Props to the bottlers of Coca-Cola Classic, for making this recap possible. Mmm. Enjoy Coke! Props, also, to Sars, since she and I have had to endure a really scrapy couple of weeks lately.
Previously on ER: Mark proposed to Elizabeth. Carla and Benton fought. Romano offered Benton a per-diem position. Luka beat a man to death. Lisa tried to comfort him, but he dissed her.
Mark "Many Are Bald, But Few Chosen" Greene is on the phone telling someone he's short-staffed. If I were him, I wouldn't advertise that. The ladies don't want no itty-bitty, teeny-weeny, shriveled little short-staffed man. Anyway, he adds that he can't go on a transport. Glancing at the transparent lucite board, he asks Conni to boot someone out of a curtain area; Conni tells him the woman's waiting for her daughter, and Mark snits, "That's what chairs are for." Randi walks over with a huge stack of files and whines, "They need you at the MICN!" Mark tells whoever's on the other end of the phone to try Mercy Air again. Chuny, on another phone, interrupts him to say that paramedics have gone out on a call to a man with chest pains who refuses to get in the ambulance; Mark tells her to make sure the recalcitrant patient understands the risks, and that he signs something to the effect that he's going against medical advice. Chuny tells Mark the guy won't sign the form. Mark asks the phone, "What are his vitals?" Peter "Gloated, and Demoted" Benton wanders over to tell Mark, in an accusatory tone, "You gave my patient cefoxitin?" The guy had a hot appendix, blah blah antibiotics, blah blah some other drug's a better drug, blah blah blah. Mark tells Benton he doesn't have time to debate the issue; Benton snarks something about Mark's lack of time management skills' not being Benton's problem, and leaves. Mark asks Abby "Lisa" Lockhart, "Did you get through?" Lisa says there's "no answer at his hotel room," but that she stat-paged him; now, I may not be a smart man, but I think they might be talking about Luka. He tells her to try Luka's cell phone, and asks the phone in his hand something about lasix. Chuny bugs him about the AMA chest-pain dude, and Mark tells her to get the guy on the radio and try to convince him. To the phone, Mark asks about a nitro drip...god, this is so tedious, considering that we all saw the preview (well, you all in the U.S. did; I got a stupid CTV preview all about Benton. Honestly, the way CTV flogs Benton as the focal point of this show, you would think Eriq LaSalle is Canadian) and know that Mark ends up going on this transfer and that "a hero will fall." BUT ANYWAY. Robert "Rocket" Romano comes in and tells Mark to "buff up a recurrent bowel obstruction" he has coming in. "What are we, Jiffy Lube?" Mark scoffs. Shut up, Mark. "Dr." Dave Malucci tells no one in particular that he needs a sugar tong splint (one of my favourite Japanese girl bands, by the way) and asks Randi whether Luka's "still MIA"; she confirms that he is. "Kovac missed his shift?" Romano repeats, and Lisa breezily chirps, "I'm sure he's on his way!" Romano asks where Weaver is, and Mark yells that it's her day off; Randi explains that Weaver's "at a chrysanthemum show." A chrysanthemum show? Oh, now, really, that is so gay. That's an activity that's totally out of character for Weaver to participate in. I just don't buy it. Romano scans the big board and snorts, "The one day I need her, she's playing Martha Stewart." Mark finally tells Romano that he has to go on a helicopter transport -- what?! He does? Well, I just had no idea. Except that I did -- and that Romano will have to call in backup. Lisa jumps in to say, "Why don't you wait 'til 8:30? He's never late." They went on one date and she's saying what Luka "never" does? That seems awfully presumptuous. Or, alternatively, kind of cute, since it suggests that she'd been informally stalking him around the hospital for a while before asking him out.
Romano spots Benton accompanying the appendectomy patient in the general direction of Surgery. Romano cheerfully announces that he'll take it -- stepping out from behind the desk and directly into the path of the bed -- and tells Benton to stay in the ER. Benton assumes that there's a trauma coming in, but Romano explains that Benton's going to cover the whole ER for Mark. Benton spits, "What?!" Romano hands him three charts to get him started: "Diarrhea, ear pain, and weak and dizzy all over." Which, incidentally, describes exactly my symptoms whenever Mark and Elizabeth make out...or worse...I don't like to think about it. Benton starts to argue that seeing to such ailments isn't within his purview as a surgeon, but Romano tells him, "'Per diem' means 'per my discretion.'" Doesn't it mean "per day"? Like, Benton is basically a temp at the hospital and has to do whatever tasks are at hand on any given day he's called in to work? ["I have serious problems believing that 1) the hospital's legal department would allow such an arrangement, or that 2) the hospital could get insured for it. This entire storyline is now so fantastic, in the original sense of that word, as to belong on Popular." -- Sars] Anyway, Romano takes off, and Benton scowls after him. Mark hangs up the phone and puts on a bomber jacket that must remind Anthony Edwards of the "Goose" era -- probably the last time he was allowed within a hundred feet of Meg Ryan. Benton pouts that he hasn't done primary care since he was in med school, and Mark -- clearly anxious to leave on the fun, exciting assignment -- cheerfully assures him that he'll only have to cover until Luka arrives. At the elevator, Benton asks Mark how long his flight is, and Mark says he doesn't know. Benton asks where Mark's going...
...and then we're on the roof, where Mark is telling Elizabeth "Bride-a-Wee" Corday he's going to Grass Creek, Indiana. They're both screaming at each other over the noise of the helicopter. She tells him that the wedding co-ordinator's coming at noon, and Mark says he knows. She starts snitting at him in advance, assuming that he'll be late (presumably since she saw the previews last week, too), and he tells her to talk to the wedding planner herself, since he doesn't give a shit. Well, he doesn't say the last part, but it's implied. Elizabeth starts going all Monica Geller, squinting and flapping her hands and yelling, "I don't want to handle it! I want you to share in what kind of invitations, menus, flowers --" "I know! I'm stuck! I'm sorry!" he yells back, though not angrily, but because it's loud. She tells him to try to get back quickly -- because otherwise he'd be dawdling in the helicopter with the heart patient, asking the pilot to see how close they can get to the Sears Tower or begging to stop for lunch at that place where Ferris Bueller pretended to be Abe Froman -- and they kiss. Uch. They look like brother and sister. This is seriously the least chemistry between two TV characters since Ellen was supposedly madly in love with William Ragsdale on her sitcom. Elizabeth bellows after Mark, "Have a safe flight!" He doesn't hear her, and she doesn't repeat it. Kiss of death, right there, folks. She might as well be Luka, waving Mark off while engraving the date on his tombstone. She waves at the helicopter, which takes about ten minutes to take off, leaving Elizabeth on the roof, getting smaller and smaller, and...zzzzzz. Cut. CUT. God.
