April gets a surprising invite to shadow Bruce Hendrie at his campaign ad shoot. While there, Leo senses her apprehension of her diagnosis and challenges April to take control of her future. April accepts and gets a taste of Leo's reckless and carefree life. But she also learns the severity of his illness.
This is a weird episode of Chasing Life. It also happens to be the first episode after everyone becomes aware of April's health problems (Yet, the show still finds a way to break the news to someone in Ford). It's what I've been waiting for all season long. An examination of how a family member's cancer diagnosis not only effects that one person but the people she holds dear. That's an angle I really think Chasing Life would be great at. I can tell that the show is slowly getting there. More often than not though, the show is much more interested in April's reluctance to learning all of the information there is to know about her cancer. She's slowly coming to terms with what it all means as it takes over more and more of her life. She wants to work but that simply isn't going to be practical for too much longer. When she gives her speech about every second counts, she's referring to her work as a placeholder for the cancer. Everyone knows that but she is still uncomfortable with saying it that way."Clear Minds, Full Lives, Can't Eat" - a great title by the way - is solely about April's cancer. She's getting winded more easily and is hardly able to eat and enjoy anything. That's a really damper on her relationship with Dominic. And that majorly opens things up with Leo. He wasn't a great guy towards her in their last interaction. But now, he's being honest with her and helping her cope with her diagnosis. The tragic twist is that he is now terminal. He only has a couple more months to live. April doesn't want to die but she is now firsthand seeing what this disease can do to people. Yes, she's a part of the support group - which now features Smash alum Andy Mientus - and she had that one guy die earlier this season. But this feels more personal and intimate. She hasn't been Leo Hendrie's biggest fan at all but she does have sympathy for him especially once she learns more about him. He's not the entitled brat that he comes across as. He can be a really decent guy even though he's sarcastic and steals cars. He is helping April come to terms with everything and everyone in her life. He's the one that first mentions the infertility side effect to chemotherapy. April didn't want to hear everything from George all at once and Sara was just comfortable keeping that information from her. This ultimately is a journey for April. Not Sara. Sure, her mother will be her primary caretaker but April needs to make her own well-informed decisions. She needs to take charge of her own life.
Some more thoughts:
- "Clear Minds, Full Lives, Can't Eat!" was written by Ann Cherkis and directed by Steve Miner.
- We can just all agree that Ford and Kiernan are being made so horrible just so Greer comes across as more sympathetic and human. If only it was more subtle. Raquel is the worst as well.
- Not enough Beth. That jacket though! But at least Graham got to be the funny one this week.
- In hindsight, I never thought Leo would be suicidal. In the moment though, I totally did believe it just like April. That would have been a very deadly twist. He's fun loving but also fully aware of his fate. That does make him a more interesting male character right now than Dominic. Even though I don't want him to date April. She can be nice to him and they can be friends but that's the extent of my feelings towards them.
- That fake opening was cruel and unnecessary.
