ER
These are all the original airdates.
2/1/07
"Murmurs of the Heart"
13.14:
1/11/07
"A House Divided"
13.13: HOLY COW. Lots going on here. Some
good, some bad, some frustrating, some terrifying. Abby checks up on
Eddie to see if he's taking his meds, and Luka is still uncomfortable about
the guy. I don't blame him. Now that it's really, really over
between Gates and Meg, she demands that he be the one to explain things to
Sarah. Gates and Ray are still fighting like babies over every little
thing, in this case it's who gets to treat a patient. Pratt goes to
the church pastor and asks him to stop the drug program, and the pastor refuses
even though he's got the authorities banging down his door. Pratt still
feels bad about what happened. Abby and Luka are in a mini-spat about
Eddie and just general friction at home, so they act somewhat dispassionately
with each other. Gates and Ray continue to squabble. Neela is
once again cool to Gates because of the fiasco with Meg that happened before.
Gates is apologetic. Sam tells Ben she has a rule that she can't
date people at work (new rule, Sam? thinking of Luka are we?), and poor adorable
Ben is sad but understanding. Alex sullenly shows up to do volunteer
work at the hospital, and Ben handles his teenage crap beautifully. Marry
him right now, Sam. This minute. Two stepbrothers come in from
a snowmobile accident, and the younger one who was driving is taken to surgery.
Ray and Gates disagree about whether the other boy needs surgery, and
Ray says not to call Neela for a consult, but Gates does anyway. Neela
sides with Gates, and Ray goes out into the hall to have a heated discussion
with her. Ray angrily asserts that she's siding with Gates "because
you're screwing him!" Whoa. This snowballs into a BIG argument
in which they are both fully shouting. Pratt intercedes and sides with
Ray that the boy doesn't need surgery. When Neela leaves in a huff,
Pratt tells Ray, "you better be right." Pratt is apparently in trouble
with the Medical Board. Alex is being a brat, as usual. Ray does
his best to reassure the snowmobile boy when his stepfather berates him for
getting "his son" hurt. The kid doesn't tell the bastard stepfather
that the other boy was driving. Pratt has a very interesting talk with
Ray about Neela. (Squee, anyone?) Pratt says he thought Ray and
Neela had things all sorted out, but it doesn't look like it. "There's
nothing to sort out," says Ray unconvincingly. Pratt offers some advice,
but Ray regrets taking Pratt's advice in the first place to give Neela some
"time and space." He gave Neela so much time and space that now someone
else got there first. I don't know if Ray is still "dating" Katie (we've
not seen hide nor hair of her for a couple episodes). He's so totally
not over Neela. It's damn obvious to everyone but Neela, apparently.
Alex is being a little bastard and storms out of the ER, so Grandma
gives him what for and slaps him. He slaps her back, and it's this
big explosion. Ben reassures Sam that Alex is a teenager and a lot
of them are little turds. HEE. Sarah shows up at the ER and yells
at Gates for leaving them. She's really taking it hard. Turns
out Ray was wrong about snowmobile boy, and Neela is very curt with Ray when
she comes to take him up to surgery. We learn that Abby called the
Medical Board about the illegal clinic before she knew Pratt was involved.
Police detectives question Pratt about his involvement. Kerry
cleans out her locker, and there is a very touching scene where Abby says
goodbye. She says Kerry helped her become a doctor and was a great
encouragement to her. Kerry says Abby is her friend, and they cry and
hug. SAD!! Meg and Sarah leave the hospital without further incident,
but Meg is heartbroken over Gates. Ray pulls Neela aside to tell her
something. Something significant even though it may not be the right
time or place for it. I think he was about to tell her he has feelings
for her. But we'll never know because freaking Gates interrupts right
before Ray gets to the good part. Poor Ray. How symbolic. Ray
explodes at the snowmobile kid's stepfather for being a jerk, and he really
lets him have it. Name-calling and everything. Yikes. Kerry
is leaving, and she tells Ray he could be a great doctor. Ray says
thank you and really means it. Cops cuff Pratt and take him away! Ohnoes!
Grandma invites Ben over for dinner, and Sam is surprised to see him
there. Abby tells Eddie to get more lung treatment, and he refuses.
She gets uncomfortable when he said the only reason he went to the
ER in the first place was to be around her. Then he says he's her
father. (I so called that the first time he showed up.) She
flips out and gets very angry. I would be too if my father disappeared
when I was a kid and then suddenly secretly insinuated himself back into
my life. He wants to reconnect with her, but she's not having it. Luka
tells Kerry before she leaves that she changed his life by giving him his
job at the hospital, that she maybe even saved it. They hug, and she
cries. Again, SAD. Pratt is in jail. Sam throws the fake
rule out the window and asks Ben to stay over at her apartment. Gates
is (gag) staying with Neela while he looks for a new place. Sarah frantically
calls Gates from a car and says that she can't get Meg to wake up and she
thinks she is dying. By himself in the living room, Alex lights a glass
of booze on fire and then accidentally sets the apartment on fire! Abby
gets home with Joe and calls Luka, but he's not answering his phone. She
leaves him a message and doesn't notice that Ames is sitting on the couch.
