Episode Report Card Wing Chun: A | 6 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Love's Labor Lost
By Wing Chun | Season 1 | Episode 20 | Aired on 03.08.1995
Pan from Benton, rubbing his head in the hall, to an orderly carrying several bags of blood into Discharged Passenger's trauma room. It doesn't sound good for Discharged Passenger. Carter asks to intubate, but Mark firmly replies, "Not this time. Could be a neck fracture. Always look everywhere. We'll roll him." They roll him, whereupon Mark discovers a "single gunshot wound." They roll Discharged Passenger back. Long story short, he lives. I would get into it more, but the point of the scene is to show Mark teaching Carter and Deb, and saving the dude so that he can go up for surgery.
In the hall, everyone ditches their yellow gowns. Susan says that she has to get home: "I'm on tonight." Mark says he'll have the place emptied out for her. "Deal!" she chirps. Lydia and Susan make off for the El together; Lydia will be back that night as well. A cranky bald guy mutters about getting stat paged, and enters Mrs. Benton's trauma room at the same time as a younger woman in surgical scrubs. Benton tells Dr. Cranky that the patient is Benton's mom, and that she broke her hip. Dr. Cranky, giving a cursory glance at an x-ray, dismissively agrees that she did. He hands the films to Scrubs Girl, calling her "Blair," and tells her to put Mrs. Benton on her schedule. Dr. Cranky turns to go, and Benton follows, explaining that he wants Dr. Cranky to perform the surgery. Dr. Cranky wearily says that ER admits go to the teaching service. Benton says that he doesn't want a resident operating on his mom, and Dr. Cranky says he'll scrub in. Benton asks whether that means Dr. Cranky will be the one holding the knife and, before Dr. Cranky can answer, adds that he wants to scrub in, too. Dr. Cranky says that he will be there, and Benton snaps, "That's not good enough, sir!" They've arrived at the elevator by now, and Benton is all up in Dr. Cranky's face. Dr. Cranky, in a warning tone, tells Benton, "I know this is your mother, but you are way over the line, son!" Haleh and Blair roll up behind them with Mrs. Benton's bed; Dr. Cranky gets in the elevator with them. Benton tries again, but Dr. Cranky cuts him off: "I'll page you when we're done. Now back off!" The elevator doors slide shut.
Credits. I seriously already have to go lie down.
1:00 PM. Fade up on a shirtless guy whose entire torso appears to be covered in elaborately detailed tattoos; there's a big, raw, red patch on his right arm. Carter, off-screen, asks, "So, you tried to sand it off?" "Isn't that what you do?" asks Tattoo Arnie. "Yeah, but we don't use a power sander." Mark leans in to inspect the wound, and Carter explains that Tattoo Arnie is "a diabetic, as well as an amateur dermatologist." "Vera didn't want me just crossing it out," explains Tattoo Arnie. Mark orders some meds, a tetanus shot, and a consult from Plastics: "They may have to do a graft...[checking Tattoo Arnie's left arm] Ah! Maybe they can move that serpent head." "Onto the body of a goddess?" Tattoo Arnie asks incredulously. Mark and Carter simultaneously fix him with a silent stare of disbelieving befuddlement, and then wander off, giggling. Mark asks whether Carter ate lunch; Carter says that the cafeteria was already closed. At 1:00 PM? All righty. Mark produces a chocolate bar from the depths of his sweaty scrubs, which Carter accepts, inexplicably thanking Mark for it. Carter then says that the word is out that Mark will be an ER attending, and congratulates him. Mark self-deprecatingly says that it's not a sure thing, and Carter basically tells him it will be. Anyway, Carter and Mark debate over whether the ER is a good place to work; Mark cites all the stuff you learn, the variety of cases, and the immediate effect you have on your patients' lives, concluding, "Mainly, it's like joining the circus." Right on cue, the elevator doors open and a bed emerges, containing a bearded bald guy wearing a spangled costume with pink ruffles at the sleeves, and a tiara. Heh.