Tonight on ABC is the season premiere of their highly anticipated new show called, Black Blox. On tonight’s premiere episode, Catherine meets a new colleague and deals with pressure from her boyfriend, who wants to make their relationship more serious.
Black Box is about a woman named Catherine Black, a famed neuroscientist with a job at the Center for Neurological Research and Treatment who struggles with mental illness. However, this is just one of the many secrets she hides from her fiancé and her family.
“Black Box” stars Kelly Reilly as Catherine Black, Ditch Davey as Dr. Ian Bickman, David Ajala as Will Van Renseller, Ali Wong as Dr. Lina Lark, Laura Fraser as Reagan Black, David Chisum as Joshua Black, Siobhan Williams as Esme Black with Terry Kinney as Dr. Owen Morely and Vanessa Redgrave as Dr. Hartramph.
On tonight’s episode called, “Kiss the Sky” World-famous neuroscientist Catherine Black has a special touch with her patients but struggles with her own mental illness in this drama series. In the opener, Catherine meets a new colleague and deals with pressure from her boyfriend, who wants to make their relationship more serious.
Tonight’s Black Box Season 1 episode 1 is going to be exciting, and you won’t want to miss it. So be sure to tune in for our live coverage of the new episode of Black Box — tonight at 10 PM EST! While you wait for our recap, hit the comments and let us know how know how excited you’re about the season première.
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Tonight’s opening episode begins with Dr. Catherine Black talking with her psychiatrist, Dr. Hartramph about the definition of “normal.” As Catherine provides a textbook definition of the word, Dr. Hartramph digs further into this concept and reminds Catherine of the crazy voicemail she left for her by reading a transcript of the message. Catherine shares that while her message seemed a little “abnormal” she had “the freaking time my life,” that is until, she goes on, “I almost killed myself.” Her doctor replies that she almost killed herself on other another day as well.
She reminds Catherine that she said she was scared to death when sometime-boyfriend Will was set to propose to her while in bed. She is a commitment-phobe and not ready to take that plunge. Catherine went on to describe more of the story in detail. Unfortunately, she picks up the story after the encounter with Will, when she decided not to take her medication (she is bipolar). Signs already showing that she shouldn’t be skipping her medication, she gets all decked out for an event where she is to speak on behalf of The Cube, the neurological center in which she works. As she describes her speech, we see snippets of her in action talking about how she studies the brain and the problem she has with the word, “normal.” Despite being a little “off” at the speech, she won rave reviews from the crowd, pulling off a great speech. However, her neglect of necessary medication showed later when she hooked up with a random man from the event.
At the hotel, after a wild romp, the man gets up to leave but not before taking all of her money out of her wallet. She runs past him…but not to block his exit; she runs out onto the balcony and dances on the very edge, hallucinating that she is flying. That is until she believes she is hit by lightning. She falls from the ledge onto the balcony and seems to almost pass out. She finishes telling the story to Dr. Hartramph, to which Catherine’s doctor reminds her that despite the fact she feels like she is brilliant when not on her meds, she needs them to live. She gives a stern warning that she must stay on her medication.
Back at The Cube, Dr. Black walks in to see her patient. The patient’s family is apologetic after telling Catherine that they could not stop their son from painting the room’s walls with a picture. Catherine, who is not new to mental disorders, shrugs it off as no big deal at all and goes to greet her patient. He ignores her at first so she begins to talk with his parents. After hearing about what has been going on, she considers schizophrenia. The parents get very defensive at first saying that that could not possibly be the correct diagnosis. Catherine looks at the picture he is still working on and asks the family to go. She goes back to talk to the patient and knows exactly what to do to better understand what is going on.
Her keen ability to understand mental illness helps her to pick up on the fact that he is hearing voices. He gets really freaked out from the voices and she talks him through the episode. She calms him down. Shortly after, she is seen walking in the hallway with her mentor and former teacher, Dr. Morely. She discusses the boy’s case with him. Just then, she is interrupted by her next patient who seems to believe she has a friend with her, though the patient is the only one to see the little people she believes are with her.
Later, Catherine goes to visit Will at his new restaurant. He again asks her if she will marry him to which she replies, “Don’t pressure me.” They have a brief conversation and she quickly changes the subject. A little while later, Catherine and Will go to see Catherine’s niece, the daughter of her brother Joshua, at her basketball game. As Catherine talks to Joshua about Will, she shares that he proposed but she cannot marry him because he doesn’t know that she is bipolar. Will and Catherine leave shortly after and have a deep discussion in the car.
