ER Episode Guide

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January January 27, 2000 Did not air due to State of the Union. January 20, 2000 Rerun January 13, 2000 I'm going to say that er is no longer one of the five best dramas on television. This episode proved that even thougher may still have some power in it, witness the two episodes before this one, that the show is fizzling out...waiting to drift away. For instant gratification's sake, I'll begin the summary with a continuation of the Liz Corday struggle. The sister of the girl who Dean Rollins had killed came by to say thank you to Liz. The sister, Lindsay, told Liz that she was grateful for Liz's getting Dean to say where the body of the girl was. So now we know that he spoke, but we don't know if Liz dropped the morphine into Dean. As it turns out, she did not. She speaks with him and tells him that she has always had such power over him, but now their relationship is over. Dean is medically cured and now will go to jail, forever. If you go down to the December 16 episode, you'll see a story about Lucy and a 19 year- old girl named Valerie Paige. Valerie returns to the hospital because she can now get the heart that she so desperately needs. Unfortunately, she has a fever of 101. If the patient has a fever, then there is a large risk that the patient will reject the transplant and possibly die; therefore, the transplant will not occur. Nonetheless, Lucy does some testing and learns of a medicine that can clean Paige's body of the virus causing the fever while still accepting the heart as a new organ. Romano is very impressed with Lucy's efforts and tells Lucy that he'll perform the surgery. He performs the surgery with Benton, and it is a success. A few minutes later, Lucy sees that Paige's eyes are drifting to the right. Tests confirm that Paige has rejected the fever-curing medicine and has had a stroke. Paige will be brain-dead for the rest of her life. It is now Lucy's job to tell Paige's mom that Paige will be dead and to get consent for the doctors to harvest Paige's body. Lucy is devastated by the failure of Paige's treatment but still gets consent to have the heart go on. Marc treats a man who was hurt while playing hockey. Marc suspects that the man was hurt physically. Marc talks to his patient and learns that this male patient's boyfriend has been beating him. The patient refuses to talk to social services about this abuse so Marc discharges the man with his boyfriend. Minutes later, there is an accident outside of the hospital. The patient backed over his boyfriend and almost kills him. Marc suspects foul play (maybe the patient finally decided to take back his life) but can't say anything to the police. The patient is freed, and the boyfriend will live. Also this week: A water pipe bust on Bleaker Street means creative operational procedures in the emergency room. Jing-mei and John work close together. They play jokes on each other and have a familiar banter/flirting thing. Peter asks out Cleo...she says yes. Carole returns to work...every one thinks she is slow at her job, but Carole says she is fine. Marc's dad has moved back to Chicago with Marc for now. NEXT WEEK:Rerun January 6, 2000 This was one of the best episodes of er in a very long while. Possibly the best since the 1997-98 season. Ming-na returns to the cast of er. I thought her name was Ming-na Wen, but the opening credits call her Ming-na. We last saw Ming- na on the show as Deb, a medical student friend of John Carter, who really messes up one day in surgery. She leaves the medical practice. But now she returns, and she has changed her name to Jing-mei Chen. Or at least, before Carter called her Deb, and now Deb expects to be called Jing-mei which was always her name. Me, I'm calling her Deb. Anyway, she begins on rough grounds. She has to admit that she's entering the residence program in January because her father bought her way into the hospital. Then, her first patient is with Carter, and she reveals some confidential information about the patient to the patient's wife and this gets her a little reprimand, but it does seem that she cares about the people she's working with. She also works with a girl who escapes from a home that is trying to make her heterosexual. Apparently, Deb's patient is gay so her parents brought her to a mental institution to cure her. Deb says that the girls is pregnant so that the girl doesn't have to return to the institution. Deb then takes the girl over to a safehouse. At the end of the episode, Deb tells John that she returned to the medical profession when she saw a man having a cardiac arrest on the subway. Deb realized she could save this man so she returned to practice medicine. Also of note, Dave has a crush on Deb. The story of Dean Rollins and Liz Corday continues. Dean is the criminal who Corday threatened a number of episodes ago. Apparently, a 19-year