Thanks to ChinaCat, jackie, and Wing Chun.
Previously on ER: Chuny interrupted Kerry and Mark's bickering to say that Samantha Sobriki had showed up in response to a phone message from Lucy Knight; an overworked Luka asked Romano when Kerry would return, and Romano implied that she might not return at all; Carter overreacted to Pablo's knocking over an equipment tray, and Carol demanded, "What's the matter with you?"; Holling freaked out when Mark brought home a port-a-potty for him; a stranger in Magoo's mistook Luka, Carol, and the twins for a "beautiful family," and Luka made a "yikes!" face, and Carol made a "whatever" face.
Fade up on the Greenehouse. Mark "Unfavorite Son" Greene nags David "Holling" Greene to keep a thermometer in his mouth. Back-and-forth about biting down on the thermometer. Mark listens to Holling's chest, and after more grousing from Holling, Mark announces that it "sounds like pneumonia," and that they'll have to go to the hospital and have Holling's chest x-rayed. Holling asks if they "have to," and Mark asks if Holling has something better to do, and Holling remarks in a hopeful voice that it's Sunday and he thought maybe they could "go to church." Mark snorts, "Yeah, right," and says Holling has a temperature of 101. "Big deal," Holling scoffs good-naturedly, and Mark takes his pulse and gives him an exasperated look.
Cut to the ambulance bay doors swinging shut behind "County" Kerry Weaver, back from suspension. Randi greets her, and Robert "Shad" Romano turns when he hears Kerry's name and greets her also, and as she heads for the lounge, he follows her and hopes aloud that a few weeks off "was long enough for [her] to rethink some of [her] professional choices." Kerry turns the question around on him: "Was a few weeks long enough for you to get buried down here, [what] with Mark taking extra time off?" Romano denies that he got buried and says he loves getting "up-close and personal with [his] troops," then points out that Kerry didn't answer his question. Kerry hangs up her coat and says flatly that she doesn't intend to. Good for Kerry. Romano comes over to her locker with his cup of coffee and says he'll interpret her decision to return to work as a "yes," and adds that he didn't appoint her chief so that she could turn "all soft and mushy" on him. She says she knows that. Romano reminds her that he can just as easily "unappoint" her, should she choose not to uphold the standards of the emergency department; she says with growing impatience that she knows that too. "Well then, top of the morning to you," Romano says, leaving the lounge, and Kerry punctuates his departure by slamming her locker door.
Gamma enters the kitchen to find "Trapper" John Carter asleep at the table with a product-placed can of Coke beside him. She wakes him, looking mildly concerned; Carter asks what time it is, and Gamma says it's quarter after seven and suggests some breakfast, and Carter stretches and mumbles, "Maybe just some toast." Gamma asks if he got any sleep at all. Carter sighs and says he stopped trying at around two and came downstairs to watch infomercials instead, and he tells Gamma he ordered her one of those machines "so [she] can make her own beef jerky." "You didn't," she says, hefting a pitcher of orange juice, and he admits that no, he didn't, and adds that he ended up in the kitchen. Carter comes over to the butcher-block island with a loaf of bread and selects a knife to slice it with, and as Gamma observes in the background that he can't seem to sleep in any room but the kitchen and perhaps they should "put a bed in here," Carter fondles the gleaming knife and has an audio flashback to calling for help after Paul Sobriki stabbed him. Dear producers: We all saw Carter get skewered by Sobriki. We know what the freakin' knife means. Step away from the overdub button and keep your hands where we can see them. Love, the world. Gamma studies Carter's face and says, "John?" He snaps out of it. Gamma wishes he'd talk to someone about his insomnia. "I'll be fine," he says, mechanically cutting into the loaf of bread and offering Gamma a slice. The editor turns up the sound mix on the knife as it saws ominously away at the sourdough, and we go to credits.
Jackie "I've Got Your 'Corner' Right Here" Benton's house. Jackie, Peter "Rabbit" Benton with Reese in his lap, and Cleo "MS Resident For Windows" Finch sit at an outdoor table as Jackie's kids pester Cleo to play basketball with them, which she says she'll do as soon as she finishes downloading her lunch. Peter tells the kids to run along, and Jackie says she would ask Cleo to excuse her children, but there's just no excuse for them. Heh. More Jackie, please. Cleo says she grew up with three brothers so it doesn't bother her. Jackie asks Peter to go deal with her kids and then, in spite of Peter's explicit instruction not to ask Cleo "a million questions," launches into the third degree -- "Peter tells me you're from Indianapolis" blah blah blah does Cleo still have family there blah blah blah what do your brothers do blah blah blah what does your father do blah blah blah fishing-for-information-cakes. Cleo tells Jackie that her brothers went into the family business with her father, who's in insurance, but Cleo chose not to because working with families can get "a little stifling," and then Cleo adds hastily, "Not all families, of course," and Jackie gives her a my-evil-plan-is-working smile and says, "Have another waffle." Um. Okay.
In a trauma room, "Eight-Minute" Abby Lockhart helps Doris and Elizabeth "Brit O' Honey" Corday transfer a little girl named Delia onto the table as Delia's father hovers nearby. Abby and Elizabeth order tests, and Abby asks Delia if she remembers what happened. Delia says a car hit them "really fast." Elizabeth inquires about other medical problems, and Delia's Dad says Delia used to have leukemia. Elizabeth asks what kind, and DD says she had AML (that's "acute myeloblastic leukemia," for those of you playing along at home) and she's been in remission for eight months. Abby looks at a cut on DD's arm and says he'll need sutures, but DD doesn't want to leave Delia, so Haleh offers to suture him there in the trauma room. Delia reassures her father that she had stitches once, and "it's not that bad." DD says he'll try to "be as brave as you are." The staff exchanges "awww" looks. Delia is pretty cute.
