Day One – As the first episode of Five Days At Memorial begins, we see news reports about the category 5 hurricane named Katrina. On September 11, 2005, it is 13 days after Hurricane Katrina. Rescuers use boats to reach Memorial Medical Center. Once they get suited up, they go inside the Hospital to begin taking pictures and collecting evidence. They find a room that has a sign on it saying, “do not enter”. The woman tells Jim they’re in the chapel as Sarah is told to come to the second-floor walkway. They find many dead bodies. Next, Dr. Horace Baltz (Robert Pine) is questioned about the 45 dead bodies found at Memorial Medical Center. He reminds the investigator that there were five days after the storm and the conditions were ungodly. Horace complains that they’re trying to make it sound intentional so he is asked to go back to the beginning. He confirms there were two hospitals in the building.
He worked at Memorial Hospital and there was LifeCare which was a long-term care facility on the seventh floor. LifeCare had its own staff and patients. Just before the storm, they took in an extra 1,200 people. They always sheltered people at the hospital during hurricanes so that wasn’t unusual. The investigator keeps asking how the 45 people died. After the intro, the show jumps back to August 29, 2005 at 12:20 AM. People wait in the emergency room of the hospital. Horace and Cook discuss this and whether the hospital is a petting zoo. When Dr. Anna Pou (Vera Farmiga) arrives, she checks with Horace who says he has done this a dozen times. He reminds her that she doesn’t have to be here. Anna says she has some post-surgery patients to look after. Vince can look after the house and she wants to be here. He reminds her that Susan said there is a senior staff meeting in half an hour.
When Anna joins the nurses, they find out that she has packed some possible survival items, including water and a can opener. Anna figures they’ll be there three days at the most. As the others laugh, she admits this is her first hurricane at the hospital. Anna goes to change after telling them that she’ll see them out there. Outside, workers install a meter so they can determine how much rain has fallen. Susan Mulderick (Cherry Jones) welcomes everyone to the meeting and introduces herself as the incident commander for the storm. Susan insists that this is a functioning hospital regardless of what is happening inside and outside. Until it passes, they’re going to be operating with special protocols. She checks to make sure her unit liaisons have walkie-talkies. They’re in charge of the patient units. In case of an emergency in their unit, the others take orders from the liaisons.
Any hospital-wide directives have to come from Rene (Stephen Bogaert), Susan, or Richard (Ted Atherton) who is filling in for Ruben since he is on vacation. Dr. Bryant King (Cornelius Smith Jr.) says people are asking about the air conditioning. Susan wants him to tell them that they’ve turned down the temperature for a reason. If the city power goes out, their backup generators don’t operate the AC. It will get as hot as a skillet in here really quickly. As long as it is cold, they know everything is okay. Horace asks about LifeCare. Although LifeCare is their own hospital, they’re in the same building. Susan believes they should have their own emergency plan. Since they’re top dollar, they might even have to go to them for favors. Susan has been here long enough to know that most of these storms just blow over, but it is the wasp that you’re not paying attention to that stings you.
Diane Robichaux (Julie Ann Emery) talks to Gina Isbell (Tammy Isbell) about bringing 19 patients over from Chalmette since corporate thinks it is going to get hit hard. They’d rather evacuate patients from there over to here at LifeCare Baptist. Diane tells her that she sounds like an old-timer for calling it Baptist. Gina says corporations come and go, but it is still Baptist to her. She brought her A-team to make sure everyone got settled okay. She wants to keep her eye on a paraplegic, diabetic patient named Emmett Everett. Gina has put him in a big bed boy right now, but he might need special care. Diane enters a patient’s room where she says hello to Angela McManus (Raven Dauda).
She checks on Wilda McManus (Diane Johnstone) who says she is doing good. Since her temperature is down, she is fighting off the injection. Diane tells Angela to get whatever she needs from the kitchen because she is going to stay with her mom. Anna calls her husband to say the hospital isn’t like what she expected and everything is so disorganized. Everyone is acting like it is normal. He suggests it is normal since these people have done it before. Anna confesses that she got laughed at for bringing a six-pack of water and some tuna. She wishes he was here, but Vince says he has to take care of the house. Anna says the house can take care of itself. If things get bad, she wants to be able to turn around and see him. Vince promises he’ll be there in a day before saying a prayer for them. Mark LeBlanc (JD Evermore) stops to tell some guys not to move a tree branch because there is a live wire there, but they don’t listen to him. When he gets home, he carries canned food inside and finds out that the power is still on.
