I like today's plot because it ties in with the war we currently are having in Iraq. The episode starts out with Connor and his son spending their free time together. Then, two US soldiers appear and tell Connor there is a code yellow. Like always, Connor has to leave again and go to work. It must be really hard for Connor to balance his work and family life. Four soldiers are having a lethal pulmonary disease that Powell claims it's Gulf War syndrome. So are these soldiers having Gulf War syndrome?

Powell is very sure it's Gulf War syndrome because of his past history. It is reveal that Powell served in the US Army before and his CO (Commanding Officer) died of Gulf War syndrome. Connor is suspicious, but doesn't believe it until the evidence presents itself. It gets even more suspicious when a mysterious woman appears, claiming she's from the Pentagon, and asking what the situation is with the soldiers. When her identity is exposed, I thought that it is Gulf War syndrome and that the US Government send that woman there to cover it up, maybe from some biological warfare the Government conducted on the sick soldiers. Did the Government really do it in real life? As of today, no real evidence supports they did. Your opinion is as good as mines.

However, the soldiers are certainly not having Gulf War syndrome in this episode because several old people are also having the same problem and they never been to war. They aren't even related to the sick soldiers. They find one commonality, they are all catholic. I wonder what religion got to do with this. Later, they find out they all attend the same church. Connor went to the church and start his "imagination" again, as to how they could have been affected. Connor calls in the team to test out the whole place. One suspicion could be the holy water, where everyone who enters the church touches it. But more people would have been affected if it's the holy water. Do watch your hand when you get back from church. I'm not religious or anything, but God knows what germs are in those water when everyone touches it. They investigate the senior citizens house, where the old sick people once lived. They found out a guy from the church goes to the senior citizens house weekly. As Connor said, "If you can't go to God, God will come to you." It turns out the soldiers and the old people came in contact with that guy. So Connor, McCabe and Powell head to his house to investigate and find out that he's been dead for days. He was the first one with the disease. It turns out it's from some mouse in his house. Yeah, watch out for those mouse. Connor did his part, now all he can do is hope that medication will cure the soldiers. But they didn't. There is a nice scene at the end of the episode, when Connor dresses up in an Army uniform and went to one of the soldier's house to give his family the uniform of the soldier and the American flag. Now I know how difficult it is when a Commanding Officer has to go to the house of a soldier that just passed away and say that you're sorry. It must happen very frequently today, with the number of dead soldiers we have in Iraq. God bless them.

Final Rating: Out of my avstars's stars chart, I give this episode 3 out of 4 stars. I like the fact that it ties in with some history background and gets viewers to know about Gulf War syndrome. It gets me curious, did the government covered themselves up or is it from the stress? It could happen today to soldiers in Iraq. Is it really from stress, or some test the Government is running that affects the soldiers? This episode sure got me thinking. We also see Connor about to get divorce from his wife. His work life finally caught up with him. The only negative side is that we still don't know much about the other characters. We get a glimpse on Powell's past, but not much. I would like to see more character development soon because all so far, they are focusing more on Connor and leaving little left for the supporting cast. This could make a great team if they make it right.

Thank you for reading my review. If you have any questions/comments, feel free to email me at avstars87@gmail.com. I will be glad to hear from you.

There are several factors that contributes to this wonderful episode. This is one of the episode where Connor just sits in the hospital with the little girl and let his team do the outside work. He did a wonderful job questioning Carla's whereabouts to help find the source. His tone and sympathy should be noted.

Eva's character is the main focus in this episode. It is revealed that she, like Carla, was also adopted. We should all know that Eva is not going to let anything stop her from getting the thing done. We saw her tonight convincing the mother to help her daughter and she never gave up. That makes her a valuable character in the team and the writers did a good job portraying her character as of now.

The biggest strength of this is the team that revolves around Carla, all trying to save her life. The entire team was at the hospital waiting for her to recover. They don't want to fail and their was never any signs of giving up. There is a sense of chemistry between every member of the team, like a team that knows how to win.

And Frank finally got out of Connor's shadow. We finally see him on an away mission along, solving the case with his own skills. Good job!


Final Rating: There is no doubt in my mind that this episode is indeed the season's best one yet. A collective of team work and a passionate story by the writers make this episode a true winner. This show is indeed heading into the right direction. There was no strange viruses or outbreak in this episode. Just a simple case of finding the right bone marrow for a little girl. Carla fought the odds against her and won, just like any bone marrow patients out there that is waiting for a match. Don't give up. With that in mind, this episode deserves all 4 of my stars, proving to be the season's best.