At the front desk, Conni says, "All I'm saying is, you can't go wrong with a Chevy." Carol "False Idol" Hathaway looks doubtful. Chuny says wickedly that she's "gone wrong many times in a Chevy." Hee hee! Me too -- and more Chuny, please. Yosh says he's always "admired the Subaru," and Randi suggests a classic car like a vintage Mustang convertible. I like the way she thinks -- Mustangs rock out -- but Carol rightly points out that she has "two babies, Randi, remember?" Lydia says that maybe Al could hook Carol up with a car from the police auction, and as "Hello Mary" Luka "Goodbye Heart" Kovac appears behind the desk, Conni asks him what he drives. "An old Saab," he says, and Randi cautions Carol not to "go Swedish" because they have the highest suicide rate. Luka asks what they're talking about, and Carol says she's buying a new used car that day, so Luka offers to bring her to the place where he bought the Saab; he knows the guy and he can get Carol a good deal. Luka asks if Carol wants to wait until his shift ends so that he can come with her, and Carol looks like she's about to say no, but Chuny tells her she should definitely bring a guy with her, and Lydia concurs, so Carol asks Luka, "You're sure you don't mind?" Luka says of course not, he just has to finish up a few cases and then they'll go. Carol thanks him. Luka smiles at her and takes off. Oh, brother. ["Hey, I'm buying a car this week! Shout-out?" -- Wing Chun]
In the hall, Abby confers with Elizabeth about Delia's test results; Delia's leukemia has returned. Abby wonders aloud why Delia never got a bone-marrow transplant. Elizabeth offers to talk to Delia's Dad, but Abby says she'll do it. Hey, Abby? We've all had plenty of time to admire the nifty little shingles your hairdresser cut into your flowing tresses. Now put. The tresses. Up. Abby heads for Delia's room with her Walk Of Great Meddling Purposefulness, booking past Mark, and as Abby leaves the frame, Elizabeth calls out to Mark and says she heard Holling had come in, and she asks, "What is it?" Mark says grimly, "Rhonchi [a coarse rattling sound in the bronchial tubes] and consolidation in his right lung. I'm going to go check on him now," and he sort of motions for Elizabeth to join him.
In Holling's room, Holling bitches to his roommate that he didn't want to "be here either," but Mark "has the last word in most things medical." His roommate, a middle-aged woman ["who frequently plays a chain-smoking judge on Law & Order -- Wing Chun], says she has the same problem; her son is first-year med student, and the only thing worse is a first-year law student like her daughter. Mark and Elizabeth come in, and Holling introduces Mark to his roommate, Sarah MacKenzie, adding that "we're kindred spirits in being hospital hostages." Mark politely asks after Sarah, and she says it's nothing serious; a cut on her shin got infected. Elizabeth greets Holling gently and goes to check on Sarah as Mark listens to Holling's chest again and gives Malik test and x-ray orders; meanwhile, Holling introduces Elizabeth to Sarah and fills Sarah in on Mark and Elizabeth's relationship. "Looks like you've got your hands full," Sarah says to Mark, and he says tersely, "Yes," and prepares a kit of some sort for Holling. Malik offers to do it, but Mark says he's got it; Elizabeth offers to help, and Malik says he can "do that too," and as medical personnel surround his bed, Holling quips, "Not bad -- two doctors, no waiting."
Peter and Jackie on the porch. Peter asks Jackie what she thinks of Cleo, and she says it doesn't matter what she thinks, and then she asks if Peter is serious about Cleo. Peter says it's a bit early for that, and Jackie says that's good, because Cleo isn't serious about him. Peter considers not taking the bait, but he buckles and asks what Jackie means, and Jackie tells him Cleo isn't ready to settle down. Peter says he isn't ready to settle down either. Jackie points out that he has a three-year-old child, so he's settled whether he thinks so or not, but Peter gets exasperated and says that Cleo's nice and they have fun together, but it isn't serious and he's not looking to get married. Jackie says she's glad to hear it, and if that's the case, then she likes Cleo fine. Peter asks a little too casually if Cleo said "something," and Jackie teases Peter that Cleo had to say something, because Jackie "asked a million questions." Peter shakes his head, and Jackie chuckles. ["And Sars and Wing Chun weep, because that's all the Jackie we're going to get in this episode. Boo!" -- Wing Chun]
A shot of a little kid, Edgar, lying glumly on his side as Luka tells Carter that Edgar's mom is an ICU nurse who's trying to find someone to fill in for her. Carter leafs through the chart and asks, "What are you thinking, meningitis?" In answer, Luka lists Edgar's symptoms: "Fever, vomiting, headache -- I need you to help me with the LP." Football helmet? Check. Carter asks if Edgar's lethargic, and Conni says that he's sleepy -- "we gave him Verced." Luka asks Carter to roll Edgar up "in a ball." Mouthpiece? Check. Carter positions himself over Edgar and holds him behind the head and legs and tells him not to worry, "everything's going to be juuuust fine." Shoulder-pads? Check. Shin-guards? Check. Carter looks terribly uncomfortable and closes his eyes as Luka says, "Okay, here we go. Steady," and he continues to narrate the procedure, but his voice fades into the background as we hear another audio flashback to the day of the stabbing: Sobriki screaming, Lucy sounding terrified and asking what to do, Carter urging her to keep going. But with all my protective equipment on, I hardly felt the skillet blows at all this time. The flashback goes on for nearly a minute. Carter looks away from the tap itself, clenching his jaw, and finally the audio overdub fades out on Luka telling Edgar that the medication will wear off in a minute "and you won't feel so sleepy, okay? Thanks, Carter." Carter doesn't hear him, and doesn't move. "Carter?" Luka prompts him. "Thanks." We can't really tell if Luka sees what's happening here or not, but Carter comes to and stammers, sure, no problem, and he looks like he has a bad taste in his mouth.
