Props to Kim and J-Dawg, some of the best houseguests ever, and to Sars, even though she totally showed me up as a recapper with the twenty-four-hour turnaround this week. Yeah, Sars. We're all so impressed. JERK. (Just kidding. Jerk.)
Previously on ER: Abby's mother -- who is called Maggie but is played by Sally Field and is so indelibly Sally Field that I just can't call her anything but Sally -- unexpectedly showed up in Chicago; Abby told Sally she couldn't take care of her; Weaver figured out that Sally was bipolar; Sally started flirting with Luka, and when Abby offhandedly told him the flirting was part of Sally's disease, Sally physically attacked Abby, jamming her thumbs into Abby's cheeks, and then various ER staff administered Haldol as Sally shrieked; earlier, Sally told Abby she was sorry, and cried.
Before we see them, we hear John "Millhouse" Carter and Rena "Skipper" Trujillo discussing some tickets she wants to get. Evidently, she's trying to surprise him, because as we fade up (with a super reading "Friday" across their chests), he's guessing, "So it's either a sporting event or a concert." "No more hints!" she tells him, petulantly. They're both in workout attire and she's walking her dog, Norman. Abby "Lisa" Lockhart rolls up behind them, carrying a takeout cup of coffee, and says hi. Carter asks if she's on "swing," and she says she only has an hour left, before asking Rena if she's taking her dog to work. Rena says they're just picking something up. Lisa leans down and scratches Norman's head; Carter warns her not to let him get too close to her leg. Rena basically tells him to shut up. Insert non-witty banter about Norman's potential to hump Lisa's leg...here. Lisa straightens up and then groans. Carter asks what's wrong, and she points out a BMW parked by the ambulance-bay doors. Carter doesn't get it, and Lisa tells him to read the license plate. Rena gamely puts her newly mastered phonics skills to the test, sounding out, "Man o Med?" Lisa tells Carter it's Richard, and heads inside. Rena asks who Richard is, but we already know, so we don't have to hear the answer.
Lisa hurries inside, asking Randi, at the desk, whether there's a guy named Richard around. "Your ex?" Randi asks, in a tone that suggests that all the nurses were paged about this bit of news as soon as Richard made his appearance, and tells Lisa he's in the lounge, "talking to Dr. Kovac." Lisa's all, "Great," and takes off for the lounge, calling back over her shoulder that Randi should call Security, since there's a car illegally parked in the ambulance bay.
Lisa bursts into the lounge to find that Richard's made himself at home in an armchair, with his feet up on the table. In a jocular tone, he's telling Luka "Arch Support" Kovac, "She tried to quit three times while we were together; the last time, she gets addicted to the gum!" Resigned, Lisa sets her coffee down on the counter and asks him what he wants. He says she hasn't returned his calls. She says she hasn't been home. Richard pointedly turns to look at Luka; after a beat, Luka excuses himself. Richard says it was nice to meet him. At Luka, Lisa does that thing where you stretch out your lips like you're about to smile but then you stop just short of your cheeks actually pulling up the corners of your mouth. Often it's accompanied by raised eyebrows. In this case, Lisa winds it up by almost smirking. Once Luka's left the room, Richard tells Lisa, "Look, it's your mom. She's gone off the reservation again. She's holed up in a motel outside of Muskogee, Oklahoma." Lisa sort of deflates for a second, asking, "She called you?" Richard, looking stern but sounding weary, shakes his head and exposits, "No. Apparently, some guy that she's been travelling with pre-paid the room for a week, and then he split. That was three weeks ago. The manager of the hotel got your old number, which is my number, and took it out of her bag." Lisa looks down, trying not to cry, and in a breaking voice, asks, "What was he doing looking through her stuff?" Richard guesses he was looking for money: "He says she's all spaced out, she won't leave the room." Lisa seems to be flicking through a stack of mental index cards, trying to recall a similar incident in the past that would equip her to deal with this one; eventually, she asks Richard whether her mother is answering the door. Richard doesn't reply, and Lisa urgently repeats the question. Richard gets up and, a little sadly, tells her, "You should call this guy." Lisa presses her lips together. Richard sighs and says he's sorry. He leaves. Lisa angrily chucks her coat onto the chair and curses her cruel fate.
After the credits, Luka is examining a young woman who's caked in mud. He asks, "How did you fall?" "Greased...pigs?" she says haltingly. Another, slightly less muddy chick behind her giggles, "We were chasing greased pigs!" Less Muddy Chick is either drunk or powerfully stupid, or both. She goes on: "Tau Beta Chi against Gamma Psi Mu!" She proudly indicates the Greek letters emblazoned on her sweatshirt. Luka is evidently lucky enough not to be familiar with the asinine bonding rituals of the Greeks, because he asks whether they were participating in some kind of contest. Luka pokes around in Muddy Chick's mouth (she's broken some teeth) as Less Muddy Chick explains, "Oh yeah. And thanks to Tasha, Tau Beta kicked ass!" Her mouth still hanging open, with Luka's fingers in it, Tasha (formerly Muddy Chick) starts giggling and high-fives Less Muddy Chick. Luka understates, "Been drinking already, huh?" Tasha duhs, "It's Greek Week!" Luka finishes up, watching over Tasha's shoulder as Lisa places what is evidently an uncomfortable phone call. She hangs up, and Luka excuses himself from Muffy and Buffy to follow. Lisa stops when he calls her, and he quietly asks, "What did the guy say?" Lisa murmurs that her mother is definitely at the motel, and that "the guy" claims she owes him $800. Luka asks whether she has it, and she admits, "Not really." "I do," he tells her simply. She half-heartedly tries to decline his offer of help, but he insists and tells her not to give "the guy" a credit card number: "We'll wire the money." Lisa busts out her Black&Decker HandyOpener™ Cordless Can Opener to declare, "I told him I'd give it to him when I got there." Hey, where'd all those worms come from? Someone call Maintenance! Luka's all, "Huh?" Lisa looks all shifty and then says she's taking a red-eye. Immediately, she's on the move, the adrenaline having, apparently, kicked in. Luka hurries after her, trying to reason with her: "We'll call the local hospital, talk to a psychiatrist, and see if we can get the police to bring her in." Lisa hisses, "I can't put my mother in a lock-up in Oklahoma!" in a tone that suggests that a lock-up in Oklahoma is equivalent to a Turkish prison; the state of Oklahoma probably takes exception. Luka suggests that they could fly down once her mother's medicated, but Lisa snaps, "No, no -- if I have to commit her, it'll be easier to do it from Chicago. Trust me." Why? Because Southern psychiatrists treat their patients with a rigorous course of trepanation and leeches? Luka demands, "Why are you doing this?" "Because my mother's sick, Luka!" Lisa whines. Luka reminds her, "I know! I saw her! I saw what she did to you last time!" Chuny appears behind them at the end of the hall carrying a little plastic box, calling Luka to see a patient; Luka tells Chuny he'll be there in a second, and that she should go ahead and cast her line without him. Unless that box is a Caboodle, and she's about to try out an exciting new evening makeup palette. (What was with that box, anyway?) Lisa keeps walking, Luka keeping pace; she tells him she needs to see the nursing supervisor to try to change her shift. When they reach the stairs, Luka begs, "Don't go out there." "It's my problem," Lisa stubborns.