Holy shit. She finally notices him and is frightened but calm.
He tells her in this scary, coming-unhinged kind of voice to call Luka
again. AAAAHHHHHHH!!! And that's where it ends! Sam's apartment
is burning, Abby and Joe are hostages, Kerry is gone, Meg could be dying,
Pratt could go to prison, and Eddie is Abby's estranged father. Way
too much for one episode. Dang. But it was a good episode. All
the awesome Neela/Ray stuff. At least we know for sure how Ray feels
now (not like I was ever in any real doubt).
1/4/07
"Breach of Trust"
13.12: So, Kerry and Courtney (her TV producer) are hanging
out together at Kerry's apartment, looking pretty cozy. Then Kerry
gets word that she’s being offered a morning medical show in Miami.
Courtney is excited for her and wants her to seriously consider it, but Kerry
is reluctant. At the hospital, Ben offers to help Sam move to her new
apartment. Gates brings Sarah the kid to the ER to watch him work.
Joy. There is a very, very awkward scene between Sarah, Gates, and
Neela in which Sarah meets Neela properly and immediately says to Gates front
of Neela, “She doesn’t look like a whore.” Neela is indignant, and
it turns out that Meg has been calling Neela a whore around Sarah.
Gates is embarrassed, and rightly so. An older man comes into the ER
with a bleeding ulcer (played by actor David Jean Thomas, whom I have worked
with before on a small independent film), and Pratt and Ray work on him.
Sam’s Grandma shows up because she got kicked out of her retirement home
in Texas for growing pot. Haha. Luka very ungracefully lets Kerry
know that he’s firing her because budget cuts require one attending to be
let go, and her salary is the only one big enough to cover it. Kerry
is shocked and MAD. Luka is a tactless idiot. Abby is surprised
and unhappy to hear about Luka and Kerry. Weaver spends the rest of
the episode trying to help a woman whose foot got infected during Katrina
in New Orleans, and she talks her into having surgery to amputate the toes,
but then the surgeons determine that the infection has spread so far that
they have to take her leg below the knee. Ouch. Something almost
goes pretty wrong during surgery, but Kerry demonstrates her awesomeness
and fixes it. Abby tries to talk to Luka about firing Kerry, but he’s
all “my hands are tied” and crap. Pratt and Ray lose the bleeding ulcer
guy because he got the wrong medication from the church drug exchange program
and it complicated his treatment in the ER and indirectly resulted in his
death. Uh-oh. Pratt and Hope feel completely responsible because
of their involvement in the drug exchange program. Morris has credit
card troubles, and he finds out that Alex stole his card number and has been
buying X-Boxes and iPods with it. Little jerk. Alex denies it
at first, but Grandma and Sam and Morris get him to confess. Pratt
tells the ulcer man’s wife the truth about the church clinic, and she forgives
him and won’t press any charges. Pratt says he wants to shut it down.
Meg shows up to the ER and makes a HUGE scene in front of everyone about
Neela taking Gates “away from us.” Seriously, screaming and crying
and cursing at Neela for stealing Gates, and Gates has to literally drag
her out. It was brutal. Kerry again proves why she’s the best
doctor there when she saves the life of a guy that Luka is trying to save.
Luka clearly feels bad. Gates has it out with Meg outside on the street,
and Meg threatens to keep Sarah from him if he leaves her, and he gets angry.
Neela talks to Sarah, who tells her that Gates doesn’t really love Neela,
he’s just having sex with her. “This is what he does,” she says.
“He always comes back to us.” Angela, the hospital lawyer, says there
will be an investigation into the illegal clinic where the ulcer guy got
the meds. She doesn’t know yet that Pratt is involved, but he’s nervous.
Pratt tells Luka the truth about the clinic. Luka is taken aback and
at a loss as to what to do with Pratt. Pratt does the noble thing and
leaves Hope’s name out of it completely. Good for you, Pratt.
While helping Sam move, Ben kisses her, and I think she likes it a lot.
I think she likes him a lot even though she’s trying not to. Luka tells
Kerry that he’s going to fight to keep her, he’ll try to find the budget
cuts somewhere else, but she says don’t bother. She says she resigns
and that she’s taking the Miami TV job. They don’t want her to go,
but she seems to really be okay with leaving. It’s time. SAD.
This was a good episode, and it was really nice to be reminded that Kerry
really is an excellent doctor who will be missed.
12/7/06
"City of Mercy"
13.11: I enjoyed this episode. And not just because
of the Ray And Neela Subtextual Bonanza!!1!11!!#!@2!!!1! Because it
was a nice episode, as Christmas episodes go. It starts with Luka and
Abby coming into the ER in a reindeer and elf costumes, respectively. I
guess they were doing something for sick people upstairs or something. At
any rate, they were funny looking, and everyone laughs at them, including
me. Someone says that Abby looks like a dwarf: "I'm an elf, dammit!"
