Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman : Hank's Baby?

Hank's Baby?

Was Myra's baby Hanks?

1. When Myra went into labor Horace made it a point to say that the baby was early -- maybe early if it was Horace's, maybe on time if it was Hank's.

2. Hank was the only one who could calm the baby down. See the episode called "cooper vs. quinn part 2"


Re: Hank's Baby?

No. But Hank did have a son.

Re: Hank's Baby?

yes Zach played by a very young and adorable Joseph Gordon Levitt

Re: Hank's Baby?

I think babies can sense if someone is stressed or nervous (like Myra was) -Hank has a naturally calm disposition and the baby oould have sensed that

Re: Hank's Baby?

Hank was also, I believe, in love with Myra. He had a soft spot for her and in spite of her marrying Horace and having his baby, Myra was still special to him. I think you're right with what you said and I think also perhaps the baby sensed the affection that Hank held for her mother and it soothed her as well.

Whichever it was supposed to be though, it was an awfully sweet scene. :)

Re: Hank's Baby?

True. It almost made Hank human. LOL

---
"How was the war, sir?"
"As any war, ma'am, a waste of good men." (Poldark)

Re: Hank's Baby?

Hank acts like a jerk at times but deep down he's a good guy. He looked like he wanted to kill that creep who was mistreating a young girl.

Re: Hank's Baby?

Well, one thing about Dr. Quinn, all the bad guys have their good points. They may only show up every once in awhile, but they do show up and surprise us all.

---
"How was the war, sir?"
"As any war, ma'am, a waste of good men." (Poldark)

Re: Hank's Baby?

Well, I wouldn't say Hank has a naturally calm disposition myself--he's more on the tempermental side--but the series did show him consistently having a soft spot for kids. I've known people like that IRL--argumentative with every adult around them, but remarkably patient and gentle with children.

But Hank had said it himself that he and kids never had any issues, it was him and the rest of the world he had problems with.

But Myra and Horace were probably both stressed (and in Horace's case, possibly resentful, we'd seen signs he thought taking care of Samantha was Myra's job), whereas Hank wasn't. Samantha was probably picking up on her parents' distress and reacted accordingly.

Re: Hank's Baby?

Good point in your last paragraph. I hadn't thought of that before.

I have to say, Hank wasn't always so great with kids. If you remember in "The Abduction," he was pretty awful to Brian until some folks pointed out how it might be bad for business to renege on his promise...

---
"How was the war, sir?"
"As any war, ma'am, a waste of good men." (Poldark)

Re: Hank's Baby?

Ooops. Forgot about that one.

Re: Hank's Baby?

Oh yes he loved kids, look how he likes this young girl in Orphan train. He only wanted good things for her/from her.


English is not my language, so be gentle

Re: Hank's Baby?

That, too. I forgot about that one.

---
"How was the war, sir?"
"As any war, ma'am, a waste of good men." (Poldark)

Re: Hank's Baby?


But Myra and Horace were probably both stressed (and in Horace's case, possibly resentful, we'd seen signs he thought taking care of Samantha was Myra's job), whereas Hank wasn't.


That's another excellent point, as you've already been told. In the episode where Myra leaves with the other women to find Michaela (heavily pregnant), Horace doesn't want her to go, but she defies him and goes anyway. When he has to have emergency surgery on his gallblader, courtesy of Andrew and Colleen, he is resentful and frankly douchy to Myra when she comes back and he points out that someone else had to look after Samantha because he was sick and she was gone.

I always liked Horace but he did seem to have a pretty solid stand on where a woman's place was in the home, and it did kinda piss me off... Then again, one has to consider the setting and the period, and this WAS probably a typical male attitude in the 1870's.

Re: Hank's Baby?

