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'NCIS: New Orleans' Season 7: Why is Loretta 'working herself to death'? Covid-19 takes centerstage in premiere

Dr Wade's long drawn out career has seen many dead bodies but not a pile of innocent lives as high as the current coronavirus pandemic

Spoilers for Season 7 Episode 1

'NCIS: New Orleans' Season 7 opened to a grand and brand new start. While it was absolutely thrilling to have our favorite special agents back, the heartbreaking reality of Covid-19 projected on-screen sometimes got too much for characters on the show as well as fans. While several viewers complained they don't need to see real-life events portrayed on the screen as well, as TV series and movies are supposed to be an escape from reality – to many others, 'NCIS: NO' character Loretta Wade's personal struggle with coping under the stress and trauma of bodies piling up at the morgue resonated more.

Dr Wade, smart and skilled as she is, had dealt with many dead bodies in the run of her career; none of the influx has been as harrowing as this new piled rising higher and higher as innocent people keep dying due to the pandemic. Amidst her lapse of faith and trust in what she's doing and the help and care, she is able to offer, special agent and team lead Dwayne Pride lends her words of comfort and solace. "Every time I close my eyes, I see bodies rolling in. There are people who are still awake, working double and triple shifts. I’m healthy, I’m trained, I’m here," Loretta insists when Pride suggests she rest. Loretta tries her hardest to find a cure - some way to help - so she stretches herself thin no matter the cost. 

The hardest blow she suffers in all of this is the loss of Roger – an EMT who keeps heading to and out of the morgue. Loretta keeps reminding him to wear a mask and he seems confident about weathering the virus the way they did Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Sadly, the next pile of refrigerated bodies that come into the morgue has Roger as one of the deceased, and this hits Loretta the hardest.

Her pain at all the loss and suffering is what hit fans the hardest, as they took to Twitter to share how "Loretta is speaking for every doctor, nurse, etc. on the front lines right now, and Hanna for every parent scared to death because of this #COVID19 separating families." Another wrote "I just wanna go hug Loretta! She’s breaking my heart!" About the brutal loss Loretta sees before her own eyes, a fan tweeted: "Roger... this just got personal for Miss Loretta and even more difficult." Another chimed in: "Loretta is sad that Roger, the guy who bought the dead bodies, is one too. This is sad."

For many others, that conversation between Pride and Loretta was a crushing deja vu of the time spent in quarantine. "This convo between Loretta and Dwayne sounds eerily similar to several I had with cousins and nieces from February through last week-5 nurses in the family. I was more worried about them than I was about myself. It's like they taped our convos & just changed the faces." Perhaps as an homage to the several frontline workers who have risked it all for others' safety and comfort, a fan noted how "Miss Loretta working herself to death...this looks familiar."

'NCIS: New Orleans' will air on Sundays at 9 PM only on CBS.