:D We then see Morris at Bible group with Hope (because he's desperately
trying to get into her pants), and he spouts some...interesting views on purity
and chastity. It was pretty hilarious ("purity of spirit" while not
remaining chaste). A cop tells Luka that Ames has filed a restraining
order against him because Luka threatened him. Still, no one will listen
to Luka's concerns about Ames. Even Abby kinda thinks Luka overreacted.
Ray starts out the ep being mad at Gates for being late, and he pretty
much just stays mad. I wonder why...HEE. Because of Morris' tirade,
Crenshaw is now being nice, and it's even scarier than when he was an asswipe.
Katie mentions to Neela that she has plans with Ray later that night,
and she casually asks, "That's cool, right?" "None of my business,"
says Neela, looking somewhat caught off guard. "I just wanted to be
sure. You look annoyed," says Katie, eyeing Neela carefully. Neela
changes the subject and explains her annoyance is in relation to something
else, but she DID look annoyed. And I love that Katie still senses that
there is something with Ray and Neela, otherwise she wouldn't be seeking Neela's
approval. Adorable Nurse Ben asks Sam out again, and she seems unsure.
Ray and Gates have a disagreement (again), and the homeless kid named
Teller is back again. Neela asks for Gates' help with a patient, and
Ray starts an argument because Gates can't just do whatever the hell he wants.
So the two of them are fighting like cats until Neela interrupts to
tell Ray to stop being an idiot, she needs Tony's help. And she tells
Gates to stop too. "Either slap each other silly or kiss now and get
it overwith." And she goes back to her patient. HA! Loved it.
Teller wants Gates and "Mayday" to come help him with a homeless girl
who is sick. Neela can't go, so Gates is gonna go with Teller, and
Ray is still shooting daggers at Gates with his eyes all the time. Even
so, Ray volunteers to drive with Gates and Teller to help the girl. They
find this cluster of dirty, sickly homeless kids, and one teenage girl is
in labor and about to pop out a kid right there in the middle of the rathole
they live in. They find out that the girl has been having sex with some
men so they'll let the kids live there. Yikes! Ray and Gates deliver
the baby okay, and Gates convinces the girl and Teller to go back to the
hospital by promising not to call social services. Ray is annoyed with
Gates. AGAIN. One of Morris' sperm donor kids runs away to the
ER, and Morris tries to cheer her up by telling her how he believes in Santa.
Ben and Sam take care of a homeless woman who was mistreated at another
hospital, and Ben is so frickin' cute, I can't hardly stand it. I don't
know how Sam restrains herself, that's for sure. At the hospital, the
girl and the baby and Teller get checked out, and Gates calls social services
anyway, and Ray is appalled that Gates would tell a bald-faced lie like that
to the kids. Gates wants to get them into foster care and would have
done anything to make it happen. We learn from Neela (as she informs
a very upset Teller) that the little boy with rabies eventually died. Sad!
Teller tries to run, but Ray and Gates convince him that foster care
is better than living on the street. Ray confronts Gates after that,
saying, "I know you'll say anything to seal the deal, but if you're making
promises you don't intend to keep, just cut loose. Minimize the damage."
And it's totally obvious to everyone what Ray is really talking about.
"This isn't just about the kids, is it?" says Gates, knowing full well
that it's about Neela. "No, it's not," Ray replies simply. I
don't know how to describe Gates' attitude during this exchange. He
seemed calm, not upset, but not defiant or annoyed. Sort of...thoughtful.
I don't know. Abby tells Luka that it scares her what this Ames
thing is doing to them, and Luka tells her that he's figured out now that
when he left Croatia after his first family died, he wasn't running away from
something, he was running to someone: Abby. Okay. That's nice.
Morris puts on a Santa suit for his Sperm Donor Child. It's cute.
Hope thinks so too. Neela spends most of the episode trying to
help a meth addict reconnect with his family, and Dubenko tells her she's
going to be a great surgeon. Hope tells Morris that she "gets it." He's
a guy who's trying to be good. She asks him out, practically throws
herself at him, and he turns her down because he doesn't want to rush anything
or ruin a chance for a potentially deeper relationship later. Then he
goes outside in the alley and yells at himself for being a moron. Ben
and Sam have drinks at the bar, and it's very cute. Every so often,
I miss Luka/Sam, but this Ben guy is just so damn cute, I have to like the
idea of Sam/Ben. Ray eventually has his plans with Katie, and he brings
mistletoe so he can kiss her. Bleh. Ray is so clearly still jealous
of Gates and Neela, and yet he goes out with another girl just so he doesn't
have to be alone? Annoying. Still in the alley, Morris is now
yelling about how there's no Santa Claus and he hates Christmas. Then,
he looks up into the snowy sky, spots something we can't see, and there is
a faint "Ho Ho Ho" on the wind. And from the look on Morris' face, it's
almost like he's having a spiritual experience. Awesome. But no
new ER until January 25! :(
11/30/06
"Tell Me No Secrets..."
