ER season 11 thread (1 Viewer)

[Ken Chan]

I'm not sure if UNOS has their own surgeons, or if they're affiliated with them, or if it's just more of a placement/data sharing network. They're not the ones that have the GIF patent, though

Lots of lingo flying around.

 

[Patrick Sun]

11/11/04

"In an episode of ER that we'll always remember..."

Charlie (Ray Liotta) shows up at the ER, pretty much a mess from a lifetime of hard drinking, combined with a prison sentence for murder, and a suitcase of regret.

Initially Pratt has some really hard feelings about the heroic measures he thinks are being wasted on this bum Charlie. Kovach keeps confronting Pratt about the root cause for Pratt's reaction. Eventually Pratt witnesses, along with a room full of ER personnel, Charlie's estranged son literally hung up on him and their relationship for good. Charlie pretty much gives up hope of recovering from his assorted maladies after his son's rebuke. As the ER staff makes Charlies last hour as comfortable as possible, Charlie becomes the surrogate happenstance for Pratt to say goodbye to his own estranged father.

The irony of the value of life comes full circle for Pratt, who, not even 45 minutes before Charlie's passing, had no use for Charlie. But the parallels between of the relationships between Charlie and his son, and Pratt and his father, give each man some form of closure from unexpected circumstances.

 

[Clint B]

One of the better episodes I've seen in a while. Ray Liotta was great.

 

[NolanJ]

Every man, no matter how much of a scumbucket they've been their entire life, deserve a little respect in their dying hours.

 

[Richard Travale]

This episode was really good. Ray Liotta was great and I hope he gets an emmy for it.

 

[WillG]

I will say it was the best episode so far of the season and Ray Liotta, as usual, was great. But, it really wasn't anything new as far as the show goes. It caused some emotional issues in Pratt, but that was the only original element. They have had "Dying Man, estrainged from his family" episodes before. I recall one very similar episode from the past where a man was dying from hydroflouric acid burns and wanted to see his young daughter one last time but his estrainged ex-wife would not allow it.

 

[Cavan.B]

That was Michael Rappaport in that episode, IIRC.

I agree this was a good episode; you could see they were going for a more artsy feel with the scenes in the desert. Overall, it wasn't that original, but was well made with some good direction and excellent acting.

 

[Chris]

I'll be alone.. it seemed like we had seen all of this before, and really, they didn't provide anything that made me say "wow".

While we address a lot of cases in the ER, a lot of things that I think they could do with reason (RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES) would be unique as well.. conjoined twins; a 56 year old woman having a kid; ala Cleaveland last year, a Hepatitis A outbreak; a child born with rare diseases or genetic disorders; etc. etc.

There are so many avenues I think they could go that would be interesting and attention grabbing, but they seem intent on repeating similar constructs over and over again so that you know what's going ot happen. *shrug* just me I guess.

Did they do one on a school getting shot up a while back? I'm trying to remember (I think yes)..

In all honesty, although I love the presentation, and love -some- of the episodes, it may be time for ER to wander off into the great beyond.

 

[Patrick Sun]

11/18/04 "White Guy, Dark Hair"

Susan's ER gets inundated with a crew of fake patients (imagine Brownies/Girl Scouts on plenty of sugar) in order to get a handle on the ER's response to such a situation. Unfortunately, Susan's crew was overwhelmed by the numbers (and a very annoyingly helpful girl who proved to be the last straw), and Susan booted them all out. Good moment of Susan finally taking charge.

A Korean girl shows up and delivers a baby that she won't acknowledge, she doesn't even acknowledge delivery of the baby. The more Abby and Carter dig into the girl's background (the mother leaves hastily after finding out her daughter delivered a child), it gets really creepy as it appears that the girl's developmentally challenged older brother might be the father of the baby, but luckily the incest angle was squashed as the girl's boyfriend was revealed to be the true father, and the brother's naivete in handling the situation led the doctors to the true parentage of the baby. Carter had a hard time figuring out why the girl would disavow her child, a miracle in his eyes given his and Kem's tragic loss earlier in the Spring. Carter butts heads with the Madchen Amick character, but Abby gives her the 411 on Carter's situation, and Carter apologizes for overstepping his bounds.

Deb's father's health/dementia continues to put a strain on Deb. It's suggested that she place him in a nursing home, but Deb is resistant to that option at the moment.

Sam plays doctor surreptiously and the consequences and payoff aren't good. Luka has to cover for Sam's risk-taking in trying to glean some more info on a serial rapist from the victim in the ER. All that Sam got for her efforts from the rape victim was "White guy, dark hair."

 

[WillG]

I kind of liked this one. I liked how this episode had a few different storylines that gave focus to a few characters spread out over the hospital instead of one main story involving one or two of them. This episode went back to giving us a couple of different patient focus stories, which is when E.R. works best. Add in some general chaos, such as the Brownie drill and it works pretty well.

One other element I liked was Sam's backfire. I have noticed that over the past couple of seasons, some of the characters had a consistent and reoccuring "F the System" mentality and were constantly disgusted with any rules or methods of care that did not line up with their set of personal politics. It was cool to see this blow up in Sam's face because she was a bit overzealous about using a risky method, behind Luka's back to get information out of the rape victim which was based on her personal history with her ex-husband. Not to mention that had to be a dozen other ways to get information out of her without deflating that balloon. How about just "Blink once for yes, twice for no?"

