First Aired: Jun. 04, 2009 on USA

Rate Episode: 4.67/5 (3 votes)
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Season 1 » Episode #01 - Pilot

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Royal Pains - 01x01 Pilot
Summary: Doctor Hank Lawson has the perfect life, complete with a beautiful fiancée and a promising job at a top New York City hospital. But it suddenly becomes a living nightmare when he chooses to save a neighborhood teen instead of a wealthy hospital patron because the teen’s situation was more urgent. After the patron dies, the hospital board fires Hank and threatens a lawsuit. As his professional prospects evaporate and bills start piling up, the former rising star becomes a recluse. Hank’s fiancée, Nikki, soon gets fed up and leaves him for good. Finally, Hank’s younger brother, Evan, convinces Hank to spend Memorial Day Weekend in the Hamptons in the hopes of getting him out of his slump.

On his first night there, Evan drags Hank to an exclusive party, which they clearly haven’t been invited to, on the massive private estate of a mysterious mogul named Boris. Thanks to Evan’s ability to make even the most outrageous story sound plausible, they manage to get in. At the height of the festivities, Hank winds up saving the life of a sick girl who has been mistakenly diagnosed with a drug overdose by the presiding concierge doctor.

Word spreads throughout the East End that there’s a new on-call doctor in town and Hank suddenly finds himself responding to calls from the area’s wealthiest residents: a teenager suffering from hemophilia who has been injured in a car accident, a wealthy woman with a leaky breast implant, and a girl who suffers from an internet-induced version of hypochondria. Also in pursuit is a savvy physician assistant, Divya, who insists that she help Hank set up shop in the Hamptons. Along the way, he meets the local hospital administrator, Jill Casey, whose interest in his story may be more than professional.

Realizing that he has no job prospects in New York City yet suddenly a growing clientele in the Hamptons who are willing to pay big bucks for his services, Hank decides to give this concierge doctor thing a try with Evan as his business manager and Divya as an assistant. Little do they know, they ain’t seen nothing yet.

Source usanetwork.com

Who appeared in this episode?



Guest Stars:

Evan R. Lawson played by Paulo Costanzo
Nikki played by Pascale Hutton
Hospital Administrator played by Adriane Lenox
Dr. Silver played by Robert LuPone
Boris Kuester von Jurgens-Ratenicz played by Campbell Scott
Male Fashionista played by Jace Alexander
Model #1 played by Athena Currey
Model #2 played by Angela Highsmith

Episode Quotes

Dr. Hank Lawson: [looking at the hotel where they're going to stay] Fit for a King, huh?
Evan Lawson: I never said which country.
Dr. Hank Lawson: Yeah, man plans, God laughs.
Libby: Please, Hank, you have to save him. It's Tucker.
Hank Lawson: [thoughtful] Okay, I need a bottle of Vodka, a very sharp pointed knife, a Bic pen, a, a sandwich baggie and some duct tape.
Libby: Sandwich baggie, duct tape. Who are you? MacGuyver?
[More Quotes]


Mistakes/Goofs

  • Goof (continuity error): April's nail color changes inexplicably throughout the episode. During the scene at Boris' party and afterwards that evening, April is shown with black nail varnish. The next morning when she arrives at Evan and Hank's motel room, her nails are unpainted or clear. She is later shown inside the motel room waving, touching up her make-up, and doing other things with her hands, revealing that her nails are still unpainted or clear. However, when Devya knocks on the door, April answers it, laying her right hand along the door jamb and revealing that her nails are now painted black again.
  • Goof (continuity error): Hank is called to Tucker Bryant's house because of a car accident. First two small blood stains on Tucker's shirt can be seen, which he tells Hank is his girlfriend's blood. In the next scene you see an additional and much larger stain appear, but Tucker has no open wounds which would cause this.
  • Goof (errors made by characters, possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Hank and the helicopter EMS crew move Tucker up from the rear of the helicopter to load him in. EMS personnel do not ever approach a helicopter from the rear. This puts them out of the sight of the pilot, and more importantly, brings them right by the tail rotor, which can be extremely dangerous.

Trivia

  • Jill Flint wears her hair differently in each of her scenes.
  • The baseball cards on display at the Bryant house are both T206 Honus Wagner cards. The most recent purchase of an individual card at auction was for $2.8 million.
  • 'Jessie ODonohue's and Cayleen Davies' characters are named for Andrew Lenchewski's sister and girlfriend respectively.
  • Pascale Hutton was the original consideree for the role of Jill.
  • Evan was original written as Hank's best friend. Paulo Costanzo's physical similarity to Mark Feuerstein caused the change to them being brothers.