Valium Villa. Mark "Father Goose" Greene is puttering. Elizabeth "The Mother Load" Corday is unpacking. Why are you babyproofing? He'll be advanced for his age. We got more gifts. You didn't lift anything, I hope. It was light. Shut up. No, you shut up. I hate you. I'm telling Mom! Stay on your side! You're not the boss of me! Elizabeth presses her back against the refrigerator door and slides down into a vaguely yoga-looking squat. Mark asks what she's doing. She shifts her weight slightly from one foot to the other, swinging her hips back and forth, and says she's been sitting around for days: "I need to move."
County. Carter leads Norman down the hall. Passing Haleh, he defensively says, "I had to pee." "I didn't say anything," she snorts. Carter wanders in the direction of the desk, where Lisa's crankily trying to make travel arrangements. Carter leans on the counter and asks what Richard wanted. Lisa does that thing with the corners of her mouth again, and then blurts, "My mother has bottomed out [her voice catches] forty miles outside of Tulsa. And of all people, the motel owner had to call Richard." Behind them, a patient lying in a bed in the hall yells, "Hey!" They both ignore her. Carter asks Lisa, "Did you talk to her?" Lisa says that she's not picking up the phone, and won't come out of the room. The patient yells, "Hey, your dog!" Carter turns around to see that Norman's chewed through the bottom of a garbage bag. Carter jumps and tries to pull Norman away just as Rena comes down the hall screeching at Carter for bringing the dog inside. Carter tells her about the bathroom break he had to take, and Rena squeals, "Is that going to hurt him?" Carter claims the medical waste Norman's been eating is no more harmful than a "chili dog" Norman apparently ate earlier. Wow, great dog owner she is. Her parents should have explained what a big responsibility dogs are. You can't just flush them down the toilet if they get sick from eating the wrong foods, like when she gave Mountain Dew to her guppy that time. She fondly tells Norman, "No! No. Good boy." See? Bad pet owner. Carter asks whether she got the tickets, and she says she did, teasing, "So, am I going to have to call you a cab, or are you going to make it back?" Carter asks her to wait outside a minute. She asks why, and he lies that he's going to change the garbage bag. Returning to Lisa, Carter passes the eagle-eyed patient, who scolds, "Dog has no business in a hospital!" Carter lies some more, saying that Norman is a seeing-eye dog. On the phone, Lisa snaps, "Well, how many people are going to Oklahoma tonight?" She slams down the phone. Carter asks whether she's okay. Lisa tensely says she can't get a flight to Tulsa, nor even to anywhere close to Tulsa. Carter picks up the phone and dials, explaining that he has a really good travel agent. She must be spectacular if he knows her number off by heart. As he waits for her to pick up, he asks Lisa whether she wants to fly out tonight. She nods. The phone picks up and he asks for his agent, then asks Lisa, "Open return?" Lisa starts to nod again, and then remembers, "No, I have to drive her back." Carter asks why, and Lisa breathlessly babbles, "'Cause she can't fly, she can't handle flying." Carter asks, "You're going to drive her all the way back to Chicago by yourself?" Lisa nods twitchily. Carter needles, "Luka going with you?" She doesn't answer. Carter judges her a moment, and then his travel agent picks up; all cock-of-the-walk, he asks, "Any way that you could find me two one-way tickets to Tulsa?...Tonight." Lisa worries at her lips.
Basement at Valium Villa. God help me, Mark is rocking out. To "Come Sail Away" by Styx. Yeah, that's about right. Dork. He has the volume up so loud that he can't hear Elizabeth yelling for him until she pages him. Wah. She thinks she's in labour.
Luka examines another drunk sorority girl, who's asking whether she'll have a black eye. A drunken frat boy behind her snickers, "Piggy kick to the face. Bet that's a new one, Doc." Piggy Sister tells him it's not funny. Lisa appears to call Luka away, and he briefly tells Piggy Sister that her eye movement is intact, but that they'll have to take some x-rays to make sure there's no fracture. "He could have cracked my face?" Piggy Sister squeals. Luka says probably not, and suggests that the time she wrestles animals, she should be sober. He hands her an ice pack for her face and books. She pointedly says it wasn't her idea. Piggy Brother assures Sister that she's still the best-looking pig mud wrestler he knows. Golly, I sure hope the pig-related injuries are the worst Greek Week casualties, don't you?
In the lounge, Lisa blurts, "I'm taking an 11:40 flight to Tulsa." Luka asks her to hold on: "I checked. There's a psychiatric facility at St. John's Medical Center --" "Carter's coming with me," Lisa adds. Luka's all, "What?"
In the ambulance bay, Carter uses one-syllable words to fill Rena in about Lisa's mother. For some reason, the detail Rena fixates on is, "A motel room?" Yes. In a sentence including the phrase "bipolar disorder," "motel room" is the salient detail. Good thing you won't have to take the SATs for a while, because your basic comprehension skills could use some work, Rena. She asks why Carter has to go.
Lounge. "He offered to help. And I have to drive her back here, so..." "I offered to help," Luka comments. Lisa snits, "No, you offered to decide for me." Okay, that's absolutely not the case. Based on his medical training and experience -- hello, he is a doctor, after all -- Luka laid out the most sensible plan for getting Lisa's mother help as quickly and efficiently as possible, and he did so out of his concern for Lisa's safety, based on her mother's behaviour the last time he saw her. Remember? When Sally lunged at Lisa and basically tried to gouge her eyes out? In front of Luka and a roomful of doctors and nurses? And how Sally then fled the hospital like a fugitive? Luka tried to advise Lisa as an observer of the situation who was maybe a little less emotionally invested in it. Lisa is running on instinct and adrenaline at this point and possibly isn't thinking as clearly as one might require in such a situation. But instead of saying all of that, Luka neatly summarizes, "Your mother needs hospitalization, not a road trip with you and Carter!" So true. Lisa snaps, "Yeah, Luka, we're doing it for the fun of it. It's gonna be a blast." ["Not for us, it isn't." -- Sars]
Ambulance bay. Rena pouts that she had tickets to a Bulls game, and that she thought he'd like to go. Carter says he would. "Then let's go!" Rena nasals. Carter says that Lisa needs someone to go with her. Rena whines, "Why can't her boyfriend go with her?!" Um, because he has more sense? And, having already been in her pants, he doesn't need to manufacture new reasons to maneuver his way in them? CARTER?
