Saving Lives Brings Trouble On 'Complications'

In its uneven, albeit sometimes thrilling, series premiere, the USA Network drama Complications follows Doctor John Ellison as he attempts to save the life of the young victim of a drive-by shooting, which leads to more trouble than he ever expected. Ellison is a man who recently lost his 8-year-old daughter, a death that clearly still affects him everyday. In a chance encounter, John witnesses the shooting and then attempts to do everything in and beyond his power to help the kid. Why does John go through so much trouble? Part of it stems from his doctorly duty, while another component is potentially to save a child who in some ways may remind him of his daughter. But a huge factor in this is alo the fact that the child has ties to a gang. So the question to take away from this series premiere is this: Is John now under the thumb of this gang? And what will he have to do for them?

John's current situation comes as a result of going to extraordinary efforts to save this young boy, Antoine. While waiting for the ambulance to arrive, John sees that Antoine's almost murderers coming back to attack him again, so he shoots them, killing one. From here, Antoine's father, a prisoner who seemingly has the prison guards working for him, threatens John to save Antoine from the gang who will come back and attempt the murder again. John succeeds, but he's forced to see a psychiatrist to sign off on him going back to work first. When associates of Antoine's father come to see John to make sure he'll take care of the boy no matter what, it's clear that John has gotten himself in a tough situation.

So what will John have to do for the gang? Clearly saving and protecting Antoine is priority one. But it's possible that he, along with Nurse Gretchen who also helped save the boy, will have to do some things for the gang, like unofficially treating injured members. They've made it clear that they're willing to protect John from the rival gang who very clearly wanted to hurt him, but this looks like a quid pro quo situation. John might have to go beyond the law a few more times than he'd like for the gang until he's finally ready to snap, which will likely happen if they ask him to do something that's going too far. I wonder what too far looks like for John, if he's already willing to risk his job and sanity as much as he does in the pilot alone.

So in the end, how is he going to get out? He has a family to worry about, as well as his own safety. Plus, his job is going to be constantly on the line, and John is very clearly still dealing with personal demons from his daughter's death and from killing a man. USA Network has it right with the show's title — this story is complicated, indeed.

Image: Daniel McFadden/USA Network