Abby asks Delia's Dad if anyone discussed a bone-marrow transplant with him the last time Delia had leukemia. DD says yes, but nobody matched; even he only matched three out of six points. Abby tells him Delia will need re-induction chemotherapy, and DD looks dismayed and makes oh-no-not-again noises. Abby tries to comfort him by saying that in two months, after Delia goes into remission again, they can try a transplant then. "Yeah, if they can find a donor," mutters DD. Abby asks, "There were no other possibilities in the family?" Not exactly, DD says. Abby repeats, "'Not exactly'?" DD explains that Delia has a half-sister from DD's first marriage, but the divorce was "pretty ugly," and the half-sister hasn't gotten tested for a match because DD's ex-wife isn't inclined to help. "Not even to save another child's life?" Abby asks in disbelief, but DD cuts her off and says they should just go ahead with the chemo and take it from there. Abby reluctantly says, "Sure," and tells him she'll check the national registry again to see if a match with an unrelated donor comes up. DD thanks her. Abby studies Delia and DD from the doorway, and I go up to my roof and look to the west, where I can see the rest of this storyline crossing the Mississippi and heading my way.
Front desk. Carol asks Luka if he's ready to go yet, and he says "almost" and briefs Kerry on outstanding patients, including Edgar, who doesn't have meningitis but whose lytes haven't come back yet. Edgar's mother had to go back to work, so Kerry says she'll check on Edgar and wishes Carol luck. Carol and Luka leave, and Kerry crutches over to Edgar's room and greets him, and Edgar snarls, "What's she got?" and asks why Kerry has "that stick," and as Kerry stops short and looks down at her cane, Edgar starts freaking out and shouting that he doesn't want Kerry to touch him and yelling "get her away from me!" over and over again, and Conni and Kerry try to calm him, but he squirms out of Conni's grasp and runs out of the room, and both women look puzzled. Conni gives chase, and Kerry calls after Conni to "get Malucci if you need help."
Cut to Mark in the hall, looking into Holling's room. Elizabeth comes down the stairs and asks about Holling, whom Mark describes as "making friends, as usual," and we see Holling still chatting away to Sarah in his room. Mark says that Holling has post-obstruction pneumonia, and Mark has given him an IV antibiotic. Elizabeth asks if Mark's going to keep Holling there, and Mark says yes, "for awhile," and grabs an empty box as Elizabeth says she'll stop in to say hello to Holling, and she asks if she can do anything to help. Mark says he's going to steal some supplies and she shouldn't tell anyone, and she says, "I love stealing -- let me help." Aw. Elizabeth helps Mark load up the box with various medical supplies, and as she hands a box needles and syringes over her shoulder, she looks back to see Mark fighting tears. Elizabeth says in consternation, "Mark," but Mark guts it out, talking about Holling's treatment as the tears come and go from his voice; Elizabeth regards him anxiously.
Fade back up from commercial on Carol and Luka on the El, dressed like twins in black pants and coats. Carol looks out the window, and Luka stands sort of behind her and a little too close, and it seems like she's deliberately facing away from him -- weird blocking there, but I guess the director wanted them both in the same frame. Anyway, Luka apologizes, saying they could have gotten to the dealership faster if he'd had his car, but "it's in the shop." Carol is alarmed by this revelation: "What?" Luka reassures her that it's just a routine check-up, really, and the dealership is a good place. More banter about his contact at the dealership, Herb, who is his second cousin's wife's brother-in-law or some damn thing, and Carol laughs at him, and Luka asks if she's excited, and Carol's like, "About buying a used car? No." She grouses that her mom wants her to buy a minivan, and Luka gives her shit about that, but consoles her by saying that they can have the dealer put a Porsche engine in it, and Carol says, "Really?" and Luka says in a giddy "uh duh" tone of voice, "No," and cracks himself up. Barely twenty minutes into the episode, Luka has smiled more times than he has in the entire season combined. It's Bizarro Luka. Seriously. Anyhow, Carol curls her lip and says sulkily that maybe bringing Luka along "wasn't such a good idea," like it's Luka's fault that she's so gullible, and she stares out the window again, and Luka keeps laughing at his own joke but tells her not to worry, they'll get her "something good."
Carter is treating an elderly woman with asthma and querying her husband as to her medications. It turns out that she took a heart medication that's contraindicated for asthmatics, but it's really her husband's high blood-pressure medication, not hers; her husband gave it to her because he has an HMO, but she just has Medicare, and Medicare won't cover the cost of the pills. Carter doesn't understand why the husband has an HMO but the wife doesn't, and the husband explains that he has heart trouble so he takes a lot of pills, but he gets them for free; his wife just has the asthma, and she wanted to keep her own doctor, but the HMO wouldn't let her. I would make a snarky comment here about the writers recycling an insurance-related subplot, but seriously, the American medical-insurance system is so tortuous and fucked up that the show really could have a different "how the HMO industry screws patients over while putting doctors in untenable positions" story in every single episode and never have to use the same one twice.
Anyway, over to Kerry and "Super" Dave Malucci, who reports that Edgar turned up in the cafeteria, eating tapioca. Evidently, Edgar hangs out there with his mom a lot. Kerry tells Dave the results of Edgar's tests and orders various meds. Dave asks, "Wait, you want me to take him?" and Kerry snaps, "I want you to spiff him up, Malucci!" Dave smirks, "Sure thing, Chief." Huh?
