Mercy Street

                It’s so frustrating.  Yet another really good show has been cancelled.  First it was The Crimson Field.  Then it was Home Fires (which I will be writing about at a later date) and The Doctor Blake Mysteries.  Now it’s Mercy Street.  Three of these shows feature strong women during war time.  For some reason, shows like that have a hard time staying around.  Why?  I don’t know, but I do have my theories.  However, even with my theories, it does not make sense to me. 

                Abraham Lincoln has just visited the Union hospital, and little does he know, he has just avoided assassination.  Volunteer nurse Emma Green’s (Hannah James) boyfriend was the one intended to carry out the assassination.  Something, however, went wrong, and now Frank Stringfellow (Jack Falahee) is on the run.  With the help of Emma’s sister, Alice (AnnaSophia Robb), Frank hides out in their house until it’s okay to escape, as Allan Pinkerton (Brian F. O’Byrne) and his men are on his tail.

                As Frank hides, Emma’s father, James Green, Sr. (Gary Cole) is released from prison.  This creates an unexpected conflict as James Sr. suspects that it was his son’s, James Jr. (Brad Koed), signing of the loyalty pledge to the North that got him free.  James Sr. is appalled that his son would do such a thing after fighting for so long to stay loyal to the South.  Little does anyone know that it is really Emma who got her father released, and that James Jr. is using the loyalty pledge to conduct nefarious dealings for the South behind the scenes.

                Back in the hospital, the head of the hospital is sent away, and in his place arrives Major Clayton McBurney (Bryce Pinkham), a very persnickety man who doesn’t like anything that is going on.  Head nurse Mary Phinney (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) becomes very sick, but refuses to give up working until it’s nearly too late.  Dr. Jed Foster (Josh Radnor) promises to take care of her at the hospital, but Major McBurney has other ideas.  He sends Jed away from the hospital on a ruse, with the help of nurse Anne Hastings (Tara Summers), so he can evict Mary from the hospital without Jed’s complaint.  It is only when Nurse Hastings realizes how much Mary means to Jed that she tells him what is going on.  She tells him just in the nick of time too, because Jed is only able to reach Mary at the moment she is boarding the boat meant to take her away.  Despite his wanting to care for Mary himself, Jed lets Mary go to get well away from the hospital.              

                Now Nurse Hastings is in charge.  At first she is thrilled to have Mary out of the way and be in this position.  It is what she has always wanted, after all.  Then the reality of the situation kicks in.  Major McBurney is an extremely difficult man to deal with.  The things he requires and the constant attention he demands are insane.  No longer wanting to work for this man, Nurse Hastings teams up with others to get rid of him.

                In the meantime, Samuel Diggs’s (McKinley Belcher III) medical skills are discovered by Dr. Byron Hale (Norbert Leo Butz).  Now commanded by Major McBurney to take a medical exam, Dr. Hale asks Sam to tutor him in secret.  As an African-American, it cannot be known that Samuel has these medical skills.  This causes a problem later on when Dr. Hale gives Samuel credit for a medical discovery that happened during their tutoring.      

                As what happened with the last season, there were so many storylines in these six episodes that it’s hard to cover them all.  There’s the romance between Emma and the Chaplain (Luke Macfarlane).  The reformed hospital steward’s, Silas Bullen (Wade Williams), struggles with his reform despite almost getting killed twice.  An old flame of Jed’s shows up at the hospital while Mary is away, bringing up many long ago and conflicting feelings.  Also appearing is the husband of the woman Samuel loves, someone Samuel didn’t know even existed.  Plus, there is a new woman in town, Charlotte Jenkins (Patina Miller), who is there to teach the former slaves how to be free.

                Even with so much going on, there is one storyline that stands out to me more than any other.  That is the conflict between Emma and her family.  They cannot understand how Emma could work in the Union hospital in the first place, but then dare to care for the soldiers from both armies.  Taking care of the Confederates was acceptable, but certainly not the Union.  This act is seen by Emma’s family as a betrayal and that Emma is now a traitor.  None of them take the time to think about what Emma faces every day.  She sees and understands the realities of war far more than anyone else in her family, despite their claims to the contrary.  So immersed in their own lives, Emma’s family does not see the men who are fighting as people.  They are wins and losses, push forwards and retreats.  That is all.  Emma sees these men as people.  Individuals who everyday risk their lives over decisions they did not make.  Injured and hurting in the hospital, these men on opposite sides are not so different from each other.  Whether they want to return to the fight or leave the war altogether, each one prays that one day they will be able to go home. 

                With so many great storylines, it’s really sad to see Mercy Street go away.  I don’t know if it’s being shopped around to other networks, but I suspect it might be a tough sell.  There are a lot of considerations with this show.  The cost of costumes alone could make it difficult for another network to pick it up. 

If this is the end, at least I can say that most things amongst the characters were resolved.  The war may still be going on, but the characters themselves received satisfactory endings.  With very few storylines left hanging, that is a good way to end a show.