Being Erica - The 4th Season

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The fourth season begins on Monday September 26th on CBC.​

Official Website | IMDb Entry | Wikipedia Entry​

 

Looks like 4x01 will be titled "Doctor Who?". Funny, because lately, I've been likening certain aspects of the show to Doctor Who and even found myself imagining Erica in Tom Baker's coat and scarf.

Also, we were told that season 4 would be the last, but it's possible that it won't be. Erin Karpluk hints at the possibility in this clip, and CBC's twitter feed suggests the same in a few of the tweets dated Sep. 23rd. Erin also talks about the show in this podcast (it'll take a while to download) from the 18 minute mark to the 31 minute mark.

[Edit & Bump] Today seemed like a long way off when the last season ended in December, but we're finally here. I can't wait.

Anyone have any predictions for this season? Anything you want to see happen?

 

Spoiler

Looks like those who were speculating about Josh being her first patient were right, including me! Not the greatest episode, but I hope this will only lead to some better things.

 

Where the frack was the time travelling of Josh.

It's the WTF-IT'S BIGGER ON THE INSIDE THAN ON THE OUTSIDE moments That we live for...

She didn't give him her card either.

Is he her first permanent patient, or was this a one off?

Besides, Erica has to be given one of those globes to review off time and space with, and what about her office she was supposed to interior decorate with magic, and she wouldn't be allowed to play with a patients timeline without reviewing their entire life first... Does that take months of study, or is it downloaded into their brains like in the Matrix?

Bah humbug.

 

I didn't figure on him being the first patient. It was nice to see him again in a substantial role. I thought he was pretty much gone for good. One thing I noticed about the season 3 finale was that Erica looked pleasantly surprised to see the gloved one, yet she doesn't like Josh. Maybe they ended the season not knowing who it would be.

It was also nice to see Jenny Zalen again even if it was her past self.

Agreed. I thought that 4x01 fell below expectations, but it's great to have the show back. I expect things to pick up and get more interesting as the season progresses. I was excited at the end of last season when Erica was advanced to the level of "doctor", but this episode felt like a bit of backpedalling with the usual doctor/patient stuff with Tom. It's essential and makes sense, but I hope we move forward and see more of a budding "Dr. Erica" than what we saw here. I also hope that the ratings hold so that the show could continue beyond this season. I'm undecided as to whether or not Monday is a good night. Guess we'll see.

Exactly. I'm eager to get into what's behind the curtain concerining all this doctoring business.

I noticed that too. If she did though, she'd have to tell him all about her being a time travelling therapist. Knowing this show though, he'd probably get over his surprise and not bother to tell anyone.

I was wondering that too. Maybe we're done with Josh. I don't know. Maybe the whole thing was just to teach her how to connect with patients and now that that's done, we can move on.

I want to see them get back to the office too. My prediction: It'll look a lot different than what we saw at the end of last season.

It looks like they get some sort of "sense" of what's going on, like tapping into a stream of information. We saw that with Dr. Naadiah. Looks like they do a bit of time travel study too. Those were just glimpses though to serve the plot. Guess we'll have to wait and see what kind of solid explanation they come up with, if any.

Finally, there's Adam. I'm surprised to see how well he's handling her being a doctor while he washed out. I wonder if it'll get to him eventually.

 

Yeah, I agree. I think that's what we all expected too. In fact, it's a similar kind of disappointment I had when last season turned out to more or less be a place for Erica to meet Adam, with the other characters just being background.

I expected her to take Josh to her office to lay some ground rules. Why didn't that conversation they had at the end take place there? Didn't want to freak him out maybe? Just like Tom freaked out Erica?

I also feel like it was a bit of back-pedalling. It just seemed like last season they were setting up something interesting with this episode not really amounting to anything. Actually, it felt more like a Season 3 episode that didn't meet the cut.

 

Remember how that *(&^R Chris O'Donnel got into the Batcave? Running and sliding on his knees like it was Footlose II, not Batman III? Could Adam get through a Door before Erica could stop him so that he can take advantage of "a past" or is he too healthy from therapy to get bitter? But as long as she's letting him "tap that" because of the illusion of a healthy relationship, he's putting off smothering her with a pillow in case in his mind this is like a beauty pageant and they'll come back to him if they're suddenly a doctor down and desperate, but then assassinating a charge of an omniscient would be difficult, and would have to be done with poison most probably while he can never ever construct the thought "time for more poison".

This series loves the love triangles.

Adam would have to be into some awful shit for Josh to supplant him in Erica's heart.