Yeah, what did you expect a man in the 1870s to think in that situation? Especially if he was as sensitive and insecure as Horace was? Myra even got to keep her job at the bank, and she could still not be happy! So really, all of my sympathy was with Horace. Myra did not care one bit about what he wanted or what he felt, and she just stepped into a whiny "everything is about me, me me" mode. I guess that we were supposed to see her as some spunky "modern" woman, who wanted to get more out of her life than "just being a wife and a mother". And I can often understand such characters in other works. But what I saw in Myra was a whiny selfish bitch in sheep's clothing, who could not even keep her promise to her dying mother-in-law to always take care of Horace. And as for my own mother, who is 100 years younger than Myra and still was a housewife, she was offended by this storyline, which seemed to tell the audience that being a housewife was so undesirable and so unfulfilling.

It had been different if Horace had been a bad husband to Myra, who had been beating her or cheating on her. But he was a very meek man, who had no faults excpet for being conservative about a wife's and mother's role in the family. Which was not even a fault according to the standards of the time. As a matter of fact, Dorothy had forgiven her alcoholic ***hole of an husband for much more than that! So I don't see what Myra's problem was. To be fair though, nobody in Colorado Springs seemed to approve of that she left Horace and separated him from his daughter. Even the usually very feminist Michaela seems to have expected her to come back to her husband. And that only shows how awful Myra's attitude had become to her contemporaries. And indeed, many fans of the show came to dislike her too.

Re: Hank's Baby?

Exactly my thoughts.
As much as I liked Myra when she wanted to leave the salon, as much I started to hate her when she started to show that she didn't respect the feelings of her husband, and hurt him. I was so sad for him, because I'm sure Horace would have understood over time that Myra, in their marriage, needed some independence to thrive. This would have asked patience and love. She had neither of them.

English is not my language, so be gentle

Re: Hank's Baby?

I think given that Michaela was away from the clinic on her own adventure with her dying friend Sam, having Samantha be born when she was had to be explained. I doubt Michaela would have left town if Myra was anywhere close to going into labour at any moment, so they made a point of having Horace say the baby was early.

Just my take on it anyway!

Re: Hank's Baby?

I suppose that might have been possible, but in all the times I've watched the series, this never occurred to me. They did have birth control in those days although the show never talks about it. But there was something called a womb veil. Presumably the girls would know about these things although they probably weren't 100%.

I don't think Hank's ability to quiet her baby meant he was the father. It could have been any number of reasons, including coincidence, that she calmed down in his arms.

---
"How was the war, sir?"
"As any war, ma'am, a waste of good men." (Poldark)

Re: Hank's Baby?

oh I'm sure it is just a coincidence but I the thought struck me and figured I'd share. In real life someone quieting your child doesn't automatically make them related, but in tv land lol it may have significance. Just figured I'd throw the thought out there.

Re: Hank's Baby?

Feel very unsettled with the comments saying Hank had a caring side. He allowed that man who was known for slicing up prostitutes to go with Myra- who then got cut up by him. He was constantly denying her access to medical treatment when she was unwell (such as when she had the tumor). He also refused to release Myra from her contract. He turned up at Myra and Horace's wedding as a diplomatic way of admitting defeat.

Women- his prostitutes anyway- were just property to make money from. He was drawn to Myra because she was once his property. He'd always feel a sense of ownership over her.

I find him an interesting character, but I'd never describe him as having a soft side or being caring. He served his own interests and no one else's.

Re: Hank's Baby?

But the funny thing is that Hank also did some good things. He defended a Jewish family, which came to town for one episode (and he was like the only one except for Michaela's always political correct family to do so). He told a terrible man, who had severely abused his young adoptive daughter, to sit down and listen to how Michaela made him lose the custody of the girl. He helped Horace survive an appendicitis surgery. He lifted up Michaela and took her to Andrew when she had been shot. And it was also made clear that he loved his autistic son and his elderly grandmother (even if none of them appeared in more than one episode each).

Was he still an ***hole most of the time? Oh yeah. And would I even say that he was the most evil person out of the regulars of the show? Yeah, most likely. But it seems like even an ***hole can have a good moment or two every year...

Intelligence and purity.

Re: Hank's Baby?

I think he might have been running neck and neck with Jake. But all the characters on DQMW had their good sides. It would hardly have worked if they were nothing but unmitigated evil. It made for interesting storylines when their human sides came out.


"How was the war, sir?"
"As any war, ma'am, a waste of good men." (Poldark)
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