I don't recall ever seeing this before, so this is either an ep I was advised to skip on first viewing, or I decided to. It's a little unbalanced between the Franklin plot and the almost nonexistent subplot (though that one does give Ivanova some nice moments) but overall I liked it. On this second watch through the series, I'm wondering if Franklin might be my favorite character overall (well, after Garibaldi, anyway). I just adore Richard Biggs' work (and watching this knowing that he would pass away prematurely made it harder to watch). The dilemma over what to do with the child was much more balanced than I expected, and there kept being twists that I didn't anticipate.

I particularly liked Franklin's argument with Maya early on, because I didn't expect him to criticize her initial statements to the parents, and then I didn't expect his reasons for doing so. The ep then went on to challenge the beliefs he had originally stated -- and it became evident Franklin was not used to not getting his way, which I think explained a lot of his behavior. Above all, it was clear had not given a second's thought to what would happen after the surgery -- except that he expected to be thanked. There were a lot of debates in this ep that felt like real debates, not stacked decks, and that was interesting and refreshing. I expectd this to be a much more heavy-handed and clear cut allegory for real- life medical issues, but instead it felt like it was dealing with something genuinely alien.