Lounge. Luka wearily tells Lisa that her going is a mistake. Lisa barks, "Are you going to lecture me on this?" Luka says no. Lisa snaps, "Good. Because you have no idea what it's like. I grew up with this, and I don't want to be lectured on it." Luka insists that he's not lecturing, he's just trying to help.
Ambulance bay. Norman is barking like mad, and Rena's having a teeny, tiny, junior-miss-sized hissyfit: "You're spending the weekend with her!" "And her clinically depressed mother!" Carter squeaks. Rena pouts. Carter says he'll pay for the tickets. Rena says it's not about the tickets. Carter shrieks, "Shut up, Norman!" He seriously shrieks, like a woman. Rena yells at him not to tell Norman to shut up.
Lounge. Luka begs, "Don't put yourself in the position to get hurt again!" Lisa might as well bite him or poke him in the eye, so cheap is this cheap shot: "Well, you'd be the expert at that, wouldn't you?" Luka bites his lip and absorbs the blow. Lisa defensively yells, "I'm sorry!"
Ambulance bay. Rena's leaving. Carter yells after her, "I'm sorry!" "Go!" Rena yells back.
Lounge. Luka, backing out: "Okay, go." Lisa actually does look kind of sorry.
Elizabeth arrives at County and protests that she can walk. Mark tells her it's hospital policy that she use the wheelchair. Great, now she's literally a bitch on wheels. Three quarters of the ER staff get in her face as Mark wheels her to the elevator. It's nothing we haven't seen before. As the elevator doors close, Jing-Mei "Deb" Chen advises, "Don't be a hero: get the epidural." "We'll see," Elizabeth snits. Once the doors have closed, Chen knowingly says, "She'll get it." Haleh's like, "Girl, please. Of course she will."
Many hours later. Elizabeth is back on the ground floor, pouting that she's "so humiliated." Mark tells her that it was an honest mistake. Okay, hi, this is so stupid. Elizabeth is a doctor. I should think she would know that you are not in labour until your water breaks. I know the labour false alarm is a staple of predictable TV, but it doesn't really ring true when the mother is a doctor! God! Anyway, it's the same thing as before, only in reverse, with everyone wondering where the baby is. Elizabeth irritatedly throws her head back, and we get a shot, from her perspective, of the fluorescent lights on the ceiling rolling past. They fade into...
...the white lines on the highway, as a super tells us it's "Saturday." An ovary (tm Sars) butchers Cat Stevens's "Trouble" -- a shame, because it's a great song, used to great effect in Harold and Maude. Anyway, you all know that the highway is in Oklahoma, under a convertible bearing Carter and Lisa. Because when you're on your way to some podunk motel to forcibly remove your mentally ill mother, you want to feel the wind in your hair. Why, why would they rent a convertible? Sally's going to be all crazy and squirrelly; wouldn't a convertible be really easy for her to escape? I don't even know why they'd have a convertible in the context of the show; it's messed up the actors' hair so much that Carter looks like Pat Riley. I guess it's nice that the one stupid scene blended so seamlessly into the . Carter asks Lisa whether she slept on the plane; she didn't. There's a long silence (though still too short for this recapper's taste), and then Carter asks why Lisa's mother doesn't like to fly. Lisa tells him the story: during one of Sally's manic periods, she told Lisa and her brother that she'd take them to Disneyland. Carter guesses that, when they got to the airport, Sally wouldn't get on the plane. Lisa says that wasn't it: "When we were flying over Nevada, the pilot came over the PA, playing tour guide, and she freaked out. She was convinced we were flying over a nuclear test site, and she tried to open the emergency-exit door. It took two flight attendants and three passengers to restrain her. And they tied her up right there in the seat to me, and she screamed her head off all the way to Los Angeles." Okay, I know Sally's nuts, but that's exactly what you should be doing all the way to Los Angeles, if you know what's good for you. Carter asks, as a coda, whether they ever made it to Disneyland; of course, they did not. Trust me, it's no loss. Disneyland sucks.
The car pulls up at the Roll On Inn. Ha! I get it. Lisa's and Carter's hair is all windblown and, frankly, terrible. Carter turns off the car and they sit in silence for a moment. Lisa stagily declares, "Thirty years, and I still wonder." "Wonder what?" Carter asks. "What...brings her here," muses Lisa.
The manager (a.k.a. "The Guy") leads them to Sally's room, narrating, "He was an interstate trucker. Freelance, by the look of his rig. Stayed one night, prepaid the week, and then left. I figured he'd be coming back for her. She was ordering pizza for a while, and then nothing. Saw her by the candy machine a few times. Tried to talk to her; she didn't say nothing." They've reached the door; the manager moves to unlock it, but Carter asks whether they shouldn't knock first. Lisa leans against the doorjamb, her arms crossed. The manager snorts that she won't answer. Carter knocks, and calls Sally's name, telling her it's John Carter, that they met in Chicago, and that he has Lisa with her. There's no answer. He shoots Lisa a look like, "Uh. Little help?" Yeah, wouldn't Sally be more likely to respond to Lisa's voice than Carter's, if she were going to respond to anyone's? I don't think she even had a conversation with Carter, unless they exchanged pleasantries off-camera while he was injecting her with Haldol and strapping her to a bed. But Lisa just stands there like a sullen teenager. Why did she even come if she was going to be such a baby about it? Whatever, whatever, whatever. The manager's all, "Told you," and unlocks the door. Carter confidently says they'll take it from there. The manager doesn't care as long as someone intends to pay him. The door open, Carter gives Lisa an expectant look. Lisa is roused to motion.
Inside, things are pretty bad. The TV is on, but Maggie "Sally Field" Wyczenski isn't looking at it. Empty beer bottles are scattered around the room. Sally's lying on the bed, which has been stripped of its linens; she's gathered the sheets and blankets around herself in a little nest. She puts her hand up before her eyes to block the shaft of light from the open door. Lisa opens the curtains and sits on the bed. She lays a hand on Sally's arm and breathes, "Mom." Sally peeks at her and grunts, "God. Abby." Lisa presses her lips together.
