Surprise, It's Whoopi

Ask and ye shall receive…Whoopi Goldberg.

On Thursday’s episode of The View, host Joy Behar was giving what has become a customary update on Whoopi Goldberg’s health in the wake of her co-host’s extended absence from the show on account of contracting double pneumonia and sepsis in February. Behar announced that Whoopi was on the mend and that she would perhaps return to the talk show next week. As she said the words, “Hurry back, Whoopi,” Goldberg glided behind her silently in the distance like a ghost.

A perfect TV moment.

Apparently, Goldberg’s panel of co-hosts was not expecting her, as they voiced shock. Goldberg said it was her “first foray out.”

“I’m not there yet, I know that, but the only way that I’m going to get better is if I begin, so this is the beginning,” said the co-host whose last appearance on the show happened Feb. 6. She still had a bit of a cough, which she said would be the “last thing to go, apparently.”

She said that the scariest moment of her illness was a doctor asking her, “You do realize how close to death you were?” At another point during her appearance, she pointed a few feet in front of her and said, “There’s death, and here’s me.”

She hung out for a second segment, in which she bemoaned the healthcare insurance system and a dispute she had with her insurance over securing a machine that her doctor recommended in order for her to avoid surgery.

She excused herself at the end of the second segment, a little less than midway through she episode. She said she intended to return to the show on Monday.