Nurse Jackie Episode 6, “Tiny Bubbles,” presented a dinner scene that had a stark contrast Episode 5’s dinner scene. “Tiny Bubbles” opened with a picture of happiness, albeit in a bar and not a kitchen table: the girls sitting at the bar eating, dad behind the bar, and Jackie working with sewing machine set up on the bar. The topic of the day is Grace going to Catholic school. Fiona considers joining her sister. But without Fiona, who would be the sunflower in the “What’s so great about mother earth” pageant? Fiona concedes. Fiona later calls her mom after she’s supposed to be asleep, to ask if she can wear the costume as pajamas. She is adorable!
“Tiny Bubbles” introduced Paula (Judith Ivey), who used to be a nurse at All Saints but is now dying from lung cancer. In her own words, she’s “always been a bitch on wheels.” Instead of hospice, Paula simply wants to die. She requests bed five, which apparently has a history of patients dying. The nurses all keep up the story that they’re waiting for a bed in hospice to open up every time Mrs. Akilitus asks about Paula.
While Paula is waiting to die, the “cat-ball” guy is back in the ER. This time his cat turned on the garbage disposal, while he was fishing out a fork. This one will take a little more reconstructive work than the shredded-balls event did. Paula, sitting in the next bed, thinks this is hysterical. No matter how much pain she’s in, she still has her spit-and-vinegar. Jackie has to close the curtain between the two patients’ beds.
After Eddie paid his respects to Paula, Paula confides in Jackie that he provided her with Percoset after her hysterectomy. Jackie doesn’t play it off well at all. The problems, at least to her, are mounting against Eddie. Last week he was getting friendly with Coop and this week Jackie discovers that she’s not the only one Eddie doles out his drugs to.
In the bathroom, Jackie does a quick line while loading Paula’s champagne glass with morphine. All the nurses do the toast. Paula says, “Here’s to you and here’s to me and if we ever disagree, fuck you and here’s to me.” Akilitus comes in just after Paula dies and says, “If there’s anything funny with that bag (pointing to the iv bag) I’ll have your asses… every single one of them.” In Episode 5, “Daffodil,” Akilitus told Jackie that she knew all the tricks and that there was nothing Jackie could do that she had not seen or done before. It looks like Mrs. Akilitus was wrong.
Coop’s history gets a little more interesting in “Tiny Bubbles.” The paramedics come wheeling in his mother. As he’s fighting with her, his “other mother” comes in. Coop’s birth mother needs her gall bladder removed and requests that Coop be in on the surgery. When her blood pressure drops during surgery, Coop gets scared and grabs Dr. O’Hara’s boob. Even though the warning buzzer is going off, O’Hara just stares at him for what seems like a long time, until he finally let’s go. She tells him “now that’s a good boy.” She’s heard about this from Jackie, but to experience it for one’s self is always different. And like everything else, O’Hara handled it with grace and finesse.
When Coop’s mother wakes up from surgery, she wants to know “where is the little fucker?” In surgery O’Hara gave Coop a little grief for keeping his mother’s gall bladder, but he obviously knows his mother better than anyone else. Coop’s mom states, “for all the pain it sure as hell doesn’t look like much. That’s the exact same thing I said when they cut the cord and put you in my arms.” I think that does a lot to sum up many of Coop’s insecurities.
As Paula was dying, she was going through her purse. She gave Mo-Mo subway tokens, which had obviously been in her purse for many years because tokens went out years ago. Jackie, however, got the keys to Paula’s apartment. “Tiny Bubbles” closes on Jackie entering Paula’s apartment. Everything is already in boxes.
The closing song, “When it don’t come easy” by Patty Griffin, was perfect and touching: an absolutely beautiful end to another Nurse Jackie episode.
In Nurse Jackie Episode 7, “Steak Knife,” a first-date goes wrong leaving a man with a steak knife lodged inside his chest. Tensions heat up between Jackie and Eddie when the “couple’s” one-year anniversary comes up. O’Hara, our portrait of cool at All Saints, begins to lose it, and Jackie is right there to lend a helping hand.
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