 

[Chris]

Or, say "well, you can interview her when she's better" ? I mean, the statute of limitations is more then a few days, and the rape kit they should have ran might provide some clues in and of itself.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Well, I think Sam has some issues with rape crimes, and Luka has trying to get to the root of her obsession with getting the perp off the streets, plus the cop reiterated that without anything else to go on, the cops would have to wait until the rapist committed another rape, and that just didn't sit well with Sam and motivated her to play doctor and put the patient's life at risk.

 

[Patrick Sun]

12/02/04 "A Shot In The Dark"

Ray's a punk with a M.D. Glad Neelah unzipped her fly and showed Ray who's the medicine man. I knew the bald cop was covering up for friendly fire by his zeal for the "perp" to die. That didn't portray Chicago's Finest in its best light.

Did Wendell's ex scare Carter away from Wendell at the rock-climb place? Carter seemed off his game after the rock-climbing portion of the evening. They are very cute together, well, 99% of the cuteness comes from Madchen Amick's part of the pairing.

The overall tone of the episode lacked a spark to it as it mainly laid dormant for most of the hour.

I don't think the ER audience really needed to hear Kovach stumble through the "spank your monkey" talk that all boys get when they are in middle school (maybe Alex is in elementary school, who knows these days...)

Deb is burning the candle on both ends, and it's not a pretty sight. Pratt, for a guy who missed the spleen diagnose, has a sharp eye when Deb pilfered the potassium for her father.

The little girl with appendix-to-be-bursting ailment and the hesitant parents subplot didn't really cover new ground as it was obvious the parents had a relative die in surgery at County General.

Overall, a so-so episode.

 

[WillG]

Yes of course it had to be a bullet from one of the other cops because we can't have the audience believe that a perp could have been responsible. I mean I could roll with it if it had any real bearing on the story, but it never ended up having much impact.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Well, that bald cop didn't want the shot cop to die, but he also didn't want the cop to have a better quality of life at the risk of death, which would provide a nice amount of guilt on the bald cop's conscience. That bald cop became a guy with puny character in my eyes.

 

[Richard Travale]

the entire episode was saved by the comment at the rock climbing gym.

Carter: Is this thing on right?
Trainer: Yeah, if you want to be hanging upside-down by your balls!

 

[Patrick Sun]

I actually LOL at that comment by the ex-boyfriend.

 

[Patrick Sun]

12/09/04 "Twas the night"

Carter and Wendell continue to get close (shopping for furniture, of all things). But Kem does manage to call Carter on this night, so she appears to still be a part of Carter's past and somewhat distant present.

I had to laugh at all the times Morris's hot girlfriend was in the process of getting hit on, and Morris gets all agitated at each instance.

Will Neelah and Barnett continue to flirt in their own way? It appears so. But it's still not quite even at the butt-sniffing stage yet.

Abby's assertiveness is put to the test on Christmas eve as she encounters a lack of respect by a patient's hoard of attending physicians that don't want to handle Abby's calls on this eve. The head surgeon dude that has a thing for Abby lets her know he was her secret Santa, and gives her a book that implies that it's doubtful they'll ever have anything in common, but stranger things have happened. Also, Abby has to deal with a 4th year student who actually volunteered to stay and work this evening after his shift was over. He appears to be a possible new love interest for Abby. In the end, Abby makes the right medical call, even though she steps on one of the patient's attending physician's toes to get the patient dialysis.

Deb tries to get someone to cover her shift because her father's condition has worsened and he wants to be euthanized, but she can't do it. After pleading for anyone to take her shift, and getting "no" for an answer by many on Christmas eve, she tells Susan that she has to quit the ER (to take care of her father). Pratt finds out and shows up at Deb's house. Pratt sees the stash of drugs, including the potassium that she "borrowed" from the ER, and he knows she has the necessary ingredients to put her father out of his misery. After more hours of the stress of having to care for her father and having Pratt pushing for Deb to put her father in a nursing home, Deb finally decides to honor her father's wishes and gives him the Kervorkian treatment and he passes away quietly, and Pratt consoles Deb. Deb and Pratt cover up the deed, Deb notifies the mortuary, and has Pratt sign off on the death certificate as her father's physician.

I've never understood why the producers don't subtitle the dialogue (in Mandarin Chinese) between Deb and her father, especially because I think you miss a lot by not quite knowing what is being said between the two of them, even with the sparse English that tries to fill the gaps. I do understand the Mandarin Chinese being spoken, and was glad to get all that was spoken between the two, and the heartbreak that Deb suffers is amplified if you understand everything being spoken.

 

[Chuck_W]

Wow Patrick...that must have been interesting understanding the last conversations between Deb and her father. Even without subtitles I found it very effective though.



Was that Eion Bailey (Webster from Band of Brothers)?

 

[Stacy Huff]

Yes, that was Pvt. Webster.

http://imdb.com/name/nm0047248/