13.10: Pratt tells Kerry that his brother Chaz is straight
because he came home and found that Chaz's female study partner had spent
the night. Kerry is still skeptical and annoyed with Pratt for acting
so relieved that his brother is straight. Ray finds Katie in the ER
and asks, "We're okay, right?" With not telling everyone that they're dating.
Ray wants to keep their relationship quiet. Hmm. Luka
is at home with Abby and Joe, and he looks out the window and sees Ames
watching the apartment from the street. He rushes down to the street,
but Ames is gone. Abby still doesn't know. Ray pretends not
to know Katie that well, but everyone already assumes that they're dating,
and he's not very good at being nonchalant. Something tells me this
is not a lasting relationship if Ray doesn't even want to admit to dating
her... I have to say that Hope cracks me up every week. This
violent patient attacks her in a psychotic rage, and Ben, the adorable new
nurse (anyone remember "Sunshine" from Remember the Titans?) pulls the guy
off her and subdues him. Sam is very impressed. Neela acts coolly
with Gates because of what happened. He insists that it's over, but
Neela fires back that the look on Meg's face told her that "it's not over
for her." I love when Neela blows Gates off. The Old Guy that
Abby met in a bar and chatted with a few eps back comes into the ER with
asthma problems, and he seems to enjoy Abby's attention. He's not quite
creepy, but he is suspicious, and Luka doesn't like him at all. Angela,
one of the hospital legal reps who helped Luka with the Ames lawsuit, is
shocked to find out that a little girl who came into the ER with an apparent
sexual assault is her daughter Danielle. They figure out later that
Danielle cut herself down there with a razor because traumatic memories
of seeing her mother raped years before had surfaced. Angela had tried
to forget about it. It was really sad. :( Everyone already
seems to know about Ray and Katie, but he keeps insisting that they're not
dating. Ray thinks that Sam told, but she didn't. Then the same
guy that attacked Hope starts spitting on them, and Ben comes to the rescue
again and puts a mask on the guy. Sam is again impressed. The
police still dismiss Luka's angry concerns about Ames. Luka confronts
Ames at his job, and Ames denies everything. Luka grabs him and threatens
to kill him if he comes near his family ever again. Chaz comes in and
tells Pratt that he wasn't sleeping with the girl, and he's definitely gay.
Pratt doesn't react as well as he could have. Morris, Hope, Ray,
Katie, and Gates try to figure out what to do with a guy that comes in with
an ice pick jammed all the way into his ear. They try to get other
hospital departments that should handle something like that to help (neurosurgery,
etc.), but everyone passes the buck. So Morris decides that since the
ice pick missed the brain and everything vital in the guy's head, they should
try to pull it out themselves. Hope happily volunteers to do it, and
she tries, but the handle comes off, leaving the ice pick still firmly lodged
in the guy's head. Oops. They eventually get him up to the surgical
floor. Hope feels really bad. Crenshaw is his usual asshole self
and yells at Morris for trying to pull it out in the ER. Morris lets
loose on the guy and yells that since no other department, including surgery,
would get off their asses to help, they had no choice. Crenshaw makes
another snotty remark and starts to walk off, and Morris tells the guy off
like you wouldn't believe. "I can't imagine what could have happened
in your life to make you the kind of person that everybody hates." Crenshaw
seems to be stung and leaves without another word. Wow. I have
never been prouder of Morris, ever. Cute nurse Ben asks Sam out. And
it's cute. I like him. Pratt tells Ray to knock it off with Katie
because she's a student, and Ray tells Pratt to back off. Neela is
on the phone nearby and overhears. She raises her eyebrows and looks
interested. Squee! Neela totally cares that Ray is dating Katie.
More proof to come. Kerry and Courtney watch another one of Kerry's
medical news reports. They end up making out. Like we all didn't
know that was coming. Neela runs into Ray and tells him "it's not cool
to date a student." She tries to tell him she doesn't think it's a
good idea, and she likes Katie, but...she doesn't get to finish her sentence.
Ray angrily interrupts. "So this is your business now too?" Neela
says we're friends, friends care about other friends' relationships. A
bitter Ray says, "So, friend, how's Gates?" "What?" He says something
like, "You can't expect me to wait around until you figure out that guy's
just jerking you around." She is taken aback. Finally, he says
the thing that had me squeeing all over the place: "Neela, you made your
choice. You can't have it both ways." And he leaves her there,
stunned. While heading for the El, Neela is gruff and angry with Gates.
She tells him to stop lying about his relationship status with Meg.
