ER season 11 thread (1 Viewer)

[Shaun]

Did anyone else notice that the actress playing Morris's girlfriend was one of the original models for the Vampirella comic book? I only know this because she was here in my hometown, a while back at a local comic book store signing autographs and posing for pictures. She also appeared in the Jack Black comedy " Shallow Hal". According to IMDB, her name is Sascha Knopf.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I actually have a polaroid of me and Sascha in her Vampy outfit from Heroes Con way back in 1996 or 1997.

 

[WillG]

Deb sure does like to quit the ER. What is this, like the 3rd time?

 

[Keith I]

Yes, it's the 3rd time. Ming-Na has an interview in TV Guide (www.tvguide.com) and she said it was a mutual agreement between her and the producers to finally leave since there is no more story to tell. And Noah Wyle says he might consider returning for another season (forgot where I read that).

 

[John_Lee]

Guess they'll have to raid the quickie-mart for another doctor.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Maybe Noah Wylie is having fun with Madchen Amick as his prospective new girlfriend.

 

[Julian Reville]

Did anyone catch the name of the book Abby was given (and is it a real book)? I rewound about 20 times and got mumble-mush mouth-History. God, at least Corday could speak intelligibly.

 

[Stacy Huff]

So Ming Na really left the show and won't be coming back, huh?

 

[WillG]

I thought he said that this would officially be his last season, but he is open to the idea of making appearances every now and then.

 

[John_Lee]

Rats, Lice and History

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books

 

[Julian Reville]

Thanks, John. I may check out a copy.

 

[James Gumbart]

That sucks if Ming Na does leave. She is one of my favorite characters and also gives Pratt a third dimension.

 

[John_Lee]

That has to be one of the best euphemisms, ever. :b

 

[Patrick Sun]

1/13/05

Susan is appalled by the lack of good bedside manners of her interns, but she doesn't can't quite communicate with them.

Ray's "happy-go-lucky/smooth operator/hip" facade is exposed by a pre-op transsexual (looking like a woman) who complained of shortness of breath, and the labs came back making it seem the patient is pregnant, but it turns out the presence of a hormone that indicate a pregnancy condition in woman is the same as when a man is stricken by testicular cancer. At least the patient was going to get rid of the equipment anyway, but didn't like Ray's handling, so another doctor was requested. Susan did the consult, but later was busy, so Ray had to go back to the patient, and then the diagnosis was explained to him, and the reason for requesting a different doctor, citing the bad energy by Ray's outward persona hiding a different person underneath.

A man comes in to look for who handle his now deceased wife's case just a few days ago, and Neela was asked, but she doesn't remember, but later, it's determined she was the attending, and Kovach pushes Neela to go work on her bedside manner and to trust herself when dealing with a grieving husband. Before that revelation, Kovach has Neela do complicated procedure on a patient's skull, which should have been done by a more senior resident (Pratt), but Kovach wanted Neela to transfer her confidence in technical procedures to handling the emotional state of patients and their families.

When Wendell asks John to go to Telluride with her, he tells her he's busy, but later, he changes his mind, and then gets funny signals from Wendell when she's okay with his turnabout, but he never finds out why because he gets interrupted by Neela.

After getting reamed out by Susan for not quite filling out her paperwork on the up and up, Abby goes out for a smoke to wait for the ambulance, and instead, gets kidnapped by some gang-related folks in a SUV. One guy is shot, and needs medical attention, but didn't want to be in the ER due to procedures of being reported for GSW to the police, so they force Abby to try and fix up their shot up bud. One is just a teenage boy, and the driver is late teens, early twenties. They keep a gun on Abby, and she pleads with them to take their friend to the ER, but they get her to provide them with a list of medical supplies, which prove to not be enough, in spite of Abby's effort to stitch up the guy as his heart gives out, and he dies. Before the death, Abby complains about needing to pee, so the driver drives their SUV into the woods, and has Abby go whizzing in the woods, with their flashlights on her while she's going her business, Abby was humilated, but kept her cool, just trying not to give them a reason to shoot her. After the death, the driver has Abby lie down in the backseat, and eventually Abby is returned to the ER, for which Abby is surprised, shocked, and she runs into the ER, perhaps grateful and will have all sort of issues to deal with in near future.