In the motel-room bathroom, Lisa runs water in the tub while Sally droops on the toilet -- on the tank of which, by the way, are more empty beer bottles. Lisa moves over to Sally and starts undressing her; Sally flinches, but doesn't fight. Sally's clothes, by the way, are filthy. If that undershirt started out white, it's been through some tough times since then. Lisa asks whether Sally has any clean clothes. Sally doesn't answer. Lisa asks whether Sally knows where she is. Sally says she's in a motel. Lisa asks where the motel is, and Sally correctly replies that it's in Oklahoma. Carter knocks on the door and asks how Sally is; Lisa says she's "oriented, no focal findings." She asks him to bring in Lisa's bag from the car. Lisa asks Sally to raise her arms so that Lisa can take off Sally's undershirt. Sally protests, but she's too limp to present much of a challenge.
Outside, Carter's got the trunk open when his cell phone rings. He answers, asks who it is, and tells the caller that they're at the hotel, but that he hasn't seen Sally yet. He finishes by saying, "Yeah, I will." He hangs up and closes the trunk, whereupon he spots a couple of walking, talking stereotypes lurking outside Sally's room and staring at Carter. "What?" Carter asks. Yokel #1 flicks his head toward Sally's door and asks, "You related to her?" Carter doesn't answer, and heads inside, glaring as he walks past. I'm not sure whether we're supposed to gather from this question that, when Sally got very low, she slept with one or both of these guys for candy money. I have no frame of reference. You see, my mom never holed up in a hotel room after riding around with a trucker for god only knows how long. And I've always been grateful for that.
In the motel room, Carter listens at the bathroom door, hearing splashing. He tentatively knocks and calls to Lisa that he'll set her bag on the bed. She thanks him. He adds that Luka called, and said that Lisa could call him that night. Okay, here's a question: if that was Luka on the phone, why did Carter ask who it was? How many thickly accented Croatians are in the habit of using Carter's private cell-phone number? Cut to the bathroom; the tub is full, and Sally's sitting in it, hugging her knees, as Lisa wrings out a washcloth. Carter offers to go to a nearby diner and bring back some food. Lisa asks him to get some "eggs, maybe? And some toast." Carter says he'll be back, and waits for an answer. Getting none, he asks Lisa whether she'll be okay by herself. See, Luka would never leave Lisa alone with Sally. There's a long silence, after which Carter prompts her, again, for an answer. Impatiently, Lisa calls, "Yep!" Sally rests her chin on her knees. Lisa pets her head, and asks her to lean it back. Sally refuses, and then complies. Lisa pats at Sally's head with the washcloth. Sally seems to be crying, but it's hard to tell.
County. At the desk, Frank (ew, Frank) eats a sandwich and reads a magazine. Behind him, a middle-aged man in bed yells that he has to go to the bathroom. Unconcerned, Frank says that a nurse will help him. I.P. Non-Freely grits, "When?" Frank yells, "Soon," and then, spotting someone out of our visual range, growls, "You're late." Of course, the latecomer is "Dr." Dave Malucci. Frank says that Dr. Dave wouldn't have been late if Dr. Weaver were there. (But she isn't; her alter ego is busy directing this episode.) I.P. Non-Freely asks Dr. Dave to help him to the bathroom; Dr. Dave asks Frank to get I.P. Non-Freely a urinal, and Frank barks back that Dr. Dave should get a nurse to do it. Dr. Dave is too busy rushing to the ambulance-bay doors to attend to the evidently more interesting trauma on its way in. The short, male, Latino paramedic -- thank you, closed captions, for identifying him, at last, as "Morales" -- gives the bullet: "Frat boy. Jumped roof to roof. Didn't quite make it." Some lunkhead trailing behind the gurney defensively corrects Morales: "It's 'fraternity.'" Dr. Dave, no stranger to the effects of fine wine and spirits, asks Trailing Lunkhead, "Yeah, you had a few, man?" Trailing Lunkhead snickers that he "stopped counting yesterday." The guy on the gurney groans that he can't walk on either leg, and Trailing Lunkhead (who I now see is played by Zachery Ty Bryan, a.k.a. Brad from Home Improvement) blusters, "Reed, you baby, Pete's the one really messed up!"
In the trauma room, Pam tells Chen Reed's vitals, and moves aside. Peter "Electric Dreams" Benton enters and asks, "Fall from height?" Pam says it was from a second storey, maybe twenty feet. Brad (formerly Trailing Lunkhead) says that the losers couldn't clear six feet. Noting the cuts and scrapes on his face, Chen comments, "Looks like you had trouble, too." Brad replies that he was the only one who made it. Benton asks Reed how he fell, and Reed duhs, "I jumped!"
Oklahoma. Sally is dressed, her hair still wet, looking very haggard indeed. Lisa is using the washcloth to clean off the dresser. When the camera pulls back, we can see that Lisa's cleaned the whole room; the bedding is neatly folded in a stack beside Sally, and all the garbage has been collected. Clearly, she's used to performing damage control in order to protect Sally from (further) public humiliation. Carter enters with the food, saying there was no toast: "Hope you like biscuits." 'Cause they're in The South. Where people eat biscuits and grits and stand outside insane women's hotel rooms in their dirty jeans and baseball caps asking whether strangers are related to her. It's not like Chicago, see, where nothing bad ever happens and people know how to behave and how to eat. The South made Sally crazy, for heaven's sake! Carter greets Sally and reminds her of his name. Sally makes this exaggerated "whatever" smile, because she couldn't possibly care less who Carter is and whether they've met before. We can see, behind Carter, that there's some kind of filth on the wall; it's too dark in the room to see of what nature it is, though. I'm guessing flung food. Lisa continues bustling about cleaning, and Carter tells her she doesn't have to: "I gave the guy a little extra money for the mess." Lisa appears not to hear him, and continues cleaning -- almost manically, one might say. Carter tells her again that he took care of it, and she finally straightens up. He asks if she's hungry; she says she's not, but that Sally needs to eat. She pulls a chair up to the foot of the bed and opens one of the styrofoam food containers, telling Sally it's time to eat. Sally refuses, like a petulant child. Lisa dishes up a forkful and holds it out for Sally to eat; Sally bats at it and the food lands on the floor. Lisa angrily says, "Okay, well, we're ready to go, then," making a complete waste of the giant box of food Carter just brought back. There's some back and forth about whether Sally's staying in the motel room or coming back to Chicago with them; Lisa finally tries to end the deadlock by getting all up in Sally's grill and yelling, "Get up! Get off the bed, now!" Carter says Lisa's name in a warning tone, and Lisa looks back at him, intensely, giving him a single cautioning head-shake, all, "You're out of your element, Donny!" Lisa turns back to Sally and says that if she won't leave, they'll have to carry her out to the car. She orders Carter to do so. Sally cries variations on "let me stay" and "why won't you let me stay?" for, like, five minutes as they leave the room and get into the car. "Seat belt?" Carter asks. "No. Just go," says Lisa. They peel out. Okay, so, Lisa didn't want the local authorities to deal with her mother, presumably because she thought they'd be too mean and rough. Unlike Lisa's TLC here? Lisa is so resentful and mean -- not that I blame her, but I should think that was all the more reason for Lisa to abdicate the responsibility to someone else. I don't see how what Lisa's done so far is any less disruptive than anything the cops might have done. And Carter got stuck with the bill.