He further insists that it's over, it never was, blah blah. He
says that it's different with her; she makes him think about the way he wants
his life to be. I think she forgives him, because she pulls him onto
the train with her. GAH. Two steps forward for Neela/Ray, three
steps backward in the direction of Neela/Gates. Chaz moves out of Pratt's
because he doesn't think Pratt will ever accept his being gay. Luka
tells Abby about Ames, and she is understandably alarmed and angry he didn't
tell her before. He tells her he took care of it, but who knows if
that's true? This was a good ep, and not just because of the Neela/Ray
stuff. Morris was amazing. :)
11/23/06
"Scoop and Run"
13.09: For once, an episode that doesn't start with
Gates and Neela. ER peeps talk about the best way to cook a turkey.
Abby is about to get off her shift when her transport beeper goes
off. She doesn't want to go, and Jane won't go for her. Jane
gets barfed on by a sick girl, so she gets her karmic payback. Heh.
Pratt, Ray, and Kerry are alone on Thanksgiving and that's why they
are at work. :( The cops tell Luka that Ames denied ever speaking
to Abby, and they basically think he's being paranoid. *eyeroll* So
Abby has to go get in the helicopter transport, and the helicopter EMT guys
(and the pilots) are a bunch of weirdos. Gates calls Neela down to
the ER a whole heckuva lot, and she points that out. He asks her if
she must look so hot all the time because that's why. GAG. Poor
Ray doesn't enjoy holidays. Sam teases him about Katie having his
cell phone, and he's kinda embarrassed, and not really in the way where
you blush because you like the person. He's just sort of embarrassed,
period. Abby and the transport jerks are supposed to pick up an old
woman and take her to County, but Abby says she shouldn't be moved because
she would never make the trip. They should just leave her where she
is and let her die peacefully with her family. The chauvinist transport
assholes won't listen to Abby and they end up losing the lady in the air.
They get a call to help a vehicle crash, and the stupid helicopter
guys ignore the radio because they're almost done with their shift. Abby
answers the call herself and makes them go help. Because Abby is awesome.
Yes. Crenshaw likes Jane because she's blunt and rude, just like
him. Alex hangs out with the sick girl because he kinda likes her.
When Abby and the jerks get to the bus, it's halfway over a cliff.
People are hurt and crawling around everywhere. They run around
trying to help as many people as they can until more help arrives. Abby
gets into the bus where a woman is trapped in the back--the side that's over
the cliff--and her son refuses to leave her. They can't get the woman
free, and she tells Abby to get her son off the bus. She has to drag
him away from his mother, and then Abby helps other hurt people. AWESOME.
She promises the kid she'll try to help his mother. The fire
department says no one can go on the bus until they get more help to stabilize
it, and Abby doesn't listen. She gets back on the bus, trying to help
the woman, and it looks hopeless until one of the helicopter jerks shows
up with the Jaws of Life and frees the woman. They get the woman to
safety, and then they have to run and jump off the bus as it falls over
the cliff! Holy crap! They almost died. Meanwhile, Gates
tells Neela that he's done with the woman he lives with, and he tells her
that since Meg and the kid will be gone all night, Neela's coming home with
him. Ugh. Ray calls Katie and leaves a message about wanting
to get his phone back. He's very businesslike and even a bit irritated.
Doesn't sound like he's all that into her to me. Okay, remember
how I thought Kerry's TV producer was flirting with her last week? Yeah,
I was right. Courtney (Michelle Hurd) and Kerry hang out in the doctor's
lounge, and Pratt comes in. Courtney leaves the room for a minute,
and Pratt proves how much his gaydar sucks by expressing a casual interest
in the attractive TV producer. Kerry sets him straight, so to speak,
and he starts asking her about when she knew she was gay. "Are you
coming out to me?" she asks him jokingly, and I seriously laughed my ass
off. Funniest thing Kerry has said in a long time. Anyhoo, no
he's not coming out to her, he's asking because of his brother Chaz. Pratt
says that Chaz thinks it's a phase, and Kerry says she thinks Chaz is gay.
Abby gets back to the ER okay, and the transport jerk tells her "you're
pretty tough for a girl." She smiles wryly and says, "Go to hell."
Neela and Gates get to his place, and she's acting really jittery and
nervous about having sex with him. He's not nervous, and they start
kissing. I would have thrown up except that while Gates and Neela are
one the sofabed, naked, getting it on under a blanket, Meg and the girl walk
in on them. ROFLMAO. Take that! Katie gives Ray back his
phone and says she's starting her ER rotation now. Ray isn't excited
about that. Luka brings Joe and lots of Thanksgiving food to the ER,
and they have a big dinner with all the sad ER doctors and nurses who have
nowhere else to be. It's nice. Abby is acting a little weird
after her near-death experience. Luka wants to know if she's okay,
and she promises to tell him later. This was a good episode. I
am really proud of Abby for being awesome. I still hate Gates. And
I don't think that Ray is over Neela yet.
11/16/06
"Reason to Believe"
13.08: The episode starts with, of course, Gates
and Neela. She's asleep on the couch in the doctor's lounge, and
he comes in and wakes her up. He sits down close to her on the couch,
and they discuss their "mutual groping." Neela says that it was a
mistake, and Gates attempts to explain to her about the woman he lives with.
