ER: "The Match Game" Summary/Review
Scott Hollifield
E.R., Season 2, Episode 17, "The Match Game"
Production number #457217
Written by: Neal Baer
Directed by: Thomas Schlamme
PLOT ONE: FALSE TRUTHS
A man loaded with booze and cocaine runs a red light and hits several people
[see MISCELLANEOUS THREADS], as well as a car carrying a man and his
grandson on the way to school. Mr. Bowman's grandson was admitted four
months ago with a hurt knee, and the auto accident has aggravated his injury
into a fracture. While examining his x-rays, Benton notes the existence of
a bone tumor in his knee, which had gone unnoticed four months ago when the
boy was being treated by Doug Ross. Kathy Snyder, a legal counsel for the
hospital, steps in, and advises not only that the Bowmans be kept in the
dark about the hospital's four-month-old error, but that Doug "disengage"
from the boy's case. Nonetheless, Doug feels responsible for missing the
tumor before, and personally tells Mr. Bowman about it -- although he does
not mention that the tumor was detected before. Doug does, however, refer
the Bowmans to an oncologist friend of his, and even arranges to pay for
treatment, with a $5000 check and part-time work at his friend's clinic.
Annoyed at the conspiracy of silence, Benton takes it upon himself to reveal
the truth to Mr. Bowman, despite a direct order from Mark not to interfere.
Afterward, Bowman confronts Doug, rebuffing Doug's apology with, "I don't
want you near my grandson." Mark berates Peter for disobeying him; when
Peter professes to uphold honesty over "some code", Mark shoots back that
Peter is only acting out guilty feelings over his own silence in the matter
of Dr. Vucelich's study. Opinions seem to be divided in the hospital over
whether Doug or Peter was right, but Jeanie is on Peter's side, and tells
him so when they run into one another at Doc Magoo's. Jeanie relates a
story that Peter's mother once told her, about how Peter was ostracized at
summer camp for snitching on another boy. "I guess you never learn," Peter
says, as Jeanie stares at him.
PLOT TWO: THE RETURN OF CHLOE (AGAIN)
Susan finally agrees to meet her sister Chloe at a diner, to talk. Chloe
claims to be clean five months now, and engaged "to a great guy". An
impatient and skeptical Susan doesn't want to be hearing this, and pointedly
tells Chloe: "You abandoned your child. And that's the best thing that ever
happened to her." Concerned that Chloe might try to clandestinely take baby
Susie, Susan alerts the day care and steps up security. When the day care
urgently calls her, Susan rushes in, fearing the worst, but the call was
merely to summon her to witness Susie's first steps. When Susan gets home,
Chloe is sitting on her doorstep. Chloe informs her that she's filing for
visitation rights, and at this, Susan reveals that she's in the process of
adopting little Susie. She closes the door in Chloe's face amid determined
protests.
PLOT THREE: THE BUBBLY BURST
Carter is worried sick -- literally -- over the prospects of his "match",
his qualification for internship. After heaving buckets in the restroom, he
frets to Harper about the damage that his callous and overambitious attitude
may have done to his career, a self-characterization that Harper doesn't
hesitate to agree with. "From now on, patients come first," declares
Carter, and he gets to demonstrate this reaffirmation on a lawyer named
Ledbetter, who sits still for Carter's generous tests despite fidgeting over
the status of his own position (at his law firm). While Mr. Ledbetter is
waiting on the results of his tests, Carter receives the magic envelope; his
"match" is in. Dizzy with happiness, Carter promptly forgets his impatient
patient, and takes a three-hour lunch to celebrate the good news. The time
is spent with Harper in a posh hotel hottub, wherein champagne is imbibed
and pages from the hospital are ignored. Carter returns to work to find
that Mr. Ledbetter's tests revealed leukemia, but because of his absence,
Susan Lewis had to take charge of the case. Dr. Hicks abruptly asks Carter
to scrub up for an impromptu operation, but Carter woefully reveals that he
can't due to the champagne he drank. Hicks' response, that drinking alcohol
during rotation hours is grounds for expulsion, sends Carter back to the
restroom for more puking. Mark drops by to assure him that he can't be
expelled without a hearing, but does not offer an opinion on the status of
Carter's internship.
PLOT FOUR: THE SINGLE GUY
A somewhat different Mark Greene rides into work on his recently acquired
motorcycle, sporting a new goatee and blue-tinted contact lenses. He
brushes off aspersions that his new look heralds a swinging-single
lifestyle, although he does make plans to hit the club scene with Doug that
evening. At one point, Mark treats a fellow bald man named Bartoli who
overdosed on "prolonging cream" -- digitalis -- in an attempt to overcome
what he calls the bald man's natural overabundance of testosterone. One of
his Mark's later patients is a female director and producer of infomercials,
who expresses interest in having Mark in a production (and a dinner date).