After the credits, Benton is at the desk with Cleo "Blank DuBois" Finch. He says he's got the earache, and she testily tells him, "That's a pedes case." Benton grunts that Romano has him seeing everything today. "And that's a complete waste of your brilliance," Finch sniffs sarcastically. Or condescendingly. It's sometimes hard to tell under the best of circumstances, and it's even tougher considering it's her delivering the lines in her usual bitchy monotone. Benton says that he's apologized, and that if she can't accept his apology, they should at least call a truce so that they can work together. She bares her teeth, and...oh, I'm sorry -- that's supposed to be a bitter smile -- and tells him that he's "amazing": "First you dump me, then you expect me --" He dumped her? Hell, yeah! One chemistry-free couple of convenience down, one to go! Benton protests that he didn't dump her, and she snips, "Then what do you call it? You were going to move to Philadelphia without saying a word to me." Finch, I'm sure he was planning to reformat your hard drive before he left so that you wouldn't even remember that you'd ever dated. Benton mutters, "But I didn't, did I? I stayed here, and I took this damn per-diem job." Finch pouts, "And I'm supposed to believe you did that for me?" Benton stares at her, and she snaps, "That's what I thought." They both walk into an exam room; the earache patient is a little boy who's understandably reticent about having foreign objects stuck in his ear; Benton flounders a bit, at a loss as to how to examine him (particularly after the kid boots him in the ass -- heh), until Finch rescues him by instructing the boy's mother to hold him tightly, and offering the kid a sticker if he behaves. Benton is not at all sorry to let her take over, and takes off as quickly as he can.
In Grass Creek, Indiana, Mark meets the heart patient he's supposed to transport -- Tom Coggins. You can tell Tom is brave because he jokes about missing the scenery during his first helicopter ride. His blood pressure is low, and he informs Mark, "It's always that low; there's not much heart muscle." Tom asks his local doctor to "keep trying Janet," and Dr. Local assures him that he will. Tom tells Mark -- who, by the way, didn't ask -- "That's my fiancée. She's flying in from Montreal today." Mark is like, "Whatever. Tell me if you start to feel sick," and Tom's like, "Nice bedside mannerr, Anthony Michael Bald. Anyway, I'm okay as long as I lie still." Seeing that Mark doesn't give a shit, Tom asks Dr. Local, "Bright side is I get bumped up on the transplant list, right?" Mark asks the pilot, Gordon (dude, the director of the tiny program I majored in at university was named Gordon Coggins. He also taught me Sixteenth-Century Literature, a course in which we spent most of the year studying The Faerie Queene -- and now, here both those names come up in a scene centred on a guy that should, based on his later performance on the job, should be working at a DAIRY QUEEN? COINCIDENCE?), how they are on oxygen; apparently, they're fine, and they hoist Tom into the helicopter.
Back at County, Benton works on a trauma, assisted by Dr. Dave and Haleh. Apparently they need the bypass team. Dr. Dave removes a big gauze pad from the patient's chest to reveal a pencil sticking straight out. Ow. Ow. And with every breath the guy takes, it's waving back and forth! OW! Dr. Dave dorks, "Somebody stabbed him?" and Doris deadpans, "No, he tripped near a pencil sharpener." The woman who apparently accompanied him adds, "Mr. Zuckerman, our office manager, wanted to pull it out, but I wouldn't let him!" Yes, yes, purple heart of valour in the face of office-supply-related mayhem for you, get out. Mr. Pencil has decreased breath sounds on the left, and Benton calls for someone to set him up for a chest tube...blah blah blah, this scene has no purpose except for Benton to get ready to cut, only to have Romano swoop in and remind him that he can't. So...then that happens. And Benton is sad. Then he goes out in the hall, where a patient vomits on him. And he's sadder. Along comes John "Martyr" Carter, cracking up that he'd heard Benton was an ER attending that day, but didn't believe it. Benton's in no mood, and asks Carter to get him some gloves. Benton asks Carter whether he wants the puker; not surprisingly, Carter takes a pass.
Carter, it seems, has his own patient -- a kid named Trent. The actor who plays him, Blake Heron, was also in the HBO original movie Cheaters, which was set in Chicago but filmed in Toronto. Coincidence? Many of the actors in it were represented by the agency for which the girlfriend of The Man from F.U.N.K.L.E. works. COINCIDENCE? Anyway, Trent was carving a duck in Art class when he cut his hand, and needs stitches. Trent asks Carter how many stitches he'll need, and Carter asks, "How many d'you want?" Trent asks for "enough to get [him] out of Art class." Chuny sticks her head in to ask Carter to step out. Carter tells her he will once he's sutured Trent's arm, and Chuny tells him it's urgent.
In the hall, Chuny informs Carter that Trent's grandmother is there, and that she wants to talk to him. Carter tells Chuny just to bring her in while he's working on Trent, and Chuny explains that Trent's grandmother specifically asked to speak with Carter in private. Chuny points her out, and Carter introduces himself. I came as soon as I could. It's only a few stitches. Oh, good. She takes Carter aside and gravely tells him that there's something he needs to know: "Trent's mother died of AIDS when he was two. He tested HIV-positive. You need to be careful." Carter, taken aback, squeals, "He didn't say anything!" TrentGrams shrugs, "He doesn't know. We never told him." Uh, what? "What?" Carter asks. TrentGrams says, "We just wanted him to be normal, like other kids." Carter crosses his arms and adopts a stern mien: "What do you tell him about the medications?" TrentGrams says that Trent thinks he has a vitamin deficiency. Carter challenges, "And your doctor plays along with that?" TrentGrams's face falls, and she shrugs again, "Well, he understands." Carter does that thing where he's trying to be patient, but he's pretty sure he's right, and kind of smirks -- like he's amused to regard her from high atop the moral high ground -- and declares, "Trent needs to know." TrentGrams agrees: "Yes. When he's older -- when he can better understand." Carter points out that Trent could be sexually active, and TrentGrams, with the certainty of willful ignorance, patiently tells Carter, "He's not. I've asked him." Carter asks, "Are you sure that he's telling you the truth?" A fair question, since most sixteen-year-olds are not in the habit of shooting the shit about their sex lives with their grandmas. You know, generally speaking. But TrentGrams gets affronted, and draws herself up to say, "Doctor, I know my grandson. You don't." Carter tells her that he has "a legal right" to tell Trent that he's HIV-positive. Which is an odd way to phrase it, in my opinion. Carter's saying it's his right, under the law, like it's a perk of the job, as opposed to his saying he has "a legal obligation" to tell Trent, and thus protect his life. Hey, wasn't there just one hair here before? Oh, I see what happened -- I split it, as if in two. Anyway, TrentGrams is good and mad now: "You have no right to interfere in our lives!" Carter tells her that HIV is sexually transmitted, "and if he's having unprotected sex, he could be putting others at risk." TrentGrams shirtily declares that she'll be taking Trent elsewhere, and makes for Trent's exam room, but Carter blocks her and says that Trent can't leave. TrentGrams pushes it, and Carter calls over a security guard! Niiiice. ["It's even nicer when you notice that the security guard is played by the omnipresent Sergeant Buttinsky from 7th Heaven." -- Sars] TrentGrams warns the security guard not to touch her, and begs Carter, "Don't do this." Carter's like, "Yeah, right. Have fun in chairs." Hey, isn't it funny that Carter, a boy raised by a protective grandmother, would cross paths with a boy raised by a protective grandmother? That's some parallel they've got going there. I'm not even sure I know what its purpose is. Except that I do. I get it. I think we all get it. Right? Can I see a show of hands? Thought so.