He doesn't get very far into the explanation before they almost kiss,
but Abby walks in before that can happen, thank God. The main medical
story of the episode was a couple of homeless street kids who come into the
ER, and one of them has rabies. The two kids have all kinds of stories
about spirits and other fantastical things, and when the older of the two
sees Neela in her blue surgical scrubs, he decides she is the "Blue Lady"
who has to save your life if you know her secret name. Gates has apparently
nicknamed Neela "Mayday," and the kid overhears him calling her Mayday.
So, when the little boy with rabies starts crashing, the other kid
wanders all over the hospital to find Neela, and he walks into a surgery
to get her, the Blue Lady, because she has to save his friend. He says
he knows her secret name and calls her Mayday. She comes back to the
ER and they all do what they can for the kid, but they can't get him back.
The remaining homeless kid is devastated that the Blue Lady didn't
save his friend, and he goes running away with another street kid. Neela
chases them, trying to catch up because they might be sick too and could
need treatment, but the kids get away. It was really sad. The
poor kid. Then Hope comes running out of the ER to tell Neela that
the rabies boy has a pulse! It's a miracle, according to Hope. They
stabilize him and put him into a coma so his body can fight off the rabies.
Neela sits with him. Because she's the Blue Lady, and all. Sad.
While all of this happening, Pratt walks into his apartment and finds
his brother Chaz with another guy. And can I just say, hell-ooooo
Sam Jones III? Woo. Didn't know he had all those abs... Ahem.
Anyway, Pratt reacts badly and tells Chaz to be gone by the time he
gets back. At the ER, he is still so agitated that a disagreement
with Gates escalates and he socks Gates in the face. He apologizes
for it later, but it was very satisfying to see Gates get punched in the
the head. :D When Pratt gets back to his place, Chaz is packing. They
fight, and Pratt is angry at Chaz for not telling him the truth and says
that he's "not cool with it," ostensibly meaning the lying, but we wonder
if he really means that he's not cool with Chaz being gay. He almost
lets Chaz get a block down the street before he goes after him and brings
his stuff back to the apartment. Good for you, Pratt. Good for
you. Hope (who I'm really starting to like, by the way) helps Pratt
gather up extra free medicine samples to give to a church medicine exchange
program. Luka recieves one of Joe's toys in a package from Ames and
is immediately on edge about it. He's so thrown off that he's kind
of a jerk and actually pulls rank with Abby when they disagree about a patient.
He doesn't tell her what's wrong, though. Luka wants to call
the authorities on a drunk whose wife has a black eye. Abby doesn't
think he did it on purpose and doesn't want to involve the authorities, but
Luka insists that he is abusive. "The guy is an alcoholic." Abby
then very matter of factly says, "So am I." And walks away. Very
interesting moment. Kerry now does medical news reports for the local
TV news, and while doing a report on camera in a school cafeteria, a little
girl chokes and Kerry ends up having to do an emergency tracheaotomy on television!
She saves the girl's life, and the TV news producer woman (played by
guest star Michelle Hurd) is very impressed. So impressed that I think
she was flirting with Kerry a little. I'm not surprised. It's
been a while since "ER" did anything with it's resident lesbian character
in the romantic department. The only other significant thing that happened
in this ep was Gates and the woman he lives with (the widow of his military
buddy) discussing their relationship. She wants to get married, and
he...wants to break up. She has some trouble accepting it. So
who knows how that's gonna go. Ray was not in this episode at all,
and Ellen was quite sad about that. He's gonna be in next week's though...
:)
11/9/06
"Jigsaw"
13.07: Luka and Abby interview for a nanny. So
funny. Shawn Hatosy guest stars as a guy with Disassociative Identity
Disorder (multiple personalities) whose various, um, persons make it difficult
for Morris and Sam to save his life. One personality wants the procedure,
another one doesn't. Morris insists that he's got DID, but no one
listens to him until it's almost too late. I felt really bad for Morris
this ep. He's sad that nobody takes him seriously. The Ames guy
becomes a little obsessed with Luka and Abby. He meets Abby in the
park and talks to her, and she has no idea who he really is. Creepy.
Sam is mad at Hope for lying to her to help a patient, because you
never lie to the nurses, apparently. The big news for this episode is
what happens with Neela, Gates, and Ray. There's good and bad here.
Neela makes eyes at Gates during an M&M, and Katie says that he's
cute, but she's heard that he lives with somebody, and she thinks he has a
kid. Neela is less than excited about that, and she irritatedly picks
a fight with Gates during the M&M over some obscure medical issue. Afterward,
they of course begin to heatedly make out, complete with pushing stuff off
a table and everything. Gross. However, Ray is outside and sees
them through the window! GASP! And he looks darkly unhappy about
it. Poor Ray. A little later, Ray comes up to Neela and Katie
and says he wants to talk, and Neela says later, I'm busy. Ray, in
a slightly bitter tone (you could barely detect the bitterness), says "I
wasn't actually talking to you." Oh, says Neela, abashed. Ray
and Katie move away to talk, and Ray asks Katie out. I think that Ray
is trying to move on now that he knows that Neela wants Gates. I wonder
how well that plan will work out. I think that he still has major
feelings for Neela, but since she wants someone else, he's doing his best
to get over her, even if it means going out with someone he wasn't that
interested in previously. I hope this isn't the end of Ray/Neela...
