Trigger Warning: The following discusses sexual assault and abuse as seen in an arc on Private Practice.
Shonda Rhimesis a creator that, when you see her name attached to a product, your stomach sort of does a little flip-flop.She has a brilliant mind and has created some incredibly successful TV shows, but she’s also well-known for the devastating twists she slips into said shows. For instance,Grey’s Anatomy, which is objectively her most well-known work, is notorious for killing off its characters or putting them in life-threatening situations. So it’s no surprise that theGrey’s Anatomyspin-off series,Private Practice, has its own share of devastating moments.Private Practiceas it is, is already a more mature and slightly darker version ofGrey’s Anatomy. Both shows are medical shows and focus on the lives of doctors, yes, butPrivate Practicedelves into heavier topics and explores more intense subject matter thanGrey’s Anatomydoes. There are plenty of episodes to choose from when it comes toepisodes that changed the series, plenty of character arcs, and story beats that left viewers devastated or with their jaws on the floor — sometimes both. But there’s one episode in particular that turned the show completely upside down, and even now, years after its release, it’s still tough to stomach.
Private Practice
A skilled neonatal surgeon moves to Los Angeles to join a private medical practice, hoping for a fresh start both personally and professionally. The series follows her and her new colleagues as they navigate complex medical cases and their own tumultuous relationships, highlighting the personal and ethical challenges faced by doctors outside the traditional hospital setting.
‘Private Practice’ Is No Stranger to Devastating Storylines
Charlotte King (KaDee Strickland) is the Chief of Staff at St. Ambrose Hospital inPrivate Practice, and when we meet her in the pilot episode, she’s blunt, unpleasant, and has an attitude about her that is as frightening as it is endearing. But as the season goes on, and we learn more about her, she begins to soften and becomes much more human. It’s most notable when she begins a relationship with Cooper (Paul Adelstein) and we begin to see the more vulnerable side of Charlotte. With each passing season, we learn more and more about her, and as she’s integrated into the main group of characters, we come to love her so much more than seemed possible when we first met her. So it makes it all the more upsetting when the Season 4 episode “Did You Hear What Happened to Charlotte King?” comes around.
Private Practicehad alreadyput fans through enough devastating episodesto last them a while. Between Violet’s (Amy Brenneman) attack, Dell (Chris Lowell) and Maya’s (Geffri Maya) car accident that claimed Dell’s life, and more. So really, what else could the show throw at audiences that it hadn’t already? As it turns out, they still had some ideas up their sleeves and decided to put the focus on Charlotte, having her be assaulted by a patient while at the hospital. While Violet’s patient attack was terrifying and still hard to watch now, Charlotte’s is a lot more rooted in reality, making for a stomach-churning watch.
Did You Hear What Happened to Charlotte King?
In the final moments of Season 4, Episode 6 “All in the Family,” we watched as Charlotte grabbed her things and walked out of her office, preparing to go home for the night, as per usual. But then the episode fakes the viewer out, by fading to black only for Charlotte to suddenly be grabbed by an unseen person, who punches her and shoves her back into her office. He follows her inside and slams the door behind him, and the episode properly ends, leaving fans screaming at their TV needing to know what has happened. Episode 7 picks up right afterward, as Charlotte makes her way into a supply closet, where she’s found by Pete (Tim Daly) — bloodied and barely able to hold herself up. He carries her off to get checked out, and we slowly see the rest of the practice find out about her condition. But it isn’t until she callsAddison (Kate Walsh)that we discover the true extent of her injuries. She tells everyone else, including Cooper, that she has been beaten up and robbed, but when she’s alone with Addison, it’s revealed that she was also sexually assaulted by her attacker. It’s that moment that makes the entire episode suddenly feel a whole lot heavier. It was hard enough to watch when we thought Charlotte had just been brutally beaten by an unknown person, but to find out she had also been sexually violated was horrifying.
Private Practiceisn’t a stranger to dealing with heavier topics,but it hadn’t yet tackled such a sensitive topic. In fact, most shows on television hadn’t done that. Yes, some of the police procedural shows did, but for a medical show on ABC? It was unheard of. And for it to have happened to a main character, especially, was relatively unseen. So to say that the episode changed the show would be an understatement. And it didn’t shy away from showing the aftermath either. The next string of episodes follows Charlotte’s journey through her trauma and her recovery from it, andPrivate Practicedoesn’t shy away from showing the nitty-gritty of her healing process. It’s not pretty, and it’s not easy, it’s raw, and it’s scary, and it takes time.The show recognized that, and let the storyline play out in a manner that was realisticand made sense for not only Charlotte but survivors worldwide.
Shonda Rhimes Put Extra Care Into Charlotte’s Recovery Storyline
If a show is going to do such an intense storyline, it has to do it right, and thankfully Shonda Rhimes knew that. While she wrote the episode herself, Rhimes enlisted the help of RAINN (Rape Abuse Incest National Network) to verify Charlotte’s storyline was written as accurately as possible to reflect the stories of other survivors.In an interview with TV Guide, KaDee Strickland spoke about the storyline for her character and how she and Rhimes went about portraying it.
“RAINN, the Rape Abuse Incest National Network, got heavily involved with us in this process to ensure that everything we did was suitable to the story of the survivor of this kind of crime. And that’s what it is, it’s a sexual crime. It’s the kind of thing that you don’t mess around with. I spent a lot of time personally working with survivors of brutal rape because it’s not just an attack. It’s a physical assault that is shocking. Charlotte doesn’t come out of this, by any stretch, physically or emotionally as the same strong sort of control freak that we all know and love. She’s a very different person after this event.”
She also spoke with TV Fanaticabout her own stipulations going into the storyline, and how she wanted it to be handled.
“I had the simple role of trusting Shonda Rhimes. It came to her, and it made the most sense with my character.” Strickland explained. “I was absolutely, immediately on board. For so many reasons I thought it was perfect as an instrument of educating people in the circumstances. Statistically, I understood how it could be a great service to the audience, and knew Shonda would do it right. My only stipulation was that it not go away quickly, and she and I were in solidarity.”
Though it’s a tough episode to watch, even now so many years later, it remains just as prevalent as ever. Sexual assault is unfortunately, a far too common occurrence, andPrivate Practiceshone a light on survivors of it. It changed audiences and television, andit certainly changedPrivate Practiceas a whole. In comparison to the rest of the series, the episode doesn’t even feel like it inherently fits in, but it’s such an important addition to the show, and Charlotte’s storyline, that that’s not exactly a bad thing.Private Practicewas never quite the same going forward, it earned a sort of newfound respect for how it handled such a tough subject, and went on to tackle even more difficult storylines with the same approach. “Did You Hear What Happened to Charlotte King?” isn’t the kind of episode you want to rewatch, butit is a must-watch, and an important one at that.
