The BEST episodes of Nip/Tuck
Every episode of Nip/Tuck ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Nip/Tuck!
Beauty, the saying goes, is only skin deep. The beauty of Nip/Tuck is that it goes deeper, laying bare the complexities and fragile natures often found in patients seeking cosmetic surgery. Dylan Walsh and Julian McMahon portray hotshot Miami South Beach plastic surgeons who are themselves in full-blown midlife crises as they confront career, family and romance problems. The series' cutting-edge stories range from funny to suspenseful to uncommonly powerful. The surgeries are graphically bold. The sexuality is rampant.
#1 - Adelle Coffin
Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 9/30/2003
Sean and Christian learn that they have to take a test in order to continue practicing. Sean and Megan visit a doctor to learn that there is nothing they can do for her. Mrs. Grubman returns to get an operation on her and her fiancé. Christian passes his test, but Sean walks out. Megan commits suicide. Julia finds out about Sean's affair with Megan.
#3 - Joan Rivers
Season 2 - Episode 16 - Aired 10/5/2004
Joan Rivers consults with Sean and Christian to have all of her plastic surgeries undone, because she wants her grandson Cooper to learn that you don't have to be perfect. When she ultimately learns what she will turn out like after the work has been finished, she decides to give up on her original plan and asks the doctors to schedule her for a facelift the next morning. Matt is concerned about Ava, who seems obviously depressed. He suggests they go away to Paris and start a new life together, which she reluctantly accepts after some convincing. Matt goes to McNamara-Troy to steal drugs for her to take with them. Christian finds him, and gets upset when he learns Matt is going to Paris. Christian goes to have a talk with Ava, and when trying to make a point using sex, he learns that Ava is really a transsexual. Julia, Sean, and Christian spend the night researching, and trace their way to Maryland and a Gender Reassignment center. They learn that Ava's surgeon was a retired doctor by the name of Barrett Moore. Avery was a homosexual admirer of his, but Barrett could not love him the way Avery wanted him to. He perfected his plan for surgery, and made Avery a woman. They married, but their marriage was not perfect. Since they could not conceive, Barrett used a surrogate, and Adrian was born. Ava could not live with the pain, so she left with Adrian when Barrett was not home. Julia confronts Ava, and tells her that she knows her secret - and that she will reveal it to Matt if she does not break up with him by the end of the week. Ava needs one more surgery before she's complete, and Sean and Christian call Barrett in to help. Barrett asks Ava if he could meet Adrian, and she agrees to let him do so. When Matt comes home with the plane tickets, Ava gets upset by his constant mess making, and breaks up with him. In tears, Adrian comes home with a knife hidden behind his back. He once again tries to get his problems spoken. She tells him that Matt is out of the pi
#4 - Cherry Peck
Season 3 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/20/2005
Christian finds out that Kimber didn't ditch him at the altar but was abducted by the carver. Quentin is a Carver suspect. Julia has bad dreams about her pregnancy. Sean is threatened into doing pro bono work on the transgender woman who was beat up by Matt.
#5 - Dr. Joshua Lee
Season 5 - Episode 7 - Aired 12/11/2007
Sean tries to regain his youth through his relationship with Eden. A violent and traumatic event causes Julia to question her relationship with Olivia. In an effort to better her life, Kimber makes a decision that devastates Matt.
#6 - Magda and Jeff
Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired 1/22/2008
Sean's role on Hearts & Scalpels is expanded after he takes on an agent. A suspicious Christian questions Gina's motives for moving to Los Angeles and working at McNamara/Troy.
#7 - Quentin Costa
Season 3 - Episode 15 - Aired 12/20/2005
The Carver strikes at a sorority house. His identity is revealed. Ariel's dad kidnaps Matt and Cherry. Ariel's dad forces Matt to make a life threatening decision, while the carver tries desperately to get his last minute revenge. Julia discovers that there might be something wrong with her baby.