Oops -- Luka has brought them to Wrigley Field instead of to the car dealership. Carol snipes at him a little bit, and I'll let the 'tude slide this time, because she probably doesn't get time off from the twins all that often, and if she only has the one day to deal with buying the car, I don't blame her for getting annoyed that Luka took her to the wrong place. Still, she's at a baseball stadium, in the springtime, with a man hotter than a smithy forge. Where I come from, that's a day well spent. Anyway, she says she's hungry. Luka suggests the hot-dog stand in front of the stadium. She shrugs. Luka apologizes again. They jog across the street to get hot dogs. No comment.
Abby finds DD in the hall, getting Delia some water. She tells him she checked with the legal department, and there's no way to make DD's ex-wife bring Delia's half-sister in for a blood test. DD gets annoyed and says he didn't ask Abby to check into that. Abby says she just wanted to help, and she thinks DD should talk to the former Mrs. DD. DD says the former Mrs. DD won't help. Abby offers to try talking to her. DD says no; Abby offers again, and DD shouts, "I said no!" He stops at the door of Delia's room and tells Abby that he just wants to "be with [his] daughter," saying firmly, "Please don't make this harder than it already is." Abby looks down, seeming to acquiesce, but her face has a defiant set to it.
HMO Husband asks Carter if they really have to take his wife to the ICU. Carter explains that, until the contraindicated medication clears her system, HMO Wife needs to stay on a continuous breathing treatment for twenty-four hours. HMO Wife removes the medicated-mist tube from her mouth to apologize for making "such a fuss." Yosh reassures her that the ICU will take good care of her, and she says that they did last time after her operation. Carter asks about her operation, but she can't remember the name of the procedure -- she only knows they "took something out of" my stomach. HMO Husband asks if that would make a difference now, and Carter says he'll check the old chart. The HMOs get into the elevator, and Carter tells Randi as she buzzes past that he's going to Medical Records.
Luka and Carol at Wrigley, eating hot dogs. No comment. Carol attempts to explain the infield-fly rule to Luka, who correctly guesses that she's talking out of her ass (in all fairness, I had to look it up myself), at which point Carol jokes, "Can we go now?" and reminds him that she still doesn't have a car. As they walk up the steps to the exit, Luka says that his first mode of transportation "was a tractor," a confidence which Carol greets by snorting; Luka says that when he was eleven or twelve, his grandfather, a farmer, let him drive the tractor until he mowed down a couple of fences and one of his grandfather's cows. Carol asks if Luka's father was a farmer too; no, Luka's father was a train conductor. More quaint "PBS Presents: A Croatian Childhood"-type reminiscences -- L'il Luka riding on his father's lap, L'il Luka and his brother raising hell in the train cars, blah dee blah. Carol asks if Luka spent a lot of time with his father. Luka says he did, and asks the same of Carol, and she tells him that her dad died when she was little and she never really knew him, and Luka says, "I'm sorry," and Carol says, "Yeah, so am I." They pause at the top of the seating section, and Luka says, "It must make you think about Kate and Tess -- about their knowing their father." We don't know how much Carol has told Luka about The Doug Situation, but this comment seems kind of intrusive. Carol looks away and tucks her hair behind her ear: "Yeah, I guess." Then she looks back at him: "But you would know what they're missing more than I do." We've seen some spirited debate on the forums as to what Carol means by this, but for the record, I think she means that Luka knew his father and she didn't know hers, so Luka would know what the twins are missing and she wouldn't so much; I don't think she's referring to Luka's children here. Anyway, after regarding him for a moment, Carol brings him back on task: "Are we going to buy a car, or are we going to buy a car?" Luka gives her a big dramatic eye-roll and says, "We are going to buy a car."
In Medical Records, a donut-eating tech says he can't find the file on Ruth Pooler, a.k.a. HMO Wife; it's probably in remote storage, but he can get it in about an hour. Carter nods. The tech goes on to say that he did pull the other file Carter wanted, "Paul Sobriki, Psych file?" Carter mutters, "That's the one," and signs for it. He takes it over to a desk and sits down, takes a deep breath, and opens it, but before he reads very far, he's hailed by Dr. De Raad. De Raad asks if Carter's "getting back into work okay," and Carter says he has good days and bad days, but "today hasn't been . . . I . . ." he trails off. De Raad nods knowingly and says Carter should "come on up, we'll talk." Carter protests that he's okay. "I know," De Raad says gently, "but I have time. Say -- three o'clock?" Carter says okay. De Raad leaves. Carter frowns.
Holling and Sarah talk about Holling's and Sarah's husband's tours in Vietnam. Mark comes in and asks what's going on, and Holling says he and Sarah "are talking." Mark nags Holling to keep the pulse-ox tag on his finger. Holling tells Mark that Sarah's husband is an old Navy guy too, and Sarah grouses that her husband still thinks he's in the Navy; he's out on the lake now, "running around in his old powerboat, says it keeps him sane." As Sarah asks Mark about her IV and he adjusts it for her, Holling says with a faraway look in his eye that he knows what Mr. Sarah means: "I loved being out on the water." He says that sometimes, storms come up in the night and rock the boat "like you wouldn't believe," but it puts you to sleep like a little baby. Mark sits down beside Holling's bed, and Sarah nods; Holling continues that he'd wake up in the morning and go out to the bow to see the water clear and quiet. "Calmest place on earth, I used to think," he murmurs, "like the storm . . . never even happened." As he gives his speech, his face almost imperceptibly changes from nostalgia to sadness, and when he finishes, the camera cuts away to Mark, staring at his father as if to memorize his face. A little heavy-handed, writing-wise, but well done by both actors.
