PC Penhale's older brother, Sam, is in town. From the get-go it's obvious that Port Wenn's lone police officer idolizes his brother thinking Sam's the hero while he's the zero. Then the Doc started noticing Sam has symptoms of a neurologic condition that could be genetic, PC Penhale went into a hypochondric overdrive.
Speaking of hypochondria, Mr. Routledge had been pestering the Doc with boy-who-cried-wolf medical complaints to get him to be referred to a nursing home. Louisa gets involved and it looks like Mr. Routledge will get his wish after all.
Louisa is also getting paranoid about her pregnancy, first believing the baby has not moved, and then, prompted by Dr. Montgomery's "findings" thinking that there's something wrong with the baby because it was small for its age. On both incidents the Doc reassures her that their baby was progressing along normally.
Last among the paranoids, because of Burt's meddling, Al thinks Pauline is breaking up with him because he was clingy, boring, unromantic and he follows her around like a lamb.
The moral of the episode, each one of them had it in themselves all this time but they were too busy looking outside for validation. PC Penhale proved to be the better person than his crook of a brother. Al had more "nice bits" that Pauline loves than the little irritating quirks she complains about. Louisa had Martin's assurance that their baby was healthy all along.
On a side note, I think Dr. Montgomery is steadily making herself a third party in the Louisa-Martin romance. She's actively pursuing the Doc and coming down hard on Louisa. But Louisa has an edge - the Doc is definitely falling in love with their baby.
4 Reviews
Good Episode Involving Almost All Significant Characters
Hitchcoc19 February 2018
There are several conflicts in this episode. Al Large and Pauline are having issues because he is clingy and boring. Joe the cop is visited by his brother who is exhibiting possible symptoms of Huntington's disease. Joe, of course, thinks he is doomed. There is great angst. Louisa is looking for a place to live and starts working over an old guy who wants to go to a nursing home but the Doc won't approve it. She is also concerned with the results of an ultrasound. It also appears that the red-headed former paramour of Martin acts just like him. The last scene is worth the watching of this episode.
"You're a mentally deranged time-waster"
planktonrules26 April 2015
The stupid police constable's brother is in town. He's a painter and spends much of the episode working on Doc Martin's office. However, while doing this, he shows some troubling symptoms--with a lack of coordination and memory impairment. Martin wants to run some tests to rule out Huntington's and other problems. However, when the dopey PC learns about this, he imagines he's having all sorts of symptoms.
Other plots in this one involve an old man who wants to be sent off to a nursing home--and so he fakes a variety of illnesses in the hopes that he'll get placed in the home. Also, Louisa is quite worried about the baby's development--as the fetus seems awfully small. Overall, a decent but otherwise unremarkable episode.
Other plots in this one involve an old man who wants to be sent off to a nursing home--and so he fakes a variety of illnesses in the hopes that he'll get placed in the home. Also, Louisa is quite worried about the baby's development--as the fetus seems awfully small. Overall, a decent but otherwise unremarkable episode.
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