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| Best Medicine Season 2 Episode 2 Recap and Review. |
Best Medicine season 2 episode 2 turns Port Wenn into a rather bizarre rescue mission, as Dr Martin Best saves a woman in a mermaid costume, investigates the mystery surrounding her disappearance and tries to stop Judith from turning her new oxygen tank into a homemade firework. Titled “Breakin’ In Is Hard to Do”, the episode balances its medical cases with the awkward relationships and small-town chaos that have become central to the series.
Martin is already under considerable pressure at the start of Best Medicine season 2 episode 2. His medical licence remains under review, leaving the local doctor with the possibility of losing his career hanging over him. His personal life is hardly more straightforward, either, with Dr Montgomery still around while helping Louisa with her attempts to have a baby. Then there is the unresolved romantic tension between Martin and the school principal, which continues to sit there rather awkwardly, refusing to disappear simply because everyone has other things to worry about.
The latest distraction arrives from the sea. While visiting his aunt Sarah at the docks, Martin spots a woman struggling in the water and immediately goes in to rescue her. The situation becomes considerably stranger once he discovers that the woman is wearing a full mermaid costume, including a tail. Port Wenn has clearly decided that ordinary emergencies are no longer interesting enough.
The rescued woman is taken to the clinic, where the mystery only deepens. She initially cannot communicate normally and instead makes unusual noises before suffering a seizure. Martin suspects that high sodium levels could be responsible and prepares to treat her with intravenous fluids. Unfortunately, his patient has other plans. She disappears before he can properly begin treatment, leaving Martin to track her down once again.
She is eventually found hiding in the pantry at the Salty Breeze, and Martin begins putting the pieces together. The woman eventually regains her ability to speak and introduces herself as Cecelia. Her unusual appearance is not the result of anything mythical, but a rare skin condition called ichthyosis, which causes extremely dry, itchy skin and can create scale-like features, particularly around the legs.
Cecelia's mermaid appearance therefore turns out to be less mysterious than the circumstances surrounding her arrival in Port Wenn. She tells Mark that she worked as a mermaid performer on a cruise ship and accidentally fell overboard after drinking too much. It sounds just plausible enough to keep the investigation moving, but Mark quickly notices that parts of her story do not add up.
There is no report matching Cecelia's account of falling from a cruise ship. There is, however, a report involving someone going overboard from a party boat. When confronted, Cecelia admits she lied because she was embarrassed. For Mark, that confession raises a much more serious question: what was she really doing on that boat?
Martin and Mark eventually realise that Cecelia's medication makes it unlikely that she could have become drunk enough for the accident she described. More importantly, her history reveals why she might have wanted to hide the truth. Cecelia has spent years being bullied and excluded because of her skin condition, and the people around her appear to have shown little concern for her wellbeing.
That makes the possibility that Cecelia deliberately went overboard much harder to dismiss. When Martin and Mark return to the Salty Breeze, they discover she has disappeared again. What follows is a search across Port Wenn, with the entire community joining forces to find her before she puts herself in further danger.
The search eventually leads everyone to the lighthouse. Cecelia appears to be considering another attempt to end her life, but Mark refuses to let the situation end there. Rather than relying on a grand speech or some perfectly polished piece of wisdom, he and the townspeople begin sharing their own embarrassing secrets with her. It is an oddly funny approach to a very serious moment, but it works because Cecelia finally sees that being imperfect is hardly a crime in Port Wenn.
The episode also gives Martin an unexpectedly important moment of his own. As everyone starts admitting the things they would rather keep hidden, Martin finally tells the town about his blood phobia. For a man who normally keeps his emotions locked away with the same enthusiasm he has for small talk, it is a significant confession.
Meanwhile, Judith's storyline provides the episode with its more chaotic comedy. She has been diagnosed with double pneumonia and now needs an oxygen tank, which would be manageable if she were not also heavily addicted to cigarettes. Oxygen and an open flame are, unsurprisingly, a disastrous combination.
Martin tries to help Judith quit smoking, but her attempt at giving up the habit goes spectacularly wrong. Soon after receiving the oxygen tank, she lights a cigarette and blows up her living room. She survives the explosion, but her house is left unusable, meaning she needs somewhere else to stay.
The Salty Breeze is understandably reluctant to accommodate her. The inn's excuses about having no vacancies are not particularly convincing, but nobody seems keen on giving Judith another opportunity to accidentally demolish the property. Sarah eventually lets her stay at home, although she takes the sensible precaution of checking Judith for cigarettes and arranging a rotating group of people to keep an eye on her.
Martin is furious when he discovers that his aunt has taken this risk. Unfortunately, Judith soon demonstrates exactly why he is concerned. She tries to light another cigarette and blows up Sarah's guest room. At this point, Judith's smoking problem has moved well beyond a bad habit and into something resembling an ongoing insurance claim.
What works particularly well about this episode is how Best Medicine season 2 episode 2 manages to connect its two seemingly unrelated stories. Cecelia's struggle is about feeling isolated because of something she cannot easily change, while Judith's story is about an addiction she desperately needs to change. Martin sits awkwardly between both situations, trying to treat physical problems while gradually being forced to confront his own emotional baggage.
The episode is also at its best when it lets Port Wenn's residents behave like actual people rather than perfectly composed television characters. The town's response to Cecelia is messy, funny and unexpectedly kind, while Mark's decision to reveal personal secrets shows that he understands something Martin has struggled with for years: people are often more willing to accept vulnerability when they see that everyone has something they would rather hide.
This is a strong, slightly chaotic episode that understands exactly what makes Best Medicine entertaining. The mermaid costume could easily have become a one-joke gimmick, but Cecelia's story gives it genuine purpose, while the mystery surrounding her arrival adds enough intrigue to keep the episode moving. Judith, meanwhile, is responsible for some of the funniest moments, although watching her repeatedly put a cigarette anywhere near an oxygen tank becomes increasingly ridiculous in the best possible way.
Martin's confession is arguably the most satisfying part because it finally allows the famously guarded doctor to expose something he has spent so long concealing. The episode does occasionally push its eccentricity quite hard, but that is also part of its charm. Overall, “Breakin’ In Is Hard to Do” mixes medical drama, awkward humour and emotional moments without losing the show's distinctive small-town personality.
By the end, Cecelia is no longer simply the mysterious mermaid who washed ashore, while Martin has finally allowed Port Wenn to see a more vulnerable side of him. Judith, meanwhile, still has some very serious explaining to do about that guest room. What did you make of Cecelia's storyline and Martin's confession? Did the episode strike the right balance between comedy and drama, or did Judith's exploding house steal the show for you?