What the hell happend in Baltimore!!!!!
I have no idea. Did he screw up an operation . . . is that where he did his residency?
shareLike alot of this film, it's never clearly defined but left up to the speculation and interpretation of the audience.
I get the impression that Dr. Painter was peforming abortions. His father says to him, "I knew you before Baltimore. I honestly thought once you got back into delivering..." And he replies, "Don't be an idiot, no one incident makes anyone what they are. Baltimore taught me who I am, as for what I am, I learned all about the value of human life from you. That certainty is more important than morality."
"I'd never ask you to trust me. It's the cry of a guilty soul."
I think an abortion is quite possible, but I think it was a botched pregnancy.
shareMy guess is that it was a botched delivery possibly caused by his being a prescription drug abuser. There's a scene in which he's at his clinic, sitting on a gurney, drinking something either out of a small medicine bottle or some sort of small plastic cup. I thought that perhaps he was taking drugs.
shareClearly it's suggested he's an addict. When Robin gets returned to the room after stumbling around the brothel, the Dr is asked why he wasn't watching her and what he was doing. He figits and never quite answers. The suggestion is that he was getting high.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
He was performing abortions in Baltimore, possibly illegally. He mentions that his father taught him that certainty is more important than morality, to which Hale responds "So abortion is..."
His history in Baltimore certainly has something to do with abortion, only the film leaves the details up to our imaginations.
Also, he is stumbling around the brothel because he is sickened and nauseated by what is happening. His nerves are shot. He's not a drug addict, someone else mentioned he was drinking something in his office. It was Chivas.
A lot of this stuff is talked about in the director's commentary.