A news report confirms the mayor is ordering a mandatory evacuation. Sandra (Monica Wyche) reminds Mark that his mom is in the city hospital. She wonders if they’re going to evacuate the patients. Diane visits Emmett (Damon Standifer) in his room and introduces herself as one of the administrators at LifeCare. She wants to make sure he isn’t sneaking any snacks, but Emmett says he knows better than that. She tells him that today is going to be crazy thanks to the storm before learning about his wife Carrie. He has a phone so he can contact her. Diane tells him to let someone know if he can’t get through. Ewing brings the dog Rolfie, to Minnie (Nola Augustson). She doesn’t think it is right that everyone else has to keep their pets downstairs. He believes doctors should be able to bend the rules a bit, but she thinks doctors should set an example.
Ewing gets upset and takes the dog back downstairs. As Dr. King walks past Ewing, he notices him putting a gun in his pocket. Katrina makes landfall about 60 miles south of New Orleans. Mark calls his mom to check on her. Vera (Dawn Greenhalgh) confirms Jill (Joy Tanner) is there with her. Mark encourages his mom to do whatever the doctors tell her if something happens. The call ends when they lose connection. When Susan talks to her mom (Lorna Wilson), she admits she didn’t expect to be in charge of all this. Diane learns they have a problem since the ceiling is leaking. She calls Susan to tell her about the water leaking from the ceiling. Diane asks if everything is alright. Susan catches up with Eric Yancovich (Joel Keller) to tell him about the leak. He suspects it is just rainwater being blown into the building. Since the building has been here for 80 years, they believe it can take it.
Eric believes they only have to worry about severe flooding. If that happens, they would have to evacuate the building. Since they don’t know how that would happen, Susan decides to look through the manual. When she doesn’t find any helpful information, she admits she isn’t having a good feeling about any of this. Eric worries that the water will come over the levee and flood the hospital since it sits below sea level. Rene suggests they can just move patients to the second floor. Eric says that isn’t the only problem because parts of the emergency power system are on the ground level or even below the ground level. They argue whether the levees will be breached or if the city will lose power. Eric is convinced that four feet of water would put them out of business. They already have a foot of water right now. Richard complains that now is not a good time to be hearing this.
Eric reminds them that he wrote up a memorandum after the last hurricane warning and put it in front of the administrators so this isn’t the first time it has come up. Susan says they’ll have to evacuate if they lose power, but there is no plan for evacuating a flooded hospital. If the basement floods, they’ll lose all food, water, and supplies. Rene tells her she is the incident commander so it is her call if there is something they should be doing. Angela tells her mom she is going for a walk. She goes to the stairwell to smoke a cigarette while looking at pictures of herself and her mother.
A reporter warns that the hurricane is expected to be a formidable menace. An elderly patient walks into the patient lounge and watches through the window until Anna checks on him. She takes Mr. Hill (Gordon Fulton) back to his room and put him back into bed. The lights blink and something slams into the window next to Susan. Another branch hits the window again, but it breaks the glass this time. She begins comforting her mother. Anna learns that the skywalk is shaking and could soon break free from the building. Susan and Anna agree that they should come across right now. Eric receives news that the water is already at three feet. Karen contacts Susan to let her know about the windows breaking and the floors filing with water while Anna looks for workers who haven’t evacuated. Once Eric tells Susan about the water coming into the basement, she arranges for food and other supplies to be moved from there.
She notifies Horace that they need to move people from the first floor to the second as calmly as possible. He gets help from Bryant. Anna finds a crying nurse so she helps her cross the skywalk. She prays and asks God to look over Lisa every time she’s sleeping. When the lights go out, Anna says God help us.
Five Days At Memorial Review
Before watching Five Days at Memorial, I knew nothing about this particular story despite vividly remembering Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. The first episode was a good start since it established some of the main characters and carefully laid out the events that are about to occur at Memorial. Adding in the news footage was a good touch. It helps that the fact the hospital scenes were filmed in Toronto was hidden. The cast is pretty good although Cherry Jones stands out the most during the first episode.
One thing that irked me was the need to add a southern draw to so many of the characters. Some characters would’ve had such an accent since they might’ve moved from nearby areas, but not so many of them. Hollywood has a problem with constantly adding such accents when it is unnecessary and just doesn’t work. Anna Pou’s father was from the Dominican Republic and moved to New Orleans where she grew up. In her interview, there is no southern draw so it is a bit disappointing to hear Vera Farmiga poorly replicate a southern accent for every third line or so when it really wasn’t necessary.
Other than that, she was solid as always. Depending on how things actually play out, it might’ve been a good idea to use fictitious names since the details are debated. It would be impossible for anyone to remember exactly what was happening or what was said each second in the hospital during the chaotic storm and its aftermath. In a sense, it feels like the series is putting words in people’s mouths so to speak. Whether everything is fact will likely never be known, but the first episode was good from an entertainment standpoint.
The first episode scores a 7 out of 10. Recaps of Five Days at Memorial can be found on Reel Mockery here. Learn how to support our work at this link.