In the helicopter, the nurse checks on Tom's pulse ox, and Mark stares anxiously out the window. Tom asks Mark what his hurry is, since he's been compulsively checking his watch; Mark tells Tom about the wedding planner. Tom grins, "You're taking the plunge! It's a great feeling!" Yeah, for Mark. You should schnapps Elizabeth and ask how great a feeling she thinks it is. Mark distractedly asks what Tom's fiancée's name is, again, and Tom reminds him that it's Janet. Mark pulls out his cell phone and calls the ER to see if they can reach her and get her to meet Tom at County.
And, at County, Randi hands Elizabeth the phone. Carter is on another phone, beside her, telling someone that he needs to speak to someone right away. He then introduces himself to a Dr. Dietrich, says that he just treated Trent, and asks, "If I was [sic] to get a needle stick, is there anything I should know?" Lisa asks Randi whether she's been able to reach Luka yet, and when Randi says she hasn't, Lisa asks her to call the manager and see if they'll send someone to his room. ["I've got someone in mind, and it ain't the manager." -- Sars]
Cut to a crowded, somewhat dingy waiting room, where Luka "Kiss or Kill" Kovac is bent over, cradling his head in his hands. His pager goes off, and he checks it, but apparently ignores the message, whatever it is. The detective from last week's episode appears, and Luka stands and addresses him. Det. Self-Defense shakes his hand and jokes that if Luka spends any more time there (the police station, clearly), he'll "have to get [Luka] a badge and a gun." Luka chuckles feebly, and asks, "So, is there anything...?" Det. Self-Defense jollies him along a bit: "Oh, Dr. Kovac, now, you know the minute there's anything new, I'm gonna call you!" Luka tells Det. Self-Defense that, at the hospital, they take photos for the medical records, and holds out a snapshot. Det. Self-Defense regards it warily, but doesn't take it, and says that the morgue shot of the Common Street Thug Luka killed is already on the police bulletin. Luka pauses for a beat, then holds out the photo again and suggests that Det. Self-Defense take the photo back to "where it happened," and show it around. "We've done our interviews, doc," says Det. Self-Defense gently. "No one knows him." Luka asks, "What about fingerprints?" Det. Self-Defense invites Luka to sit down, and tells him, "Look, I understand how you feel, okay? But the fact is, you're probably better off if no one IDs this guy." Luka worries the photo in his fingers as the detective continues, "No family member's going to come crawling out of the woodwork with some wrongful-death suit." Luka insists, "I don't care! I just need to know who he was." Det. Self-Defense says, "Take my advice, doc. You were defending yourself. Dedicate yourself to believing that." And...hence the name. Luka's inner demons crowd around his chair, begging Luka to take them to the zoo, for a change.
Carter finishes stitching Trent's arm. I write in my notebook, "10:15 PM: Kid will kill himself before the end of the episode." I call a notary public to stamp the page and prove that I called it. Carter tells Trent he's finished, and Trent thanks him and prepares to leave. Carter calls him back and asks, "It's about your mother. How much do you remember about her?" Trent says he can't remember anything. Carter asks whether Trent's sure, and Trent says, "Yeah, uh, she's dead. She was a loser -- a heroin addict." Carter sighs and, without any ceremony and barely any preamble, announces, "She died of AIDS, and she had the virus when she was pregnant with you, and the virus can pass from the mother to the baby." Trent blinks, considers this, and asks, "Wait a second. So, I have AIDS?" Carter is quick to explain that, no, Trent has HIV, and that he's healthy because he's been taking medication. Trent's look of concentration and distress leaves his face, and he laughs with relief and explains, "Oh, no, no, no! See, I just take a bunch of vitamins. That's it." Carter has that smirk again, though now it's a compassionate smirk (and, trust me, it works about as well as you'd think a "compassionate smirk" would in conveying compassion -- which is to say, not well at all), and he assures Trent that he's been taking medication to combat his HIV. Trent repeats, more desperately, "No. No! They're just vitamins, man." Carter says, "Your grandmother told me, and I confirmed it with your doctor." Trent yells, "Well, why wouldn't she tell me?" Carter shakes her head and suggests that his grandmother wanted to protect him: "But you needed to know." Trent exhales, and then asks, "So my whole life, everybody's lied to me?" Carter plunges his knife into TrentGrams's belly and slices upwards: "I'm not lying to you." Okay, Carter. That's right. Give the kid some incredibly shitty news. Don't sugar-coat it. Turn him against his family. Leave him with no resources other than the shitty pamphlets you're going to give him in the scene. Why not just send Lisa into the supply closet to get the kid a prescription sawed-off shotgun to off himself with, and save yourself some time?
In the helicopter, Mark asks Gordon for the ETA, which is about twenty minutes. Tom gingerly touches his chest a couple of times, and as soon as Mark asks him whether he's okay, the machines start their telltale beeping. Mark and the nurse both prepare syringes as Tom haltingly asks what's going on; Mark tells him that he's having a heart attack, but that they're giving him "clot-busting medication." The Nurse Extra asks Mark whether he wants to intubate; Mark flicks his eyes toward Tom, who quickly shakes his head no. Mark tells her, "Not if I don't have to." He tells Nurse Extra to put Tom on a mask. She asks whether he thinks they should land, and Tom interjects, "No, Dr. Greene. Dr. Greene, you can get me there, right?" Again, total kiss of death. Tom is not getting his heart transplant; I can tell you that right now.
