Mercy Street
For me, the Civil War (aka: War
Between the States) is one of the most interesting times to learn about in U.S.
History. This is why I was so
disappointed when a bigger deal was not made for the 150th
anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg a few years ago. The years ahead of it had shows and specials
aired on TV, but when it came to the actual anniversary, I saw very
little. There were things about the 150th
anniversary of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, but I don’t
remember much about the same anniversary for the end of the Civil War. Most likely the two events were put together,
but that still does not explain the lack of attention to Gettysburg. I wonder if they will get into that battle with
the show Mercy Street.
For
those who watched Downton Abbey, you saw the Crawley family home turned
into a hospital during World War I. In Mercy
Street, it is a hotel that becomes a hospital for Civil War soldiers,
except this time, the hotel is taken over more by force than turned into a
hospital by altruistic intent. This
hotel, now hospital, is in Virginia where the Union Army has taken
control. They turn the hotel into a
hospital primarily to care for their own soldiers, although they will let an
occasional Confederate soldier come in as well.
They are not cared for nearly as well as the Union soldiers, often being
forgotten about or intentionally pushed aside altogether. At least they are until the hotel owner’s
daughter comes for a visit.
Emma Green
(Hannah James) is looking for her “beau”, Frank Stringfellow (Jack
Falahee). Who she finds instead is her
childhood friend, Tom Fairfax (Cameron Monaghan), in really bad shape. Concerned about Tom’s well-being, Emma
demands that Mary Phinney (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), the new head nurse, care
for him. Mary, a strong supporter of
abolition, is resistant to help a Confederate soldier before a Union. Believing the Union soldiers have more of a
right to her attention, Mary tells Emma that if she wants Tom to get the
attention she believes he deserves, then Emma is going to have to do it
herself. She will have to grow up first
though, because life in the hospital is not for those young at heart.
Leaving
Emma to figure out her own path, Mary does whatever she can to maneuver the
inner workings of the hospital. When she
volunteered to be a nurse, I don’t think Mary ever suspected the hospital politics
that would be involved. Constantly Mary
is caught between the two main doctors who rarely, if ever, see eye to eye, and
they test her to see which side she agrees with. More often than not, Mary agrees with the
methods of Dr. Jed Foster (Josh Radnor).
So usually does the administration.
Dr. Foster has a more caring and compassionate approach to the soldiers,
unlike his counterpart, Dr. Byron Hale (Norbert Leo Butz). While Dr. Foster cares about each soldier’s
well-being, Dr. Hale concerns himself with getting the soldiers back on the
battlefield. He’s also a little bit
power hungry. This causes Dr. Hale to be
on the reckless side at times, especially with his lover, Nurse Anne Hastings
(Tara Summers), pushing at him to grab more positions of power.
Desperate
for power herself, Nurse Hastings has a huge problem with Mary coming in as the
head nurse. Nurse Hastings worked under
Florence Nightingale, so in her mind she should be the one in charge. With Mary there, that is not going to
happen. To make matters worse, Mary has
not officially trained as a nurse. Her
experience comes from caring for her now deceased husband, time and experience
that Nurse Hastings does not believe is worthy of being declared head nurse. To get her revenge, and hopefully the power
in her own hands, Nurse Hastings pretends to be agreeable and work along with
Mary, but she is really pushing Dr. Hale to treat Mary badly. Unfortunately for Nurse Hastings, I believe
Mary is wise to her schemes, which is why Mary keeps her guard up even while
trying to broker a true bridge between herself and Nurse Hastings. If her inability to get Mary were not enough
to put Nurse Hastings in a bad mood, all her failed maneuverings to get Dr. Hale more
power would certainly do the trick.
Dr. Foster is always seen in a better light than Dr. Hale, no matter how
much Nurse Hastings and Dr. Hale attempt to prove otherwise. Unable to handle these two failings, Nurse
Hastings pretty much spends her life in a perpetual bad mood.
Not
that the others in the hospital are exactly cheery. Below stairs, the hospital steward, Silas
Bullen (Wade Williams), is stealing from the patients and giving them
insufficient food. He treats his
workers, mostly runaway slaves, terribly.
One, Aurelia Johnson (Shalita Grant), he forces himself on as “payment”
for “helping” bring Aurelia’s son to her.
Of course, Bullen is not helping Aurelia at all, nor does he have any
intent of doing so. All he cares about
is his power and using it to take what he wants, no matter who it hurts.
This
treatment of Aurelia does not go over well with Samuel Diggs (McKinley Belcher
III), a man who was born free. He loves
Aurelia, and while at first he does not know the specifics about what is going
on between her and Bullen, he knows it isn’t right. Sam also knows about Bullen’s stealing, but
because of the simple fact of the color of his skin, no one will believe
him. That doesn’t mean that Sam doesn’t
have any support anywhere, though. Mary
thinks quite highly of him. She thinks
of Sam this way from the start, but when Sam shows Mary his medical skills, her
opinion about him grows. It’s too bad,
though, that they have to keep Sam’s medical skills a secret. He could be a great asset to the hospital,
but even though they are a Union hospital, the color of Sam’s skin (again) would
prevent him from being allowed to work as a doctor. So, they are forced keep Sam’s skills under
wraps until an emergency arises, and Sam’s skills are needed to save his love’s
life.
Aurelia’s
life isn’t the only life that needs to be saved, and Sam’s secret isn’t the
only one that needs to be kept. Dr.
Foster has a secret too. One that is
life threatening. Dr. Foster is addicted to morphine. Fortunately for Dr. Foster, Mary finds out
about his problem and becomes determined to help him get well. Mary covers for Dr. Foster as she keeps him
locked in his room waiting for the morphine to get out of his system. This is a task easier said than done, because
while most everyone else is willing to accept the fact that Dr. Foster simply
is not well, Nurse Hastings wants to know more.
She wants to check and see how he is doing. Not out of actual care, but for her own
agenda. It takes some fast talking on
Mary’s part to deter her, and even then the deterring is only partial, but it
is enough to keep Nurse Hastings out of Dr. Foster’s room. Mary is then able to care for Dr. Foster on
her own, changing their relationship from doctor and nurse to friends, and to
possibly something more.
This
is a lot to have happened in only six episodes and there are still a ton of
things I have not mentioned. I haven’t
said anything about Emma’s southern sympathizer family or her friendship with
the Union clergyman, Chaplain Henry Hopkins (Luke Macfarlane). There are the attempts of sabotage and
assassination by a rebel group. Then
there are the actual soldiers themselves and what they are going through. With all this said, I’m still leaving things
out. Surprisingly, with all that is
going on, the show does not feel cluttered.
It’s easy to follow and you find yourself liking and disliking people on
all sides. No one person in this show is
truly all good or all evil (although some do come close to the evil part). Everyone has flaws. The only two that even come close to being
all good are Sam and Chaplain Hopkins, and I’m sure they’re not perfect either.
With
only six episodes in the first season, I’m really glad that there is a second
one coming up. I hope that this time,
though, I’m able to get absorbed in the story with the first episode. With the first season, it took me until about
the fourth episode for me to really get into what was going on. I liked the first three episodes, don’t get
me wrong, and they’re all important to the story, but it was the fourth episode
where the storylines really started to fly.
After that, I didn’t want the season to end. Now that is has, all I can do is wait for the
next season to see what happens next.
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