Rescue Me

Props to Glark for writing the recaplet, and to Sars for inviting us to Thanksgiving dinner with her folks, for putting up with our flatulent asses for a whole week, and for taping this episode at the Sars Family Seat while I slumbered upstairs. I got a migraine. Is that a triptophan side effect?

Previously on ER: Sally Field showed up and freaked out; Weaver divined that Sally was bipolar, and Abby confirmed that she had been since Abby was a kid; Weaver brought Kim down for a consult, and Sally told Kim that she didn't need a psychiatrist; an Australian dude told Elizabeth he didn't want back surgery, so she told him she recommended an outpatient procedure instead; that procedure went awry when Elizabeth went out of town; Benton's nephew was brought into the ER, with gunshot wounds, and Benton couldn't save him; Jackie let out a primal scream that still sends chills up my spine. Oh, and Sars did a stellar job pinch-hitting for me, but after one week with the Capeside whiners, I am so glad to be back here. ["Right back atcha, babe. And, JANE! STOP THIS CRAZY THING!" -- Sars]

Fade up on the living room at Jackie's house, where Peter "Grand" Benton is simultaneously singing and signing "The Wheels on the Bus" with Reese, who's having a blast. Jackie -- in a bathrobe and slippers and with her head covered with a long and straggly red scarf -- shambles into the room, crosses her arms, and tries to fade into the wallpaper. After a moment, Benton notices her and greets her with a hearty, "Hey!" She flatly says she'll go make breakfast, but he stops her and says he'll do it, suggesting that she go back to sleep. She wearily tells him that "there's no point." He offers to write her a prescription to help her sleep, but she drones, "No, no, no, no." "Walt still asleep?" asks Benton. Yeah, asleep in Johnnie Cochran's bed, last I checked. Okay, seriously, Ving Rhames is obviously too big a star to come back to the show now; if they couldn't get him back to do a guest shot when his fictional son is violently killed, clearly, he's never coming back. Why not give Walt a job in Milwaukee or something and stop with all this "he's asleep" foolishness? Oh, Jackie brought her son to the hospital. Where's Walt? Uh, parking the car. Jackie and Benton are at the funeral. Where's Walt? He's standing behind that tree, but he's here. I mean, really. The viewers are not stupid. Either bring back Rhames, or write Walt out of the show, please. Anyway, Benton tells Jackie that he was planning to come home early from the hospital and help her with dinner. She says she thought he was going to Finch's, and he diffidently replies, "I don't have to." Without meeting his eye, she tells him that she isn't planning a big dinner, and that he should "please go." Benton tells Jackie that he'd rather be with her (and Walt, who I'm guessing would spend most of the meal out in the driveway, working on the car), and she braces herself against the countertop, with her back to him, and repeats, her voice breaking, "Please. Go." He takes a step toward her and touches her shoulder, gathering her into his arms as thunder crashes outside. Nice job by both actors there.

Over at Villa Valium (a.k.a. Mark's and Elizabeth's house), Elizabeth "Up the Spout" Corday is looking through the kitchen cupboards for the Tylenol, and Mark "Dizzy Gillespie" Greene tells her there isn't any left. Blah did you put it on the blah list blah domestic blah bling blah. She asks him reproachfully whether his neck is "still" bothering him (his neck was bothering him? Whatever), and he tells her that he knows the cure is "no more hockey games." He sets a plate of eggs and ham before her on the island (nice island), and she looks down at the plate and nauseatedly tells him that she's "just not hungry." He cheerfully takes her plate for himself and tells her that she should have an appetite later that night, when he'll be "grilling filet mignon and baking potatoes." Dude. I still haven't had lunch. Don't hurt me like that. She expresses surprise that he won't be cooking all the usual Thanksgiving fare, and he reminds her, "We did that last year." The doorbell rings and she goes to get it, continuing to list the Thanksgiving foods they won't be having. Elizabeth? If you're that psyched about a turkey dinner with all the trimmings -- and, believe me, I feel you -- go to Boston Market, already. She opens the door and a dude shivering in his coat asks, "Dr. Elizabeth Corday?" She tells him it is she, and he hands her an envelope, wishing her a happy Thanksgiving. Mark asks her what it is, and she says it's "some sort of letter. It says, 'Notice to the defendant.' Oh my god, I'm being sued for malpractice!" Wah wah. Who knew that a nation founded by convicts could be so litigious?

