s a look joyous relief on this lady’s face after she uses it. She’s 80 years old and, for the first time, she finally knows what it feels like to breathe. As a thank you, the woman gives Mina a live chicken. Obviously, the health plans are a little different around here.
A bad first impression with Otis gets Tommy sent on a house call. Actually, it’s more of a hut call. Tommy finds the place with help from Charlie (Jonathan Castellanos), a local kid who works as a translator at the clinic. Tommy arrives to find the mother of two young children dead from tuberculosis. Her husband and kids are also infected, but the dad refuses to let Tommy give the kids the necessary medicine. The guy thinks the antibiotics his wife took killed her. Tommy can’t get the dad to bend, so he leaves.
Otis is ticked. He orders Tommy to go back and treat the family, but the dad is adamant that no medicine be used. Tommy knows that kids will die unless he helps them, but the guy won’t bend. Tommy finally gives a heartfelt speech that reveals a lot about his past. Charlie doesn’t need to translate much. It’s obvious that all Tommy wants to do his help. Finally, the dad lets him do just that.
At the end of the day, Ben is surprised to see Dr. Ryan Clark (Rachelle Lefevre) in the office. Ryan happens to be the woman who grabbed Lily’s cab when she first arrived. Lily was just getting there and Ryan was just leaving. Her change of heart about bolting may have something to do with practicing medicine, but we’re guessing it’s more about her feelings for Ben, who seems to be desperately missing someone else.
As for the new docs on the jungle block, they finally make their way to the beach. Lily says, “If there was ever somewhere to start over, it’s right here.” That seems to be exactly why Lily, Mina and Tommy have come to this place. Now all they need to do is jump in. And that’s exactly what they do, literally, when leap off a cliff into the ocean water below. It’s just one of the perks of living somewhere off the map.
Adam’s Advance Review
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