Back at County, Carter is sitting to a despondent-looking Trent and asking, "Do you have a girlfriend?" When Trent doesn't answer right away, Carter persists, "Because if you've slept with anybody, they'll have to be tested." Trent stares at the aforementioned shitty pamphlets, and Carter peers at his face and says, "It's important, Trent. You have to use condoms." "Yeah," says Trent, barely audible, and asks, "Can I go now?" Carter says he can, and they both get up; Carter's all faux jocularity -- odd, under the circumstances -- and says that TrentGrams is waiting. They walk out into the hall, as Carter adds, "A case manager's going to phone you tomorrow, to see how you're doing. You've got an appointment week with the teen HIV centre, and you can always reach me here; the ER always knows where to find me." Trent nods, and walks off. TrentGrams gets up at the sight of him and reaches out; Trent brushes past her, shrugging off her hand. TrentGrams reproachfully snaps, "Thank you, doctor," to Carter, who stares impassively as she hurries after Trent. Then he makes this weird moué, like, "Well, that sucks for them. Too bad. I wonder if I'll get to use the sternal saw today!" I mean, I know Carter really had no choice but to tell Trent about his HIV, but it seems to me that he could have handled it more gently, or effectively -- convincing TrentGrams that it was time to tell Trent, and bringing her in when he did so, say, or getting the case manager he'd mentioned, who's probably had more experience breaking terrible news like this, or something. The way Carter did handle it, Trent's eventual sad demise was telegraphed from the moment Carter made him sit back down. Carter's off his game, he should know it, and he should have asked for help. That is all I am saying. Plus, that really does suck for Trent.
Helicopter. Tom quotes Carl Sandburg's poem, "Chicago." Mark supplies a line, and Tom asks whether Mark knows Sandburg's poetry; Mark says he only knows that one. Tom exposits that he was an English teacher for ten years. Mark's phone rings; it's Elizabeth. He tells her that they're five minutes out, and she tells him that Janet's on her way to County. Mark starts to tell her, "We're going to need a gurney --" when the helicopter starts flailing about erratically. Mark asks what the problem is, and Gordon tells him it's the main rotor. Elizabeth yells, "Mark. Mark! Are you there?" Mark puts his phone away as Gordon calls in a mayday; Mark and Nurse Extra both tend to Tom. "Crash?" Tom asks, and Mark assures him that they'll be fine.
Back at the hospital, Elizabeth is yelling Mark's name into a dead phone. Dr. Dave asks what happened, and she tells him, basically, that what she heard didn't sound good.
Mark braces himself. Gordon tells them that he's going to set down in a scrap yard. And then...they do set down in a scrap yard. They get Tom out of the helicopter and take him a safe distance away from the helicopter. I cannot believe how lame that supposed suspense was. NBC is so sad! "A hero will fall 2150 feet"? More like "A schmuck will make an unscheduled landing in a slightly inconvenient location, with very few untoward results." For chrissakes, they land in the middle of a million tons of rusty metal and no one even got tetanus. Whatever. Gordon conveniently trips over something and hurts his leg. Tom is crashing, and Mark and Nurse Extra administer meds and intubate him.
At County, Dr. Dave hangs up the phone and tells Elizabeth, "ATC's got a mayday call with location; EMS and fire are rolling." She anxiously asks whether there were any injuries, and Dr. Dave says they didn't say. Elizabeth yells, "Then call them back! Dammit." Like that. Not, "Then call them back, dammit!" It was just an odd line reading. Benton rolls up and asks what's wrong, and she tells him that Mark's chopper went down. Lisa asks, "They crashed?" and Dr. Dave tells her they had to make an emergency landing. Elizabeth snaps, "We don't know that! We don't know anything! Randi, call County Dispatch." Dr. Dave tries to tell her, "They don't know anything more than I told you a minute ago," and Elizabeth loses it, screeching, "I don't care!" Benton tells her to calm down, and to get on with "CDO" and keep everyone posted. He barks out orders to everyone else in the vicinity. He concludes by clapping his hands and telling everyone to "move" (dude, this isn't a basketball game, FYI). Striding out from behind the desk, he asks Lisa whether they've found Luka yet; she tells him they're still trying. Lady, we all know you're trying. And we know what you're trying. And why. And what you wear when you try it.
Luka strolls down CST's Stairway to Heaven, as it were, and makes like the other deathly Angel, showing CST's photo to Dizzy McBusker and asking whether the Dizzy's ever seen him. Dizzy McBusker says that he'd remember "a guy like that," and comments that Luka doesn't seem like a cop. Luka says that he's a doctor. Dizzy McBusker suggests that Luka talk to the tour-boat operator, since he's there all the time. Luka smiles sadly and says that he already did, but thanks Dizzy McBusker just the same. Dizzy McBusker apologizes for not being more helpful. Luka walks over to the fence and stares out at the implacable, unforgiving water. His inner demons crawl out of his clothes and ask Dizzy McBusker to play "Strangers in the Night."
Back in Tetanusville...honestly, this part of the plot is so contrived and manipulative that I don't even want to pay it any attention. But I will. For you. You're welcome. Nurse Extra says that they only have fifteen more minutes' worth of oxygen in Tom's tank. Mark asks where EMS is, as if the on-board computer is wet-wired into Nurse Extra's brain, and she, barely hearing the sirens, say they sound close. Gordon remarks that the ambulances won't be able to find them amid all the rubble, and tells Mark he'll have to go back to the helicopter, get out the flare gun, and shoot off a flare to let EMS know where they are; Gordon would go himself, but...his foot. Or leg. Whatever. So Mark...goes to the helicopter, gets out the flare gun, shoots it off, and directs the ambulances to their location. Nothing even happens. I mean, when Mark gets to the helicopter, it's dripping what appears to be gasoline, and electrical stuff inside the cockpit is sparking and fizzing...but nothing happens. I thought for sure the helicopter would blow up and block the only path to Tom's bed, but even that predictable thing didn't happen. (Dear Writers: If you end up using that one later this season, I'll expect a cheque. Love, Wing Chun. P.S. Mark sucks. He's dull, annoying, and unattractive. Less Mark, more Luka.)
At the hospital, Lisa leaves Luka a message begging her to call him, since she's been trying to reach him everywhere. Benton walks by, followed by a lady of questionable virtue, who's walking kind of funny. Is it the infamous P.I.D. shuffle? If only. Benton leads Slutty McWhore into an exam room and tells Lisa that she's complaining of abdominal pains. Slutty admits that they're not exactly abdominal pains: "It's not really my abdomen. I can't believe I'm actually embarrassed." Lisa calmly assures her that they see everything in the ER. Slutty allows, "Okay. I got a roll of money stuck up my..." She pauses, and they both stare in anticipation of what euphemism she'll choose. "...birth canal?" she concludes. Heh. "Birth canal." We would have also accepted "womb." They both continue to stare, and she asks them to hurry: "I got a cab waiting with the meter running." Please tell me she doesn't plan to pay with whatever they extract. Although I guess it doesn't really matter to the average cabbie. "Hey, this $20 smells kinda --" "Keep the change." "Have a nice day!" Malik calls Benton away to see to a six-month-old baby in respiratory distress; Lisa follows.