Susan and Weaver have a quick talk about leading the ER, and the challenges and the repurcussions from having to be tough and accept losing friendships. Susan was aghast, but probably comes around with it coming down to choices. She continues to call Abby's and get her answer machine, but leaves a message that leaves the door open to show concern for her, even if she's miffed about Abby going AWOL and leaving the ER short-handed.

 

[Patrick Sun]

1/20/05 "Only Connect"

So the soft skills are still in the shitter for the residents as they struggle to connect with their patients. Susan appears to be overwhelmed by this problem, though Luka does his best to provide some training to the residents to help with their bedside manner. It doesn't prevent the ER from confusing 2 John Doe's and telling the wrong families about the demise and the recovery of the John Doe's, so the happy-sad situation arose from the mistake and lack of communication. Susan also has to deal with a lawyer trying to drum up malpractice business while waiting as a patient in the ER.

Pratt is horrible at teaching the interns how to perform the various procedures on ER patients, and does this in front of Susan. The interns aren't Pratt's biggest fan because he makes them feel inadequate and useless. Pratt gets his bedside manner called on by Luka, and when Pratt blows it on one of the John Doe's, Luka still uses the situation to teach Pratt about taking time to make a connection with the patients and getting the full story.

Neelah struggles with a foster home situation, and making promises that couldn't be kept after more evidence of injuries come forth, but Luka went around Neela so as to not undermine her confidence, but Neela finds out, and starts grilling Luka, and he explains the situation. Neela admits to Abby that she's crushing on Luka (which is ironic, considering Abby's former relationship with Luka).

Abby does struggle after her night of terror from the last episode. Abby's crabby and practically tells Neela that she needs to move out (Abby needed her space). Abby comes back to work, and she finds that she is struggling with her duties, and decides to take some more time off. Debanko (no idea how to spell the new chief of surgery dude's name) gave her a huge binder full of info on traumatic stress studies, but it only took a short conversation with Eion Bailey's character about the smallness of humans, the shortness of human lifespan to put things back into perspective for Abby, and then she received a cell phone call from the ER as Abby contemplates getting on the subway to go home, and Abby goes back to work, and appears to be in better spirits.

Neela finds that affordable housing isn't something easily found, but Ray offers to sublet his place, and Neela finally agrees to move in since their shifts rarely intersect during their downtime.

Sam and Luka had problems communicating, Sam's always pissed about something Luka gave her son, like buying him a $50 concert ticket. He's always trying to get her to admit that she's really upset about something else. He tries to ease her burden at work, but she's still miffed at him, but they patch things up while waiting for their train.

 

[John_Lee]

So, we have the third prime time show that I know of [Touched by an Angel, and Joan of Arcadia just this past fall] referencing the E.M Forster line as the theme for an episode.

Geez, how sly to put the book on Abby's night stand for the opening shot.

 

[Patrick Sun]

1/27/05

While the tragic ending was telegraphed, just knowing it was coming didn't make it any more comfortable to watch the drama unfold. Can you imagined it if Unos didn't approve the transplant after the father's sacrifice? Holy moly, that would have been rough.

I LOL'd at the "Punjabi Powerhouse" appellation that Carter gave to Neela.

Neela's infatuation with Luka was cute, glad the air was cleared with both Luka and then later with Sam.

Dibanco (anyone how to spell his name?) continues to show some really grounded humanity in his bedside manner.

Carter's passion and subsequent short-sightedness in handling his outrage at the side effects of Zirixil may spell his tenure at the ER. Time will tell. Then again, he is one rich mofo, so what does he really care.

Jake makes his move on Abby, but Abby puts the brakes on really fast. The cases they had to handle was pretty funny given Abby and Neela's earlier discusson about being in a long dry spell.

 

[Stacy Huff]

Thanks, Patrick, for your weekly summary.

It's Dr. Dubenko (according to IMDB)and the drug, according to close captioning, is Zarictal.

Does anybody know if Renuvium was supposed to be Vioxx?

 

[Paul Sandhu]

I laughed too... more at the way he pronounced Punjabi... he said Poonjabi. Coincidentially I've heard that alliterative phrase used to describe some of my fellow punjabi athletes, although they were basketball players. I guess they don't call soccer players powerhouses. :frowning:

Dubenko does seem like the kind of person that just always knows what to say and what to do at the right time. And the situation with the girl's father was a rather typical way of doing it. It was kind of nice at the end where Carter was treating that elderly gentleman with the arm wound.

 

[Richard Travale]

I thought the whole arthritis bit at the end was a bit heavy handed.