Eli Stone: Two Ministers (Episode 209)

Way to leave us hanging, Berlanti.

Jordan's absent this week because Taylor's still not talking to him, but she could probably use some good daddy shoulder-leaning this week. At a routine appointment, Matt and Taylor learn that Taylor's protein levels are elevated, which means that there may be something going on with the baby to concern them. She mentions a potential chromosomal problem, and Matt immediately wonders if she means their baby has Downs Syndrome. She assures them there's no reason to jump to any conclusions or worry prematurely, because more tests are needed before they can know anything else; tests like the ones they ran on Taylor often return false positives, so this may all be a false alarm.

But the potential that her child might have something wrong developmentally gives Taylor pause--she tells Matt she's less worried about the test itself than the decisions that come afterward. Matt's surprised and saddened that Taylor would consider (though it's never said in these words) terminating her pregnancy if something were wrong with the baby. It sends her on a guilt spiral ending in the ladies' room, where she tells Patti that the entier time she worried about whether or not Matt would be a good father, she never worried about whether or not she would be a good mother. Patti tells her that by considering herself first, Taylor's doing the responsible thing for her child. If she doesn't do what's best for herself, she can't do what's best for anyone else. Taylor hopes Patti's right, and Patti asks her if she's ever been wrong before.

Taylor has the next series of tests without telling Matt, and she's waiting for the results when he finds her. They apologize to each other, and Taylor says that no matter how the phone call goes, she knows that they have to keep talking to each other, which means more fights, but the only way they have a shot as parents is communication. Matt thinks fighting is good if it means make up sex. Taylor's like, now, really, we're going to joke about that, and Matt's like, hey, I am consistent, baby. It's a good lesson they've learned about learning and sharing and hugging and growing, but in the end, Taylor's doctor calls to say that their baby is perfectly fine and healthy.

Keith is struggling with personal prejudice this week when his former minister seeks him out to represent him in a wrongful termination suit. When Keith last went to church, his minister, Michael, was still Michelle. Michael was fired because of his gender reassignment; his parish claims that their contract was with Michelle, not Michael, and that they are no longer required to honor a contract Michael's made void. Michael only wants a chance to return to his pulpit and plead his case with his parishoners. Keith has a hard time with the case, since he feels that Michael really did break faith with his followers by not being up front with them about who he was and what he needed, and no matter what he has to say, he's betrayed a trust. Eli first chairs for him, despite his other distractions (see below) and tries to play it as any other wrongful termination suit. But it's Keith who gets more involved, going to a Bible study group for transgendered people that Keith leads. They're struggling with acceptance, faith, and trust. Keith, affected by the number of people all struggling with the same issues as Michael, puts his minister on the stand to give the sermon he'd meant to before he was fired, his first after his reassignment surgery. He preaches that in embracing the body that he knows is really his, he's finally able to fully answer Christ's question to Peter, when Peter asks who he is: "Who do you say I am? Who are you?" He knows who he is, and his congregants' answer to the same question would show him who they were. He was looking for acceptance and got none. Keith secures him a settlement of $50K, but he forfeits it for the chance to preach to his congregation again, to tell them what we got to hear on the stand. No one comes, but Keith assures Michael they'll come around the way that he did.

Eli's still dabbling in the Dark Truth, despite the danger, and his visions are getting more dire, since now instead of just calling off the wedding with Nate, Beth's kissing Eli. And the whole process is a) pissing Chen off and b) giving Eli convulsions when he's under the needle. Nate's antsy that Eli's with him constantly and taking his temperature about the wedding while avoiding Beth. They've asked Eli to be the officiant, and he's joyful at the prospect even as he's freaking out about how to prevent Beth from breaking Nate's heart the way he's seen her do in his visions. With all Eli's pestering, Nate tweaks to the reason and asks if Eli's had a vision, but Eli lies that he just wants everything to be perfect, since Nate gets the normal life and the good ending for both of them, what with the aneurysm he's carrying. Nate calls Chen and asks if there was anything in their father's notebook, which sends Chen to Eli, suspicious. Chen adamantly tells Eli not to go to Vegas; he's not had any visions since he's had Lee do the Dark Truth on him, and Chen thinks it's a sign that Eli's straying from the path.

And if that's not enough, Beth's acting weird. Laura Benanti gets the chance to show off her lovely pipes, singing a song "for Ben" that's basically, we're better off as friends and I don't want to lead you on, so this is a bad idea. When Beth comes to see Eli on the pretense of showing him Nate's gift, a killer watch, Eli asks if there's any reason she might be thinking of calling off the wedding. She asks why he'd even ask, and he tells her to forget it. But when they inevitably end up alone together in Nate's hotel room in Vegas, despite Eli's machinations to avoid it and after a very heart-felt speech from Nate about how Eli's his best friend and so important in his life, Beth's waffling. She doesn't want to hurt Nate, but she has feelings for Eli. He tells her to marry Nate. She can't, she says, if she has feelings for Eli, and especially if he has feelings for her. Eli avoids the second Dark Truth by flatly telling Beth he doesn't, but the damage is done, because Nate's arrived to hear the whole thing. Beth tells Nate she can't marry him.

Eli goes to Chen for advice, since Nate won't talk to him. Chen's like, just go and talk and keep going and talking until he listens to you, and stop messing with things you shouldn't. The Dark Truth is dangerous for Eli because of his aneurysm, for one, and for another, it's impeding him from fulfilling his calling by preventing other visions from coming. God doesn't like to be solicited for views of the future, it seems: s/he wants to give on her/his schedule as always, and Eli needs to accept that. So Eli goes to Nate's to apologize. Nate says Eli could have avoided the whole thing if he had been honest about his vision, if he'd told Nate the truth instead of trying to protect him. And, Nate yells, the only reason he's "protecting" his brother is because he's terrified of Nate getting married and leaving him alone, which wasn't the deal. The deal was Eli would be the prophet, Nate the normal one who got the girl. Eli protests that he didn't choose this, but Nate spits (literally) that he did: when Eli asked for the aneurysm back, he chose it. If he hadn't taken it back, at least Nate would have a gift to make him special. But now Nate's lost everything: his job, his career, his future with Beth. Eli says he's never wanted that; he's never wanted Nate to be alone. Too bad, Nate says. Everything he cares about, Eli's taken from him. Eli's worse than their dad. Eli throws something at Nate to get his attention, pointing at him as he hisses, "You don't say that." But what's given Nate a terrified look in his eyes is not Eli or his begging, the way he's asking for forgiveness and telling Nate he's the most important thing in his life. It's the fact that Eli's bleeding dark, scary blood from his nose. Everything blurs as Nate rushes to call the hospital.