Season 5

1. Happy F**king Birthday

Four months later, Jackie has returned to work after her union sued All Saints, Gloria has returned to her old job as hospital administrator, and two new doctors have joined the staff: Dr. Carrie Roman, an incompetent first-year resident skating by on looks, and Dr. Ike Prentiss, a former military doctor. Jackie treats a famous NFL player who has swallowed three condoms filled with drugs and blackmails him into buying a new CT machine for the hospital. The hospital staff struggle with the new pill dispenser, leading Eddie to bust the machine open and distribute the pills himself; Gloria is impressed and invites Eddie to return as the hospital pharmacist.

Jackie struggles to maintain her sobriety and is upset when Eleanor reveals she is moving to London to prioritize raising her son. The day before her birthday, Jackie asks Kevin to let her have the girls for the celebration; Kevin chooses to keep the girls for the day, reprimanding Jackie to stick to the rules of their visitation agreement. Jackie decides to hide one pill in a small nightstand jewelry box.

2. Luck of the Drawing

On her birthday, Jackie and Kevin remain at odds over custody of the girls; Kevin insists on primary custody unless Jackie can resolve her long work hours. Coop is thrown off when Gloria announces Prentiss as the new ER chief. Carrie dismisses a returning patient with back pain as a pill addict, but Jackie and Prentiss discover that the patient actually has sepsis incurred from her previous hospital visit. Jackie receives a gift of birthday flowers from her father but refuses to accept them; Jackie later calls Charlie's phone and leaves a voicemail confiding about her day.

Gloria begins to experience memory lapses, and Jackie takes advantage of Gloria's memory loss by tricking her into signing off on a shorter work schedule. Still hoping for primary custody, Kevin pushes for psychological testing on the girls. Jackie deters Kevin by asking Fiona to draw a picture of their family, a notable psychological assessment, and pointing out that Fiona has drawn Kevin separately from Jackie and the girls.

3. Smile

Jackie and Kevin finalize their divorce. While leaving the courtroom, Jackie accidentally rear-ends Kevin's car and is knocked unconscious by the airbags. She is admitted as a patient at All Saints, where Kevin berates Jackie and accuses her of being on drugs in front of her colleagues. Frank Verelli, a police officer investigating the accident, takes a liking to Jackie and flirts with her. Carrie treats Jackie and writes her a prescription for Oxycontin, unaware that she is an addict. Meanwhile, Zoey gets an apartment of her own, while Gloria continues to experience memory lapses throughout the day.

Coop begins covering for Carrie and taking on a lot more work. Later, Coop confronts Carrie for her unprofessional behavior and involuntarily grabs her breast; in response, she gropes him. Jackie accepts Frank's offer to go out for coffee. The two have a good time, and Frank is accepting when Jackie admits to being a recovering drug addict.

4. Lost Girls

Prentiss threatens to report Gloria to the hospital board for her recent memory lapses. When a heavily medicated woman who has been admitted to the ER goes missing, Jackie worries that Gloria has lost the patient. Gloria ultimately reveals that she has been helping the woman hide from her abusive husband, who has been drugging her against her will. Upon discovering Zoey and Thor sneaking the patient out of the hospital, Prentiss kindly reminds Jackie about standard hospital procedures. Coop invites Carrie to dinner, but she cancels their plans last minute to go on a date with the head of cardiology.

Coop accuses Carrie of toying with his emotions, but the two end up having sex. Jackie faces conflicts with both of her daughters: Grace has been sneaking around the city with her older boyfriend Danny, and Fiona has been acting out at school. Realizing the extent of their daughters' problems, Jackie and Kevin agree to put up a unified front for the sake of the girls.

5. Good Thing

Jackie grows nervous as she prepares for her official date with Frank, and she ends up calling Charlie's phone to confide her frustrations. Elsewhere, Carrie and Coop continue their sexual relationship, Zoey helps deliver a baby, and Gloria proves her worth to Prentiss by identifying a spinal fracture in a patient that Prentiss had initially cleared for discharge. Zoey and Thor help Jackie choose an outfit for her date with Frank, which initially goes well until Jackie receives an unexpected call from Charlie's phone; Jackie answers the call and discovers it is Mike, who has followed her inside the restaurant and wishes to meet with her.

Jackie leaves her date early and follows Mike to his apartment; she comforts him as he emotionally recounts Charlie's death, and the two end up having sex. While Jackie is away with Mike, Grace sneaks out to meet with Danny at a club but quickly becomes overwhelmed. She leaves the club alone and calls Jackie to pick her up.