County. Benton gives Chuny some final instructions regarding Reed. Chuny asks, "Do you want a Foley?" Benton does: "Let's give this idiot a tube in every orifice!" Hee. I.P. Non-Freely is still begging someone to take him to the bathroom. Moving toward him, Benton passes Haleh sitting with a chart. He asks her to take I.P. Non-Freely to the bathroom, and she firmly replies, "In a minute." When Benton gets close to him, I.P. Non-Freely says, "Benton, right? Peter Benton." Benton, not recognizing him, asks, "Have I seen you before?" I.P. Non-Freely says Benton has. Benton asks what for, and I.P. Non-Freely says, "I believe it was an exploding condom." That's, like, every other patient in here; you'll have to narrow it down. Benton's all, "Excuse me?" I.P. Non-Freely lowers his voice and says, "You filled a condom with gas from a Bunsen burner...." Benton twigs: "Mr. Ferris!" He vigorously shakes hands with Mr. Ferris (formerly I.P. Non-Freely), and they catch up; Mr. Ferris was Benton's high-school Science teacher. Benton offers to take Mr. Ferris to the bathroom himself.
As they slowly make their way to the bathroom, Benton asks how Mr. Ferris is doing. Mr. Ferris says he's been all right until the last month, when he had a stroke. Benton asks what caused it, and Mr. Ferris says it was atrial fibrillation. He's at the hospital today because he had his teeth cleaned and his gums won't stop bleeding. Benton basically offers to give Mr. Ferris the VIP treatment.
Oklahoma. Sally sleeps in the back seat as Cat Stevens's "Oh Very Young" cloys...I mean "plays" on the stereo. Lisa turns it down and tells Carter, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have let you come here. You shouldn't have to deal with this." Carter lies that it's "no problem" and asks, "Is this as bad as it gets? Has it been worse?" Lisa considers and says, "It's always different. Sort of. Or maybe I'm different. Your perspective changes from seven to...to twenty. [chuckles mirthlessly] Although, it was pretty bad the time she locked herself in the garage and turned on both cars." Carter brilliantly deduces that "she's been suicidal." Lisa confirms it. Carter asks how many times, and Lisa clarifies, "Seriously? Two times." She leans forward to turn up the stereo, and settles back, smiling ruefully. The car drives.
Benton treats some other frat moron, Adam, who cut a tendon in his hand with a broken beer bottle. Adam sheepishly admits that he was stupid. Benton guesses that it's Greek Week. Adam, who I hope is not majoring in anything that leads to a life-and-death career, marvels, "How'd you know?" Well, Adam, for one, you're wearing a sweatshirt with Greek letters across the chest. For another, as Benton notes, "You smell like you slept in a beer garden." Benton irrigates the wound as Adam says that he actually slept in a car trunk. He starts, and leans off the end of the bed to vomit. Benton, disgusted, "So you were locked in a trunk?" Adam says it's "a pledging thing." Benton sniffs, "And that's supposed to make you feel like a man?" Adam doesn't know: "It's tradition." Benton asks how the bottle got broken, and Adam says he was pounding it against the inside of the trunk, and that he'd panicked. Benton tells Adam -- who in addition to being a moron has never read a book or watched a TV show -- that he experienced claustrophobia. Adam sucks, "But I knew they'd come back! They did last time!" Benton, incredulous: "You did this before?" Adam says he's pledging again: "I didn't make it through last time." Benton suspends judgment, saying simply, "I guess you really want this, huh?" Adam claims that the assholes who locked him in the trunk of a car with nothing but a bottle of beer are "good guys." Down the hall, we can hear Elizabeth henpecking Mark. Benton excuses himself.
Benton runs over to Mark and Elizabeth, who are arguing about who's the better judge of whether she's ready to give birth. Benton helps them into an elevator, asking Elizabeth whether she got any sleep. "Do I look rested?" she shrieks. Have a nice labour, Elizabeeotch. I hope the baby gets lost inside you and tries to come out your asshole.
Diner somewhere between Tulsa and Chicago. Lisa orders a chef's salad for herself, and a cup of pea soup for Sally. Sally crabs that she only wants coffee. Lisa tells her she has to eat something. Sally reluctantly orders "pie," and Lisa decides that's all right as long as Sally has a glass of milk with it. Sally, by the way, is sitting at the counter between Lisa and Carter, and Carter looks just delighted about that. The waitress leaves, and Carter tells them that they're thirty miles from Springfield. He points out that the major city is St. Louis, unless they want to stay in a town called Lebanon. No one laughs at his teeny, tiny witticism, so he changes tack by asking Sally how she ended up in Oklahoma. Lisa smirks sadly and tells Carter, "Don't bother." Sally snaps, "He can talk to me if he wants." Lisa says, "Fine. How'd you end up in Oklahoma?" "None of your business," Sally pouts. Wah. Lisa reaches into her bag and produces a bottle of pills, which she sets in front of Sally. Sally covers her face and groans, "What's that?" Lisa says it's Depakote. Sally juveniles, "You can't make me!" Lisa says she doesn't want to make her; she wants Sally to take them on her own. She opens the bottle and sets a single pill in front of Sally. Sally resists for a moment, angrily staring at it, and then swallows it, chasing it with a sip of water. The waitress brings Sally's pie and milk. "Mm," says Carter encouragingly. Shut up, Carter. Sally gets up, saying she has to go to the bathroom. Lisa gets up automatically. Sally angrily tells Lisa she's fit to go alone. Lisa doesn't argue, just follows silently.