In the trauma room...dude, that poor baby. Wheeze Baby's hair is all sparse and patchy over his little head, and amid all the huge, loud machines, he looks teeny and vulnerable. Also, he looks human, unlike a certain toaster with eyes I could name. (Oh, fine: Rex, who's probably down at the chrysanthemum show with Weaver. "You should totally get that one." "Rex, don't be ridiculous; that would completely overwhelm my garden." "DO IT! Or incur my WRATH!" "You promised you wouldn't do that if I let you out of my purse." "I promised nothing, rat-brain! Oh, hey, corndogs!") Benton says that it sounds like pneumonia, and that he doesn't even know how to do pediatric intubations, and asks where Finch is. Malik says she took a kid to PICU, and Benton tells him to get her back. He asks Lisa what size tube; she tells him they use two and a half in the delivery room, but he says he needs something bigger: "Three. Three and a half?" he asks Malik, who's all wide-eyed, "I don't know!" Benton can't get the tube in. Lisa tells him to paralyze Wheeze Baby, but Benton doesn't know what the dose is. Malik tells him, unhelpfully, that he needs to know Wheeze Baby's weight. Finch appears and asks what's going on; he tells her it's a difficult intubation. Finch springs into action, estimating Wheeze Baby's weight with a tape of some kind, and totally taking over, symbolically emasculating Benton in the process.
Haleh comes in and asks Benton (but asks in that particularly Haleh-ish fashion, whereby she's not so much asking as telling) whether he wants to close to paramedic traffic. Benton's like, "That's the smartest thing I've heard all day," even before she lists, "No monitored beds, and we're boarding five ICU patients." Benton decisively tells her to close the ER to paramedics. Overhearing as they walk by, Carter asks, "Are you sure you want to do that?" and exposits that "the media" has been critical of County's closures lately. Benton snottily asks Carter what he would do, and Carter admits that it's a tough call. Chuny, on the phone, tells Benton that South Side Urgent Care wants to send a patient, but Benton passes the buck, telling her, "Haleh says we're closed to transfers." I guess they had to cut the scene where Haleh graduated from medical school, worked several years as an intern and then a resident, and finally achieved the position of attending. But, good for her! I always knew she had it in her. Chuny yelps that it's just a backache, and begs Benton to take the phone and talk to the other doctor, but Benton growls, "Fine! Fine! Fine! Send him!" Haleh yells, "So? Do we close? And don't ask me -- they don't pay me enough to run this place." Heh. Elizabeth interrupts to say that Dispatch found Mark et al. on the south side, and that there were no casualties. Benton shuffles through charts as Haleh persists, "Well...? Well...?" Benton is confused and busy. He's overwhelmed. I get it. I swear, I do. I hire the skywriter from last week's episode of Ed to write "I GET IT" over the Sun-Times building. Roger Ebert actually takes the stairs to the roof and yells, "I THINK SHE GETS IT." And he's right. I DO. I GET IT.
A girl sits morosely on a bed in an exam room while Trent paces the hall outside. Carter rolls up, peers in the window, and asks whether she's a friend of Trent's; Trent says she's his girlfriend. Carter raises his eyes in a disappointed expression, and says, "Thought you said you didn't have one." Yeah, I can't believe Trent violated the trust you established in your twenty-minute relationship. Trent whispers, "I brought her here, man. You think that was easy?" Carter sternly tells Trent that he must be honest: "Is she the only one?" Trent admits that he's kissed other girls. Carter asks, "No sex with anyone else?" and Trent quickly says, "No, no." Carter narrows his eyes and asks, "And you didn't use condoms?" You know what, Carter? I think Trent gets the point. But cut him some slack; he was a virgin, and she probably was, too, and he probably didn't think that they had much to worry about if she was, say, on the Pill. I'm just saying. Kids, you should always use condoms -- and this is exactly why -- but Jesus, Carter, he just found out he's had HIV his whole life, like, an hour ago. Enough with the disappointed-dad routine. Seriously. Trent looks away, and then tells Carter, "I love her, man." Carter tells Trent they'll run some tests.
Back in Tetanusville, Mark and Nurse Extra are putting Tom into an ambulance. The paramedic tells Mark that the nearest hospital is Oakdale Community, seven minutes away, but Mark insists that they go to County. Mark? Why?! Yes, Janet is on her way there, but you know what? She can get in a damn cab. This man is dying. Take him to the nearest hospital, you fucking putz. The paramedic says that County is twenty minutes away -- that's nearly three times as far, y'all -- and that "Dispatch doesn't want [them] to leave [their] catchment area." Mark curtly says that he'll take responsibility. Paramedic #1 tells his partner that they're going to County on Mark's orders, and Paramedic #2 tells Mark that County is closed to paramedics. Mark assures him that they'll let him in, since he's an attending there. He doesn't, however, bust out his cell phone and call ahead. Why? Because he's annoying and dumb. It's for this and so many more reasons that I. Hate. Mark.
At the desk, Elizabeth is asking someone to patch her through to the ambulance. Conni comes by to tell her she's needed for a surgical consult, and Elizabeth dismissively says, "I'll be there." A woman appears in front of her and says she's looking for "Dr. Corday." Elizabeth asks, "Are you Janet?" She is, and Elizabeth introduces herself and says that Tom is expected to arrive very soon. Janet asks how he is, and Elizabeth calmly says, "Quite well, I understand. Apparently, no one was hurt in the landing." Alex Kingston's pregnancy is really starting to show in this scene. "What landing?" Janet asks, and Elizabeth leads her off, minimizing the story of the emergency landing and non-deftly changing the subject by asking how long she and Tom have been engaged. "Three years. So he's not in the helicopter?" Elizabeth breezily says that he's in an ambulance, and remarks that three years seems like a long time. Janet explains, "Right after he gave me the ring, he got the flu. We thought it was no big deal, but then the virus went to his heart. We spend a lot of time in hospitals."
Benton passes just then and asks Elizabeth whether she's seen the "incarcerated hernia" yet. Elizabeth blows him off: "In a minute," but he tells her, "No, now." Oh, whatever, Little Big Britches. Besides, if the man's incarcerated, what's the rush? Ha ha! Okay, sorry. Conni catches up to Benton and hands him an EKG on a new patient. As Benton inspects it, she adds, "I got a guy on a backboard who's been there for two hours. When are you going to clear his neck?" Benton says he'll do it when he gets there. She asks whether he wants her to call Weaver in, and he forcefully replies, "No!" Some dude in the hallway whines, "Are you ever going to sew me up?" Benton dismissively says that they're busy and asks him to wait where he is. Randi crosses his path pushing a whiteboard, explaining, when he asks: "Second board. We're totally backed up." Chuny adds that four patients just left without being seen. Dr. Dave sarcastically says that he knows what the solution is: "We see them, send off labs and x-rays, and have them wait in chairs." Chuny snaps, "Are you crazy? We need monitoring, IVs, medication...." Haleh opines, "The problem is, you doctors order too many damn tests. You should be reviewing their charts! Keeping things moving!" Jing-Mei "Deb" Chen appears, apparently to pick up her cheque, and tells Benton she has a stroke patient who needs a monitored bed; without making eye contact, he tells her there aren't any, and that she should put him in the hall. Say goodbye to Chen, because you won't be seeing her again. Haleh tells Benton that none of the nurses has even had lunch. Someone else, whose face I can't see, says that an ambulance just dropped off a stab-wound to the belly. Benton literally throws up his hands and relents: "Get me the phone." I have to assume he's calling Weaver. Or the hospital in Philadelphia that offered him the surgical attending job.