Thank you for reading my review. If you have any questions/comments, feel free to email me at
avstars87@gmail.com. I will be glad to hear from you.

This is the first episode where the teams split up with two different cases. I only followed Connor's case and not much on Durant's case. In a matter of fact, Durant's case is short and minor, they could have her and Rossi in the Caribbean instead.

A Caribbean resort is probably one of the most popular spots for a vacation. Why not? Good weather, clear water, and hot girls. However, the show avoids turning to a North Shore or The OC type and focus sharply on work, nicely done. I was shock when I saw so many patients lying in that building. It's almost as if they are having war casualties in that room. As the respiratory problem is starting to get worse and with the disease starting to spread fast, the NIH team is summoned to investigate. As the disease starts to spread further, Connor makes a bold move to quarantine the entire island. It reminds me of the episode, Lockdown, from ER, when Dr. Carter presumably found a case of smallpox and is forced to quarantine the ER. However, I'm surprise when people starts to leave before Connor finds out what the cause is, the NIH didn't call in the national guard or something. He is afraid that the disease will spread back to the US mainland, why not call in the national guard?

In this episode, we finally get more character development, especially from McCabe, the young rookie agent. The best moment is when he has to take the girl away from her mother to protect the girl from possibly getting the disease from her mother (children are vulnerable since their immune system has not yet adapted defense to many disease yet). The mother already lost her husband from the disease and it would be even harder if she is to loss her little girl right now. As I expected, McCabe does make a mistake by taking the blanket from the desperate mother and giving it to the girl. He lets his emotion get into him, and it almost cost the little girl's life. I predicted from the first episode that there will be good moments for McCabe and moments where he will make mistakes and learns. This is one of them. It turns out that the blanket has spores, which could be what is making these people sick. It turns out the girl's dad, who just died from the disease, smokes marijuana and some spores from the marijuana got into the blanket. But how does that affect everyone else?

Connor is brilliant again, thinking of every possible solutions that got the people sick. He thinks it's a mist or something from nature that is making everyone sick, but comes up empty and back to "square one". He is upset when McCabe gave the blanket to the girl, knowing that the blanket may be infected from her parent in some way. Connor's brain and imagination makes him perfect for the job. He went into room where the little girl's parent is residing and finds a bag of marijuana in the air vent. It turns out the dad put it there so his wife and child won't find out about it. Since it's putted in the air vent, the spores from the marijuana travels through the air and into some people. I'm not an expert in marijuana, so I don't know what deadly spores are in there, but don't do marijuana or any drugs. It's only going to kill you someday. Also, be careful every time you go on vacation. Once you get sick, go to a doctor immediately. If it's a disease, you may risk infecting your friends and family.

Final Rating: So out of my avstars's star chart, I give this episode 3 out of 4 stars. It's as good as the last episode, but not as good as the pilot. So far, MI hasn't been able to have the breakout episodes yet. But it's still early. We got some good character development today and hopefully we will see more.

The opening scene has Dr. Steven Connor watching his son playing baseball while a call comes through and requires him to go back to his headquarter for a serious case. Then a helicopter appears and Connor makes a cool dramatic exit off the field, a very good opening for the show. We see that Connor is struggling to keep his work and family life balance. I doubt this show is going to turn into an ER type of show, where each episode currently is 50% on work and 50% on personal life. However, this is also not a Law and Order type of show where each episode is solely based on the work life of the characters. I don't expect the character's personal life to have a big impact in this show.

From Connor's attitude, he's a military-type leader that wants things done as quick as possible. He wants answers and wants everyone to work hard on the case that is presented. However, sometimes he speaks way too fast. Especially when some viewers may not be familiar with the medical terms they are using, they could get lost during the episode. The supporting cast of Dr. Natalie Durane, Dr. Miles McCabe, Eva Rossi, and Frank Powell look okay in their first screening. I expect Durane to get more screening time with Connor as the season goes by. Those two could make good chemistry. I like the way they took the rookie agent, McCade, out and put him in another plotline to get him more stand-out. Expect him to challenge his superiors and making some mistakes as he learns. Eva Rossi is probably the "eye catcher" in the show, at least for men anyway. But don't let her beauty fool you. She can get tough sometimes to make sure nothing from the case leaks out, like locking a reporter in a large storage area in this episode. Frank Powell is said to be the specialist of the team, but there isn't enough screen time in this episode to see what he can really do. He does have an open mind on where to find clues, but we'll see how this character is develop in future episodes. Hopefully, the producers won't leave him out to just minor roles.