In the bathroom, Sally babbles that she's not a child, and that it's only a bathroom and that there's nothing bad she could do. She angrily asks whether Lisa intends to follow her into the stall; Lisa doesn't, and remains outside, lighting a cigarette. She stands outside the stall, apparently trying to listen for the sound of Sally's either peeing, or somehow disposing of her pill. But there's nothing but silence. Lisa smokes, looking put-upon. Lisa? You didn't have to come, so get off the freaking cross already so I can use the wood to club you.
Carter and Lisa sit on either side of a hotel wall, each of them on the phone.
Carter: Somebody needed to come. We needed to start her on her medication.
Lisa: How long does it usually take to reach therapeutic levels?
Carter: Sometime tomorrow night. It's ten hours to Chicago.
Lisa: I know! I'll take her to my house, and I'm trying to get her to Psych intake on Monday.
Carter: Well, are you working on Monday?
Lisa: No, I'll switch shifts.
Carter: Well, what about Monday night?
Lisa: [getting up and seeing that the bed behind her is empty] Luka, I'm gonna have to call you back.
Carter: Why?!
Lisa: I'll call you back!
See what they did there? They made it seem like they were talking to each other, but slightly at cross-purposes. But Lisa was talking to Luka all along; Carter's obviously talking to Rena, whose parents are probably going to ground her if they find out she's on the phone in the middle of the night. The camera follows Lisa as she moves to the doorway and asks Carter, "Where'd she go?" Carter briefly interrupts his argument to ask Lisa, "Who?" Why, former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, of course. Not. What other "she" have you been hanging with lately, Sir Laurence Oblivier? Lisa walks past him and goes out to the balcony. Sally's leaning her elbows on the railing, looking out; we can faintly hear kids laughing (and, again, aren't we supposed to think it's really late?). Lisa quietly says, "I thought I locked that door." "I unlocked it," Sally calmly replies. Lisa crosses her arms against the cold and cautiously stands at Sally's side, saying, "Okay." "I needed some air," Sally adds. "Okay!" Lisa repeats. "Okay," Sally says decisively. Sally looks about a thousand years old as she points and asks Lisa, "See that family down there? Those two little boys over there -- they're fighting by the pool, do you see them? And I think that must be their parents over there, having a cocktail." Her voice breaks as she goes on, "I watch people like that for hours. People doing their marketing, tying their shoes. Just doing routine things that probably bore them to tears. I think how lucky they are. They have...they have ordinary lives!" Sally swipes at her eyes with her fingers, and Lisa leans in to nag, "You could be like them!" Sally protests that she couldn't. Lisa insists that she could, if she took her medication. Sally repeats that she couldn't: "I did everything I could think of. I got married. I had two kids. I tried to fool everyone that I was just like them. God, why did you come, Abby?" Lisa seems not to remember the answer, and after a long pause, says, "Because you needed me." Hopelessly, Sally declares, "There's no one here to save."
Road. Convertible. "Sunday." David Gray's "Babylon" plays on the stereo. Here's a question: in an episode called "Sailing Away," if you're going to use a David Gray song, why not use the one called "Sail Away"? Granted, it's not the bouncy pop hit "Babylon" is, but come on! Sally is stretched out across the back seat as Lisa offers to "talk to her." Carter asks, "What would you say?" Lisa, blithely: "That I asked you to come with me to help me with my mother." "You didn't ask me to come with you," Carter points out. Lisa dismissively tells him to send Rena some flowers when he gets back, and things will be fine. Carter doesn't think so. Lisa cracks, "She's young. If you're going to get involved with a teenager, you have to expect a little drama." Um. Yeah. Because what this whole road trip proves, if nothing else, is how your own life is completely drama-free, Lisa. Right? Carter curts, "We broke up." Lisa can't believe it. Carter clarifies, "She broke up," and says it happened last night, over the phone. Lisa can't believe they broke up "over a basketball game." Carter hesitates a moment, and then admits, "Over you." Lisa breezily says, "That's silly! What does she think -- we're having an illicit affair, or something?" Carter says, "No, just that I have a crush on you." Lisa resolutely does not ask whether he actually does. Carter mutters, "Whatever. It's not like the relationship didn't have its obstacles." Lisa, looking straight ahead, says she wouldn't want them to break up over her. Carter jokes, "Face it -- you're a homewrecker." Lisa studies his profile, and then turns away, smiling. I would like to know exactly how brain-damaged a woman would have to be to make the leap from Luka to Carter -- especially the Carter we've seen this season, with the endless damn smirking.
County. Mark carries a baby down the hall. Dr. Dave comes up behind him with a box of cigars. Mark takes them. Dr. Dave congratulates him. Mark says her name is Ella. Dr. Dave asks to hold her...and Mark says no. He says no. He refuses to let Dr. Dave -- who's just probably gone out of his way to get Mark a box of celebratory cigars, and who, despite his many faults, has never exhibited an inability to treat children appropriately -- hold his baby for two freaking seconds. Seriously, between the Weaver wedding snub and this, I have to wonder whether Mark and Elizabeth think that they practise medicine in a plastic bubble, because they seem to be making a special effort to find new ways to irritate and alienate their colleagues. As for this particular instance, it's pure pettiness, and Dr. Dave's poor, dumb feelings are clearly hurt; he faintly asks, "Why can't I hold her?" and Mark snots, "Go away, Dave!" He tells him to go away. I just...I'm at a loss. I mean, considering that Mark and Elizabeth can barely tolerate each other's company, I think they're going to be very sad, indeed, when they realize that there isn't one person left at County who can stand either one of them.
Mark brings the baby into Elizabeth's room. She's all annoyed because she's just hung up with Mama Corday, who's coming back to town to help with the baby. Okay, I like Judy Parfitt and I think her Mama Corday is very funny, but really, she's not exactly sweeps-calibre stuntcasting. I assume she won't actually be on-camera when she's "in town." Elizabeth is nervous because the nurse hasn't taught her how to breastfeed yet. She kind of freaks out. Mark tells her she'll be fine. Don't care.
Somewhere between Oklahoma and Chicago. Lisa's just finished gassing up the car. Sally dozes in the back seat. Lisa gets into an altercation with some gas-station yokel who's just stuck a nail in her tire to try to extort $15 from them by "fixing" it. As she and Carter fight with the yokel, Sally gets out of the car and starts making her way toward the road. Lisa chases after her and stops her just before she gets flattened by an eighteen-wheeler. Sally's all, "What?" Lisa asks what she's doing, and Sally says she's hungry. Lisa sees that there's a little convenience store across the road, and says she'll go with her.
