Episode Report Card Heathen: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT If I Should Fall From Grace
By Heathen | Season 8 | Episode 7 | Aired on 11.07.2001
After dumping Gallant, Mark grabs Susan and urgently whispers, "Save me!" She snickers that Gallant sure seems nice. "Of course he does. That's how they all start, until they grow up to become residents like Carter," Mark snorts. Does he have a feud with Carter? Or is jealous Mark probing for information? Regardless, he should shut up, because I'm racking my brain to remember the last time Carter abused his power as a doctor and let a man die in an elevator -- and you know what? I'm coming up blank. So piss off, Milquetoastius Maximus. Susan, though, reacts with a genuine "I wish!" that catches Mark off-guard. "What? He turned into a good doctor," she argues. Mark, still stunned, asks Susan whether she and Carter are...and he can't quite get out the words. He's more than off-kilter; he traded his kilter for a bottle of Jack Daniels and a clue, but accidentally dropped both down a sewer and ended up sober, unsteady and just plain stupid. Susan and Mark share a long look, his of curiosity and slight affront, hers of mounting amusement with a tinge of blush. Gallant picks this moment to pop up again. "I'm sorry, am I interrupting?" he asks. Aw. He is, and I love him for it. Susan beams that he absolutely isn't, and lets the student accost Mark anew.
Susan runs into Carter near the stairwell. "I was just talking about you," she grins, giggling to herself. "How's your grandmother?" Carter hangs his head and reveals that she's got Shy-Drager Syndrome, scratching his neck and grimacing in a fairly appealing, boyish way that betrays his discomfort. In a show of support, Susan blathers about two treatments she's heard that have good success rates in combating Shy-Drager, then asks how Gamma took the news. "I haven't told her yet," Carter confesses. "Anything I can do?" Susan asks, as an extra swaddled in a Burberry scarf rounds the corner behind her and heads upstairs. "I don't think so," he says sadly. Cut. The extras reset; lights, camera, action. "Let me know," Susan says, as all the same extras come from all the same positions they did in the last shot, moving in all the same directions and wearing all the same blatantly displayed Burberry items they did before. It's pretty jarring, actually, because the two shots are very close together and are identical but for Susan's line. Bad editing, there, ER.
As Susan leaves, Mark spies Carter and flags him down, introducing Gallant and foisting him upon our swarthy Chief Resident. Carter distractedly tells him to grab the orientation package and get to work on it, but Gallant has of course already done that, since he's been waiting for Carter all morning. As Gallant approaches Carter, who is still positioned in front of the stairs, The Burberry Scarf appears -- the one that not two shots ago disappeared up to the second floor -- and walks right in front of Gallant, having just broken the land-speed record during its lap up and down the hospital steps. Same extra, same costume, same suspicious hat covering his face, same spy-movie trenchcoat that screams, "The plaid pig clucked in Czech at midnight." Carter explains that he's been preoccupied with a family emergency; he and Gallant commence pedeconferencing. "Nothing serious, I hope," Gallant says smoothly. "Want to talk about it?" Carter just looks at him. "Oookay. Well, I watched a trauma already and helped Dr. Kovac with a possible MI, both of which were very interesting," Gallant chirps. Carter disappears just as he begins pleading for his own cases. Abby notices this and arrives next to Gallant at the exact moment he realizes Carter ditched him. "He stepped into the men's room," she chuckles, then kindly offers to hook him up with a few patients. Gallant's angelic smile is well worth the effort.
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