Carol Kenney enthusiastically begins her first day as an internal medicine intern, but has a rocky start when she disregards direct orders from her boss in order to help a patient. Also, Carol meets Dr. Frost, a senior attending physician who may be the ally Carol needs in her second act.
When Carol treats an elderly patient whose tests are inconclusive, Carol must find a way to work around hospital policy to take extra time to observe her. Daniel is embarrassed when his fellow interns find out that he doesn't know how to draw blood.
Carol's standard, run-of-the-mill case turns out to be something more than it seems, while the other interns battle over who gets the patient with a fascinating and rare problem. Also, Daniel makes a crucial mistake that gets Dr. Jacobs attention... by eating her food.
Dr. Jacobs arrives late for work after running a marathon and collapses. Dr. Frost assigns Carol to be her attending physician while the rest of the interns are working on other injured marathon runners; Carol decides to take it as an opportunity to prove to Dr. Jacobs that she is deserving of her respect. Daniel and Lexie discover that Caleb has an irrational fear of feet, preventing him from helping them deal with the massive backlog of patients. They put him through exposure therapy, which allows him to overcome his fear. Carol finds that Dr. Jacobs is stubborn and refuses to take her advice or let her help, which she takes as a sign that Jacobs is unwilling to acknowledge her as a doctor. However, Dr. Jacobs explains that, being a black female physician, she has to hold herself to higher standards in order to be taken seriously. She then tells Carol that she does, in fact, respect her.
When Carol has her first solo overnight shift at the hospital, Dr. Frost's enthusiastic help and involvement become a little more than Carol bargained for. Also, on the interns' rare night off from the hospital, Jenny takes them all out to a bar to find dates.
The hospital is abuzz when Carol is assigned to care for a star college football player with a broken rib. Also, sparks continue to fly between Jenny and Daniel.
When the other interns begin to feel the strain of being first-year residents, Carol tries to help with lessons learned from years as a working mom, but soon realizes that she may have stretched herself too thin; Jenny and Dr. Frost face off.
Carol's dear friend Phyllis is admitted to the hospital, and Carol jealously witnesses what retirement would have looked like for her. Also, Daniel takes credit for Caleb's excellent diagnosis and is bothered when Caleb doesn't seem to mind.
As the hospital hosts therapy dogs to help care for their patients, Carol helps Lexie when the emotional burden of being a doctor becomes too "ruff."
Carol excitedly plans an early Christmas celebration for Jenny, but Jenny's preoccupied with her secret first date with Daniel. Also, the doctors investigate a case of food poisoning at an office holiday party.
Carol pretends to be an attending doctor to get her patient into the ICU; Jenny and Daniel run into Dr. Frost when they finally go on their first date.
When the interns are given performance evaluations by Dr. Frost and Dr. Jacobs, everyone takes the critique well... except for Carol.
Lexie and Jenny tease Carol when her kind neighbor shows signs that he has a crush on her. Also, Dr. Frost suggests that Maya and the interns forgo using technology as a crutch and instead use traditional medical procedures on their patients
When Carol learns about Lexie's secret hobby, she also finds out an even bigger secret…that everyone knew except her. Also, Caleb goes to battle with an insurance company for his patient.
When Carol's patient finally makes the liver donation list, she is upset by the lack of emotion from his transplant surgeon, Dr. Lewis (Patrick Fabian). Also, Lexie, Daniel and Caleb try to decipher why Dr. Jacobs has a tattoo of a duck.
After Carol's patient's transplant surgery is deemed a success, the interns tease her mercilessly about her obvious crush on the charming surgeon.
When the interns tease Carol that her relationship with Dr. Lewis might be moving too fast, Carol tries to sabotage his chance at winning a romantic getaway for them; a woman gets a curling iron stuck in her hair before her wedding day.
When Carol is selected to present a case to the entire hospital, her boyfriend, Dr. Lewis, asks her to reconsider because it could affect his chance of becoming chief of staff over Dr. Frost. Also, Dr. Frost makes a startling revelation.