She finally tells him that she’s been hiding a secret..she is bipolar. He takes it with a very positive attitude and tells her that they can get through it. He understands the disease and knows they will be fine because it is treatable. Catherine hesitates and shares that it is only treatable if she is on her meds. He begins to tense up a bit and questions her on whether or not she takes them regularly. She confesses that while she does take them regularly, she does sometimes skip them because she loves the high it brings when she is not on them and she feels mentally and physically at her best…unstoppable and brilliant…when she is not on them. She goes on to tell him that the only bad part is that she does bad things when she is not on them. He asks her over and over “What bad things??” but she just looks at him. Well, the look she gave was very telling and Will knows she was not on her meds on her recent trip..he tells her to get out of the car so he can leave her house.
He takes off, leaving Catherine at the curb of her home, where she has a vision of someone leaving her the same way in the past. She is remembering the man leaving as she was begging him to stay because she was carrying his child. She snaps back to the present and walks off into the night, knowing she hurt Will.
She ends up at The Cube. When she walks in, her patient from earlier was using his blood to finish the artwork he started before. He is screaming and staff is trying to hold him down. Catherine tells the staff to go and she calms the patient down by helping him to see that the fire he was hallucinating about was not real.
Dr. Black goes to speak with staff member Lina who shares that the patient has a treatable brain tumor, not schizophrenia. She is relieved. Lina tells her that Dr. Bickman is performing a rare surgery and Catherine goes to check things out. The arrogant Dr. Bickman blows her off when she is asking for his advice. After some pushing, he shares a plan for how to handle the patient. She leaves and see Will in the hallway. She runs to him and promises never to go off her meds or keep anything from him again. He apologizes for leaving her.
Later, Catherine meets with her niece Esme. She shares that she and her brother, Esme’s dad, went through a traumatic experience when their mother, who had a mental illness as well, ended up killing herself. She tells her about some of the horrible experiences they went through as children. Catherine ends the conversation by asking Esme to be her maid of honor when she marries Will.
At The Cube, Catherine meets with her patient and his family and heads out telling a staff member to get Dr. Bickman as the family is ready to consult with him. She ends up walking into an office where Dr. Bickman is getting it on with someone. She is thinking back to the romp she had recently when she was off her meds. She watches for a while before walking away. Later, when she is with Will in bed sleeping, she is struggling with the temptation of going off of her meds again. She gets up, and Will checks on her. She confirms she is okay, then later goes into the bathroom and flushes her medication down the toilet!
Catherine talks to the patient who was having visions of friends. She realizes that once the patient went on the meds, she no longer saw her friend. Catherine being off her meds gives her more insight and she tells a staff member to take the patient back off the meds because by putting her on medication, she took away from her patient what she needed most…a companion. Shortly after, Catherine is running out and down the stairs hearing music only she can hear as she dances with glee…a sign she is off her meds. She runs into Dr. Bickman who she was seriously turned on by when she saw him with the other woman. She boldly grabs him and pulls him into her. He is ready for action, but Catherine remembers she is engaged. That doesn’t stop her and the two begin getting it on. Skip to Will’s house where Catherine ends up. She storms in, and begins ripping his clothes off and forcing herself on him.
He knows something is wrong and tells her to stop. She gets angry and goes to put clothes on. She comes back in the room, and takes her engagement ring off and leaves. She is then seen on the street talking nonsense. She calls Esme and begins to talk to her making no sense. Esme knows what is going on and fears for her safety. She yells for her dad. Next, an ambulance arrives and picks up a screaming Catherine. Later, Joshua talks with Catherine in the hospital explaining that he kept her secret safe and told her work that she had food poisoning. He told her Esme is okay but his wife Reagan is getting fed up.
Later, Catherine meets with Dr. Hartramph. Catherine shares that she is so freaked out about marriage because she doesn’t want to turn into her mom. Dr. Hartramph tells her to talk to Will about what she is going through. The doctor is worried Catherine is spiraling into depression. Catherine explains that for now she has everything she needs…she has her daughter.
Catherine apologizes to Reagan for what happened with Esme. She begs Reagan to let her see her. Reagan is very bitter because she knows Esme feels closer to Catherine than to her. It is now that we learn that Catherine gave Esme to Reagan and Joshua because she could not raise her. No one wants Esme to know the truth. Catherine walks away as she sees Esme looking out the window at her.
The young man Catherine helped is ready to leave after he has recovered from his surgery. He thanks her for saving his life and being the only one to understand him. She also says goodbye to her other patient…and her friend as they leave to their new home.
In the last scene, Will meets Catherine in the park and tells her that although she was very bad the night before, he is frightened a bit because he liked it a little. They hold hands and make us all wonder what is in store for next week!
Tell us what you think about the new show Black Box!
