MovieChat Forums > Nurse Jackie (2009) Discussion > Just a thought...

Just a thought...

posted 8 years ago by gwendy-82152
14 replies | jump to latest

I finished this series up over the weekend and I had a thought, in the beginning we see Jackie, crushing pills and snorting, we also see her opening a bottle or bag almost all of the time. The last season, we saw her putting something in her mouth but never really what. I thought (hoped) maybe it was her sour patch kids to still cut the cravings. I think she really did get sober and when Akilitis and Eleanor came down so hard on her she was crushed and losing Eddie albeit for a year was the last straw. She knew because of her past transgressions no one could ever fully trust her again and I think she knew she could not (but wanted to) have a normal relationship with Eddie the Enabler. Just my 2 cents. I did love and hate the character. Edie Falco is amazing!!

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] larpine-225-371665 8 years ago

Sorry. The power of the show was how fans wanted to defend the lead character, but if you watch each season from the last episode backwards, you see the method to Jackie's madness.

Her sobriety in the last season was for the sake of winning her hearing and afterward she headed straight to the basement, which was her new place to hide her stash, and used.

Eddie wasn't the Enabler, but rather the dupe. Edie Falco said in an interview during the last season that had Eddie gotten his act together and moved on, Jackie would have just found another person to manipulate.

Gloria had gone under the bus so many times for Jackie that she simply wasn't having any of it and Eleanor was brought back in the last episode to tell Jackie that she simply could no longer be a nurse.

The show runners said they didn't believe Jackie died in the final episode, but unquestionably her career as a nurse did.

In the first episode Jackie says "God, make me good, but not yet" thus the seven year journey begins. The last words of the series' dialogue was Zoey telling Jackie "you're good".

In order words, we finally see Jackie's rock bottom.

[–] ErgonomicSpliff 8 years ago

The show runners said they didn't believe Jackie died in the final episode, but unquestionably her career as a nurse did.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you are attributing you opinion to this quote from Clyde Phillips:

“Whether she died or not, her life is completely done,” explains Phillips. “She’s lost everything. She’s ruined every relationship she’s ever had, she’s ruined her career, and she has nothing left.”

There was an alternate ending conceived of but never filmed in which All Saints burns but Jackie is able to escape the inferno.

The simple and brutal facts about overdose are that no one would be able to survive ingesting that much heroin in one dose, no matter what an executive producer would have one believe. Jackie's central nervous system would have quickly slowed to the point where involuntary respiration would no longer be possible. The medical implements remaining in the All Saints ER that Zoey called for sat on the floor, unused, because they would not have had any effect on the massive amount of opiate in Jackie's bloodstream. Even with Jackie's tolerance, the fact that they visually showed how much heroin she snorted is a big indicator that even she wouldn't survive taking that much.

[–] larpine-225-371665 8 years ago

I'm attributing my opinion to Clyde Phillips's statement, because in your opinion it doesn't matter what Phillips' believes, for you believe Jackie would have died?

That's not the quote I based my statement on, but rather another interview where Clyde said that the creators were not interested in answering the question as to did Jackie live or did she die.

As with The Soprano's finale, loyal viewers had been speculating for years how the series would end and considering half would not be pleased regardless of the outcome, it was better to leave both possibilities open.

That said, in his opinion, Phillips stated that he did not think Jackie died on the hospital floor.

[–] ErgonomicSpliff 8 years ago

That's not the quote I based my statement on, but rather another interview where Clyde said that the creators were not interested in answering the question as to did Jackie live or did she die.

Do you happen to have a link to that interview? I was only ever able to find the one quote. I'm curious to see what else was said in it. Even though the series kind of ground to a halt in the last season and a half, I really enjoyed the hell out of it.

And yes, the way that Phillips chose to portray Jackie's final scenes is the only real evidence needed to logically conclude that she died. I find Phillips' quote to be self-serving and needlessly coy. If he really wanted there to be an open ended conclusion to the story, he shouldn't have shown Jackie snorting three baggies of heroin.