In the store, Lisa tosses an oddly heavy-sounding burrito into a microwave. Sally picks out some Twinkies™, but Lisa gets her an egg salad sandwich instead. They go to the counter, where Sally accusatorily points out, "You're getting a Slurpee." Lisa relents and gets Sally a Twinkie, adding some cigarettes for herself. Sally drawls that smoking is a "nasty habit." Lisa says she knows. She pays the cashier and goes back to the microwave to retrieve her burrito. When she's gone, and the cashier's busy at the till, Sally furtively reaches forward, grabs several boxes of something displayed on the counter (it looks like gum to me), and gets away with it.
Back at the gas station, Lisa and Carter drink their Slurpees and wait outside the bathroom. Lisa thinks she might be paranoid. Carter points out that Sally was close to traffic. Lisa says it's hard not to overreact. Carter says she's better today. Lisa snorts that she couldn't really be worse. Yokel comes around the corner to say he's all done fixing the tire. Carter leaves, and Sally comes out of the bathroom, asking how much longer they have before they reach Chicago. Lisa says it'll be a few more hours. Sally earnestly thanks her for coming.
County. Mr. Ferris is back in his street clothes. Benton gives him some final instructions before signing his chart and saying he'll see Mr. Ferris on Friday. They shake hands, and Mr. Ferris leaves. Cleo "*batteries not included" Finch, standing behind the desk, compliments Benton's "dispo skills," saying that she couldn't find anyone to take Mr. Ferris back. Benton says that he promised to do Mr. Ferris's blood tests. "Every other day?" Finch asks. Benton rogers that. Finch asks since when Benton does house calls. Benton tells her that he owes Mr. Ferris a lot; he should have been expelled for the condom explosion, but that Mr. Ferris let him serve a month's worth of detention instead. He says the experience changed the way he thought about "school, science -- everything." He gets in the elevator, and just as the doors are closing, Finch swoops in to give him a peck. He asks what that was for, and she smirks, "School, science, everything."
Convertible. Night. That same song that was playing when Lisa was getting ready to go to that gala with Carter is on the stereo as she giggles, "You did not!" Carter insists that he did. Lisa repeats, "You did not!" and Carter chuckles, "Why would I make that up?" Lisa: "You got a perm?" HA HA HA! Hee. Carter admits, "Twice." Lisa guffaws, "Twice!" Carter defends himself by saying he was in junior high: "That was the style!" Lisa snickers, "I don't know what planet you grew up on, but I do not remember perms on boys ever being popular." Uh, am I the only one who remembers Mike Brady? Carter insists that it was. Lisa says she'd like to see pictures, and Carter says he burned them all. Lisa's still fixated on the "twice" part: "So that means you thought it looked good the first time." The car rolls to a stop in front of Lisa's building. Both glance into the back seat and see that Sally's "still out." Carter says he thinks she'll be all right alone with Sally. Luka wouldn't think that! Lisa sincerely says, "I really want to thank you again for doing this." Carter doesn't say anything, so Lisa adds, "You didn't have to." Carter tries to play it off: "I'd never seen Oklahoma before." Lisa stops him: "No." Carter smiles. Lisa says, "I mean it." Carter gets out and says he'll help them inside. Lisa sort of shudders -- I guess at the relief of having the ordeal over -- and calls for Sally to wake up. There's no response, so she calls Sally's name again. Finally she leans into the back seat and starts shaking Sally. There's still no response. The Timpani of Impending Trauma starts up on the soundtrack as Lisa leaps out of the car and gets Carter. She moves the passenger-side front seat and Carter climbs inside, calling Sally's name. Sally finally manages a guttural noise. Lisa says that Sally's pupils are dilated "about nine millimeters." Also, Lisa's no dummy; she guesses, "Did she take something?" They confirm that neither saw Sally "take anything." Carter says she's "tach-y." Her pulse is 130. Carter sees no sign of head injury, and Lisa insists, "She took something!" Carter asks where she got "something," and Lisa yells at him to call the paramedics. Carter gets into the driver's seat, telling Lisa they'll be able to get to the hospital before the paramedics reach them. Lisa climbs into the back seat as Carter tells her to keep Sally's chin up. They peel out.
County. Luka has evidently been alerted that Sally's on her way in, because he's urgently giving orders to Chuny that sound to me like they're getting ready to pump Sally's stomach. We can hear a car horn honking outside. Haleh hurries up to Luka and says, "They're here." Luka yells back for Chuny to "get her a unit bed!" and runs outside.
In the ambulance bay, the convertible roof is down, even though it was up at Lisa's house. So as they were speeding over to County, hoping Sally wouldn't die, they thought they'd do it with a little style and maybe try to impress other motorists. But I guess now I know why they got a convertible; it would be easier to film these scenes with an open roof than to try to mount multiple cameras around a regular car. Anyway, Carter gets out and tells Lisa to turn Sally's head if she starts to vomit. Lisa says, "She's cyanotic." Luka comes out at this point and he and Carter jargon a moment before lifting Sally out of the car. Lisa tells them that Sally's completely unresponsive. Luka calls for a mask. Lisa says she thinks Sally's airway is clear.
They wheel Sally into a trauma room, where Luka orders a bunch of tests and people yell things. It's all very tense. Lisa is right in there calling out Sally's status. Carter determines that Sally has no gag reflex. He orders some Pavulon. Haleh reaches into Sally's right sock and finds an empty, light-blue cardboard package, one of those Sally stole earlier. Haleh reads that it contained Diphenhydramine; a quick web search tells me Diphenhydramine is found in antihistamines and motion-sickness medications. Anyway, everyone freezes. Luka asks Haleh, "How many are missing?" Haleh opens the package and checks the blister seals: "All of them. Twelve to a sheet, three sheets." Lisa looks guilty. Luka calculates, "Twenty-five times thirty-six..." "That's nine hundred milligrams," Carter figures. Lisa silently starts to cry. Luka tells Carter to hurry up with whatever he's doing. Carter asks for crichoid pressure. They make with the charcoal. Luka asks Lisa whether she wants to be in there; by way of answer, she reads off some of Sally's test results. Luka repeats Lisa's name. She insists she's okay.