6. Walk of Shame

Mike unexpectedly arrives at All Saints for his exit interview, stunning the staff. Jackie tells Mike that their sexual encounter was a one-time fling, but Mike tries to insist otherwise. In the chapel, Jackie and Mike have a frank conversation about Charlie, and Jackie reassures that Mike "did his best" in dealing with Charlie's addiction. Meanwhile, Prentiss dismisses a young patient whom he believes is looking to score drugs, but comes to learn that the patient is actually experiencing PTSD from his sister's death. Zoey is admitted as a patient after a showerhead falls on her forehead.

Carrie tries to use flashcards to strengthen her skills but continues to manipulate Coop into doing more of her work anyways. After successfully setting a patient's nose back in place by hand, Carrie is motivated into having aggressive sex with Coop, which is accidentally recorded on Coop's voice recorder. After her shift, Jackie and Kevin punish Grace for lying and sneaking out. Jackie visits Mike at his apartment to wish him goodbye, and then heads off to go on a second date with Frank.

7. Teachable Moments

While transcribing dictation, Zoey accidentally hears the audio recording of Coop and Carrie having sex and informs Jackie. When Carrie fails to diagnose a patient's appendicitis, Jackie confronts Coop with the recording and instructs him to address Carrie's incompetence; Coop later stands up to Carrie and reprimands her to be a better doctor. Gloria forgets to hire a security escort for Jackie's psych patient, who winds up damaging the pharmacy. After failing to convince Gloria to see a doctor for her memory loss, Jackie and Eddie purposely throw out a few pills, which will require all of the hospital staff to take a mandatory blood test.

In an effort to help the reserved Dr. Prentiss bond more with his colleagues, Zoey buys coffee for the entire hospital staff and pretends that it is from Prentiss. Jackie becomes worried when news that a cop has been shot reaches the hospital, and is relieved when she discovers that it is not Frank. Jackie reunites with Frank and reveals her genuine love and concern for him, realizing how important he is to her.

8. Forget It

Jackie invites Frank to her house for dinner, but they are interrupted by Kevin; Jackie angrily lambasts Kevin for showing up unannounced, and Frank decides to leave. The next day, Frank urges Jackie to work out her unresolved issues with Kevin, which pushes Jackie to attend an AA meeting. While treating a patient who is unable to breathe, Carrie learns to trust herself and correctly diagnoses the patient's pneumothorax, impressing Prentiss. Upon reviewing Gloria's blood test, Jackie and Eddie consult with Gloria and deduce that her memory loss is being caused by a new medication that she had been taking for adult onset seizures.

Zoey continues to bond with Prentiss by offering to organize his disaster of an office. Jackie discovers that Grace has skipped school and accuses her of sneaking out to meet with Danny, but Grace assures her that they have broken up. At the end of the episode, Jackie visits Kevin at the bar and apologizes for her past behavior, while Grace is revealed to be abusing drugs with Danny.

9. Heart

Jackie and Frank have sex for the first time, and Frank proclaims that he loves her, surprising Jackie. Kevin arrives at All Saints with Grace after discovering a bag of Adderall pills in Grace's backpack; Grace claims that the pills belong to Jackie, forcing both Jackie and Grace to get their blood drawn to prove who is telling the truth. In the process, Grace reveals that she found a pill hidden in Jackie's nightstand jewelry box. Zoey confronts Jackie, concerned that she did not get rid of the pill, but Jackie shuts her down.

Meanwhile, Carrie begins shadowing Prentiss in order to further develop her skills; Coop misreads the situation and ultimately decides to break up with her. Gloria reprimands Zoey for taking over Prentiss's administrative duties, and Zoey and Prentiss are later revealed to have begun a sexual relationship. Returning home, Jackie tries to call Frank, but he rebuffs her for being distant. Jackie blames herself for Grace's experimentation with pills and informs Kevin that the girls should live with him for the time being.

10. Soul

As Jackie prepares to celebrate her one-year anniversary of sobriety, Jackie struggles to rekindle with Frank, who feels he has made an unreciprocated step forward in their relationship. Meanwhile, Thor connects with Wally, a gay 80-year-old patient dying of advanced liver cancer, and tearfully commends Wally for his legacy. Gloria fires Carrie after receiving an overwhelmingly negative performance review by her peers; however, upon consulting with a lawyer, Carrie reveals her sexual relationship with Coop and uses it as leverage to retain her position at All Saints. Zoey discovers that Grace is not attending Jackie's sobriety celebration and decides to pick her up at school; Grace is distraught and has an emotional breakdown about her mother.

Frank reunites with Jackie and they reconcile, with Jackie admitting that she loves him. While getting ready for her anniversary party, Jackie nonchalantly takes the pill that she has been hiding in her jewelry box and swallows it. She then attends her anniversary party – which is attended by Kevin, Grace, Fiona, Frank, Eleanor, and the All Saints staff – and announces her one year of sobriety.