Josh's first regret would have been "I didn't tell Erica that she was the one in the beginning" which would change everything as much as Erica not being an aimless dick working in a call-centre, that when she returns to reality our hero could find that she is now married to Josh.

Then of course, Erica doesn't exist in the Kai's future.

Some one kills her, or she just fucks off to Doctoville and never comes back.

 

Edit: Oops, pay no attention to this. I didn't realize I had already posted the same thing lol further up thread.

 

It's been one of those days, one of those weeks, one of those years, one of those lives.

Time to bring out my catty bitch meangirl alphabarbie side.

What happened to Josh's neck?

It's like his chin is connected directly to his tits.

Actors are paid to be beautiful and stay beautiful (Sometimes they're conversely paid to be ugly and stay ugly) but drastically altering their physicality pisses off the producers.

Maybe they had a bunch of stuff planned for Josh and then when he came back for vacation HUGE, they had to about turn double quick?

 

Come on guys, we have seen so many therapists now. Dr Tom, Dr Fred, Dr Nadia and Dr Arthur all extrude this aura of wisdom in some way or form. Can you really say that Erica has that wisdom in her, that she can just say some words, send a patient back in time and fix their problem? While Erica has certainly grown a lot from that klutzy "Bridget Jones" girl in season 1 and has fixed many aspects of her life, she has not gained that level of wisdom that full fledged therapist posses.

And this lesson Erica learned today is a really critical step that not just Erica, but everyone needs to take in order to see people as who they really are at their core - a human being who wishes nothing more than to be loved, to give love, be happy and content.

5 out of 5 stars.

 

^I'll have to agree with intrinsical here.

4x01 was a slow burn, but the plot was something that needed to be dealt with. It was a hanging thread that directly related to Erica's life, and she had an epiphany necessary to really become a doctor and see people as human beings in spite of any preconceptions.

 

That may be true, but it's not the way they set up the final season. It just didn't seem to gel with what they had set up, but more like something that would occur perhaps in the middle of the season.

 

Erica's lesson was a critical step. I think we all agree on that and I indicated that in my post, but I just think that the whole episode could have been handled better. It did feel too much like they brought back the old dynamic. Maybe it would have been better if they had her bungle up some "doctoring" instead of appearing like a season 1 patient all over again. I'm sure we'll get to that, but this seemed like the opportunity.

He did look like he gained some weight at first didn't he?

 

But like with Vir (from Babylon 5) filming an actor who's weight drastically changes (this guy halved himself. I thought some skinny bastard had stolen his job when the season 5 promos came out.) and then moving that person through time creates a yoyo-ing effect that he didn't make one change but many many changes.

The Unhappiness of living with Sam mad him waste away into nothing.

She put him off his food.

Josh was the ideal size he was supposed to be at the beginning of their relationship (which we saw in 401) and at the postcredit (which was also present in 401.) and he was depressed and dangerously thin for the first three seasons inbetween those moments.

 

If Josh were a real patient, that would make him a doctor candidate. I didn't consider that.

 

But there's this component to the origin stories of the doctors that all these patients are suicide cases, and what's really happening is that God is taking the damned and rebranding them into social workers for hell.

Being stuck on the Doctor track doesn't necessarily mean that you are wonderful, but just that you are redeemable or fixable, or more so considering the last test, that you will stay fixed.

The only thing Josh needed to be a patient is for someone to reverse time after he walked into traffic.

Considering his state of mind, he's more than capable of that.

BY the way, that last test?

That's a test to see if you're insane not that you're faithful.

Faith and sanity are mutually exclusive of course.

 

^ Now that you mention it, near-death experiences do seem to play a role in who gets chosen. Of course, we only have Tom and Erica to go by so far. And actual suicide wasn't a factor for Erica since she wasn't such a hard luck case, though she was pretty down on her luck and almost died.

By the way... Erin Karpluk has her own Babe of the Week thread, so cast your vote.

 

Voted!

 

4x02 aired. Still more of what we got last week and this time they literally took us back to season 1. You could see a little progress though with Erica's learning process. I'm also surprised and disappointed that Sam is pregnant. I thought that such a storyline would have been better for Jenny, who I predicted would show up pregnant.

 

This show has never rocked the boat formula-wise. It has always been about Erica learning and growing. That isn't going to change now that she's a therapist in training. Personally, I feel that it is a good thing that Erica she does not rely on time travel to help her friends because show the audience that anyone can do it too - help their own friends and family.