11/2/06
"Heart of the Matter"
13.06: The episode starts with Gates and Neela
having sex. A lot. I was trying not to vomit. Then,
Neela suddenly wakes up to Ray coming into her apartment early in the
morning. It had all been a dream, thank God. It vexes me that
Neela is so infatuated with Gates, it really does. Ray apparently
came with donuts and to fix her TV before they had to be at the hospital.
Awww. But Neela is sort of gruff with him and says she's out
of sorts, and Ray is sad. :( Later, Ray and Neela a some of the new
interns are working on some patient, and Gates calls Neela over to look
at something. Ray is annoyed and says she's in the middle of something,
and Gates says that there's enough of Neela to go around. I don't
think Ray agreed. He doesn't want to share her, poor boy. Neela
gets in trouble with Crenshaw, the chief surgical resident, and Ray says
"poor Neela" to Katie. She says, "Is she why you haven't called me?"
So I guess they went out, but they're not a couple or anything, obviously.
There is a girl with Asperger's in the ER who is very sexually forward
and always takes off her clothes. Was disturbing, but amusing. Kovac
gets the verdict on the malpractice suit, and I was surprised that it was
in favor of Kovac. So was the Ames guy who sued him. At the end
of the episode, a bunch of the ER women go out for drinks, and Neela gets
buzzed. Abby knows about Neela's thing for Gates, and she tells her
to call him. All the other ladies don't know yet that it's Gates, and
they're all like, "call who?" Katie suddenly says, "It's Ray, isn't
it?" To which Neela replies, "Are you mad?!" And Ellen is so
sad! Clearly, Katie is convinced that something is between Neela and
Ray, and I agree. I mean, who can forget that scene where Neela was
moving out of their apartment and Ray didn't want her to go? I can't.
But anyway. Neela lets it slip that it's Gates, and she eventually
calls him. However, the girlfriend picks up, and Neela hangs up and
says it's a wrong number. Hmmmm. Doesn't look like it's going
to stop her, though. Grr. And stupid Gates, going to cheat on
his dead best friend's girlfriend who is now his live-in girlfriend.
10/19/06
"Ames v. Kovac"
13.05: Neela and Ray are killin' me. So,
Neela's med student (whose name is Katie, I guess) openly asks Ray out,
and he doesn't get to finish the conversation. Later, he finds Neela
and tells her that Katie just asked him out, and I can't be entirely sure
why. I kinda think he was trying to, I don't know, ask her permission?
Or see how she reacted? I'm leaning toward the latter at this
point. Whatever the reason, he obviously wanted her thoughts on it.
But she had to go off and do something and didn't really pay attention
to him, and he said something like "never mind," and walked off. He
looked kind of upset, too. Sad! Poor Ray. I don't think
he wants to go out with Katie at all, but maybe he will just because Neela
is basically freezing him out. Meanwhile, Kovac is in court for a malpractice
suit against him. Sadly, it looks like he will lose this one. It's
a frustrating situation; I completely understand Kovac's actions at the time,
given the circumstances and the hectic way things always are at County, so
I don't think he should lose. He didn't intentionally neglect the Ames
guy, nor did he act incompetently. Even so, I imagine that if I was
left by myself for three days in an ER and came out with a numb left side
from a stroke, I would feel ignored and mistreated. It's tough. So,
sad for Luka. It's not his fault that County ER resources are stretched
well beyond the limit all the time. He's only one doctor. He
can't do everything. But yay, Abby is back to work! I
missed her at the hospital. That's basically it, except for Pratt deciding
to let his younger half brother (Sam Jones III!) move in with him. NEXT
WEEK: GAH! Neela and Gates will get horizontal--well, actually more
vertical, but it's still bad. And Gates is this freaking family man
with a live-in girlfriend and a father-daughter relationship with her kid!
Yuck.
10/12/06
"Parenthood"
13.04: Weeee! Some actual good Neela/Ray
moments! Neela has a surgical med student shadowing her, and Ray
comes up to give Neela some mail that's still coming to his apartment,
and even though it was kind of awkward, it was still adorable. Ray
SO loves her. Anyway, after he leaves, the med student wants details.