Elsewhere, Doris comes in with a bed containing Adam, the claustrophobic frat pledge, and gives Finch and Lily the bullet: "Nineteen-year-old male, passed out from multiple shots of tequila, wasn't breathing when we got there." Finch asks how long he was down, and Doris says it was a while: "They thought he was sleeping it off." Finch asks, "What's with the writing?" Cut to Adam's face; he has "LOSER" written across his forehead and a moustache drawn on his upper lip. Given the moustache, I'm going to go out on a (dirty) limb and guess that this was a variation on the "Dirty Sanchez," and that the writing and moustache are made out of...um, poo. But that isn't spelled out for us (as it were). Doris said that Adam's frat brothers did it, and that they were trying to clean it off when the paramedics arrived. Lily says that Benton splinted Adam the day before. Finch can't get a radial pulse, and Doris says there's nothing at the neck, either. Passing near the elevators, Finch sees Benton standing there and yells, "Peter, was this your patient?" Benton jogs over just as Adam goes into v-tach. Benton asks what happened, and Doris tells him Adam had too much to drink. Benton shocks Adam with portable paddles, while they're still moving into a trauma room, and asks Doris, "How much?" Doris only knows that they were having "a shot contest." They shock him a few more times. Adam gets worse. Benton yells for someone to call the frat and get someone to come in and explain what happened.
Chuny enters Sally's trauma room mid-charcoal. Lisa works the ventilator. Luka tells her, "Antihistamine overdose can give you myocardial pump failure." Lisa nods, and hangs a bag on a pole. Haleh asks Lisa whether Sally had sleeping pills with her. Carter looks from Haleh to Lisa. Lisa looks back at Haleh. Luka stares at Lisa. Lisa doesn't answer, but asks for another bag of something. Haleh presses Lisa, "Where did she get them?" Lisa seems to be making a point not to look Haleh in the eye. Carter blocks for Lisa, yelling for someone to get x-ray. Sally starts seizing. Luka calls for Ativan. Lisa helps Carter to keep Sally's head still, and cries. Luka luxuriates in the warm bath of his complete rightness.
In the room, Adam's in the process of dying. Basically. Frank opens the door for Brad, who's now on crutches. Benton sighs, "Not you again." Brad says that "Adam's pledging Upsilon Psi Lambda," and that Brad's his "little brother." Benton asks how much Brad made Adam drink. Brad snots that Adam drank on his own. Benton yells, "How much did you make him drink?!" Brad replies, "Thirty-five tequila shots, maybe forty." Holy shit. Finch shocks him again, and Adam goes asystole. Finch gets the results of Adam's tox screen and says it's negative for "marijuana, cocaine, opiates." Brad righteously says that "Adam wouldn't touch drugs." Because, as we all know, thirty-five tequila shots are a benign enough beverage to serve a child at a church picnic. They seem to be wrapping things up, so Brad demands, "Aren't you going to shock him again?" Finch informs him, "You can't shock a flatline!" Brad's all, "You only shocked him once!" Benton barks, "We've been shocking him for forty minutes!" Brad's all, "D'oh." Benton calls the time of death. Brad, like Adam, must hail from the same part of Pennsylvania Amish country Adam did, because he, too, has never seen a TV show or movie and doesn't know what that steady "beeeeeeeeeep" sound means, and begs, "You've gotta help him!" Finch tells him that Adam's heart has been deprived of oxygen too long: "He's gone." Benton throws down his gloves, and then picks up a cloth, moving toward Adam's face. Then he pauses and throws the cloth to Brad instead, ordering him, "Clean him up." Brad's all, "Huh?" Benton slowly walks toward him, menacing, "You and your friends -- you wrote this on him. Right?" Brad says it was just a joke. Benton husks, "I hope you got a good laugh out of it." Brad insists, "I didn't know this was going to happen." Benton says that Brad was Adam's big brother, and should have looked out for him. Brad starts to protest that Adam drank voluntarily, but Benton's all, "Save it for the judge," and tells him again to clean Adam up. See, this is why I'm glad I went to a university where single-sex clubs -- of any kind -- were expressly prohibited in the school charter. I refuse to believe that frats and sororities enrich students' lives; rather, it has been my experience that they serve only to create a means to stratify students along completely artificial class lines -- not only that, but the kind of people who would want to be in contemporary frats and sororities are exactly the sort of people who should be encouraged, when they are in an institution of (ostensibly) higher learning with some kind of academic baseline, to mix with students who are different from them and learn that not everyone in the world is a Muffy or a Reed who likes to plagiarize their papers and drink thirty-five tequila shots. Instead, frats and sororities ensure that the same types of exclusive, cliquey, lazy, snobbish, rich, boring, self-congratulatory fucking assholes only hang with each other and dream up new ways to victimize those who aren't exactly like themselves. And don't bother emailing me to say that your sorority did a lot of good work at a senior citizens' home or that you and your brothers taught inner-city kids how to read, because that is not even in the same hemisphere as the reason you pledged. You pledged because you wanted to have concrete proof that you were among the cool kids, and that they were required to be your friends. Gross. Yes, I realize that not every unsuccessful pledge ends up dead of alcohol poisoning with "LOSER" written across his forehead in shit, and that the moronicism of frats and sororities was exaggerated for dramatic purposes here. I'm just saying it wasn't really exaggerated all that much. And...you know. It's gross.
A zombified Lisa walks out of Sally's trauma room, Sally's bed just behind her. Carter loudly asks Sally to squeeze his hand, but Luka tells him she's not waking up. There's some talk about whether Sally's getting a unit bed. Luka says that Sally should be there on a Psych hold, but Carter says, "They can't talk to her." Lisa gets into the elevator, along with Haleh, Chuny, and Sally. Before the doors close, Luka orders, "I want her on a hold when she wakes up." Hopelessly, Lisa replies, "She might not wake up." Luka sets his jaw and glares at Carter, snapping off his gloves.
Benton's at the desk, rubbing his forehead all "what a world," when William White rolls up to tell him he got into medical school. Blah blah, Benton's been a mentor for another disadvantaged kid, just like Mr. Ferris was for him. Sunrise, sunset.
Upstairs. Lisa sits outside Sally's room, pinching her lips. Luka shows up and holds a cup of coffee out to her. She tries to smile, but can't quite make it, and briefly shakes her head, and he drops it in the garbage. She rests her chin on her fingers. He sits down to her and sighs. She looks at him furtively. "They extubated her?" he asks. Lisa nods, and rakes her fingers through her hair, saying, "She woke up and started fighting the vent. Her vitals are normal." Luka asks, "Did you get a hold?" Lisa nods, looking completely wasted. She sighs, and says that "Legaspi saw her." She puts her fingers to her forehead, looks down, and hisses, "I thought I was watching her every second!" Luka says, "That's not possible." Lisa says, "I should have listened to you." Yes, you really should. Luka is more gracious than I, and says, "She'll be okay." Lisa shakes her head and says, "She'll never be okay." Are you talking about her acting? Because, if so, word.