Friday

Wow. That seems to be the only appropriate response to such a well-crafted and invigorating hour of television as The Knick’s latest, but it bears repeating: wow.

After four straight weeks of steady quality, one might suppose that it’s not much of a surprise how The Knick flounders away it’s seventeenth hour, but that doesn’t make it any less disappointing.

After a veritable barrage of bad news over the last few weeks, The Knick seems to be on a more redemptive arc this week, and it’s a nice change of pace.

As I’ve been noting throughout The Knick’s entire run, this is a show with a shocking propensity for gruesome imagery, and “Whiplash” is the most notable and arguably egregious example to date.

There couldn’t be a more apt title for the latest episode of The Knick, as “Wonderful Surprises” delivered a bevy of shocks and revelations at every turn.

With at least a half dozen character actions from the past and present leading to far-reaching consequences in “The Best with the Best to Get the Best”, Cinemax’s medical drama is proving to have quite a healthy memory.

The Knick has made some strong and effective leaps in the last few episodes, but none have been as big or as game-changing as the revelation of Thackery’s addiction to the Knickerbocker staff, and a host of others in its inner circle.

The Knick has set itself as the show to beat this week, with it’s most tense and taut episode to date. “Get the Rope” sets its sights primarily on race relations, an issue that has been sweltering underneath the shows sticky surface for a long time now, but this week, it boils into the spotlight with a cruel and ugly candor.

Sometimes it’s the simplest things which bring us the greatest of joys. This is the recurring theme that echoes through The Knick as we reach the halfway point for its first season. From a first bike ride to a cold beer with a co-worker, it is the most basic of life’s pleasures that get our characters through another tough week at the Knickerbocker Hospital.

While the new Cinemax series, The Knick, has had a promising run thus far, one would be hard pressed to deny the fact that it has been a bit uneventful. All of that has changed with the highly charged third episode however.

Beginning with Thackery receiving a visit from an old flame, “The Busy Flea” quickly sets the stage for a different kind of story. For one thing, Thackery’s former lover is not dropping by the Knick to catch up, but for a favor; the kind that only a surgeon can provide. The viewer knows right from the outset that there’s something amiss about this woman from the reaction of the admitting nurse.

The episode opens with yet another misleading sequence, although exactly how misleading the gorgeously shot Will-digo transformation/birth scene really is remains to be seen–after all, we still don’t know with any certainty who arranged the Randall exhibit, or whose body was sent flaming down the parkade runway in glorious tribute to Red Dragon’s exemplary Tooth Fairy kill. In fact, I would hasten that there is still a lot that we don’t know about this secret plan which has occupied much of the narrative lo’ these last few episodes. But more on that later.