Um, James Brown? The Godfather of Soul should not do Sonicnet.com ads. Please get a life. Thanks.
Oh, crikey -- fade up on Abby outside a suburban home. The chirping of birds accompanies her as she clomps up the front steps and knocks on the door. A teenage girl answers the door literally two seconds later. "Hi, Jessamyn?" Abby asks. "Yes," Jessamyn says expectantly. "Jessamyn -- Chadsey," Abby confirms. Jessamyn says yes again. Jessamyn's mother appears behind her and asks what's the what, and Abby asks, "Mrs. -- Lomax?" and introduces herself, and Mrs. Lomax asks if something's wrong, if something happened "to Terry," and Abby gets herself invited in and explains that she's treating DD's daughter. Mrs. L demands, "Did he send you here?" Abby hastily says that he didn't, and asks if Mrs. L knows that Delia has leukemia. Mrs. L orders Abby to get out and tells Jessamyn to go upstairs, but Jessamyn wants to stay, and Abby pleads, "Mrs. Lomax, she's a child," and explains that Delia needs a bone-marrow match, but Mrs. L tells her again to leave. Abby says that if Jessamyn matches, Delia will have a much better chance of survival, and she asks Mrs. L to "at least let us try," but Mrs. L says in so many words that she doesn't care about her ex-husband "or anything to do with him, can you understand that?" Jessamyn tells her mother to calm down, but Mrs. L blows her daughter off and opens the front door, saying to Abby, "Now, please. Leave." Abby gives it one more go, but Mrs. L threatens to call the cops.
At the used-car lot, Luka is dorking out in a big way, reading out the information from the stickers in a booming Crazy-Eddie-of-the-Balkans voice. Carol can't help smiling -- when a cute boy makes a fool out of himself trying to impress you, it's hard not to -- and says to him, "You're really enjoying this, aren't you?" Luka keeps goofing off. Carol busts on him for thinking she'd buy a Dodge Dynasty. (Good point; I've never even heard of that model before.) Luka refuses to ease up on the spazz throttle, and winds up yanking the antenna clean off of a Mercury Sable as a result. Carol guffaws.
This anti-hilarious episode of Kooky Kroatian Komedy Hour is interrupted by even more non-merriment, this time in the form of Edgar, who hides behind an equipment cart and peers out fearfully at Kerry. Kerry, examining an x-ray, spots him. Cue Music Of Overly Mannered Wackiness as Kerry pretends not to see Edgar, then hails Malucci and alerts him to Edgar's whereabouts. Malucci goes to collect Edgar. Whatever.
In a trauma room, an old woman lies on a gurney with an oxygen mask on, and her middle-aged son strokes her hair; the son's daughter stands beside him. Jing-Mei "Check, Please" Chen explains to them that "we're treating her with antibiotics, but the oxygen level is low," adding less-than-diplomatically that "pneumonia can be a peaceful way for an elderly person to die." Affronted, the son snaps, "We don't want her to die!" but Chen bulldozes ahead, saying that "as the oxygen level drops, she'll simply fall asleep, and eventually stop breathing. There's no pain or suffering." The granddaughter asks if they can't just put her "on a breathing machine or something," and Chen says soothingly that sometimes it's best to "let nature take its course," but the son says angrily that when he saw his mother last month, "she was sitting up in a chair, eating." Chen points out that, according to the woman's nursing home, she stopped eating some time ago; now she's fed through a tube that leads directly into her stomach. "We can't just let Grandma die," the granddaughter whines, and the son says they won't; Chen starts to offer them some time, but the son says peremptorily that they "don't need time -- we need somebody who's willing to help us, and obviously that's not you!" Chen excuses herself and leaves the room. In the hall, she sees Abby, and asks her if she's seen Dr. Weaver; Abby hasn't. The camera picks Abby up and follows her to the window of Delia's room; she looks in on Delia and DD and heaves a frustrated sigh.
Upstairs, Carter tells De Raad, "Well, I keep having these thoughts -- it's like I, uh, I see moments of the accident, or something that reminds me --" De Raad interrupts him: "The 'accident'? I'd say it was more of an attack, a brutal attack, for which you had no warning." "Riiight," Carter says, unconvinced, and leans forward: "Well, that's the thing. See, I assisted on the spinal tap of Paul Sobriki, and -- he was aggressive, and he was overreacting. And he'd had Ativan, and I'd numbed him with lidocaine, but his response was as if -- we were stabbing him." De Raad nods that, in Sobriki's mental state, he believed Carter and Lucy really were stabbing him. Carter thinks for a moment before shaking his head: "I -- should have realized that something was very wrong." De Raad shrugs, "So should have Lucy, but she didn't pick up on it either, did she?" Carter just looks at De Raad. For the record, Lucy did pick up on it, and she told Carter about her suspicion that Sobriki was schizophrenic, but Carter told her to get back to her other patients. De Raad says that there'll always be what-ifs, like what if he himself had arrived sooner for the Psych consult, and that it would easier for all of them if they could think of it as an accident, "but none of us have that luxury." Carter says he knows; he just wants the thoughts to go away. De Raad says that will take some time. Carter is silent again, then asks De Raad, "Have you seen him?" "Paul Sobriki?" De Raad asks, sounding surprised by the question. Carter says, "Yeah, I was just -- wondering if you'd seen him, or his wife." De Raad says matter-of-factly that he hasn't, and asks Carter if he's curious about what's happening with Sobriki. Carter says, "No, no, I just --" and starts to pad the lie, but he gets beeped by the ER and says he has to go, and he thanks DeRaad, who says, "Any time. Come back," and watches Carter leave with a doubtful look on his face.