The commercial she wants to use him for turns out to be for a version of
Minoxidil aimed at bald men, though, and she laughs at Mark's timidly
repeated theory about bald men's virility. After work, Mark scopes out the
singles bar crowd alone, and is striking out, when he loses one of his new
contact lenses. Immediately after, he bumps into Kathy Snyder (see PLOT
ONE), who helps him find his lost contact; it fell into his goatee.
PLOT FIVE: TEMP FOR VICTORY
Since Malik and Wendy are both out sick, the ER is short on nurses, and
calls in one from the temp agency. It ironically turns out to be Carol,
who's signed with the agency to supplement her increasingly slim hospital
hours, although the temp position requires her to wear traditional
nurse-whites replete with skirt and stockings. Greeting her at work is a
picture of Jeanie, hung on the wall to commemorate Jeanie's honor of
"employee of the month", Carol's irritation at which draws Doug's amusement.
Today also falls the day of the traditional cleaning and treatment of Hugo,
a corpulent street person whose bathing Carol unsuccessfully tries to
delegate to Jeanie, who tells her more than once, "That's a nurse's job."
Carol achieves a sort of petty revenge later when Hugo needs stitches (more
than once), which necessitates Jeanie's attention as a P.A. No sooner does
Hugo exit the ER than he gets accidentally run over by rookie paramedic
Reilly Brown, the new parter of Shep, who's been frustratingly trying to
break him in all day. "Go easy on him," calls Carol to Shep, as she and
Jeanie walk off to cooperatively treat Hugo. In a more private moment, Shep
tells Carol that he feels being assigned a hapless novice as a new partner
is his punishment for leading Raul to his death.
MISCELLANEOUS THREAD:
Nineteen-year-old Freddie Robinson is the young man who hit the Bowmans and
others (as well as killing one person), and is being treated for his own
injuries. His mother comes in to see him, and despite Susan's blunt recall
of Freddie's toxicological state, refuses to believe that her son does
drugs. When Susan begins rattling a litany of the injury and death her son
has caused, she suddenly slaps Susan in the face and walks off.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"ER" returns with its first new episode in five weeks, one stuffed
with main character development and very little filler. Almost feels like
we never left!
Now that February sweeps are ancient history, the writers have
started steadily cranking their engines in preparation for the end of the
show's second season, which is only two months and a handful of episodes
away. Your guess is as good as mine as to where it will lead, however.
The showcase is another weighty ethical puzzle not too dissimilar to
the recent Rubidoux case, and one that skillfully highlights a contrast
between the show's two most mercurial characters. Doug Ross admits a boy
with a sore knee but overlooks a serious tumor; now, four months later, he
wants to toe the hospital administration line and keep silent, but Peter
Benton wants to tell the Bowmans the whole truth. Doug's position is
particularly interesting here because it's not at all a stretch to imagine
him on the opposite side. He's always been one to stridently hold the moral
high ground, as he did in a clash with Mark back in "And Baby Makes Two"
(with poor little Chia-Chia). But there's not really a contradiction; even
in that case, Doug was being nobly manipulative in not sharing with Mei-Sun
the full implications of his treatment methods. This time around, though,
he seems cowed into silence; perhaps past clashes with authority have taught
him not to make waves.
Peter's past clashes with authority, namely Dr. Vucelich, have taught him
the opposite lesson however, and in fact, Mark Greene sort of blurts this
connection out near the end of the episode, although I feel things would've
been better had the audience been left to draw this conclusion on its own.
Still and all, Peter seeks an outlet for his guilt and frustration over not
speaking loudly enough before. Is it really the relative safety of his own
career not being on the line that coaxes him into boldness, as Mark
suggests? I think this idea has merit, since we've seen that the thing that
Benton values more highly than anything else is his own advancement. More
than that, though, I think Peter's chief agenda is to set things right in
his own head by re-establishing his flagging role as crusading moralist --
and the sometimes misguided and overeager pursuit of "setting things right"
is a very common syndrome in this ER.
Speaking of which, we have a classic Carter story on tap this week.
Carter's moral curve is much simpler to chart than that of the more
experienced doctors, and as such, it's more of a ride to follow his ups and
downs, quick and jagged though they may be. Carter apparently spent some
time reviewing videotapes of "Dead of Winter" and "True Lies" (or reading my
summaries), and, noting how lousy his attitude has been lately, declares
himself a new man (or at least a new version of his first-season self).
