Pilot (Royal Pains)

"Pilot" is the first episode of Royal Pains, an American television drama series created for the USA Network.

A doctor is fired after he lets a rich hospital trustee die. Afterwards, his brother brings him to the Hamptons where he becomes a concierge doctor.

Plot

A game of basketball is interrupted when a player, named Darrel, loses consciousness on the court. Another player, on his day off from working as an emergency room doctor, rushes to the victim's aid and uses everyday items scattered around the park to stabilize the victim and transport him to the nearest hospital, where another patient of the doctor's has been called in for another medical emergency. After dealing with the second patient, an elderly gentleman, the doctor, Dr. Hank Lawson (Mark Feuerstein), a well-respected emergency room physician, returns to the injured basketball player and saves his life. Unfortunately, the elderly patient (a wealthy contributor to the hospital) dies from unforeseen complications, causing Hank to get fired from his job at the New York Hospital by the hospital administrator.

Buried by multiple medical malpractice lawsuits and unable to find employment, Hank then spends his days moping around an apartment he shares with his fiance' (Pascale Hutton) until she gives up on him and moves out, taking most of the furniture and all the money with her. Hank is convinced by his CPA brother Evan (Paulo Costanzo) to spend a weekend in the Hamptons to forget his troubles, and, after being stuck in traffic and getting embarrassingly rejected by a convertible full of beautiful women, they check into an "economy motel" in the "Worst Hamptons".

After Evan bluffs their way into a party at a German nobleman's posh residence, Hank saves a supermodel's life (she was rendered unconscious due to a reaction to insecticide in the botanical gardens) by interjecting himself between the victim and the host's private doctor who was giving a misdiagnoses that would have killed her. The host, Boris, (Campbell Scott) offers to pay him as a concierge doctor, but Hank refuses.

When he tries to leave the host's residence, the valet brings around his older model Saab. As he stands with one foot in the car, another guest of the party, Jill Casey, a beautiful brunette (Jill Flint) with whom Hank had exchanged glances earlier, comes up to him and gently says that he is in the wrong car. Thinking that she is delivering a flirtatious pick-up line, he responds that perhaps he should be getting into her car instead. She clarifies that he is already in her car; his car is next in line. Smiling away the embarrassment, Hank and his brother leave the residence. When Hank's brother turns for one last look at the opulent mansion, he realizes that there is a briefcase in the back seat addressed to Hank containing a bar of gold with the host's mark.

The next day, there is a knock at the motel room's door, waking Evan. The beautiful woman whose life Hank had saved the night before (played by Tamara Feldman) has come to the Hampt Inn to show her gratitude to Hank personally, but Hank is away because of an emergency call and only his brother is in the hotel room. The woman decides to wait for Hank's return. As Evan fumbles around the small room trying to get dressed, there is another knock on the door. He opens it and it is Divya (Reshma Shetty), a beautiful East Indian woman who has come looking for Hank for a different reason. She wants to be his Physician Assistant.

As word of Hank's medical skills travel the social circles, he reluctantly finds himself in demand as a concierge doctor because the wealthy elite do not trust the services of the local Hamptons hospital. One unsolicited patient is Tucker Bryant (Ezra Miller), a teenage heir to the blender fortune, who is left home alone and ends up suffering from complications from a car accident while driving his father's ultra-rare Ferrari. Learning from Tucker's cyberchondriac girlfriend Libby (Meredith Hagner) that he is a hemophiliac, Hank saves Tucker's life using duct tape, a Bic pen, a bottle of vodka, an X-Acto knife, a sandwich bag, and the boy's blood-clotting medication.

Hank returns to his hotel room to find the beautiful women, both of whom he brushes off. He then receives a phone call from another patient, whom Evan and Divya force him to take. En route, Evan hits on Divya. The locale turns out to be Hamptons Heritage Hospital, called a "taco stand" by the elites, and the patient is "New Parts" Newberg (Christine Ebersole), a middle-aged woman whose cosmetic surgeries always turn out bad—this time a "flat tire", or deflated breast augmentation. Hank is reluctant to take the job, but an overburdened Jill convinces him of the need of concierge doctoring. Hank fixes her by deflating her other breast.

Later, Evan convinces Hank that they should stay for a while in the Hamptons, with Evan as the CFO of "HankMed". Hank dismisses the idea of "HankMed" but agrees to stay for a bit longer. The two brothers return to the Boris' residence and Hank accepts the man's offer to let them stay in his guest quarters, a large free-standing residence on the property. Hank and Evan quickly move out of the Hampt Inn motel room and into the much more spacious house.

Medical complaints encountered: Complete heart block, ST segment elevation myocardial infarction, Organophosphate poisoning, Hemophilia complicated by hemopericardium, Breast implant rupture

Production

Many scenes from the pilot episode were filmed on location in the Hamptons in September 2008.^[1]

References