Spoiler: Private Practice - Choices are never as easy as they seem at face value

This week's episode was all about making choices - Do I choose to be loved? To live? To listen to others? To fight my fears? Something the show did that is unusual is that after every commercial the action jumped one month. I didn't really like this technique for reasons I will describe at the end, but for now here is a rundown of the action.

- We are introduced to a little girl with a heart tumor and after another unsuccessful surgery, she says she does not want any more surgeries. She wants to be normal and have the ability to live a life, even if it is not very long, outside of a hospital. She knows she is going to die, now she wants to do it on her terms. Because she is only 12 years old, her parents have to make the decision about whether or not to force her to have the surgeries. Even with the surgeries her quality of life will be limited. Cooper fights back and forth with another doctor - Dr. Noah Barns. Cooper wants to grant the girls' wish while the other doctor wants her to go through with the surgery. A court order is requested and granted, forcing the decision and making the girl have further surgeries. Charlotte eventually steps in and says, "Keeping her alive isn't the same as saving her life." The little girl is released from the hospital and we last see her celebrating her 13th birthday on the beach, something that would not have been possible otherwise. It is still likely that she will die soon, but at least she is happy.
- As I have been saying for weeks, Violet needs to face her pregnancy. Well in this episode Pete and Sheldon tell her the same thing. They tell her she has to have a paternity test so that the men know who the father is. She gets angry saying it is her body and in the end misses the window for the test. Now that months have passed - in this single episode - not only is Violet showing, but she is getting closer to truly having to deal with her pregnancy. Once she has the baby she will no longer be able to ignore the father. Side note: I wonder who she wants the father to be.
- Throughout this episode we see a car jacking victim who was badly attacked by the thief. She initially cannot remember anything from the attack, but after working with Violet she starts to remember pieces. She is adamant on making her attacker pay for the suffering he caused her, so even when Pete is worried that she is too worn out by trying to remember, Violet thinks the only way she will be able to return to her original, peaceful life is to bring up the event in her memory. Later in the episode she picks the guy out of a police line-up and her life becomes consumed with fear; she sees him everywhere. After another month jump, and more work with Violet, she is preparing to testify against him in court. Before she is supposed to take the stand she panics, but Violet and Pete walk her through what she remembers and will say. She eventually calms down and he ends up being found guilty.
- Before this episode, the last episode ended with Sam saying Naomi's name while in bed with his new girlfriend. Sam and Naomi's relationship also continues to get weirder in this week's episode with Sam telling Naomi everything about his relationship and Naomi trying to help him. She even goes as far as to plan romantic getaways for them. Dell knocks some sense into her, telling her that she should not be so concerned about his life, instead she should be living her own. Naomi then tells Sam that she is done planning his life. In the next scene Sam breaks up with his girlfriend. I don't think this means Sam and Naomi will end up back together anytime soon; I truly think they need to learn to live without one another first.
- At the beginning of the episode we see that Charlotte is acting standoffish toward Cooper. About halfway through the episode we see Cooper get mad at Charlotte for treating him like any other doctor instead of showing him compassion. At the end of the episode we see Charlotte attempt to push Cooper away. She says he is too good and loves her too much. She tells him to stop loving her and it is obvious she can't forgive herself for sleeping with Archer. Yet, through this all, Cooper stands by her.
- Addison and Noah are both surgeons. At a few different instances throughout the episode they run into one another. There is some flirting and Addison wonders why he is not asking her out. During this, Addison is treating a patient who has had multiple miscarriages so Addison is closely following this woman's pregnancy. At another point, Addison and Noah are sitting together and he holds her hand. She then points out that they do not even know each others names even though they have been running into one another and flirting for months. When she tells him her name, he makes an excuse and quickly leaves the room. A few scenes later we find out that he is the husband of the patient Addison has closely been following. The episode ends with Addison meeting the doctor for drinks. She says she thought about not showing up and he tells her he is attached to her. She is willing to cheat on his wife, but Addison who has been there and done that, knows better and walks away.

One thing that bothered me about this episode was the one month jumps. It worked because it was about time Violet started showing and this furthered along her pregnancy, but there were two main ways in which it did not work. First, when Sam breaks up with his girlfriend he returns to the idea that he didn't say his ex-wife's name by mistake and that there must be something missing in this new relationship. But at least three months had passed since that event. In a similar sense, we see that things are rocky with Cooper and Charlotte the first month and yet three months pass with them going through this patch before she finally blows up? The time jump was not realistic.

Hopefully upcoming episodes return to real time so that things can slow down. As for you, how did you feel about the jumps in time? Also, this episode was less concerned with envelope-pushing medical practices and more concerned with the storylines of the main characters. I enjoyed it. Let me know your opinions on the episode as a whole. Leave me comments.