Things aren’t looking good for McNamara/Troy Plastic Surgery (they haven’t been for a while now): drug lord, Escobar Gallardo made the two plastic surgeons remove heroin filled breast implants from at least 10 more girls in the last month, and now he’s asking them to remove kidneys from the women for organ harvesting. The practice is so bad off, the two have even stooped to providing consultations for hair transplantation! On dogs! “We don’t do dogs,” Dr. McNamara says. I’m watching Dr. Troy, thinking he’s about to say, “Speak for yourself.” Unfortunately, their personal lives aren’t much better.

Christian’s ex, Kimber, is now engaged to his archrival, Dr. Bobolit, who has made it his purpose in life to bankrupt McNamara/Troy and run them out of town. Gina, Christian’s shopaholic, sex buddy/sparring partner is about to have his baby. Finally, Julia gave her wedding ring back to Sean, effectively ending their marriage and allowing him to feel perfectly fine with pawning the ring for a gun to kill Escobar, who also wants laser tattoo removal and a new face, so he can start life anew.

How’s this all going to end?

As this is the season finale, I’ll leave you with a bit of suspense, as we take a little break to look back at this first season of nip/tuck in a short segment I’m going to call…

A Trip Down Mammary Lane

So, what have we learned?

Season 1, Episode 1 (Pilot): During liposuction &ndash the most popular plastic surgery procedure in the country &ndash unwanted fat does NOT spew uncontrollably from a tube like water from a fireman’s hose.

Season 1, Episode 2 (Mandi/Randi): Augmentation mammaplasty (breast enlargement) can positively effect a woman’s self-esteem and sexual satisfaction.

Season 1, Episode 3 (Nanette Babcock): In a National Cancer Institute study of 13,500 women who had breast implants for cosmetic reasons, almost every probable cause of death was lower than that of the general population.

Season 1, Episode 4 (Sofia Lopez): The true value of a board certified plastic surgeon, after seeing what a patient went through following a botched Chondrolaryngoplasty (tracheal shave).

Season 1, Episode 5 (Kurt Dempsey): About eye surgery (blepharoplasty) and nose surgery (rhinoplasty).

Season 1, Episode 6 (Megan O’Hara): How breast implants can be used to reconstruct breasts in patients that have undergone a mastectomy.

Season 1, Episode 7 (Cliff Mantegna): About gynecomastia and how breast reduction (reduction mammoplasty) isn’t just for women anymore… never was.

Season 1, Episode 8 (Cara Fitzgerald): How laser spot removal can remove lesions and birthmarks, and about a plastic surgeon’s code of ethics.

Season 1, Episode 9 (Sofia Lopez, Part 2): That breast implants rarely if ever lower the immune system allowing cancer to metastasize after breast reconstruction.

Season 1, Episode 10 (Adelle Coffin): About labiaplasty and the recertification process plastic surgeons must go through to maintain their board certification (the two have nothing to do with each other, by the way).

Season 1, Episode 11 (Montana/Sassy/Justice): About varicose veins, Multiple Personalities Disorders and how plastic surgeons evaluate potential patients.

And, we learned…

Season 1, Episode 12 (Antonia Ramos): About breast surgery by watching some breast reduction videos and breast implant videos, learning along the way exactly who elects this type of surgery and what the procedures are really like.

There you go, and here we are. Wow, we learned a lot… no thanks to the writers. I don’t know, maybe I was a little tough on the writers. What can I say, except that they made it easy for me to tell you where they were wrong. Oh, well, let me see… did I forget anything? Well, suffice it to say that while Dr. Troy had sex in pretty much every episode and Dr. McNamara pretty much had sex in none, ultimately, it was they who did themselves in. Now, while nip/tuck was not very informative when it comes to plastic surgery, the season was entertaining. I hope my posts were just the opposite… wait, no. I hope they were informative AND entertaining.

So, I’ve left you hanging long enough (I’m stalling, because I really don’t want it to end). What happened in this, the grand finale of season one? Well, Dr. Troy and Dr. McNamara did indeed give Escobar a new look &ndash that of Public Enemy Number 1! Nice! Dr. Bobolit operated on the dog Christian and Sean reluctantly passed on; it died on the operating table, landing Merrill on the front page of the Miami Herald. You can’t run enough ads or put up enough billboards to counter that kind of bad publicity. Gina had Dr. Troy’s baby &ndash a healthy, black baby boy. What are you going to do, Dr. Troy? “I’m not going to abandon him because he doesn’t look like me. I love him. I can’t just leave.” We love you too, Christian… love to hate you!

Before I sign off, I just want to say that something like three million people watch Nip/Tuck. I don’t know just how many people are reading my blogs, but I hope you’ve been somewhat entertained, but most of all I hope that you’re better informed about plastic surgery. I’ve had a good time.

See you next summer!

Charlie Sheridan

Medical Editor and Consultant

P.S. Just because the show’s in hiatus doesn’t mean we can’t talk; shoot me an email, and we’ll chat.