In the ambulance, things don't look so good for Tom. Mark calls for an amp of epi, and Nurse Extra pointedly remarks, "He needs a pacemaker, Dr. Greene. We should be in a hospital. Any hospital." Paramedic #1 looks reproachful, and then answers a phone (or radio -- whatever) when it rings. Tom continues to struggle, and Mark tells Nurse Extra to open up the dopamine before taking the phone, assuring Elizabeth that they're five minutes out, and informing her that Tom "can't talk right now." "He's out," Nurse Extra elaborates; she's lost his pulse. Mark looks worried. Well, gee, Mark, maybe you should have brought him to a hospital near Tetanusville instead of to your home turf. Too bad you're an idiot. Nurse Extra starts compressions. Mark throws the phone back to the paramedic, who comments, "We could've been at Oakdale ten minutes ago. I'm going on record that you overrode our policy." Normally I don't go for that bureaucratic shit, but fucking right, Paramedic #1. Paramedic #2, driving, adds, "There's going to be an incident report on this." "Shut up!" yells Mark to #2. What a clever retort. To #1, he yells, "And get back to work." Okay, if I were either paramedic, I'd pull that rig over and throw Mark out of it ass-first. It's his fault they're in the jam they're in, and he's not helping not to kill his patient by getting all petulant and snippy. Tom's eyes roll back in his head as Mark attempts cheer: "Hang in there, Tom. You're gonna make it. Janet's there." Mark, for real, shut your mouth, or I'll shut it for you.
Elizabeth meets Tom's gurney at the ambulance-bay doors. She asks how long he's been down, and Paramedic #1 says he never arrested. Mark adds, "He just needs help maintaining a pulse." Yes, and doesn't he need that help with a pacemaker?! YOU SUCK, MARK! OH MY GOD! Elizabeth tells him, "You look exhausted." Yes, of all the people in the rig, Mark is the one about whom you should be concerned, NOT. Nurse Extra exposits, "He wouldn't let us relieve him." That's only the least egregious thing he "wouldn't let" you do. A cart is blocking the hall, and Mark yells, "Coming through!" to no avail. Janet runs over and asks what happened; Elizabeth tells Mark who Janet is, and Mark tells her that Tom had a heart attack and needs a pacemaker. He adds, "You can take his hand." Trying to keep the worry out of her voice, Janet says, "Hi, Tom? It's me, I'm here." She asks Mark whether Tom can hear her, and then feels him squeezing her hand. Elizabeth suggests an intra-aortic balloon, which Mark pronounces "not a bad idea." They arrive at a trauma room, where Chuny and several others are already working on a patient. Mark whines that he needs the room (did you call ahead? No), and Chuny tells him that, hi, they already need it, and that County is supposed to be closed to trauma. Wow, it's too bad no one told Mark that when there was still enough time to get Tom to another hospital. Oh, wait. Someone did. And Mark ignored him. Because HE SUCKS. They bicker over the room; Mark tries to rush them out, and the rapid infuser detaches from Chuny's patient and starts spraying blood literally all over the place. Chuny tries to corral it -- and of course, it's right in the midst of this chaotic scene that Kerry "B. Toklas" Weaver shows up at the trauma-room door and barely escapes getting a stream of blood sprayed clear across her clothes. She tries to find out what's going on; Mark explains that he just got back from transport, having left Benton in charge. "Benton?!" Weaver repeats, incredulously.
At the desk, Benton looks like he's about to collapse, shuffling the countless waiting patients around. Dr. Dave says that he has a patient who says her tongue is too smooth. Benton wearily replies, "Tell her to get a life." Dr. Dave tells him that a smooth tongue can be a sign of pernicious anemia. So if you knew that, why were you asking a damn surgeon about it? Weaver crutches over to the desk and makes a rather predictable remark -- day off, hell, handbasket...you can probably fill in the blanks, there. Benton tries to defend himself by saying he's never seen it so busy before, and Haleh snorts, "It's like this every day." Romano chooses this moment to appear and tell Benton he just heard that County was closed to trauma. Weaver replies that they aren't, and Benton whines, "How can we? We can't see another critical patient!" Weaver tells Lisa to call the nursing supervisor, and to get every remotely stable patient moved out of the ICU. As Weaver continues barking orders at Lisa, Romano pontificates, "I was under the mistaken impression that you could manage the ER." Benton yells back that he was the only attending, since Luka never showed up. Weaver overhears this and interjects, "He didn't show?" Lisa lamely offers, "He might have switched his shift with someone." Romano snots, "In twenty years, I have never been late for surgery, but I guess you people work on a different standard. And, Peter, based on your performance today, maybe you're not the guy for the per-diem job." He storms off, and Benton rolls his eyes in disgust.
Conni gives Carter "lab results on Emma Miller." Carter looks at the sheet and moans, "Oh, man!" "That's tough," Conni agrees. Carter says, "She's fifteen years old." They pass by Tom's trauma room, where his pacer is "capturing well." Elizabeth does her thing with the balloon, and Mark asks Janet to talk to him in the hall. She leans over Tom and whispers that she'll be right back, before following Mark. He quietly tells her that the pump will bring up his blood pressure. She asks whether Tom will live long enough to get the heart transplant, and Mark says he doesn't know. He neglects to add, "My error in judgment -- inexplicably insisting that we bring him here instead of to a nearer hospital -- may have cost him his life. My bad." Janet's face falls; she looks back at Tom's bed for a moment, and then tells Mark, "I wanna marry him." Mark starts to tell her that Tom couldn't survive a trip outside the hospital, and she asks whether they can do it there. Mark noncommittally says that they can try, and Janet says that she thinks it would help Tom to recover if they did marry. You know what else would have helped? If Mark had let the paramedics take Tom to Oak-- oh, you know.
