merritt wever

One of the things that drove me nuts about the first season of Showtime's 'Nurse Jackie' was all the Jackie worship going on.

Yes, Edie Falco's character of the drug-addicted, adultering nurse Jackie Peyton was good at her job, and seems to have a much better bedside manner than most of the people working at All Saints Hospital. And, yes, the premise of the show, especially in that first season, was that she was somehow keeping all of her worlds separate and her lies in order, despite being in a highly stressful job.

But most of the juggling that Jackie was doing seemed pretty unrealistic -- especially in the romance department -- and I'm happy to see that some of those balls are finally falling to the ground.

'Nurse Jackie' is one of those shows that keeps audiences in a love-hate relationship with its main character -- and that's exactly why we adore it.

The unapologetic titular character, expertly played by ,a href="http://www.aoltv.com/celebs/edie-falco/1954797/main">Edie Falco, is surrounded by a group of ragtag coworkers, including Coop, a breast-grabbing socially awkward doctor (Peter Facinelli), and Zoey (Merritt Wever), an enthusiastic nursing student perpetually clad in bunny rabbit scrubs.

I sat down with the three stars to hear all about the "rollercoaster ride" that is season 2, big guest stars, new romances and what makes this show so special.

(S01E12) "I've never been a fan of movies where idiots talk to people in comas." - Mrs. Akalitus to a comatose Mr. Nutterman

Well, things didn't go as wrong as I thought they might have, with the whole Eddie hanging with Kevin at the bar business. Yeah, it wasn't good, and Jackie downing three vials of morphine was just ... not sure what to think of it. Was she trying to kill herself, or just numb the pain from everything?

My favorite part of the episode was Zoey and her sweetness at wearing the gray scrubs and being all mopey after getting sacked from dealing with patients. I was glad when she put on the bunny scrubs again, but things don't look good for movie critic guy losing his memory. "Oh my god, I broke him," she says.

(S01E11) Nothing really jumped out at me about this episode ... well, ok, the spider scene. And the end scene. That opened up a big can o' worms for Jackie that I'm sure will have big consequences for her one way or another. And I appreciated seeing Victor Garber as the movie critic patient, and the mess Zoey made while caring for him.

But that's how Nurse Jackie operates. There usually aren't any major "wow" scenes; the episodes just sort of float along, one playing off of the other in more of a real-life fashion.

In case anyone hasn't seen the episode yet, I'll get into more details after the jump.

(S01E10) "Just for the record, I'm officially questioning your judgment." - O'Hara to Jackie

This episode of Nurse Jackie drove me a little nuts. All through my notes are little messages to Jackie, like I think she's going to see my notes and take my advice -- before she ruins her life even further.

I mean, I've commented before how difficult it must be keeping her personal life completely separate from her work life, and this episode was like a time bomb waiting to go off.

You just know that sooner or later, she's going to be so fried that she'll forget who knows what, and say something to reveal her secret -- just like she almost did to Mo-Mo when she started talking about the mother-daughter tap dance class.

(S01E09) "She's just a nurse." - Dr. Cooper to Melissa, talking about Jackie

Sometimes I think Dr. Cooper is starting to be a human being, and then he turns around and says something really stupid. Females are naturally more empathetic than guys, so I would think that having two moms would have made him a little bit more sensitive. Guess not.

He really was a jerk in this episode, and I imagine Jackie having to make the decision about the organ donor (the PETA card!) will come back to haunt her. But what's a nurse to do? Get another doctor maybe? I don't care if he DID stay awake for 53 hours once.

(S01E08) "Honey, I know I'm pretty, but you just wasted 30 seconds staring at me." - Mo-Mo, to a male nurse who needs to get back to work

Well, there are certain things about Nurse Jackie that you just know are going to come into play. Like the assisted suicide story we had recently, and tonight's chilling opening scene where Jackie's daughter accidentally gets Jackie's drugs mixed into the sprinkles on her doughnut (loved that slo-mo camera work, though).

Sooner or later, Jackie's not going to catch stuff like that, and it'll be disastrous. I know we've talked about this before, but you have to wonder how she can function so well doing all those drugs. And what would happen if she suddenly didn't have access to them.

(S01E07) "I am God, and you are an asshole." - God

Oh, the times I've wanted to say that in my life. I'm sort of living vicariously through Nurse Jackie these days. She does stuff that everyone else wants to do, but doesn't because they don't have the guts. Like:

• Yanking the catheter out of the repeat sex-offender, then telling Mo-Mo, "He's a fucking pedophile!"
• Giving the Cartier bracelet that Eddie gave her to the morphine-drugged, steak-knife guy to give to the girl who's really just looking for a nice guy.
• Telling God to get back on his meds.

Yes, I want to be Nurse Jackie when I grow up.