First and foremost, I have this nagging question: Why did the writers have to make Addison so unreasonably nasty toward Sam when they had a professional difference of opinion? It almost seemed as though they wanted to make a point of having her act as though she can’t last in a relationship if things don’t go her way.
Sure, she’s passionate about her strong beliefs and that’s to be applauded. But demanding complete agreement from Sam in order for her to be affectionate toward him? Didn’t that seem out of character?
Sam didn’t necessarily agree with Addison when she used the term “unimaginable” to describe the actions of the husband of a woman who’d been in a coma for two years with whom he had sex and got pregnant. Addison wanted the husband put behind bars, while Sam wanted him put in front of a therapist. And for the bulk of this episode, Addison punished Sam for failing to agree with her and even went so far as to compare the husband who had sex with his unresponsive, comatose wife to carnal relations between Sam and Naomi. Seriously, a mean-spirited low blow. Between this and the episode where none of the affluent professionals at Oceanside Wellness would take in Dell’s orphan daughter — as they all knew he would’ve done for them — these characters haven’t been coming off as particularly warm these days.
Even Violet, the only one who actually wanted to adopt Dell’s daughter, was annoyingly pushy, revealing her husband’s secret to Cooper and then gossiping about it in the kitchen at work. The fact that she was going to send an e-mail to Pete’s estranged brother without consulting him because she feared that his family secrets would somehow harm her own little family seemed rash and a bit selfish, particularly for someone who is a therapist and is supposed to gently guide her patients to emotional health, not hit them over the head with a hammer to get them to make peace with their difficult past.
The tale Pete told, when he was finally pushed into it by Violet while they were trick-or-treating with their son, was harrowing. Obviously it explains his reaction to Violet’s assault and to the convict Violet was hell-bent on helping. But geez, that story was a violent doozy, a precursor of sorts to the final, awful scene involving Charlotte’s assault, which will be the focus of next week’s graphic, hard-to-watch episode.
One minor gripe: Seeing Pete in the ER tending to patients felt too Grey’s Anatomy, especially since I’d just finished watching Grey’s moments prior. Private Practice almost always has scenes in the hospital, but they’ve had a different feel to them. Until Pete started his ER work.
Speaking of the ER, that’s where one of this episode’s big stories started, with the husband who was still in the closet. Who couldn’t feel badly for that saintly wife whose husband of nearly 20 years finally confessed to her that not only was he gay, but that he was in love with another man? And she felt badly for HIM, said it must’ve been really hard for HIM to hide who he was. As she remained calm, I was outraged on her behalf. It was only when she learned that he was HIV positive that she responded angrily and slapped him across the face.
About next week’s Private Practice episode, “Did You Hear What Happened to Charlotte King?” I think it’ll be powerful, but I’m not really sure how I feel about watching it play out in front of me. Just viewing the “sneak peek” on the show’s web site, I get chills about the episode about which Shonda Rhimes told Entertainment Weekly, “A lot of violence against women on television is from the point of view of law enforcement, as opposed to standing in the shoes of the actual victim and seeing how it is for them and the people around them.”
Clacked by Meredith O'Brien 
on Oct 29, 2010 @ 15:00 EST5EDT
Great review, Meredith. Thanks for taking Private Practice back! Clearly, unless I move, I will never receive ABC reception again. :(