Chasing Life - And It All Came Crumbling Down (S1E4)

CHASING LIFE

REVIEW S1E4: I'll Sleep When I'm Dead

"Are we really comparing diagnosis?"

Hold on this is a long one. Episode 4 ends where episode 3 left off. April doesn't talk during the support group but Leo does. Turns out Leo has an aggressive tumor on his brain stem. By not talk April earns Leo's wrath, who thinks that April is there to get the scoop on him. But all’s is not well with April, she's run down, and late on the day she's supposed to have her biopsy.  After turning down Beth's offer to go with her for moral support, she's late and ends up missing her appointment. In a very unlike April kind of way, she tracks down Uncle George, at the pediatric hospital who had assumed she was just blowing him off again. But after hearing she overslept her alarm, Uncle George is more about why she missed her appointment, than the fact she missed it in the first place.

When George asks about all the other symptoms associated with leukemia; fainting spells, bloody noses, and bleeding gums, he tells her the severity of the symptoms can tell him how fast the cancer is progressing. And could dictate whether or not it would be safe for April to work at all, after hearing all this, April .......lies and tells him she feels fine. Not taking control, lying, and trying to will the cancer away is only hurting one person...April, and more importantly she won't be able to keep it up for much longer. At the end of a long day she heads home with her work to keep her warm, but she ends up falling asleep on the train because she's exhausted. She's gets awoken hours later, and in a different part of the state when the train shuts down for the night. The next morning she goes to see Uncle George finally ready to admit that she's sick. He understands, and in the end he writes her three prescriptions, orders a new round of tests to go witch the biopsy and tells to get a blood transfusion to help with the symptoms.

She goes back to the support group where Leo tries to embarrass her into leaving, but instead of pulling a runner April tells the group she has cancer too. At the end of the meeting, April begs Leo for an invite to the ball his dad was throwing that night, but he decides to do her one better and give her the inside scoop of his life story. As April is getting ready, her mom opens as she separates her pills. Mom is tempted to open the drawer where April stuffed them but decides not to, but that doesn't stop her from commenting on the huge bruise forming on Aprils back. After finding a dress to cover the bruise, April heads off to the ball where her greatest fears are realized, when her boyfriend shows up as well. On that front April had nothing to worry about, since Leo lies for her about where they met, but he also decides to give the whole room and not just her, the exclusive on his tumor. However things are not as they appear, turns out Leo gave up the exclusive on his tumor and gave his father a ringing endorsement so that his father would buy him a brand new bike.

Pissed off that Brenna ditched mom for tennis, April races home from the party so she change and meet her mom at tango. At the house she runs into Brenna and they get into a huge blow up where April screams to Brenna that she had cancer! The next day April gets her biopsy, and Brenna is there to support her.

IN OTHER NEWS: Beth saves the day with a new dress for April after she tries on her old one and realizes she's swimming in it because of the weight she's loosing.  Grandma is at a card tournament in Baltimore. Mom decides to takes a tango class. We meet our first gay character, a female tennis player at Brenna school, who's assigned to do a project with her. After screwing around all afternoon, and pissing off her project partner because she won't pull her own weight, Brenna challenges her to a tennis match loser does the project by their self. Brenna is supposed to cover for April as their moms date to Tango class. But end up ditching it for her tennis match against her project partner, Greer. After faking like she can't play, and upping the stakes to the rest of this year’s history projects, Brenna kicks her ass. But don't worry about mom; the tango teacher is muy caliente!

REVIEW: I think I jumped up and down for the first time during this show. Who knew that April admitting she was sick, and telling Brenna she had cancer would make me feel like doing a happy dance. Omg she told her sister, albeit not in the most sincere, polite, or comforting way but as least she told a member of her family, big ups for April. The writers had built up to this climax, with every missed opportunity to tell her family, with every lie April told and every denial out her mouth about how she was really feeling. I know it was only the first of many hills, April has to climb to reach the top of the mountain, but with this win the top doesn't seem so far off. I surprisingly really enjoyed Greer and Brenna together, Brenna even smiled. It should be no surprise that the one character/ actress in this episode that truly shined is Ms. Italia Ricci as April Carver, who played; fear, sadness, anger, and exhaustion amazing well this week. Agree or Disagree with anything we've said, well tell us in the comments. Have nothing to say? Then catch us next week when Chasing Life continues.