old girl is missing, and Dean is suspected of having kidnapped her before he entered the hospital. The girl's family wants to know where she is. Dean won't talk to anyone, but the cops hope that he'll talk to Liz. She asks him where the girl is, and he says that he'll only tell the girl's sister who looks about 19 also, maybe a year or two, older or younger. Liz gets the girl, and when she enters, Dean starts complaining about the girl he killed and said that she was so loud. Dean says that if he had been with a girl like Liz than he never would have become evil. Later on, Liz and Dean are alone. He tells her that he wants to die. She says that she'll euthanize him if he tells her where the girl's body is. She takes out a needle with a 100 mg of morphine and says she'll inject the needle into him if he agrees to talk. He asks about the legal repercussions of this act for her, and she responds with a snide, "as if you care about me." She says that she'll inject the needle and then he'd better tell where the girl is otherwise she'll bring him back to life. He agrees. We see her inject the needle. Does the needle really contain morphine? Will he talk? Will there be legal repercussions? Stay tuned kiddies. When Marc's Dad leaves a retirement community, Marc goes down to Arizona to find him. Marc finds his dad in their old house. Marc asks his dad to come back to Chicago and live with him. Will he or won't he? Cleo treats a high school-aged girl who has hurt her wrist. Cleo learns that this girl is being pushed too hard by her parents. The girl's parents only care about the girl playing basketball so Cleo says that the girl has a fractured wrist even though she doesn't. However, Peter points out that in giving the girl a cast for her wrist that Cleo is controlling the girl just as much as the girl's parents so Cleo gives the girl a choice, and the girl has the cast removed. Dave grows up. He is fooling around trying to fix Kerry's car when he gets a young patient. The patient is a 10 or 11 year old boy and Dave initially thinks that the boy has pneumonia. However, test shows that the boy is dying of a cancer that has surrounded his heart. Dave tries to pass telling the boy about his death off to someone else but can't. Dave has to be responsible, and he tells the boy about his untreatable condition. In the middle of this, Kerry comes in to yell at Dave about how he is fixing her car, but Dave tells Kerry that he's busy right now, and he tells her in such a tone as to really move me, especially because we know that what he is telling the boy. Very sad and touching. Luca is treating two brothers, one of whom is developmentally challenged in the brain. He tries to help the two brothers get back on their feet because they are impoverished and without parents, but Kerry calls Social Services, and social services interferes and tears the brothers apart. Luca is very upset at Kerry for interfering with his patients and says that it is never good to split up families. She says that social services can deal with problems better than doctors can. He says that in Croatia, during the war, his wife and two children were separated from him and then they were shot. It is never right to break up families. CASTING NOTES: Jerry has not appeared on the last few episodes. A guy named Andrew seems to have replaced him. Andrew (whose real name I don't know) is of the sketch comedy show Mad TV. NEXT WEEK: Crisis over a hear transplant brings the er closer together. Romano earns the respect of Lucy. December December 30, 1999 Rerun December 23, 1999 Rerun December 16, 1999 Just like the Thanksgiving episode, this was a simple yet sweet episode. It's Christmas Eve. Carole comes to the ER because she thinks one of her daughters is sick. Luca examines the daughter. By the time he is done with his examination, it is Christmas. Luca drives Carole home, and she invites him in for some egg nog. He stays. No love yet. Lucy is helping a 24 year-old woman named Valerie Paige. Paige's heart needs to be replaced. She is on the transplant list, but can't get a heart so Lucy calls up Romano to perform a surgery that only he can perform. The thing is that it's 2am in the morning, and Romano is not on call. Nonetheless, Romano agrees to come and likes Lucy's gusto. He saves the Valerie's life, and everyone (as in the audience) is so proud of Lucy for taking a stand and saving a life. Romano says, however, that he has to uphold an image so he will discipline Lucy for waking him up...but nothing serious. A number of Santas come to the ER after drinking spoiled egg nog. One of the Santas may have future romantic connections with Kerry. Carter treats a patient who has been shot. He finds a gun on this patient and trades the gun for a gameboy. Before you know it, half of Chicago's youth has come to the er to trade guns for toys. Carter feels that he has done good until a 7 year-old comes in to