Sorry. You just don't get up from that.

[–] Katiedidd 8 years ago

This show made mistakes with drugs all the time, so I would not take the literal amount of powder Jackie railed as proof she OD'd. I'm not even sure it was too massive with her tolerance. I could watch again to see the amount, but I don't know dosages for heroin at all.

If it really was too much to survive, I'd still chalk it up to a goof. Plus, naloxone had to be on the premises with the medics partying with them. Wouldn't be hard to give it to her immediately. I think we don't see that because it's much more metaphorical to have it end as it did. (But we can assume she got the dose and maybe survived.)

[–] Katiedidd 8 years ago

I meant to say, "...as proof she died from the OD." Of course, Jackie had an overdose! I can't edit on the app.

[–] theflash71 8 years ago

Either way"Nurse" Jackie died.She would lose her license for that last stunt.
I'd like to believe that this was her rock bottom moment, and that she used all her reserve and tenacity to recover, and become a drug councilor.
In this way she could still help and serve her people/patients.

[–] Katiedidd 8 years ago

I so agree. That overdose, even surviving it, "killed" her in that nursing was over. That was primarily identity. Like you, I've pictured Jackie becoming a drug and alcohol counselor. A "rebirth," if you will. In that profession, Jackie could give het all to it, and she'd still be helping patients/clients. Plenty of addict nurses switch over to drug treatment professions and do well.

Kind of a buzz kill, but I also see Jackie doing well with that career for a while but going back to the drugs. Perhaps a "fatal flaw" was Jackie thinking she could be smarter than the drugs, smarter than others... that is nothing new with addicts, but Jackie really embodied that mindset.

Wouldn't it be terrible if she first rocked counseling for a while only to go the route of that sponsor-turned-drug-dealer that sold her and others the big blues? Sadly, I never see a happy ending for Jackie.

[–] Murphed87 8 years ago

Before getting to your second paragraph I was going to write to you how she would probably exploit the counselor position and start using again. She would probably an effective counselor, but like in other times, she would be a hypocritical drug councilor. Convincing in her passion to get people off drugs but sleeping with someone who works with her to score drugs for herself. She would probably get drugs from a client under the guise of trying to help them.

[–] Katiedidd 8 years ago

Yes, I really see all of that. When I said "buzz kill," I was thinking how awful I was proposing her corrupting that new career, but I see I'm certainly not the only one who has considered it.

I can see the trajectory of that career being even more horrible than anything Jackie did as a nurse. To be so intimately involved in trying to help people but doing the exact opposite for yourself and other ill people around you? Yikes. Where Jackie had some scruples left in her nursing career--we never see her steal meds from patients--a career in drug and alcohol counseling would be a whole new "playground" of deceit and ruin.

[–] theflash71 8 years ago

A whole new series, right there.

[–] Murphed87 8 years ago

I can see one scene now.
Jackie: Now you know these oxycontin are bad for you. I trusted that you would stop but you lied to me.
Patient: Oh, I was weak, I didn't even take them, see the bottle is still full.
Jackie: Well, you better hand that over to me to make sure it's properly disposed of down the toilet, you can't be trusted to do it yourself.
Patient: Thanks Jackie, how do you stay so strong with all these deceitful patients who constantly go back on drugs.
Jackie: You have no idea, now pardon me while I use the restroom.
Office bathroom
Co-worker:Jackie are you alright, I here sniffling in there, are you crying?
Jackie: Oh no, just powdering my nose.

[–] user123654 8 years ago

I just started this show and I had some pharmacy questions too.

Access to the pharmacy, can anyone just walk in? Shouldn't that door be locked? The reason for the window.

Shouldn't there be cameras in the pharmacy?

Do they do any kind of inventory control for narcotics? This guy is just handing out pills?