#8 - Naomi Gaines
Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 8/3/2004
When local model Naomi Gaines is raped & disfigured by an attacker named "The Carver", Sean decides to repair her injuries on a pro-bono basis, thrusting McNamara/Troy into the local media spotlight, trying to overcome the slander caused by Bobbie Broderick. After getting caught sneaking into the house late at night, Matt lies by telling his parents he was studying with Ava's son Adrian. Adrian is forced to play along with the subject when Julia invites them all to dinner. Adrian reveals Matt & Ava's relationship, causing Julia to lash out at Ava & Matt. When Matt becomes uncomfortable with his increasingly demanding relationship with Ava, she reveals to him the secret that his mother is keeping from him.
#9 - Everett Poe
Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/11/2007
Sean and Julia learn more about their new family dynamic as Sean resists Eden's advances. Kate reveals a secret compulsion. Matt comes to Los Angeles with some troubling news for his fathers.
#10 - Mrs. Grubman
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 7/13/2004
As Julia and Sean's daughter Annie faces puberty, they must both face the harsh realization of maturity and deal with their own issues about getting older. When Gina tells Christian he can no longer be involved in Wilbur's life, Christian is forced to reach out to an old flame in order to build a case to gain sole custody of Wilbur.
#11 - Escobar Gallardo
Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 10/21/2003
Christian learns that Kimber and Merril are engaged. Escobar continues to have the surgeons do things for him. Liz is sent to Bermuda after being shot in the leg by one of Escobar's people. Sean goes to kill Escobar. Escobar makes a deal with Sean; a new face for their freedom. Christian learns, in the delivery room, that he is not the father of Gina's baby. Julia returns to get the paternity test she had done a while ago. The doctors do surgery on Escobar, and give him the face of a criminal even higher than Gallardo on the Most Wanted List - Armand Ortiz. Ortiz is arrested at the airport for bank robbing and killing a federal agent.
#12 - Edith and Walter Krieger
Season 7 - Episode 8 - Aired 2/24/2010
Julia visits Sean and Christian in Los Angeles to share life-changing news -- and rejects romantic advances from both men. A great love from Matt's past who has caused immeasurable family chaos turns up as Matt prepares to marry Ramona. Liz reveals that she's happily pregnant.
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#13 - Sean McNamara
Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 9/28/2004
Beauty is a curse on the world. It keeps us from seeing who the real monsters are. Another victim of the Carver shows up to have his face fixed - this time it is a male, who was both raped and carved. They agree to fix him. A local news station does an interview with Sean about the pro bono work on Carver victims. The Carver finds his way into Sean's home. After Sean gets out of the shower, the Carver drugs him up and has a conversation with him. He slices his right cheek, and tells him that if he fixes another one of his "masterpieces", he is going to kill him. Julia helps him recover, and Sean tries to win her back - but she reminds him that she is happy with Kevin. Meanwhile, Gina tells Christian that she is HIV positive, meaning that Christian may be also. He calls his past lovers, including Manya, Erica, and Grace. He visits Kimber on the set of a porn movie, which she is directing. She tells him that she got tested quite recently because she's in the business, and that she's clean, which slightly relieves Christian. He has one more call to make - James and Wilbur (now known as Gabriel). They both come to visit, and Christian becomes very emotional. Christian's tests come back negative, and he visits Gina in the hospital with the good news. He lies down next to her in her hospital bed after a heartwarming conversation, and they fall asleep together.
#14 - Duke Collins
Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/18/2007
Sean discovers the secret between Christian and Julia. A hospitalized Matt bonds with his rehabilitation counselor. Eden suspiciously makes peace with Julia. Kimber and Ram reveal their future plans.
#15 - Merrill Bobolit
Season 4 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/7/2006
Dr. Merrill Bobolit, who's out of jail, needs Sean's and Christian's professional services. Escobar Gallardo wants them to perform surgery on his face. And Matt tells his family that he's married and that he and his wife are expecting a baby.