The case is interesting, if you understand everything they are talking about. One by one, people are starting to fill the hospital as they catch a rare case of food poisoning and turning them blue (reminds me of the Hulk, just with blue color instead of green). The team do a couple of experiments which really reminds you of CSI. As one of the patient dies, Connor and Powell goes to a restaurant where all the patients dined at before they got sick. They search everywhere for clues, hoping to find the source of the disease. They know every patients have nitrate in their bodies, but it could come from many kinds of food. When Dr. Durane calls and tells them that everyone had the breakfast special, it is still not enough to figure out what the source is. Then, Connor starts to picture the scene where everyone is eating breakfast and viewers can see exactly what Connor is imagining, as the ghostly images represent the people he's imagining. An original idea that we should be seeing a lot of in this series. Connor begins to picture that the victims might have putted salt in their breakfast. Dr. Durane confirms, they all putted salt in their breakfast. So Connor takes the bottle of salts from the desks the victims sat at and perform yet another CSI-like experiment. It turns out that those aren't salts at all, they are sodium nitrate. However, sodium nitrate alone isn't strong enough to kill a person, they have to be mixed with special acids inside them for it to be strong enough to kill them. Many viewers are probably confuse as I was when hearing all these chemistry terms and facts. Good thing I took some chemistry classes at my high school so I at least heard of some of their terms. But for those who didn't take chemistry classes during high school, good luck trying to understand everything they are saying.

Meanwhile, young Dr. Miles McCabe gets to shine in his own small plot lines. He is assigned to investigate a case where a baby have bruises all over his body. The senior doctors think it's abuse by the father, but after McCabe checked the eyes of the baby, which is blue, it turns out that the baby is having a rare disease. Instead of being buried under the big case, McCabe shines in his own Medical Investigation. Expect the producers to develop this rookie agent more thoroughly.

Final Rating:Overall, a good beginning to the series. Yeah, Connor talks a little too fast and those medical terms can get confusing, but it's not impossible to understand it. Connor is the one who shines in this episode and it's expected that the leader takes charge in the season premiere. The supporting casts all show good potential and together they could make a great show. Of course, they got a bad schedule, Friday 10PM, but Third Watch did fine last season at that time slot. If Medical Investigation fines it's audience, it will eventually graduate to a better time period. So out of my avstars's stars chart, I give this episode 3 out of 4 stars. I can't wait for the next episode, which is actually tomorrow.

Thank you for reading my review. If you have any questions/comments, feel free to email me at avstars87@gmail.com.

The Third Watch episode introduces the case that will eventually appear in this episode. The writers of Third Watch decide to use that case as a secondary plot so the NIH team doesn't overshadow the Third Watch cast. During Half Life, the episode then put its main focus on the disease case. And that was some suit Connor wore during the Third Watch episode.

Watching the Third Watch episode makes me feel like watching my favorite team playing at a visitor's ballpark. Guess I'm just not into their cast. I never knew their characters, so it's like watching a whole new series. Nevertheless, I did follow their story without any difficulties because they told me everything I needed to know about the characters. The writers did a good job here.

Dr. Miles McCabe also has a new hair style, something that seems to make him a little more mature. McCabe also have the luxury of dissecting a dead body in this episode. He was used strictly with patients only in the past, but he is beginning to have more role as the season progresses.

Both episodes feature great chemistry between the two casts. We see how the NYPD and the NIH work differently, but all just trying to accomplish the same goal. Yogas says Connor will get ignored if he talks to the suspect alone, but Connor shows that he has the attitude to handle him. The NIH and the NYPD show great chemistry here. Hope we will be seeing more of these crossovers in the future.

The MI episode also gives the MI audience, who may never have watched a Third Watch episode, a unique look at the Third Watch cast. I never watched a Third Watch episode, but I can get a great sense of what these characters are like. Yogas is a tough detective that always seem to get the job done, regardless of the difficulty. She also doesn't like people getting in her way of telling her what to do. I'm sure the same can be said about Third Watch viewers who never saw a MI episode before about the MI characters. The Third Watch casts play their role wonderfully, which is probably why they are still on the air.

Final Rating: The 2 hour crossover was wonderfully done, although not as good as the some MI episodes. The story is not the one that shines here, but the cast performance of both series. They did a good job portraying their respective roles that they might grab some viewers from the other show to watch theirs. So out of my avstars star chart, I give this episode 3 out of 4 stars. The MI/Third Watch episode is on par with the ER/Third Watch episode that was done a couple of years ago. However, the ER one is more on the story, while the MI one is more on the acting.

Thank you for reading my review. If you have any questions/comments, feel free to email me at avstars87@gmail.com.