After receiving the news of his internship (which shouldn't have come as a
surprise to anyone reading this), however, Carter foregoes the hosannas and
commits the stupidest blunder of any character since Doug Ross's romance-
ending dalliance with Linda Farrell late last season: he drinks it up while
on-call. This would have been bad enough normally, but doing it right after
getting his much-anticipated internship really smacks of crass, two-faced
insensitivity. With Carter, I think that's partially right; in some ways,
he's still a reckless little rich kid. When he renounces his bad ways, he
means it when he says it, but forgets about it within a couple of hours.
Like an alcoholic lapsing into drink, Carter is having a hard time breaking
out of his old, bad habits -- and I don't think having Harper around is
helpful. I've been a booster of her character ever since she actually
evinced a little of it in "Days Like These", but more and more, I think
she's revealing herself as a plain old bad influence. Her shaky morals have
always been evident, but the fact that she accompanies and encourages Carter
on his career-threatening lunchtime celebration is something that should
cause her to have *her* career brought into question as well.
The business with Chloe coming back to reclaim her daughter is
little more than wheel-spinning, since we saw how clean she looked in "The
Healer". Of course, her being clean and respectable-looking is a pretty
twist in and of itself, but I hope that the fact that this plot is being
emphasized means that Jenn Greene's pursuit of her own custody fight is
being de-emphasized, or even better, thrown out. The effort to dress up
Chloe is, I think, a well-meant attempt to balance the ethical scales --
i.e. if Chloe is a clean, responsible person now, shouldn't she be allowed
to have her daughter back? -- but they've already been weighted so heavily
against Chloe, I fear that this will be a one-sided conflict.
I think the storyline I out-and-out enjoyed the most this week was
Mark as a swinging single -- even though shots of him returning to his
bespectacled, clean-shaven self next week indicate it won't last. As the
character with whom I tend to identify the most, it's nice to see him making
an effort, however reluctant, to enjoy himself following the extended
hassles he's endured with Jenn. Despite a couple of moments intended to
remind us of his subconscious sympatico with Susan (particularly when she
favorably comments on his new eye color), I sort of expected to see him go
out with the informercial director. Running into Kathy Snyder at the bar
was an interesting twist, since her character was only introduced this week.
I don't expect her to show up again either, but I wouldn't mind if she did,
since this show could use some new blood about now.
Carol and Jeanie's rivalry reaches a head in their tug-of-war over
the Bathing of Hugo, which was cute if a bit overplayed. I'm glad that
they've sort of settled into this casual, almost friendly level of feuding;
if anything, Jeanie should be learning a few pointers on how to be brusque
and overbearing from Carol, who more or less wrote the book. Some of
Jeanie's defenders should note how purposefully snitty Jeanie was being,
with her parrot-like repetition of "That's a nurse's job." Some nice
references to past Carol stories as well, such as the worms, the "weird
rabbit guy", and, if I recall, Hugo himself, whom I seem to remember
appearing early last season. This thread takes a turn into the serious when
Shep shows up to beat himself a little more for what happened to Raul.
Interesting that the writers have made Reilly his partner; hopefully that
means that Reilly will be more involved in future episodes (although it's
really too bad that poor Raul didn't get more exposure than he did).
Some assorted comments:
-Showing up for work this week: Dr. Hicks, Jerry, Lydia and Haleh.
AWOL: Randi, Kerry, Dr. Vucelich (again) and Conni, who's probably going to
be enjoying maternity leave for the remainder of the season.
-Speaking of Dr. Hicks, I always like seeing CCH Pounder on this
show, and Dr. Hicks is proving to be a more interesting character than last
season, I think. Her brief conversation with Peter near the beginning of
the episode was intriguing in that it cast some light on her position,
namely that she's still four-square against Peter mouthing off about
Vucelich. He doesn't have the solid proof, as she sees it -- so he should
"keep your mouth shut".
-I chuckled at the brief allusion to Carter's wealthy background: he
calls his dad on a portable phone to give him the good news, but the
connection is crackly because the boat is too far out to sea. "Call me when
you dock" indeed.
-Doug sacrificing a healthy slice of his livelihood -- $5000 has to
be a good-sized chunk of his savings, even for a doctor of his advancement
-- to compensate for his moral failure in the matter of the Bowman kid was
pretty heavy. It reminded me of a similiarly philanthropic gesture he made
last season, in buying medicine for a poor family, although on a much larger
scale, of course. Since Mr. Bowman is keeping his son away from Doug (and
presumably his recommended oncologist), I guess Doug won't have to go
through with it after all.
-Line of the week --
Mark: "Jerry, I feel like a Hell's Angel."
Jerry: "I hate to break it to you, Dr. G., but an Angel wouldn't be
caught dead on a rice-burner. Goat's comin' in nice.
What's it been, a couple of days?"
Mark: "A week."