#17 - Christian Troy
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 6/29/2004
Sex gone wrong causes Christian to break his nose, but Christian is worried that Sean's medical condition will keep him from performing the corrective surgery. He consults a rival (female) plastic surgeon across town. Christian and Gina have sex, but she gets upset when Christian tells her that he's imagining the female plastic surgeon instead of her. Gina tells him that he looks hideous, so Christian decides to operate on his nose himself, which goes terribly wrong. Christian, trying to show that the McNamara-Troy partnership is worth something, tells Sean that he wants him to fix his nose. When Sean panics, Christian decides to go through the surgery without anesthesia, so they can do it together. Sean performs the surgery successfully. Meanwhile, Matt learns that Harry has been arrested for raping Cara Fitzgerald, and that Harry has told the authorities about the hit-and-run, and that Matt was involved. While under oath, Matt says that he had no involvement with the car accident.
#18 - Candy Richards
Season 5 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/19/2008
Tragedy strikes the McNamara/Troy family after Julia learns what has caused her ill health. A visitor from Christian's past brings revealing news. Sean finds the price of fame to be more expensive than it's worth.
#19 - Diana Lubey
Season 4 - Episode 12 - Aired 11/21/2006
Even though he doubts his ability to maintain a long term relationship Christian proposes to Michelle and a lonely Sean takes a pathological case for rationalities that have as much to do with himself as with the patient, and James requires to use McNamara/Troy for her own operations.
#20 - Nanette Babcock
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 8/5/2003
Sean and Julia discover Matt has tried to circumcise himself. The business is sued by a faithful client after Sean accidentally leaves a surgical tool inside of her body. Meanwhile, Christian and Grace struggle with a mentally unstable patient.
#21 - Manya Mabika
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 7/6/2004
Manya has had a "female circumcision" as a young child, so she wants to have corrective surgery. A man requests hair implants all over the exterior of his body. Sean meets Ava, a life-coach, and enlists her to help out Julia. In addition, Sean has problems with Erica, still staying at the house, and Christian has problems with Gina.
#22 - Cliff Mantegna
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 9/9/2003
Christian's difficulties with Kristin are exacerbated when his feelings for Julia are revealed. Jude is hired as an intern, to sexy and disastrous results. Matt is caught mid-threesome by Julia.
#23 - Chaz Darling
Season 5 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/27/2007
A patient inspires Sean to take his relationship with Kate in a new direction. Eden uses extreme methods to persuade Christian to perform surgery on a friend. Kimber reaches out to an former business associate when she and Matt fall on hard times.
#24 - Jenny Juggs
Season 6 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/4/2009
Christian struggles to understand a patient with big anger-management issues. Sean and Christian learn how Matt is earning an income, despite his attempts to keep it hidden from his family. Teddy arranges a camping trip with Sean, Annie and Conor in order to ease family tensions.
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#25 - Kimber Henry
Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 8/24/2004
A man visits with Sean and Christian in order to be given breasts because of the fact his wife lost a breast to cancer. They refuse the job at first, but Liz talks them into doing it. After a while, his wife is overwhelmed with them, and the man wants them taken out, which eventually happens. The wife seems to enjoy them too much, which causes her to question her sexuality. Kimber has turned to the porn business after impatience caused her to turn back on her acting aspirations. A Real Doll (used for sexual purposes) of Kimber has been made, but Kimber thinks the vagina is too generic, and wants the doctors to fix the doll. Christian blasts the job and tells Sean that it's a bad idea, but Sean wants to follow through because Kimber offered a lot of money, and the practice lost money when Sean and Christian were on the verge of splitting. When Sean takes the doll home to work on it, he gets lost in the moment and has full sex with the doll, which has suction features in the openings to give a full orgasm. Sean realizes how sad he is, but then Kimber shows up to unexpectedly pick up the doll, and ends up having sex with the real Kimber. Julia has moved into an apartment, and wants to pick up some items from the house to furnish the kitchen, and she also asks Sean if she can spend the weekend with Annie. Sean lets her, despite the fact that he is angry throughout the entire conversation. When Julia shows up the next morning to pick up the waffle iron, she runs into Kimber, who is going to make Sean coffee after their night together. Upset, Julia makes herself over and goes to a bar, where she meets a man she likes. She gets drunk, and winds up in his room where he wants her to use a sex toy on him. She refuses, but then man tries to force her to do it. She makes her way to the bathroom, where she finds a phone and calls Sean, hoping that he will come and get her. She tries to make up with him, but all he does is give her money for a cab and leaves.