At the used-car lot, a guy named Manny smarms all over Carol and Luka, congratulating Carol on the purchase of a beige station wagon and urging her to come back, although she won't need to because they can drive the car for ten years, blah blah blah lemoncakes. Carol groans that she hopes she's not driving the same car in ten years. Luka opens the driver's side door for her and chides her, "It's a beauty, come on." "Luka, it's a small station wagon," she says flatly, "but I thank you for your help." Oh, all right -- heh. She settles into the front seat, and Luka leans down to the window and asks, "Shall we celebrate?" Carol starts to make a "whatever" face again, but relents and smiles instead, and Luka happily thumps the door and walks around to the passenger side.
In Holling's room, Holling accuses Mark of stealing supplies. Mark says he's not stealing, he's borrowing. "I think he's stealing," Holling says to Sarah in a voice of mock astonishment. Just then, Chen comes in and tells Mark she needs his help "with this family." Mark reminds her that he's not on that day; Chen says she knows, but she can't find Kerry. Mark tells Holling he'll be right back and follows Chen.
Carter meets Elizabeth coming off the elevator with Mr. Pooler, a.k.a. HMO Husband. Apparently, he had an attack of syncope in the ICU, and he fell and hit his head. Elizabeth orders tests and films and says that Mr. Pooler has a scalp laceration, but it's not serious; Lily hands Carter a chart from upstairs, which indicates that Mr. Pooler isn't having a heart attack.
door, Mark explains to the old woman's family that she can't eat and "she has no quality of life." He tells them that, if they intubate her, she'll go up to the ICU and get hooked up to "tubes, wires, and machines," and she'll die in two or three weeks. If they don't interfere, she'll die that day or the , "but peacefully." I strap on my football helmet again as Mark says pointedly, "You need to think carefully about what she would want." I sit rigidly on the couch as the footsteps of Emotionally Parallel Plot grow ever closer. Mark: "Mr. Hemmings, your mother is letting go." Clunk. The granddaughter begins to cry as Mr. Hemmings says, "You think that's what we should do." Clunk. Mark: "I think you should spend some more time with her." CLUNK. Sparks fly as skillet meets helmet; Mark leads Chen out of the room, and Chen thanks him. As he says, "Sure," Mark turns to look at the Hemmingses.
Carter leaves the trauma room, thanking Elizabeth for her help; on the way out, Elizabeth runs into Mark and asks how it's going, and he says he's going to "pack up the old man and take him for a spin." Elizabeth nods her approval.
Abby goes over test results with Kerry, only to look up and see that Jessamyn has just walked into the ER. "Oh -- boy," Abby sighs. "What?" Kerry wants to know. "Do you remember that leukemia case I mentioned?" Abby mutters quickly before greeting Jessamyn in a normal tone of voice and introducing her to Kerry. Jessamyn asks if her father and half-sister are still there, and Abby says yes, "they're waiting for a bed upstairs," and Jessamyn says she wants "to do this -- I want to help out if I can, so what do I have to do?" Abby starts to stutter out an answer, but Kerry jumps in to ask if Mrs. L drove Jessamyn to the hospital; no, Jessamyn drove herself. Abby asks if Mrs. L knows Jessamyn's there, and Jessamyn says she's old enough to decide on her own: "My mom is a good person, but when it comes to this subject, there is -- no talking to her." Kerry asks regretfully, "So she hasn't given consent?" After a pause, Jessamyn says that she "wants this" and so does her father, "that has to count for something." Kerry says gently that it does, "it counts for a lot," but it's Jessamyn's mother's decision. Abby's mouth hangs open in consternation; Jessamyn protests that Abby said she didn't understand "how something like this could happen with a life at stake," and Jessamyn doesn't either. Kerry just says, "I'm so sorry," tells Abby to let her know "when those labs are back," and crutches away. Abby suggests going to see Jessamyn's father, but Jessamyn doesn't want to see him, and when Abby says that it would mean a lot to him to know that Jessamyn wanted to do this, Jessamyn says, "I don't care what he thinks. I'm only trying to help Delia."
At the waterfront, Carol and Luka eat hamburgers and French fries, and Carol says she hasn't gone to a drive-through in a long time; Luka says it would have been a shame to leave the car alone "on its first day," and Carol says she agrees. Luka says he often used to come out to the lakefront when he first came to Chicago, to look at the city: "It's so beautiful." Carol asks if he grew up in a city, and he says no, near the coast. Carol sips her drink and pauses before hazarding a question: "Is that where you were during the war?" Luka looks down, then back at Carol and says, "No," and as she takes a bite of her hamburger, he goes on, "Then, we were in Vukovar. Small apartment; we didn't have much money." He bites his lip. "We . . . kept the children in all the time for safety." Cut to a shot of Carol freezing mid-bite when she realizes what he's about to tell her. Back to Luka: "They would get crazy, what do you call it --" "Cabin fever," Carol says. Luka nods, smiles a tiny pained smile, opens his mouth, closes it, starts again: "I was going to the market, not for much, some cheese and bread." Another shot of Carol bracing herself. Luka: "And -- they were climbing all over me, 'please, let me come, let me come' -- and the answer was, the same as always, 'no, it's not safe.'" Luka tightens his jaw: "And my wife stayed with them --" Carol tries to give him an out, to let him stop: "Luka --" "No, it's okay," and he swipes at the bridge of his nose, presumably at a tear, as Carol turns partly away from him and looks ill. "I was only maybe, uh -- fifty meters away when I heard the whistle in the air." Carol turns back towards Luka as he finishes, "An artillery shell hit the building." Carol closes her eyes, then looks out at the skyline and whispers something to herself that we can't hear. Luka looks down at the ground, his face working, but reins it in after a second and says bravely, "It's all redone now. People rebuilt all during the war. One day you're sitting at the café, the day it's bombed, and the day after that they, they begin to build." He smiles a fake smile to make Carol feel better, but Carol clearly doesn't buy it, and she studies him silently as he says, "That's what you do. Something happens, you rebuild, you go on," and do you think Carol will absorb this sentiment and apply it to her own life? Because I can't decide, and the hail of baseball-bat blows to the head is making it hard for me to concentrate. Carol continues to eye him; Luka stares at the ground some more, then remarks that they should probably go, laughing, "Your mother will think you've gone joy-riding." Oy, no comment. Carol smiles sadly and looks out at the lake some more.
