Mother’s Day seems to have come early for the Saving Hope crew.

Wednesday’s all-new episode, “Fearless,” put matriarchs front and centre in the action (as moms rightfully deserve to be), as some end-of-pregnancy thoughts made Alex ponder the type of mother she’ll be and the poor relationship with her own mother, one she hadn’t even shared the pregnancy news with.

Of course, whenever Alex has something going on in her life, there always seems to be a medical storyline that coincides with it. Cue the world’s most rude mother. Theresa (if I caught her name right) was a real piece-of-work, bitter about the way her life and two daughters (who seemed perfectly normal on all fronts) turned out. It only took Theresa’s comment about throwing Alex down a flight of stairs to terminate her pregnancy for me to quickly realize no one would be able to reason with her all night, which was quickly proven the case. Yet, somehow, her two daughters were able to put their mother’s baggage aside and stay by her side throughout her hospital stay, which included trying to command nurses to take her to the operating room and nearly dying after surgery.

If Theresa’s daughters were able to put aside the angst with their own mother, Alex could try with hers, right? Wrong, although I wish we could’ve actually heard the conversation the two had rather than just see Alex crying over it. Despite being shut out from the actual conversation, at least we were given some context to the rocky relationship the duo share through Alex’s conversations with Joel and Dana, which only reiterated the support system Alex has with her hospital friends.

Speaking of Joel, let’s be thankful he didn’t go through with his seriously dumb plan to pop the question to Alex. However, it seems everyone in the hospital now knows his intentions (not the smartest idea carrying the ring in your scrubs, buddy), which means sooner rather than later that news will probably travel to Charlie. Other than nearly making the biggest mistake of his life, Joel helped save the life of a young hockey player named Hayden involved in a car accident. Joel did a great thing for the boy, but I really didn’t agree with his decision to listen to Hayden’s girlfriend and lie to his face that his best friend, Shawn, had also died in the accident.

Naturally the sprit of the best friend was what Charlie was dealing with predominantly, although Shawn seemed like a really cool dude–minus the texting and driving offense. And Shawn was able to appeal to Charlie’s good nature and help convince Joel and Shahir they could repair Hayden’s back so he wouldn’t be paralyzed. (Has Charlie ever really said no to a ghost’s request before? Can Charlie say no to anyone?)

The most intriguing storyline of the night, however, came when Sydney’s fiancé, Herschel, checked himself in to the hospital, believing he was dying. First of all, I forgot Sydney even had a fiancé, what with her fling with Maggie. The two had zero chemistry together, which was another obvious sign that Sydney shouldn’t have been marrying him. Luckily, Sydney came to her senses and came clean to Herschel that she was gay, and although I don’t blame him for being upset with her, there was no better thing for her to do for herself. And hey, maybe Hershel was just upset that he just had a tapeworm pulled out of his nose.

Will Sydney and Maggie become a thing? Will Alex make a final choice between Joel and Charlie? Will the gang pass their medical boards? The season finale is almost upon us, so expect these questions and more to be addressed as Alex gets set to head into labour.

Notes:

• That tapeworm might have been the worst thing I’ve ever seen on this show.
• Alex: “These are the most beautiful flower cupcakes.” Maggie: “Actually these are vaginas.”
• If Herschel didn’t realize his fiancée had the hots for another lady from the amount of personal information Sydney shared with him about Maggie, he needs to open his eyes a little bit.
• Congrats to star Erica Durance for giving birth on Tuesday!

Saving Hope airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on CTV.

Thoughts? Hit is up below or via @tv_eh.

Sometimes when I’m watching Charlie interact with the spirits on Saving Hope, my eyes can’t help but wander to the background. Not because I’m bored by what’s going on, but to see if anyone else is noticing Charlie talking to, well, thin air, while we watch him help guide the spirits to a peaceful place.

That idea was at the forefront of Wednesday’s episode, “Remains of the Day,” as an unexplainable move in surgery made thanks to a spirit’s guidance was brought to the attention of staff at Hope Zion, with Dawn hoping Charlie could explain his miraculous move to his colleagues. Only problem? Charlie couldn’t do that without being hauled off to the psych ward.

Really the whole issue was due to a slightly neurotic, OCD spirit named Elaine, whose panic attack mid-surgery forced Charlie to address her spirit in the close proximity of surgeons like Maggie and Rian. It may have been just shrugged off as typical strange Charlie behaviour if Elaine didn’t begin to stroke out, forcing Charlie to use the spot her spirit was clutching as guidance as to where to perform emergency surgery. It certainly was a reckless move to everyone else–can’t say I wouldn’t be freaking right out knowing my colleague was about to carelessly drill into a patient’s head–that spiraled into a medical learning opportunity thanks to Dawn’s insistance (although I’m pretty sure she just wanted to get to the bottom of Charlie’s craziness once and for all). If it weren’t for Maggie and Rian’s elaborate detective skills (or was it simply their oh so desperate need for Charlie to help them study?), Charlie would be in a much different situation when he ended the episode.

While Dawn was trying to expose Charlie’s mysterious ways, she was also attempting to juggle the return of Giselle to the hospital and the bond the two forged during their short time together. I’ve loved seeing Giselle go head-to-head with Dawn, since she’s one of the few characters who seems game for keeping up with Dawn’s bitter attitude all the time. It did feel like we were being hit over the head with the notion that Dawn would at least contemplate adopting Giselle herself, and although I was initially a little miffed she chose her work over the girl, it was probably for the best that Giselle is just staying with Dawn for a week-long trial period rather than anything permenant.

The other main storyline was certainly emotional, as Joel and Alex tried to figure out what exactly was wrong with a caring high school teacher. After years of terrible teachers, I think the storyline touched me so much knowing how much an engaged and invested teacher can shape a young person’s life and how much the dedicated English teacher was trying to give his students. When we finally heard the teacher had an uncurable disease my heart went out to the guy, and I found that doing the play in the hospital was a really sweet way to wrap up his sad story.

Something about what the English teacher said jogged Alex’s memory of her father, causing her hand to cramp up again. It was good of Alex to look into her father once and for all (although it felt like the whole thing was really breezed right over) but the most groundbreaking part of the scene was seeing Alex’s vision of her baby and Charlie playing together. Could Team Charlie be closer to edging out Team Joel in the baby game?

Notes:

• “You see wonton, I see chaos.” I feel bad calling her insane because OCD isn’t something you can control, but Elaine was a lot.
• That whole three-way vibe between Maggie, Sydney and James makes me very uncomfortable.

Saving Hope airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on CTV.

Thoughts? Drop us a line below or @tv_eh.