Neela says that they used to be roommates. "With benefits,
I hope," says the med student. Neela looks ever so slightly embarrassed
and says that it wasn't like that, they were just friends. The
med student says too bad, because Ray is hot. There is a pause,
and Neela looks simultaneously uncomfortable, confused, thoughtful, sad,
etc. It was a very complicated moment for her, I think. Especially
since one of the items of mail Ray gave her was a death benefits check
from the Army because of Michael. Sad. But at least the Neela/Ray
dynamic still lives! Woo! Abby adjusts to motherhood and gets
in a fight at Mommy and Baby class. Funny. Gates is an asshole
and doesn't follow instructions, as usual. Morris is not a child molester;
it was just a misunderstanding at the soccer game of his biological son,
Max. Max's moms didn't know who Morris was and beat him up and nearly
arrested, but everything got cleared up eventually. So, other than
the normal weird medical stuff (five year old crushed by falling tree, guy
with burns all over, etc.), that's about it. Next week: "An ER Event."
Um, another one? I feel like there's An ER Event every three
or four episodes.
10/5/06
"Somebody to Love"
13.03: Abby is a happy mama, Kerry is now an
ER attending, and Neela has officially become a surgical intern. I
was initially very concerned about this until I remembered how that worked
out for Mark Greene and Elizabeth Corday, heh heh. :) So, it doesn't
have to be all bad. The real problem is the fact that Ray was (again!)
barely in this episode. He and Neela had a very short and very businesslike
conversation at the beginning, and that was it. Gates still continues
to make overtures to Neela, and she seems to be somewhat responding (gag),
but the kicker is that we find out that Gates is already in a relationship!
With a woman who has a kid! HA! I knew I didn't like him.
Even without that revelation, I still wouldn't like Gates. The
entire episode was about Pratt and Gates butting heads because Gates can't
follow orders when he thinks they're wrong. So, that's pretty much
it this week. Nothing major. Although, there was one scene where
Luka asked Sam how she was doing and offered to talk to Alex and maybe help
him out of his emotional funk. She politely declined and assured Luka
that she was okay, but she's not that okay. She told Luka how happy
she is that Joe is okay. It was sad. Okay, I was sad.
I still like Luka/Sam. Next week: Morris is a child molester?!
9/28/06
"Graduation Day"
13.02: So, Joe (otherwise known as the spawn
of Abby and Luka) comes through his ordeal okay. That's good. He's
a nice baby, and it would have been too sad for Abby to lose him. Sally
Field as Abby's mom was annoying, as per usual. Sam is back at
the hospital now, and after some help from her rich employer guy, the
shooting of Steve was ruled as a justifiable homicide. I'm happy
with that. I feel like it was very justifiable. Kerry got demoted
from Chief of Staff because of the dumb Clemente business, so now she just
works in the ER, I think. And now about Neela... She got drunk
and stupid John Stamos took her home, and in her drunken, depressive stupor,
she kissed him and told him to stay because she didn't want to be alone.
I was worried, but Gates (Stamos) was honorable and stayed with her
but not in THAT way. I was also worried that the whole Ray/Neela thing
from last season was simply going to disappear, because in the middle there
was a small scene where Ray and Neela briefly discussed Abby, and they were
civil and normal and acted like nothing had happened. It was very short.
But hope was restored at the very end when everyone is at a celebration
at the bar (I presume they were celebrating Joe's recovery or something),
and Gates is there. He starts talking to Neela, who was also talking
to Ray, and Ray obviously does not like Gates. The jealousy was palpable.
Eeee! Neela wanders off, leaving Ray and Gates alone. Gates
tells Ray that he heard Neela once had a roommate who never tried to sleep
with her (meaning Ray), and Ray says, "Yeah. What a dillweed." Then
he walks off. I'm glad they're not just letting the Ray/Neela UST
drop. I'm not glad that Gates is an ER intern now. So he'll
be around all the time to be annoying. Woot.
9/21/06
ER Season 13 Premiere: "Bloodline"
13.01: Whoa. There was so much happening
in this episode, it's hard to keep it all straight. Stupid Steve
and his friends shot up the place and kidnapped Sam and Alex, so Sam
spent the entire time trying to get away with her son. In the end,
Steve shot his two accomplices, basically raped Sam, and then when he
was done and asleep, Sam stole his keys and shot him. Yikes. Meanwhile,
Jerry is in surgery for the gunshot, and Neela ends up saving his life.
I was disappointed that Ray was pretty much nowhere to be seen in
this ep. I also have this strong feeling that Neela is going to become
a surgical intern, which will take her away from the ER and, consequently,
Ray. Boo. And then there's Abby. I still am not quite over
my dismay about Luka and Abby being back together and having the kid. I
really liked Luka/Sam, and it was nice that he kept asking Kerry if they
had heard anything about Sam and Alex (because they were kidnapped). Abby
had a major complication with her pregnancy, and the poor baby was premature.
I think he's gonna be okay, but Abby had to have her uterus removed
because they couldn't stop her bleeding. :( No more kids for
Abby. I just don't get Luka/Abby. It's never moved me, probably
never will. I'm just so sad for Abby. NEXT WEEK: Neela "doesn't
want to be alone"? I hate John Stamos. Where the hell is Ray
when Neela "doesn't want to be alone"?!