Exactly how many bong hits did Natalie Portman take before deciding that Where The Crap Is had a good script -- twenty? thirty? I'd like to know.
Oh, god. Music Of Overly Mannered Wackiness. Edgar peeking. Kerry staring at him and asking Randi for Dave's whereabouts. Randi saying she last saw Dave in exam one. Kerry peering into the room where she last saw Edgar, then heading for exam one and finding -- uh oh! Abby, drawing blood from Jessamyn. Dude, has Abby gotten through even one episode without openly defying an order or breaking a rule? How has she not gotten cited by now? It took Doug Ross five seasons to get into this much trouble -- boot this chick, stat! Anyway, Kerry asks to see Abby for a moment; out in the hall, Kerry says she doesn't want to hear Abby's reasons or justifications, and asks if Abby knows Kerry could fail her for what she's doing. "Yes," Abby says defiantly. "What the hell were you thinking?" Kerry squeaks. Abby trots out the "trying to help" argument for the umpteenth time. Kerry tells her, "What that girl did coming here was brave -- what you've done is stupid," and goes on to say that Delia will have to go through two months of chemo before the transplant anyway, and didn't Abby think Mrs. L would find out by then? Abby says Jessamyn "just wanted to take the first step," but Kerry reminds her that "it's our sometimes lousy job to say no" and that the emergency department has rules, "is that clear?" "Yes," Abby says in the same petulant tone of voice. Kerry tells her to make sure Jessamyn is "okay to drive home," and she starts to crutch away, but Abby stops her and says, looking down poutily, that "I don't think trying to help is ever stupid." Oh, please, Abby -- what are you, six years old? Learn to identify shades of grey. Abby snits off and goes to apologize to Jessamyn, who hopes she didn't get Abby into too much trouble. "I'll live," Abby says before trying once more to convince Jessamyn to talk to her father. Jessamyn says no, she's "gonna leave." "I really wish you wouldn't," Abby says with a Dawson Leery-esque arm-flap. Abby, for Chrissake -- BUTT OUT.
Carter approaches Kerry with a "problem with an HMO." The insurance carrier wants to transfer Mr. Pooler, but Carter doesn't think they should do it. He gives Kerry the bullet, but Kerry says that Mr. Pooler's insurance company prefers their patients to go to New Western, and she doesn't see any medical reason to keep Mr. Pooler at County. Carter argues that he should stay near his wife, but Kerry doesn't want to hear it, saying several times, "They won't authorize it, John." Carter comes up with various reasons not to move Mr. Pooler; Kerry counters them all. Carter lies that he's leaving soon and might not have time to oversee the transfer; Kerry takes the chart and says she'll do it. Carter looks defeated. Why do we care, again?
In the car, Carol drives while Luka tells a story about renting livestock to a Swedish movie that filmed near their farm, and Carol laughs, and Luka says they made a lot of money but it made "a huge mess." Just then, the car starts horking, and Carol makes panic face as the engine craps out and asks what's happening, and Luka thunders, "I don't believe this, I'm going to kill Herb." Carol points out acidly that they didn't even meet Herb that day, and Luka opens his door and grouses that the same thing happened to his car, but Herb told him "it was a fluke," and Carol practically shouts, "You're telling me this now?" Again, the woman's got a point. "It's okay, I'll fix it," Luka says, and he hops out and raises the hood and gives Carol a little thumbs-up through the windshield, and she rolls her eyes, but she's smiling.
At the lakefront, Holling in his wheelchair says, "So you brought me to the water. Good boy," and he pats Mark's arm, and then he comments, "It's funny, Mark -- you know how some years seem to pass faster than others?" Mark nods, and Holling says, "Well, this year has been the fastest. I was thinking how strange things can be," and Mark nods to this too. Holling says that, in all the wars he served in, he never watched a man die: "On some ships, you get lucky." But, he says, he must have told Mark about the explosion at the base motor pool. "When you were stationed in Guam?" Mark says. Holling nods, and Mark says he was little, and he remembers Holling calling and telling Ruth about it over the phone. "We lost seven men," Holling says. He tells a story about standing in the P/X looking for shaving cream or something and hearing the explosion, and he started to go help along with a guy in the aisle, but then he heard a crash and all these bottles went tumbling to the ground, and "this poor son-of-a-bitch is collapsing on the floor -- had a heart attack." Mark asks what Holling did. Holling screamed for help, but nobody came; they'd all gone over to the motor pool. "I got down, loosened his tie and unbuttoned his collar . . . he grabbed onto my hand, begged me not to leave him. So I stayed. And I pulled him into my arms and I held him. Just the two of us. For the four minutes I watched him die. The longest four minutes of my life." Mark folds his lips and looks pensive as Holling goes on, "But in a crazy way, four of the best minutes of my life." He shoots Mark a look: "There was some kind of value in just being there." Mark keeps staring at his father. "Thank you, Mark," Holling says, then loses his nerve a little and says, "for bringing me out to the water." "You're welcome, Dad," Mark says with false heartiness. Okay, remember the kidney-transplant candidate from a few episodes ago -- the woman whose reactions didn't have anything to do with, well, anything? Well, I think Anthony Edwards took a page from that woman's book in this scene, because he did a good job during the rest of the episode, but he just gave us nothing here. Just then, Mark spots a guy named Sam and introduces him to Holling. Sam is Sarah MacKenzie's husband. "What the hell?" Holling wants to know, shaking Sam's hand.