the er with a headshot wound. The 7 year-old dies. Carter discovers that the original patient who had traded the gun participated in this shooting. Carter is depressed. Chleo Finch treats a teenager named Chad who has already been to the hospital for alcohol abuse. He returns to the er, and Chleo forces him into a rehab program. Corday continues treating that criminal whom she forced a criminal confession out of last week. The criminal's name is Dean Rawlins, and Corday feels guilty for the guy when his condition worsens. She convinces him that she cares for him in order to better treat him. Peter learns that Carla and her boyfriend/husband aren't moving to Germany. He is very happy because now he can continue to see Reese, but Carla is mad at Peter because she blames him for their not going. NEXT WEEK: Rerun December 9, 1999 Rerun December 2, 1999 Rerun November November 25, 1999 It wasn't that powerful an episode in terms of drama, but it was a nice and simple episode that touched me. It's Thanksgiving, and Carole goes to the hospital for a brief visit. On her way home, she realizes that she is in labor. She then sees Luca who comes to help her with the pregnancy. Carole is having lots of trouble getting to the hospital, and she eventually passes out so Luca carries her to the hospital. They arrive, and Luca wants to stay with Carole, but Kerry takes over. Carole is in rapid labor and has her first child in the emergency room. She then has Marc called, because Marc is Carole's lamaze coach. Marc is over at Liz's house with his father and daughter. He leaves dad and daughter with Liz so that he can visit Carole at the hospital. Marc arrives at the hospital, and Carole has a difficult labor with her second daughter. A doctor played by the lady who was Lisa on "Newsradio" helps Carole. Carole has the second baby who is a blue baby but survives. At the end of the episode, we see Carole in her hospital room on her bed breast feeding one infant while the other infant is crying away...Carole feels over her head. As for Liz with Marc's family...Rachel, Marc's daughter, has her first period so dad goes out to buy some pads (Liz only uses tampons). Dad gets a cut on his head and ends up at the hospital. Dad will be fine...only needs stitches, but we learn that Dad likes Liz. At the end of the episode, Luca shows concern over Carole. Things we learned, but I don't feel like explaining the context of their expulsion: 1) Luca has two children and a wife who is not in Croatia, but he doesn't say where they are )he tells this to Carole as they head to the hospital, and the two sort of bond. 2)Dr. Dave was a goofball in college and did very poorly on his MCATs so he had to go to the University of Granada. DAUGHTER's NAMES: Tess and Kate...but are they Hathaways or Rosses? QUOTE OF THE EPISODE: NEXT WEEK: After four new episodes in November, we'll be lucky if there are two new episodes in December. November 18, 1999 This is the episode that wasn't. I'm in a bit of a haze right now so this will be perhaps the briefest summary you've ever read. I'm trying to decide if anything of consequence happened. Luca came back to the emergency room and after dealing with a very complicated case is hired as a permanent doctor. Carole sees Meg in jail, and Meg has her baby who is healthy despite Meg's drug use. Carter takes on administrative duties, and in his role he wants to attend this important doctor's meeting. Kerry says "no," but Marc says "yes," and now Kerry is mad at Carter and Marc (but keep in mind, Marc is mad at Kerry b/c she has been playing power politics all season long [remember when she supported Romano?]). Finally, Dr. Gabe Lawrence makes one last appearance. He does have Alzheimer and is having some tests done at the hospital when he helps in the er when there is this really obscure case. He feels redeemed but will never return NEXT WEEK: It's a new episode even though this is Thanksgiving. Carole has her babies. Marc leaves Corday's condo to help Carole have her babies and leaves his daughter at Corday's. November 11, 1999 Liz apparently like this episode so it must have been good. First, Jeannie leaves. She decides to spend more time with her new husband and baby. Kerry tells Jeannie that she'll always have a job in the emergency room. Keep this in mind...Jeannie still lives in Chicago and Gloria Reuben's career may go nowhere. Anyway, this episode there was an explosion in the ER. Someone left a bunsen burner on in the laboratory. The records show that Cleo was the last one to be using a bunsen burner, but Lucy saw Dave using a burner after Cleo. She tells Dave that he should admit to having caused the explosion even though his confession may result in him getting fired. Dave confesses to Kerry, and then Kerry tells Dave that the fire was caused by bad wiring. The real news is that Dave and Lucy may have a romantic connection. As for the ongoing saga of