Sophia Lopez

Sophia Lopez is the fourth episode of the American television drama Nip/Tuck. It aired August 12, 2003.

Plot
The primary function of this episode is to show Sean's evolution from a more conservative character to one who understands and respects liberal ideals, and to expose Christian's revelation that being way too liberal can cause massive problems in one's life. That is to say that for both, they learn that there is such a thing as too much.

The episode opens with Christian at a Lamborghini dealership. He test drives the car, and during his negotiating talk with the salesman, offers his girlfriend plastic surgery. She replies that it was already done by a rival plastic surgeon, Merrill Bobolit. In the office, Sean and Christian consult Cheyenne, an porn star with "a nasty hematoma" on her butt. During their post-consult discussion, Christian accuses Sean of being a prude for not wanting to do the surgery.

Based on this comment, Sean attempts "unconventional sex" with Julia in the shower...the day of Julia's first college class. It doesn't go well, and Sean makes a quick exit from the shower after Julia accuses him of attempted sabotage. In class, Julia meets a young man named Jude, and runs into an old friend from high school, who is now teaching her class. Sean consults Sophia Lopez, a male-to-female transgender individual, and is clearly rattled.

At home, he prepares a fancy dinner for he and Julia, but when Julia brings Jude home, he cedes the dinner so that the two may study, and takes a bucket of adult films given to him by Cheyenne's manager Wallace Forsythe to his bedroom. In surgery, he corrects Sophia's botched tracheal shave.

Christian takes Matt to a party thrown by Wallace Forsythe. While Christian runs into Merrill (and Merrill actually offers him a job as his partner!), Matt goes "behind the scenes" and meets a fluffer in Forsythe's company. She is eating a lollipop, but when the lollipop is gone, she drags Matt into the back room.

One week later, the McNamara/Troy recovery room appears to be a brothel now that the two have taken on a contract with Forsythe's girls. One patient, clearly disgruntled, actually storms off. This angers Sean, who sides with Grace, and drives Christian to call a meeting with Merrill, giving consideration to the partnership offer. Sophia then calls with an emergency. Meanwhile, Matt gets a call from the fluffer. She has NGU, and she may have transmitted it to Matt.

Sophia's friend Marcy, who just underwent sexual reassignment, is having extensive vaginal bleeding, but no one in the hospital is treating her. Sean performs a corrective surgery there, and then forces Sophia to give the name of the doctor who is performing these transgender surgeries. When Sophia says the name, Sean is shocked to discover that this is his old college professor, Marcus Grayson. He goes to his office, and tells him to shut down.

Julia finds out that Christian brought Matt to the party, and then takes him to the office to be tested for NGU and HIV. She then tells Christian to stay away from him. Christian buys the Lamborghini, and drives to Matt's school to tell him he is STD free and then take him out for the day, but Matt won't go. He wants girls to like him for him, not for his stuff. Sean tells Sophia that he will be her doctor from now on, for free.

Christian returns the Lamborghini, cancels the Wallace Forsythe contract, and learns that money isn't everything. He calls Merrill to tell him he will not be his partner.

As the show closes, we see a transsexual woman walking down a hallway. She knocks on a door. Grayson opens it, looks down the hallway, then hurriedly shuffles the woman in.