In an exam room, Trent's girlfriend Emma is asking Carter whether it's possible the lab made a mistake with her test result. Carter says that he wouldn't be telling her the result if he weren't certain. Both Emma and Trent look terrified. Emma protests, "But I don't feel sick! You should do the test again." Carter tells her that if she starts taking medication now, she can stay healthy, and she tearfully replies, "No! I know what happens! Everybody dies!" Carter resumes his compassionate smirking to tell her that's not true: "Look at Trent. He's had HIV his whole life. Look at him!" Emma tells Trent she wishes they'd never had sex. Elizabeth's voice comes on the ER PA system as she adds, "I feel you, sister." Trent tells her that he didn't know he was sick, and asks Carter to confirm the claim. Carter says, "This is a lot for you to handle. And you're both going to need some help. So before you go, I would like you both to speak to a counsellor." Emma stands up and makes for the door; Trent stops her before she can go all the way out, and Carter tells them he'll leave them alone to talk. On his way out, he adds, "Before you do anything, talk it over." What does that even mean? What are their options on the "anything" Carter thinks they're going to do? Shut up, Carter. He leaves, and then spies on them through the window.
With things under slightly better control, Weaver asks Benton about various patients, and then tells him that Romano was out of line. "When isn't he?" snorts Benton. Weaver elaborates that it was unfair of him to throw Benton "into the deep end and expect [him] to swim; no one masters ER management on their first day." They walk toward the desk just in time to see a guy collapsed in triage. It's the back-pain patient from the Urgent Care centre; Weaver asks Benton what his deal was, and when Benton doesn't answer, Malik goes through Back Pain's chart and sees that Benton accepted him from the Urgent Care centre. "What? And he's been waiting in chairs?" Weaver asks incredulously. "For two hours," adds Malik. Benton repeats the diagnosis he'd heard on the phone: "They said it was just a back sprain." "The doctor told you that," Weaver leads him, slowly, and Benton confesses that he didn't actually speak to the doctor. Weaver's like, "Dude." But she uses more words, and those words are, "Oh, great. Well, now he's bleeding out." Weaver, don't rub it in. You were at a chrysanthemum show, for chrissakes.
Tom is, apparently, stable, and off his breathing tube. He asks where Janet is, and Mark says she's on the phone with city hall, trying to get a clerk to come issue them a marriage license. Tom chuckles, "That's crazy!" Mark agrees that people in love do crazy things. Tom says that he wanted to wait until after the transplant to get married so that he could "chase her down the aisle," and that he didn't want her to marry a "cardiac cripple." Mark heartily says that if Tom gets a heart, Janet won't (marry a cardiac cripple). Duh, really? I don't think Tom had made that connection before. Tom asks how long he'll be able to last on his pump, and Mark admits that it's only a couple of weeks. Tom figures that there are "pretty lousy odds" of his getting a heart with the same blood type, that's a tissue match, within that time, and Mark notes that the odds were worse when Tom has having a heart attack while the helicopter was going down. Tom smiles. He has a nice smile.
Carter and Lisa run into each other at a shelf of supplies. He's icy. She tries to make sponsorly conversation about Emma and Trent, and Carter blows her off -- "It's pretty rough" -- and walks off. She trots after him, asking whether he's okay, or if he wants to take a break. He says he's going to plug in two new patients, and then come and find her. She seems mollified, and scurries off. He calls after her, "Talk to Kovac?" "Not yet," she replies.
Speaking of Kovac...oh, hello. He's staring at the totally fake-looking wax figure we're meant to believe is CST. The pathologist comes in and tells him they finished the autopsy. She offers to review some of the pertinent findings, and he grunts his assent. She launches straight in: "There were multiple contusions to the occipital cortex....And if you'll take a look here, you'll see numerous fractures consistent with repetitive blunt trauma." "I know how he died," Luka interrupts, with his hand in front of his eyes. She wouldn't have known the circumstances? I know a lot of gossip probably doesn't filter down to the morgue, but come on. Anyway, she offers that CST was a smoker, and that he may have once lived in a particular agricultural area in central California. "Maybe he grew up on a farm?" Luka guesses. The pathologist will neither confirm nor deny this theory, and continues to observe that CST has grease under his fingernails and a biker-club tattoo: "He could be just a drifter, but we'll probably never know. Happens all the time. Listen, I'm happy to tell you what his liver weighed and stuff, but we're trying to work in here, and there's room for either you or your inner demons, but not both. Look, four of them are drinking that formaldehyde. Knock it off!" The demons are shooed into the hall, and Luka resumes staring at CST's lifeless face and fidgeting his fist against his mouth.
Back in the land of the living, Carter treats a kid with a Razor-scooter-related injury. In the hall, Carter tells Haleh which x-rays to order, while behind him, Chuny hurries past, with her arm around Emma; Emma is sobbing, "It happened so fast! We were having a fight, and he ran into the street, and a car hit him." Carter follows them into a trauma room, where Weaver, Benton, and others are working on...yes. Trent. Emma begs Trent not to die and says, "I need to be with him." Close-up on Trent's head, which is what one might describe as "caved-in." Carter stares, in shock, through the glass. That is what I call a decidedly scrapy couple of weeks, dude.
Mark finds a chaplain. He explains the Tom/Janet situation. Janet hangs up the phone and says that they won't be able to get a license since city hall is closing. The chaplain says that without a license, any marriage he performs won't be legally binding. Mark tells him that Tom and Janet just want a blessing. The chaplain is good to go.
Randi asks Luka whether he traded his shift; Luka flatly replies, "No." Weaver starts mildly chewing him out over failing to answer his pages. He asks what the problem is. She says the problem is that she had to come in and cover for him. Luka mumbles that he thought he was on tonight, and she tells him he was mistaken. He apologizes. She hassles him some more, saying that his failure to show up is grounds for dismissal. He wearily rubs his forehead and replies, "Fine, Kerry -- fire me." She changes her tone and says, "I know that you've been through a lot. If you need to take some time off, tell me -- but you can't miss any more shifts. And you can't keep bringing all your inner demons with you, because they're taking up all the chairs." He tells her he can work tonight, but she -- responding, no doubt, to his vampiric pallor -- tells him he's not needed tonight, and that he should go home. He starts to leave, and pauses in the hall when he spots Lisa outside the lounge. They gaze at each other for a moment, and then he continues on his way, without a word. She runs after him.
Outside, in the ambulance bay, she finally catches up to him and asks him not to walk away. She asks where he's been. "Abby, please," he says, exhaustedly. She tells him she wants to help, and begs, "Just talk to me!" He tells her there's nothing to say, and goes. She has no response to that. Luka's inner demons are too slow to catch him, and they stand on each other's shoulders to hail a cab.