Carole and that mother who is on drugs, Megan: Carole realizes that Megan is never going to stop using drugs so Carole informs the police of a drug dealing that Megan is taking place in. Megan will have her baby in prison, but at least the baby will be drug free. Finally, Kerry realizes that something is up with Gabe. She goes to his former employer and learns that Gabe had been showing signs of Alzheimer's. Gabe has occasional outbursts, and we see Gabe treat a patient who doesn't actually have an injury. He has to be fired. Kerry offers Gabe a job as a lecturer, but he turns the offer down. One last side note, Peter decides to not take a DNA test to determine if he is Reese's father. Peter believes DNA or not that he IS Reese's father. All in all, an OK episode. MAJOR ER NEWS: Julianna Marguiles turned down $27 million to stay on the show for two more seasons. NEXT WEEK: Corday goes to a car crash. Gabe save a life. November 4, 1999 ?? October October 28, 1999 Rerun October 21, 1999 I would like to say thank you to the producers of ER. There was no Luca this week. It appears that when Kerry kicked him out, he stayed out. This week we saw Carole help a pregnant woman get a job in the hospital's cafeteria...the tradeoff meant that the woman would stop smoking. Dr. Dave (the young resident) seems overly eager to see as much action as possible, but when one patient dies on him before he can read the patient some final words from the patient's wife, Dave is humbled. Lizzy is adjusting to her new job and is learning how to take orders from Romano. She realizes that if she feels uncomfortable doing something that she doesn't have to do it. As for Marc and Gabe (Gabe Lawrence, the new attending), the tension between them mounts when Gabe tries to talk with one of Marc's patients. The patient was a kid who tried to commit suicide, and Gabe blames the Dad. Marc tells Gabe to stay away but he doesn't. Marc happened to be right, but in the end Marc and Gabe sort of like each other now. However, Lucy realizes that Gabe may be a little slow...he ordered Lucy to give the wrong tests and we've noticed some other lapses in memory by Gabe. Finally this week, Cleo (one of the new doctors) treats a young girl who has a tummy ache. Cleo thinks it's food poisoning, but when the child returns after being discharged, we learn that the girl had too much iron in her system. It's too late to save the girl. Cleo is saddened, but we think that she bounces back NEXT WEEK: World Series or Repeat of the season opener ON A PERSONAL NOTE: Still no Maria and Liz. It's a sad life that they have made me lead. October 14, 1999 I dedicate this week's ER summary to Liz and Maria who were both, for whatever personal reasons, unable to watch ER with me. I need to admit that there are very few people with whom I can watch TV, but these two girls (ladies) make TV watching pleasurable. Now let's get down to dirt. A powerful ER that managed to be engaging and fast-paced yet still emotional. The big story this week was the arrival of Dr. Gabe Lawrence (played by Alan Alda). Greene is a little jealous of this new guy and is also mad at Kerry (this is how her name should be spelled) for hiring Lawrence without asking him (Greene). Lawrence is one of those smart doctors who's at the top of his professions. There's not much more to share about him really. Luca deals with a patient who he suspects is being beaten by her husband. Luca has the man submitted to psych, but psych won't take him (they really have no grounds to hold this man unless the wife presses charges) so Luca instigates the guy into punching him so that he'll get arrested. Luca does get punched but the guy doesn't get arrested. In the end, Kerry tells Luca (who is basically a substitute doctor) that his services are no longer needed now that Lawrence has arrived. But I will add that there has been some serious bonding going on between Carole and Luca..so let's get excited over that. As for Jeanie, she gets married and gets the little baby that she's wanted...the baby is hispanic and has AIDS. But I'm soooo happy for them. As for Rebecca De Mornay, she gets a mastectomy and Carter tries to support and help her, but she rejects his help. Also of note, Lizzie gives a guide of the hospital to a reporter. The reporter saw a resident learning a procedure in an emergency situation. Lizzie says nothing is wrong with this, but we don't know what the reporter will do (or even if this will become an issue). Finally, be glad to know that Marc and Lizzie are on good terms and appear to be a happy couple. There was also this whole gun thing, but it was mainly just for drama. I can't think of anything else this week, but if I can, I'll add it later. QUOTE OF THE EPISODE: It's an old army trick. --Gabe Lawrence (played by Alan Alda) on a radical medical maneuver. NEXT WEEK:Lawrence and Greene continue to clash. Carole helps a pregnant waitress.