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When we left Nurse Jackie Peyton last year, her drug dependency had sent her into a rat-hallucination stupor and, oh yeah, her pharmacist boyfriend had slyly befriended her bartender husband.

While the opening scenes of the sophomore season of the Showtime hit depict an idyllic moment at the beach with her family, it’s only a few minutes until the sassy, tart Jackie that we fell in love with last year arrives – just in time to shove a foul-mouthed frat jerk to the ground.

As played by the always wonderful Edie Falco – whose chopped hair is vying for the Ellen DeGeneres award this season— Jackie is somehow always sympathetic despite her moral ambiguity regarding her marriage, that pesky prescription drug problem and her occasionally questionable hospital tactics (a few episodes into the season, an injured Mexican construction worker gets a free pass thanks to her empathy).

In “Nurse Jackie”’s debut season, the breakout star was Zoey Barkow (Merritt Wever), the delightfully wacky young nurse who will do anything for Jackie’s approval. Fans of the show begged for more Zoey, and the writers listened, as there are plenty of her raised eyebrows and sarcastic shrugs – maybe even a little TOO much Zoey at times. She’s also given a meaty storyline for a couple of episodes that elevates her beyond second-tier status.

Also getting some juicy moments this season is Eve Best, whose sophisticated Dr. Eleanor O’Hara is involved in a couple of romantic interludes that are certainly tantalizing.

Her dynamic with Jackie (or, as O’Hara endearingly calls her, “Jacks”) showcases the soul of both women. And their shared impatience and annoyance with the hilariously ego-centric , socially inept Dr. Cooper (played as a perfect moron by Peter Facinelli) is just another dimension of their bond.

With so many shows whose main character is distinctively divided between work and home life, viewers are forced to choose which one they’re more interested in – but with “Jackie,” we get sucked into all aspects of her big mess of existence.

Whether she is befriending a health insurance agent on behalf of a deaf patient, dealing with the neurosis of one of her young daughters or counseling O’Hara about her love life, Falco imbues
Jackie with compassionate toughness.

As for Jackie’s own twisted romances, it’s still hard to understand why she would cheat on a husband as seemingly perfect as handsome nice-guy Kevin. While it might have appeared as if her affair with Eddie, the former hospital pharmacist replaced by a pill dispenser, concluded last year, by the end of Monday’s episode it becomes clear that Eddie will always be looming.

And giving Jackie even more reason to hit the medicine cabinet.

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