Mr. Pooler goes out to a transport ambulance on a gurney, telling Kerry that he knows how hard Carter tried to let him stay at County, and he really appreciates it. Kerry says that it's difficult with the HMOs, blah dee blah, and Mr. P asks her to send a message to his wife in the ICU that he'll call when he gets settled. Kerry tells him he can't call the ICU directly, he'll have to ask about his wife's condition at the desk. Mr. P thanks Kerry again for everything; as they load him into the ambulance, her face falls and she looks distressed. Again, I have to ask -- what exactly happened here?
Cut to Carter, walking outside with Mrs. Sobriki and asking, "How's Paul doing?" She says he's at Chester, which she guesses is "the main place for Illinois," although she doesn't say whether it's a jail or a psychiatric facility; she adds that they've put him on medication. She asks somewhat irritably what Carter wanted to talk about, and Carter gestures with his coffee cup and saying he keeps thinking about what happened; Mrs. S says, "You're not the only one," and says that at times, the voices in her head seem as loud as the voices Paul hears. "I lived with him, I slept with him, I'm about to bear his child -- how could I not see it?" she asks. "I dunno," Carter says, and they walk out of the shot.
Shot of the front end of the Carolmobile. Over the sound of the engine totally failing to catch, we hear Luka yell through gritted teeth, "Keep! Trying!" The camera pans back to Carol shouting, "I am trying, it's not starting," and turning to look behind her at Luka pushing the car. "Keep trying, it'll start!" Luka yells, still pushing. "'Keep trying, it'll start,'" Carol mimics, making a little face and turning the ignition some more. Finally, they give up. Carol storms out of the car and kicks it. "It's been an otherwise really nice day," Luka says. For a split-second, Carol looks like she might punch Mr. Bright Side in the stomach, but instead she slumps against the car and they both start laughing.
Cue Simon & Garfunkel singing "Bookends." I dislike the use of this song in movies and TV; it's too easy. Still, we see Mark and Holling on the top deck of Sam MacKenzie's little yacht, with their breeze in their -- well, in Holling's hair, and Mark has his arm around Holling as he leans on the railing, and Holling smiles and closes his eyes, and as the camera panned back to show the Chicago skyline, I misted up. Aw. We'll miss you, Holling.
Mrs. Lomax storms up to the front desk. "Thank you for calling," she says to a scared-looking Abby, in a tone that seems to say that at least Abby admitted to screwing up. "Where are they?" Mrs. L wants to know. Abby thinks DD went up to the cafeteria, but she can take Mrs. L to Jessamyn. She has the grace to look sheepish as she gathers up some files and starts to lead the way. They walk past Kerry, who looks surprised but doesn't say anything, and up to the door of Delia's room, where through the window they see Jessamyn and Delia laughing together. Instead of leaving well enough alone, Abby says in a huffy tone of voice, "Everybody wants this, Mrs. Lomax." They exchange a look. Then Abby looks at Kerry, who looks back at her and smiles a little and takes the x-ray she's looking at down from the light board. Abby looks down. I guess we assume that Mrs. L gives in and okays the procedure, but the plot ends here, at least for this episode.
Kerry starts to crutch away, then sees Edgar and stops. They wave at each other; Edgar gives her a mischievous grin. Kerry crutches off. The hell?
It's nighttime now, and Luka and Carol sit on the hood of her car, waiting for a tow truck. We enter mid-convo as Luka asks, "A lemonade stand?" and Carol describes how she and her friends would set up a card table at the curb with a sign that said "ten cents a glass." Damn, that's bargain lemonade -- my best friend and I charged at least thirty cents. Anyway, Luka smiles, and Carol says, "Of course, it wasn't as lucrative as the chicken-and-cow trade. If we made a dollar fifty we were riding high." Luka points out that a lemonade stand is "less clean-up" than the chicken-and-cow trade. "True," Carol says; Luka watches her intently, and she smiles and says she looks forward to that "for Kate and Tess, you know, when that's the most important thing in their world, when all they think about is did they put in enough sugar, and when the car is driving by." During the first part of this, Carol looks out into the middle distance, but towards the end, she starts to gaze at Luka, and she gets that cross-eyed flirty look on her face. Luka whispers, "Yeah," and looks down, and then he looks back at her to find that she's still giving him The Look. She breaks the tension momentarily: "I expected the tow truck to be here by now." Luka says softly, "But then, nothing has gone as expected today." He starts to laugh, but Carol's got him in the tractor beam; she gives him that short-focus look from the eyes to the lips and back to the eyes, and she leans in and kisses him lightly, and then she turns to the camera and says, "Hey, Sars? Boom! I got your boyfriend!" Okay, she didn't do that. Actually, Luka lifts his hand to her face and they start kissing in earnest, and we fade out on them smooching. I dreaded that, but it wasn't so bad, really.
week: Dr. Dave gets a storyline, finally, and Carol gets a message "from an old friend." Gee -- who could they possibly mean?