Royal Pains synopsis, TV summary and spoiler

The episode opens at a funeral. Divya is singing while Hank, Evan, Jill and Jack O'Malley are seated in the front row. The coffin is lowered into the grave and the rabbi requests those closest to the deceased participate in the ceremony by placing a shovelful of dirt in the grave. Hank goes first...


One day earlier

Hank is heading to his car very slowly, suffering from his bad back. Evan tries to get him to let Divya cover his patients and then revisits his desire to hire a backup doctor. Hank stubbornly refuses. As he tries to enter his car, he stumbles, drops his briefcase and papers, and screams in pain. He tries in vain to pickup his files and finally gives in to Evan regarding the backup doctor.

At the Lawson home, Divya and Jill are talking about an auction house. Jill offers to accompany Divya and Divya agrees. Evan enters with Dr. Paul Van Dyke who he has hired as the backup for Hank. Jill and Divya are both suspicious that he took the job where Divya works, but he said he just worked with a head hunter. Evan closes his staff meeting and Divya leaves with Jill. Paul is confused, thinking he was working with Divya but Evan tells him she has her own patients and that he will accompany Paul and show him the ropes.

Jack is sitting in a waiting room in Hamptons Heritage hospital when Hank enters slowly in obvious pain,xbox games buy online. When asked, Hank blames his condition on the golf lessons Jack gave him. Hank is there to attend Jack's first meeting with the specialist that will treat his lupus. Jack suspects the specialist, Dr. Nina Green is actually the actress who played in a television show as a child. When she introduces herself, Hank seems smitten.

Evan and Paul arrive at the home of their first client and Paul takes the time to criticize Evan's ride, calling it a soccer mom vehicle. When Paul asks about their client, Evan sorta mumbles that they are there for a mole check. The client, Edie, turns out to be a beautiful young woman sunning herself in a bikini by the pool. Paul does his exam and notices several other young ladies in bikinis and manages to persuade Edie that he should check the others as well and pushes a HankMed business proposition,live movies tv, amazing Evan in the process. As they leave the first client's house, Evan is ecstatic. Paul seems unaffected, assuming that building HankMed's business is part of his job. He offers to drive his car instead of the van, saying they can see twice as many patients.


At the Sutton & Chesterfield auction house, the manager is reviewing photographs of a 12 piece china place setting that has been in Divya's family for many years. The set is very valuable but he needs to see it in person. Jill jumps in for Divya telling him they will bring it by the next day. Divya mentions she had forgotten that she had the china until recently and is sad because her family never used it. However, she is in good enough spirits to give Floyd, the valet a large tip.


Nina tells Jack that he is a candidate for a double blind trial as part of his lupus treatment. They have a new drug that is promising. Hank is doubtful, however, because some of the participants receive a placebo, which means Jack will go untreated for six months. Jack doesn't seem to take his condition seriously, and he suggests a flip of the coin decide.

The next day, Evan and Paul arrive at their client in his Cadillac. The client is Ms. Newberg and she is disappointed when she sees Hank is absent. Paul assures her he will take good care of her and asks her what is the emergency. She says she thinks she is dying.

After their meeting with Nina, Hank finds Jack signing multiple documents as part of the trial treatment. He says he is listing Hank as his “in case of emergency” contact. He asks Hank if he is there to talk him out of the trial and Hank says he is there because he is Jack's friend. Jack tells him that is why he picked Hank as his contact. Besides, he only sees his family on holidays and has been on his own since he joined the pro tour.

Divya and Jill visit a client named Mackintosh that needs a polio vaccination for a trip to India. Divya notices a lesion on his arm and he says it is just a mosquito bite he probably got in Panama. Divya uses a piece of bacon and duct tape on his arm to enable her to remove a parasitic worm that was burrowed just underneath the skin.


Ms. Newberg has been experiencing pain in her back that comes and goes. When asked she admits she has been doing some lifting as she has had to renovate her home because of storm damage. Paul reassures her by recommending a full battery of tests, to Evan's delight.

While leaving the Mackintosh home, Jill reflects that the parasite reminded her of her time in South America and she is more convinced that is where she wants to be. Jill notices one of the doors open on Divya's car and sees Floyd from the auction house stealing some of the china, which Divya stored in the car. He runs to his car and Divya and Jill pursue him in their car. Floyd heads onto a dirt road and crashes, destroying the china he had stolen. When they arrive, they find he is impaled through the abdomen by a fence post that penetrated his windshield. Jill has no cell service to call 911 and Divya notices his blood pressure is dropping so she thinks they need to get him to the emergency room themselves.


Evan returns home to find Hank hanging upside in a contraption designed to stretch his back. Evan comments on how he will put himself in a torture device rather than just take some medication. Evan then drops the bomb shell that he hired Paul, whom Hank has little respect for. Hank is upset with Evan and said he was supposed to review candidates and approve the person they hired. Evan assures him everything is going well and Paul has acquired five new retainers for HankMed. He tells Hank to take his time recovering.

Divya starts to cut the pipe but stops when Jill notices the smell of gasoline. They then decide to pull the pipe out of Floyd as a last resort. They get him into Divya's car and take him to the ER.

Hank finally decides to treat himself and starts an IV. He then plans on injecting 2 milligrams of Valium but a pain spasm causes him to inject over 10 milligrams instead.


The funeral

Evan tosses his shovelful of dirt into the grave. He says that Hank is at fault. Hank is confused. Suddenly Hank hears knocking and looks into the grave as the coffin opens. Evan is lying inside the coffin and accuses Hank of killing HankMed, for not helping it grow. Evan turns into Divya who chastises Hank saying she needs the HankMed job because she is broke. Then Jill appears asking what will become of their free clinic patients. Finally Hank himself appears, and he tells the other Hank that he agrees with Evan, Divya and Jill. Hank awakens from his nightmare to find himself lying on the floor at home where he collapsed from the Valium overdose.


Evan and Paul followup with Ms. Newberg. Her tests did not find anything and Paul doesn't understand why they are there. Evan explains that HankMed is all about face to face, 24/7, and he starts to have his first doubts about Paul because of his attitude. When Ms. Newberg reports that she had the pain again that morning, but is currently gone, Paul leaves saying to call when she has another episode. Evan is distraught and tries to get Paul to return but he is adamant that he doesn't hold his patient's hands and heads off to the next client.

Divya and Jill visit Floyd in the hospital where he is recovering from having his spleen removed. He is handcuffed to the hospital bed and trying to reach the Jello on his table. Jill says he owes Divya an apology for destroying her china but he is not sorry. But he does eventually thank her for saving his life.


Evan drives Ms. Newberg to see Hank in her new car. She complains that she cannot figure out half the high tech gadgets it has. She starts crying and experiencing the pain in her back again and Evan figures out the seat and neck heaters have been on full blast.

Hank stops to see Jack who is jaundiced and running a fever. He also has a rash on his forearm and has not reported any of it to Nina. He confesses to Hank that his coin flip was meaningless, that he was always going to enter the trial with the hope that the new medication would cure his lupus forever, a hole-in-one as he puts it. Hank takes him the the ER where they treat him for a side effect from the medication, a side effect that was shutting down his liver. The reaction means he is out of the trial and can start traditional treatment.


Hank returns home where Evan awaits with crutches. Hank doesn't need them and Evan harangues him until he admits he took the drugs. Hank tells Evan he was right about HankMed needing a backup doctor. Evan is surprised then tells him that Paul is not the right man for the job, but he will keep looking.

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