It was the split you didn’t see coming until the very end. Dani Santino and boyfriend Matt tearily agreed that without babies in their future it wouldn’t work on last night’s Necessary Roughness.
Necessary Roughness earned its name in the episode entitled “Spell It Out” when Dr. Dani Santino and Matt Donnally faced their fears and decided to end their love affair.
No one had cheated or become dissatisfied. The couple was enjoying alone-time with the kids out of the house at their father’s place but it was Jeannette’s good fortune that shed light on the ultimate reason for their parting.
After viewing a sonogram of Jeannette’s baby during an emergency trip to the hospital, Dani saw Matt’s face get that goofy look that comes over someone when they love kids and want babies.
Read: Matt teaches Dani a lesson about the meaning of family.
The couple thought they had faced the issue of Matt’s interest in having his own family when he said that being part of the Santino brood was enough for him.
He certainly understood that Dani had closed up shop, so to speak, as her two teens were closer to leaving the house and college than being in diapers.
Read: An unplanned pregnancy is revealed.
Not only was Matt satisfied with the solution, he was ring shopping and ready to ask Dani to get married.
It seemed a bit sudden but he was ready to state his case and put his jewelry where his mouth was.
As is common in USA’s summer drama, the medical case of the week can provide the way to see something in a different light and when that bolt of lighting hits, it’s hard to ignore.
A brilliant young boy, poised to win the national spelling bee begins to stutter and have panic attacks at the microphone when the chips are down.
Raised by an immigrant family who needs him to win to secure college money they will never have, it is presumed that he is folding under years of pressure and expectations.
But it was all about a girl. Isn’t that always the way? Dr. Santino deduces that there are two things tugging at her patient: wanting to win the bee and not wanting to hurt the girl he wants to take to the mall after it’s over.
You can have both, Dani told her patient. It’s not right to rob someone of their dream.
The scene changes as viewers watched Matt’s face get that glow again listening to Jeannette’s call to her boyfriend in Europe.
As she told him he was to be a father, viewers knew that Dani was studying Matt’s face. She was hurting and frightened.
The breakup scene was one of the saddest and believable in recent memory.
The Get Glue social media site was abuzz with fans who were shocked and sending out waves of advice for Dani.
“Say it isn’t so.” “Darn and I thought they belonged together. “There are so many ways to make this work!” “Hopefully it won’t be too awkward at work.”
That is the unfortunate part of this, as the sneak peek at next week’s episode reveals. It will be awkward at work.
But just as most fans were mourning the death of the perfect couple, there were those who had always been rooting for Nico to swoop in like a super hero and take over.
Nico got a night of pleasure during last night’s show with a female version of himself.
A security officer for the league came to investigate him and his wiretapping activity done at the direction of Marshall Pittman.
They were pretty hot together, but then again Nico is hot no matter what he does.
For more Nico, USA has set up its own little “Nico Files” section of the Necessary Roughness site. Watch the latest episode, here. Let the new games begin, both on the N.Y. Hawks football field and off.
