Aahana Swrup
Episode 1 of ‘Best Medicine’ gets off to an energized start as the narrative opens up to the start of Dr. Martin Best’s venture into the small town of Port Wenn. The doctor, a bigshot heart surgeon from Boston, has recently undergone complications in his professional life that have minimized his career options by a lot. For the same reason, his aunt’s hometown, where he spent most of his summers growing up, proves to be his best shot, especially given their new opening for a local doctor. However, Port Wenn’s small town deposition, wherein small talk and friendly relations remain its biggest export, is hardly the best fit for the grumpy Martin Best. Not to mention, there’s a weight added to his shoulders by the career-ruining secret that he harbors. Naturally, as all the forces of work against him, the doctor’s faith in his whirlwind life-changing decision is challenged, before it’s reinforced thanks to the unexpected help of a few town oddballs. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Dr. Best Gets Off on the Wrong Foot With the Local Teacher
Dr. Martin Best starts his day off in Port Wenn with a coffee from a local gas station. Expectedly, the place was packed with customers in line for their caffeine. As a result, when another patron, Louisa Glasson, a teacher at the local Day School, arrived, all eyes were on her. As it turns out, she’s the latest person of interest in the town’s gossip mill, for a reason that is yet unknown to the doctor. Even so, she captures his attention, which leads to some staring that attracts her ire. Consequently, things are a bit comically tense when the duo cross paths again later in the day during Martin’s interview to take up the town’s local medical practice. Nonetheless, even though the heart surgeon is clearly overqualified for the job, which could only mean some mysterious development has brought him to the town, Port Wenn isn’t exactly in a position to turn him away.
Therefore, Martin’s credentials do most of the talking, and he ends up receiving the job with no hassle. The fact that his aunt, Sarah, is a lobster fisher who has lived in the town for years certainly opens the residents up to him further. Even so, Louisa remains suspicious of him and lets him know as much in a brief confrontation. However, Martin uses this interaction to point out the concerning flutter in the teacher’s eye, advising her to have it checked out, as it could be an early sign of glaucoma. In turn, Lousia realizes that she had misunderstood his earlier staring as a rude interest in her personal life’s scandal that has made her the center of attention in town. Nonetheless, the doctor has no intentions of entangling himself in the personal lives of the town’s residents. Unfortunately, he soon realizes this might be an impossible endeavor as he steps into his first day on the job.
Extramarital Affairs and a Distracted Assistant Lead to a Disastrous First Day
After snagging the job, Martin travels to the Salty Breeze, a local B&B where he’s supposed to pick up the keys to his clinic/house. The place, run by an ex-New Yorker couple, Greg and George, inadvertently also becomes the spot where the doctor meets the town Sheriff, Mark Mylow. The latter seems to be full of manic energy, which is soon revealed to be a result of his newly ended relationship with Louisa. As it turns out, he and the teacher were engaged, and she dumped him two weeks before the wedding day. Nonetheless, Mark is determined to turn what was supposed to be his wedding reception into a town-wide party to celebrate his freedom, insisting he’s happy to have lost Louisa. Martin, in his trademark grumpy fashion, couldn’t be less interested. Yet, his day proves to be only more surprising from there.
Once at his clinic, Martin finds a small dog who has no qualms about entering the property as if it were its home. Additionally, it seems the old doctor, Reese, has also left behind his assistant, teenager Elaine, a wannabe influencer. Even though the doctor his put off by her obsession with social media and her flighty tendencies, he lets her stick around for the day. In turn, he ends up paying for it when he has to treat the first patient of the day despite being unprepared to open just yet. The patient, Gilbert, has a case of Gynecomastia, a condition where males experience enlarged breasts. However, Gilbert ends up being put off by Martin’s cold and impersonal bedside manner, compelling him to storm out of the clinic. Later in the day, an older woman, Susan, corners the doctor to get him to fast-track her delivery of estrogen gel to the local pharmacy.
As a result, Martin discovers that Susan and Martin are married, and she has been using the estrogen gel during sex with her husband. Her inability to wait twelve hours before intercourse as per protocol is likely what is causing the latter’s Gynecomastia. Yet, the doctor finds this theory challenged when his second patient of the day arrives with the identical problem as Gilbert. This forces Martin to consider if there’s a different reason why multiple people in the town are experiencing the same issue, and if he had passed along the wrong information to the other patient. Nonetheless, this confusion is cleared up when he runs into Gilbert at the docks, where the duo simultaneously catches Susan in the middle of her affair with the younger man who also has Gynecomastia. Yet, although the medical mystery is solved, it inadvertently puts the doctor in the middle of a spat, which ends with him getting slapped.
Mark’s Freedom Party Reveals Martin’s Secret to Elaine
After Martin’s altercation with Gilbert and Susan, he decides to give up and leave town. On the way over, he nearly gets in an accident with his aunt’s truck. This compels him to finally open up to Sarah about what really brought him to Port Wenn, leaving the operating room behind. As it turns out, a while back, the doctor had frozen at the operating table, forcing another surgeon to take over for a procedure. Although he doesn’t say it, this is likely where his phobia of blood began. With his confidence shaken, Martin believes Port Wenn is his last option. In turn, Sarah tries to comfort him by pointing out that the fact that his patient was an eight-year-old girl likely played a part in his inability to go through with the operation. Nonetheless, it doesn’t help her nephew and certainly doesn’t change his mind.
However, before Martin can pack up and leave, he’s called in for an emergency check-up at the Salty Breeze, which is currently hosting Mark’s party. The emergency proves to be a routine sprained ankle for George. However, the visit inevitably inspires some drama when Gilbert, Susan, and her lover cross paths once again. This time, it ends with the doctor catching an errant punch, which ends up drawing his blood. As a result, Martin freaks out but manages to get him into the privacy of a bathroom in time to hide his phobia. Yet, Elaine, whom he previously fired, manages to find him and help him out. Although she’s surprised by his ironic phobia, she offers to help him with blood collection and wound dressings at the clinic. Afterward, a heartfelt conversation with a drunken and heartbroken Mark compels Martin to give Port Wenn another try, cementing his place at the local clinic.
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