Elsewhere, Abby "Lisa" Lockhart drives her mother, Maggie "Sally" Wyczenski, through the rain in an SUV that's...all...red inside? What the --? It's like a hard plastic suitcase from the '60s -- and not in a good way. Sally keeps shooting Lisa these anxious glances, and plays at her lips like she's about to say something, and then doesn't; Lisa studiously ignores her. Sally finally busts out, "I'll keep taking my medication. I...I won't be a burden." Lisa has no response but to drum her fingers on the steering wheel. Sally begs, "At least let me stay through the weekend." This plea is also met with stony silence. Sally blurts, a mile a minute, "I can't go back I lost my job at the department store your brother's not even talking to me." We get a shot of Lisa's SUV (red on the outside, as well) pulling up beside the Greyhound station, and then cut back inside in time to hear Sally volley, "You can't throw me out, I'm your mother!" Okay, I know you don't get along, but you drive an SUV and you can't put your mother on a plane? Please. With a detachment that makes it clear she's pretending she's been deaf throughout the car ride, Lisa chirps, "I put the bus ticket and some money in your purse. And, uh, you'll have to find a job as soon as you get there!" Sally, her face melting, tells Lisa that, being in Chicago a week, she's seen how hard things are for Lisa, and that she can't in good conscience leave Lisa alone. Lisa looks down and then back up, wearily smirking, "We've been through this." Sally, desperate, raises her voice a little: "I just want to be here for you!" Lisa actually leans over Sally to open the passenger door and curtly says, "I have to go." She places a balled-up warm-weather-weight trench coat in Sally's lap and tells Sally to take it. The door hanging open, Sally tells Lisa, "I love you." Lisa looks down again, and doesn't reply. Sally gathers her things and hops out, teetering on the rainy sidewalk in some totally inappropriate platform mules. The door closes, and Lisa takes a short moment to collect herself before putting the truck in gear and pulling away from the curb. Sally tents the coat over her head and flatly repeats, to the departing truck, "I love you."

Phew, thank god she's gone. I assume. I mean, she's at the bus station, for crying out loud!

Here's my question about The Family Man (other than "Jesus, why?"): even in a parallel universe, how the fuck does a New Jersey tire-store employee afford a house that big? ["Mob connections." -- Sars]

What the hell? Sears had a big sale the day after Thanksgiving? Good grief, it's a good thing they advertised it, because otherwise how would anyone know?

In the lounge, Benton puts Reese's coat in his locker. Cleo "Mavis Beacon Teaches Stereotyping" Finch enters and casually greets them: "Hey, guys." So they're...back together? Whatever, ER writers. After all that nonsense about her having no one to listen to her boring technical problems two weeks ago? Anyway, she effusively signs "good morning" to Reese, which greeting he returns (and, naturally, he's much cuter doing it than she). Benton gruffly observes that she's "getting good at that," and in that offhand yet meaningful way people have, she says she's "been practicing." Anyway, she makes a big production of cooing over Reese, and it's established that they're planning to go to Finch's cousin's house, and that Finch's parents have flown in from...somewhere, and that Benton's never met them but he's allegedly looking forward to it. Finch asks how Jackie is, and Benton makes a noncommittal noise. Finch makes sure that Jackie won't have a problem with Peter's being away for dinner, and Benton tells her that Jackie practically shoved him bodily out of the house. Finch says she's sorry Jackie doesn't want Benton around, and rather than get into it, Benton says he has to take Reese up to the day care centre. Benton and Finch peck awkwardly. I have to ask again when, how, and why these two got back together. I just do not see it. They're not even friendly.

At the desk, Kerry "Indigo Girl" Weaver bellows, "Chen and Carter are late." "It's pouring outside," Randi offers by way of excuse for them. Weaver actually says, "When I was a resident, I always left early during inclement weather," a speech along with which Randi mouths behind Weaver's back. Heh, nice touch. Jing-Mei "Deb" Chen and John "Rear Projection" Carter arrive together, both soaked to the skin and apologizing for their lateness. Weaver immediately connects them both with waiting patients, tells them that Luka is on and Mark will arrive in an hour, and books, but not before passing Kim "Mitchell" Legaspi and her nasty-ass hair, accompanying a patient protectively cradling a live turkey in his arms. Mitchell dismissively says that her patient is "delusional" and that he "threatened to blow up his neighbour's house" before asking Weaver whether she did something different with her hair. Weaver sheepishly futzes with it a bit before saying that she hasn't, and Mitchell persists that Weaver looks "different somehow." Weaver says that it's the fact that she's wearing contact lenses, having broken her glasses. Hm. You know, Djb (sort of) watched the season premiere of this show through his broken glasses, at my house, as I mentioned in the recap of same. COINCIDENCE or SHOUT-OUT? Mitchell heads toward the elevators and Weaver continues forward, running into Lisa. Weaver asks how Sally's doing, and Lisa says she's "better" and that "she left for Florida" that morning -- the "better," I'm thinking, proceeding more from Lisa's state of mind having her gone, than actually representing Sally's mental status at the moment. Lisa goes on to apologize for the spectacle Sally made of herself the other day, and Weaver gently and frankly tells Lisa not to apologize: "She has a disease. Nothing to be ashamed of."

Weaver books, and Lisa rolls her cart on into a trauma room, where Luka "Death Works a Holiday" Kovac is hunched over the bed, going through charts. Lisa stops dead (heh) in the doorway at the sight of him, and then pushes on, bravely greeting him: "Hi." He greets her with a "hey" and asks, "Did you put her on the bus?" Lisa chirps, "Yep," though she didn't, really, and then they talk over each other for a moment, each trying to invite the other out. They both stop at once, and chuckle, and he asks, "Dinner?" and she accepts, "Yeah." She asks whether he thinks "anything will be open," and he supposes Doc Magoo's will be. Lisa wrinkles her nose, and says that would be "kind of depressing on Thanksgiving." Oh, you do? Hey, Luka, I'm free. Scraps in the alley behind the A&P? Sure, what time? Luka doesn't offer any alternative, and Lisa suggests that she could cook, at her apartment. Luka seems about to accept when Lydia pushes in and says that a trauma's coming in -- a guy hit while riding a bike.