Hard Rock Medical

What do medical schools look for in a prospective doctor? You’d think it would be book smarts, high marks, and a basic type-A personality. Then why the crazy interview questions? Most of the candidates are baffled by the process. All they can do is hope to find the right answers—and that who and what they are will get them over the bar and on their way to being a doctor.

The first day of anatomy class has everyone’s undivided attention, except for Charlie’s—he has pressing family business to attend to. Gina almost becomes the early first victim of medical school’s high attrition rates until an unlikely rescuer talks her off the ledge and back into class.

The students are introduced to one of their constituencies—a First Nations community—by participating in a moose hunt complete with ritual preparations, the dispatching of the animal, and the enjoyment of the spoils. Gary and Farida’s beliefs clash, and, back in town, Gina walks in on a pharmacy robbery.

With school on hiatus, the students pursue personal interests - but the break is anything but quiet. Trouble lurks as Charlie and Gina search for the missing diamonds, Farida tries to shake off her past, and Dr. Healy and Nancy appear to be on a self-destructive journey.

Half the class visits a, tent city, on the outskirts of Sudbury where they endeavour to help a host of people living in a makeshift shanty town. From a pregnant intravenous drug-user to a man stuck with porcupine quills, the students do what they can to help. Charlie finds financial relief (or so he thinks), and Melanie comes face-to-face with the man she wrongfully accused. Dr. Helvi tries to prevent Dr. Healy from descending further into a personal hell.

Charlie's unauthorized prescription to a prisoner puts both he and Farida in jeopardy, Melanie is intrigued by an inmate's cannabis cure for White Hand Syndrome; Eva and Gary have a confrontation with a racist police officer and Dr. Cardinal rekindles an old friendship, all while trying to talk Dr. Healy through a recurring nightmare.

Sent out in pairs, the students shadow an emergency medical team, do shifts in a hospital ER, attend to a street kid with frostbite, and keep a watchful eye on Mylo, a teenage cancer patient who has a steroid induced vision during a First Nations Full Moon Ceremony.

While on patrol with a law officer, Gary gets a taste of northern justice and a heaping helping of racism. Cameron and Gina discover that drug addiction isn’t just for the young. Eva and Melanie try to talk Mylo into resuming chemotherapy, and Charlie’s marital counseling session goes off the rails.

Charlie and Gary perform a snowmobile rescue of a lumberjack with severed fingers. Gina and Cameron come face to face with an elderly, over-prescribing doctor, and Farida deals with the death of a patient and close friend. Nancy suspects two monks of having AIDS.

In the season premiere, Farida treats a child with a superficial injury, and gets a front-row seat to a custody battle. Charlie comes clean to Dallaire about the encounter between Gary and a dirty cop. Following a bone-marrow donation, Eva asks for a transfer out. Dawn arrests on Cameron’s watch, Gina is wheeled into the ER after her assault, and Nancy deals with the aftermath of a patient’s suicide.

Charlie wants to keep things as normal as possible while Tara begins chemo treatment. A judge orders Gary into reconciliation classes with a racist cop. Farida crosses the line with Erica’s ex-husband, Nick. Recovering from a bone-marrow donation, Eva ends up doing more caregiving than self-care, and Cameron checks in with Gina, who is suffering retrograde amnesia after her assault.

Mel and Gina begin their placement with the disorganized, addicted and cranky Dr. Kesler. Mylo boomerangs back into Eva’s care as Bonnie begins treatment for her hepatitis C. Farida skips therapy and chooses to unburden herself to a long-suffering Dr. Healy. Mould in Charlie’s house has him turning up with his family on his father’s doorstep moments after Eddy shows a home invader the business end of his shotgun.