The chaplain marries Tom and Janet. He's lying in bed. Someone's gone to the cafeteria to find a single anemic rose in a vase. Mark and Elizabeth act as Best Man and Maid of Honour. The Parallelism Fairy wanders by, bitterly eating a box of raisins from the vending machine, and asks a passing nurse, "Am I supposed to be in there? Or do you think they get it?" The nurse -- it's that guy with the mullet -- tells him he's pretty sure we get it. Carter wanders away from the happy couple and into the adjacent trauma room, to cover dead Trent with a sheet. Chuny leads Emma in and tells her to stay as long as she wants. Emma watches as Carter goes about his business, totally failing to meet her eye as he tells her how sorry he is. "Get out of here!" she hisses. Carter looks disappointed, again, and slightly constipated. I like Noah Wyle, but this episode hasn't been a showcase for the best work of his career. "It's your fault," she whispers. He sort of cocks his head in a "you know that's not true" gesture, but ultimately respects her wishes and leaves her alone. I think she and I may have the same coat.
The wedding concluded, Janet very gingerly kisses Tom, and Mark and Elizabeth congratulate them. Janet and Tom thank them for everything (whatever), and everyone leaves. In the hall, Mark asks Elizabeth about their wedding co-ordinator, and Elizabeth gasps that she totally forgot to call and cancel, and Mark tells Elizabeth to blame it on him, and his medical emergency. I always blame it on you, because you are a medical emergency. Elizabeth loudly exhales, "Oh, the hell with her!" Blah blah blah, she has an epiphany and realizes that she doesn't want a big fussy wedding. Well, duh. They kiss. God, if only he had fallen 2150 feet -- onto a bicycle with no seat.
Benton tells Weaver that the aneurysm repair on Urgent Care Guy is going well. Weaver tells him that she thinks it would be best if Benton only saw patients in the ER. Benton seems amenable. She adds, "Peter, you're an excellent surgeon, but ER management is not the best use of your skills. Leave that to us." That's gotta hurt. Not. He goes into an exam room and introduces himself to a Mrs. Barnwall. She has a pain in her hip. He apologizes for the length of her wait. She asks him whether he's an intern, and he tells her he's a faculty physician. She beams, "Oh, your mother must be very proud." Benton grins back that she was. He asks how long she's had this pain, and she replies, "Before we get much further, I'd like to say that I would be more at ease with another doctor....You look like a fine young man, but I've always had white doctors. I've always felt more comfortable that way." (By the way -- and not that I would mention it under other circumstances -- Mrs. Barnwall is African-American, and as QueenoSin has observed on the forums, this plot is lifted straight out of City of Angels. Don't fuck with us, ER. We are the industry standard. Anyway, Benton confirms that Mrs. Barnwall only wants to see a white doctor, and Mrs. Barnwall chuckles and says, "If it's all right with you." Benton smiles that it's fine: "You'll just have to wait another three hours." OH, SCRAPE!
Benton stomps out, slams down Mrs. Barnwell's chart, and books. Carter asks Randi whether she's seen Lisa, and Randi says she saw her punch out. Carter nods and angrily bites his lip. (Sidebar: if I were Lisa, and somehow found myself in a struggle between Carter and Luka, over to which of them I should pay more attention, I would try to settle the dispute in a three-way discussion, if you know what I'm saying, and I think you do. Okay, seriously, I know some people on the forums have commented on what a shitty sponsor Lisa is -- and so did I, last week -- but, to her credit, she did try to tell Carter she was not sponsor material, besides which, she watched Luka beat a man to death last week and is -- understandably, I think -- more concerned that his emotional wounds might need more immediate attention. So I don't fault her for forgetting her duties toward Carter, so much, and in fact I think that, after the way she ditched him last week, for a much less noble reason, he should have already found a new sponsor.) Anyway, Weaver asks whether Carter has a minute, and he tells her that he's just on his way out. She drums her fingers on the desk a moment, then follows him.
Weaver catches up to Carter in the lounge. He opens his locker and puts away his lab coat. She says, "John, you had a bad day. We all have bad days." He nods noncommittally and avoids her gaze until she commands him to look at her. He finally does so, but in the reluctant manner of a sullen teenager. She continues, "You have to make tough choices, do what you think is right, and accept the outcome." "I shouldn't have told him," Carter replies flatly. "You had to!" Weaver exclaims. Carter shrugs on his coat and tells her he'll see her tomorrow. Desperate to stop him before he takes off, she offers to take him for dinner. He tells her he has an AA meeting at 9, and she quickly tells him, "You'll make it." He reluctantly slides his bag off his shoulder and nods, smiling tightly. He traipses back to his locker, his every movement making it clear the favour he's doing her. Carter, I know you haven't said a word in the past thirty seconds, but, shut up. The woman is trying to help you. Try to be a little gracious about it.
Benton strolls into Doc Magoo's and spots Finch at the counter. Can I join you? It's a counter, you can sit anywhere. Clearly not terribly interested, she observes that he "survived." Benton ruefully replies that Weaver told him he was incompetent -- which she didn't, really, but whatever. Finch is unmoved. As usual. Finch reminds him that the per-diem job is just temporary, until he can get back into Surgery, and he says that he needed to show them that he could run an ER. Finch tells him that his being able to do so, or not, has no bearing on his surgical career, and Benton tells her that his inability to perform in the ER today reflects poorly on him. She tells him he can't be perfect at everything, and drawls, "So, do you feel better having said this to a sympathetic ear?" Good thing she had the sympathetic one turned to him, and the supersonic one on the other side, today. He admits that he does, and thanks her. She replies, "You know, I've had some problems, and I haven't had anyone to talk to." That's patently untrue. Microsoft has twenty-four-hour tech support. He stares, and she asks, "Are you ever going to be there for me? Because you sure as hell haven't been." She pays her bill and books. He sighs. Dude, you are SO better off.
Lisa knocks on a hotel-room door. Luka asks who it is, and opens the door when she identifies herself. He opens the door, looking...okay. So hot. He's all pale, right? And sad. And dark. And he's got these big dark circles under his eyes -- but on him, it works. And he's in this ribbed sweater that hangs just so, and jeans that...ditto, and...damn. He is a sight. A sight for me to gaze at with the image paused. Ahhhh. Hello. Anyway, Lisa asks him whether she may come in, and he waves her in, saying, "Sure." He gives his inner demon a roll of quarters and tells them to go play videogames by the pool. It's half-dark in the room, and he stands for a minute, hesitating, scratching his jaw and looking down, before sitting down on the arm of an easy chair, which puts his head about level with her neck. "Abby," he sighs, and she tells him, "You don't have to talk." She takes a step forward, and after a beat, he takes hold of the lapels of her jacket and pulls her closer, resting his head against her chest. She laces her fingers at the back of his neck and holds him, and then he strokes her cheek, and they kiss. Wow.
The silent moment is broken by some shitty singers screaming at me to "FREE [my] MIND" with a Hyundai Elantra. But after that, CTV claims that, week on ER, Warner Bros. will report huge losses to their operating budget as Sally Field chews her way through all the scenery on the County General set.