'NCIS: New Orleans' Season 6 Episode 8 sees Dr Loretta Wade find purpose in saving a victim of domestic violence
Episode 8 of ‘NCIS: New Orleans’ Season 6 deals with a topic as sensitive as can be -- domestic violence. While the rest of the NCIS team was busy with a possible kidnapping, homicide and a potential international crisis, Dr. Loretta Wade (C. C. H. Pounder) found purpose in a young woman she was treating.
The Harvard-educated, sharp-tongued-yet-matronly coroner, post the death of special agent Christopher Lasalle (Lucas Black) was not in a good state. Having a special connection with Lasalle did not help because she was the one who autopsied his body.
Dr. Wade, to regain some normalcy, decided then to not work just with corpses, but also with living human beings. The episode titled ‘The Order of the Mongoose’ began with special agent Dwayne Pride (Scott Bakula) visiting Dr. Wade at the clinic where she worked to check up on her.
When Pride left, she moved on to her next patient, a woman named Lisa (Allie McCulloch). Lisa’s face was visibly bruised. When Dr. Wade asked her about how she injured herself, she made an excuse about tripping and falling, something Dr. Wade did not believe at all. When she pushed further, Lisa got defensive and left.
This is, of course, behavior one should expect from victims of abuse. In abusive relationships, where violence becomes regular, victims often choose to minimize damage by not giving their aggressors an opportunity to strike again.
Dr. Wade, however, was not about to give up. She, after all, had a history of domestic violence. When she spoke to Pride about Lisa, he immediately understood why she was going out of her way to help her -- he talked about Dr. Wade’s ex-husband Reginald, who was allegedly a violent man who used to hurt her.
Dr. Wade’s actions thus came not only out of empathy but also a need to help those she saw as helpless. Dr. Wade notified the cops about possible abuse that led to Lisa's husband being put in jail overnight. But when he returned, he beat Lisa up more, obviously coming to the conclusion his wife had gone to the authorities.
When Dr. Wade went to the cafe where Lisa worked, she saw more bruising, hidden badly with makeup. Lisa ended up asking her to leave. Having understood this situation could not be handled the usual way, Dr. Wade devised another plan. She dug up on Lisa and had her arrested instead, in an attempt to keep her safe.
In the lockup, an angry Lisa told Dr. Wade she did not understand the relationship she had with her husband and she should stop meddling. Another classic sign of an abusive relationship.
According to experts, Trauma Bonding is evidenced in any relationship in which the connection defies logic and is very hard to break. Victims of domestic abuse often develop Stockholm Syndrome where they end up defending the one abusing them. Such situations need to be handled with the utmost care.
When Dr. Wade tried to make her understand, even speaking about the abuse she faced at the hands of her ex-husband, Lisa broke down and asked her where she would go, if not stay with her husband.
This is also something about domestic abuse that needs to be understood better. According to Jeanné Hansen, a licensed clinical social worker with the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry, “With domestic violence, there’s a financial aspect a lot of time. If the abuser is a significant portion of the breadwinning team in the family, maybe the only breadwinner, there’s a lot of threat in terms of losing your kids or home.”
Dr. Wade ultimately managed to make her understand and showed her she would find a support system. Lisa was let go and she left her husband. When her husband found out about this, he threatened to hurt Dr. Wade. But she remained unflinching in the face of violence and warned him he would regret such action and she would make sure of that.
Dr. Wade, in helping Lisa, also helped herself. In the weeks that followed Lasalle’s death, she along with the rest of the NCIS team felt helpless. But with this, Dr. Wade returned to her true form -- that of a fearless woman.
The next episode of 'NCIS: New Orleans' will air Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET on CBS.