Breathless (2024) – Season 1 Episode 5 Recap & Review

Episode 5

Episode 5 of Breathless begins with Patricia looking around and finding that the hospital is empty and most of the staff is protesting outside. Moa comes to check on her and she is upset as he broke her trust. He claims that the surgery should have never taken place and she counters that they would have known had they done an MRI. She vows to end his career as he is a threat to his patients.

Ventura, the Secretary of Health Services visits her only to force her to resign. She refuses by meeting with the protestors and promising to listen to their demands. Before they can agree, Leo suddenly informs them that the Health Department has agreed to a meeting.

Inside the hospital, the very few doctors still working include Pilar, Biel and May. They are overwhelmed with the number of patients in the ER. Outside, the protests get violent as patients beg the doctors to look at them. It leads to a patient’s family accidentally hurting Rocio. 

May ends up checking on her and a guilty Rocio asks her to come home as they both own the flat. However, May is still angry with her and refuses to go home. As she rests in the on-call room, Rocio approaches her again. In hopes of easing up the breakup, Rocio plans on taking full custody of their child as she was the one who wanted one and May only got pregnant for her. May is furious and kicks her out. 

A conflicted Quique wants Biel’s take on the Oscar fiasco and ends up chatting with his patient instead. She tells him that love can also scare someone and he should talk to Oscar. He is about to send Oscar a message when a furious Pilar confronts him.

Turns out, one of the paramedics who brought in Oscar, crosses paths with her and lets it slip that Quique brought him to the hospital. She is angry that he lied to her and promises to make him pay for turning her son into a junkie.

Meanwhile, the hospital is overflowing with even more patients as all the other public hospitals in Valencia have joined the strike. While Lluis is trying to handle the situation, Jesica decides to break up with him. He apologises for standing her up and decides to tell her why he has been so distant lately. It seems that he has told her about his son’s case as she gets back with him. When Biel tries to ask her out to dinner, she ignores him and leaves with Lluis.

There is more trouble afoot as Rosa’s stitches in her neck burst and she is profusely bleeding when she is brought in. There are no surgeons available and Biel and May are forced to tie her artery as a temporary solution. However, this causes complications and she is pretty much brain-dead.

Her husband is furious and Pilar covers for Biel by claiming that it was the best any doctor could have done. That is not the case and when a regretful Moa tries to comfort Biel, he lashes back. He tells Moa that it is his fault as he could have saved Rosa had he not gone on strike.

Meanwhile, the union meets with the Health Department and it seems to be going smoothly as they agree on higher minimum wages to make up for the longer hours. Moa wonders if Patricia is aware of the negotiations and Ventura claims that she will be the one to give the final approval. Her assistant, Emilio is in the meeting and he tells her.

She realises that the department is trying to force her to resign while making her responsible for the half-assed agreements should it backfire. It is also revealed that she did have plans to better the public healthcare system but the department had ignored it.

Back at the hospital, May starts bleeding due to the stress and Biel begs Leo to check up on her. May is frantic and beats herself up for getting pregnant for Rocio and jeopardising her career and her unborn child. However, Leo observes the child is fine and May is relieved.

Patricia plans to resign on her own terms and Moa tries to explain that they have made a good deal. She claims that it is just smoke and mirrors and the deal won’t actually help patients. He refuses to see it and when she goes out to announce her resignation, she spots Ventura looking smug. 

At the end of Breathless Episode 5, Patricia suddenly changes tracks and declares that she won’t be stepping down till the strike is dealt with. She blames the Health Department and the union for taking her breast without her consent and letting the cancer spread and promises to rescue the public welfare from their hands.

The Episode Review

Breathless Episode 5 gets political as it deals with the consequences of the strike while also showing us both sides. While the protestors take a stance to ensure they are better equipped to take care of the public, the patients of Valencia suffer. This is definitely not an easy debate and we wonder how the show will tackle it especially since this issue is very relevant to real life and there has been no easy answer yet.

But to ensure that they are able to do justice to this heavy debate, the writers have ended up sidelining the personal drama of the characters. We only get snippets of Biel and Jesica’s affair, May’s fight with Rocio and Pilar’s vengeance. And let’s not even get started on Leo’s case and how the show will wrap up all these storylines while also focusing on the overarching conflict of the welfare system.