The episode opens on a 70-second long “Previously on Nurse Jackie”, which basically recaps the entire season before catching up to last week’s climax, which saw Eddie discovering Jackie’s happy home, before we go straight into the opening credits. I have to take a moment here to say how deeply frustrating these opening credits are; Showtime usually do a great job with credit sequences (Dexter being the standout example) and Nurse Jackie’s credits start out well enough. Floaty pills, wedding rings, yadda yadda… until the bizarre early 90’s “nah-nah-NAH-NAAAH” music kicks in. Add the fact that Jackie starts pulling the kind of facial expressions last seen on a smug cat who’s crapped in your shoes and it all adds up to a credit sequence crying out to be fast-forwarded through. Very annoying. My big S2 wish? Yep, change the credits.

So, into the episode. Jackie and Kevin share a nice moment before she heads off for work. She’s barely out of the bar before Eddie starts heading down the street towards her, and for a moment it almost seems like he plans to follow Jackie; instead, he ducks into the bar, and the audience collectively groan “This isn’t going to end well.”

Akalitus is still trying to chat up Victor Garber’s character Neil Nutterman, even though he’s still comatose. Akalitus is clearly pretty pissed about this whole situation, and rightly so, demanding that Jackie and Zoe attend a meeting in 5 minutes to discuss an investigation into the overdose. Of course, Akalitus being Akalitus, she gives this order before stepping into an elevator which promptly breaks down, leaving her trapped and desperately trying to get the nurses attention over the phone, leading to one of the greatest facial expressions ever captured on film. After replaying that sequence several times, I was able to carry on watching. Anna Deavere Smith is perhaps the most surprising member of the cast to me, given that prior to Nurse Jackie I’d only known her as Nancy McNally from The West Wing and a small role in Rachel Getting Married; great in both, but I never expected her to be such a good comic actor.

During her reprieve from Akalitus, who decides to entertain herself by pretending to be on Letterman, Jackie tries to convince Zoe to change out of her grey “remorse” scrubs and back into her usual pink, innovatively fends off another romantic advance from Coop by calling him a moron and then kissing him once more, agrees to help Eleanor smuggle her ailing mother into the hospital, and has several run-ins with the Pill-O-Matix, the latter of which sets off an alarm which leaves Jackie fleeing the scene.

Another angry pill-dispenser is sitting in a bar across town, talking to his girlfriends husband and getting steadily drunk. The tension in these scenes are great; Eddie knows that Kevin isn’t the bad guy here, so we all hope he isn’t going to say something, but he comes close so many times (at one point even stating that he’s seeing a married woman with two kids.)

Back in the hospital Zoe has finally changed back to her pink bunny scrubs, and checks in on Neil, who wakes up! Only for Zoe to realise that this film critic can no longer remember who Kevin Costner is and thinks that Showgirls was a great movie (surely the sign of a demented mind.) Horrified, Zoe realises that she “broke him”. Eep.

Akalitus finally escapes from the elevator, arriving back in the lobby along with Jackie, Zoe and Mo-Mo just in time to greet an extremely drunk Eddie who has just shown up, ranting and raging. Jackie obviously looks the most concerned and tries to convince him to leave, which he eventually does, but not before whispering in her ear: “I met Kevin, and that’s a very nice boy you’ve got.”

Edie Falco is great in this moment as you can see the utter panic and confusion tearing her apart. Like any good drug addict, Jackie goes to her happy place, which usually is the bathroom; she finds herself there but, thanks to the Pill-O-Matix, devoid of drugs. She storms into the pharmacy, uses her own access code to dispense three vials of something, finds an empty room and semi-collapses to the floor. She’s absolutely broken inside, and her eyes are already glazed over even before she tears open each vial in turn and swigs every drop. She tries to sob for a moment before the drugs kick in, leaving her blank. She falls flat on her back, gazing at the ceiling, just as we found her at the very start of the first episode.

She drifts off into a dream world where, dressed in an old-style nurses uniform and watching an idealised 1950’s version of her family, she sings “Have You Ever Seen The Rain” by Creedence Clearwater Revival in her head. It’s beautiful but horrible at the same time, which encapsulates Jackie’s character perfectly. And, finally, she snaps out of her hallucination thanks to the skittering of a rat in a ceiling panel over her head; looking straight at the audience, and breaking the fourth wall, she asks “Did anyone else see that?”

Fantastic conclusion to one of the strongest first seasons of a show I can remember. Whilst I love the 12 episode format for shows like True Blood, Dexter and so on I could quite happily watch an episode of Nurse Jackie every week. Let’s just hope the show stays as strange, and funny, and dark, and deep in its second season. Oh, and that the opening credits change!