Jerry: [shrugging] "Some guys need more time."
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scott Hollifield * sco...@cris.com * http://www.cris.com/~scotth/
Kate McCann
is going to kill me, though they are playing her nicely as a real person,
rather than the irritating and irresponsible idiot that she had been
previously. Still, I can't blame Susan, or anyone else (like myself!) for
thinking that as far as Chloe's concerned, that doesn't mean much.
Carter--what a stupid jerk!! good lord. I simply can't imagine Carter
redeeming himself to the level he was at when he read that Keats poem to
the dying old man a season (or two?) ago. He is going to have to go
through a real crucible to wake him up to the existence of other people
around him. His efforts at 'putting the patients first' at the beginning
of the episode simply struck me as self-serving: a way to make himself
feel better about his chances of getting the match, even though that
decision was out of his hands. And he certainly lived up to that low
expectation when he did get the match.
> I don't think having Harper around is
> helpful. I've been a booster of her character ever since she actually
> evinced a little of it in "Days Like These", but more and more, I think
> she's revealing herself as a plain old bad influence. Her shaky morals have
> always been evident, but the fact that she accompanies and encourages Carter
> on his career-threatening lunchtime celebration is something that should
> cause her to have *her* career brought into question as well.
As far as Harper goes, I was mulling over whether I like her or not, if
she should have said, "gee, you're being an idiot" to Carter at the hotel
(and not having seen the entire lunch activity decision, she could have
said something like that, we just don't know it). i think that that was
*his* decision though, and if someone makes that decision, and then
invites you along, it certainly isn't something that should call your
career into question. And what are her shaky morals that have always been
evident?, she slept with Doug, and how do we feel about Doug? No one's
pointing the finger at him for being a bad influence and needing his
career evaluated.
I think what is truly irritating about Harper is that she is just a
reflection of the men she's around. And that is not her character's
fault, it's the fact that that is all her character is allowed to do.
There's no interesting drama or development involving her, as there is
involving Doug. Which makes her look like a twerp, and Doug like a
tortured soul who needs to put his demons to rest. Not Harper's fault,
just a poorly drawn character. Though, of course, I hate to criticize the
show!!
and I must say, I like Mark so so much better with his little glasses and
brown eyes and sweet face!! That's his charm and sexual appeal, I'm
relieved to know he'll be returning to his adorable self next week.
Thanks for a great review, Scott, and bringing up some great, thoughtful points.
Kate
M. M. McCormick
and I won't quote your entire post!
>from the boy's case. Nonetheless, Doug feels responsible for missing
the
>tumor before, and personally tells Mr. Bowman about it -- although he
does
>not mention that the tumor was detected before. Doug does, however,
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
How about "should have been detected," since it wasn't found until this
time? It's a pity Peter wasn't more fair about this -- it was clearly
stated several times that the earlier detection would have made no
difference in the diagnosis and treatment. In other words, the young
man would have had his leg amputated four months earlier. (IANA doctor,
but it does seem that there must be *some* impact from the delay...?)
> -Doug sacrificing a healthy slice of his livelihood -- $5000
has to
>be a good-sized chunk of his savings, even for a doctor of his
advancement
>-- to compensate for his moral failure in the matter of the Bowman kid
^ ^ ^
I'm not sure this was a *moral* failure as much as it was a technical
"failure." And doctors are NOT gods! It seemed to me that Doug was
extremely reluctant to suppress his missed Dx when talking to the
grandfather; I thought his offer to the oncologist represented a
tremendous sacrifice (time AND money) on his part.
BTW, the hospital attorney Mark met at the singles bar? That's Megan
Gallagher; she may be around for a few episodes.
--
m3
Mary Margaret McCormick
M-Cubed Consulting
m...@qnet.com
Chicago Mike
>Thanks for the excellent summary, Scott. Just one point (maybe two) --
>and I won't quote your entire post!
Now quoting Scott..
>>from the boy's case. Nonetheless, Doug feels responsible for missing the
>>tumor before, and personally tells Mr. Bowman about it -- although he does
>>not mention that the tumor was detected before. Doug does, however,
> ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Now his response..
>How about "should have been detected," since it wasn't found until this
>time? It's a pity Peter wasn't more fair about this -- it was clearly
>stated several times that the earlier detection would have made no
>difference in the diagnosis and treatment. In other words, the young
>man would have had his leg amputated four months earlier. (IANA doctor,
>but it does seem that there must be *some* impact from the delay...?)
My response..
It is my undestanding that if the tumor was diagnosed four months
earlier it would have made a difference (i.e. possible treatment)
then.
The point of having an impact on the treatment now refers to the
family knowing the diagnosis was missed four months ago won't change
what they have to do now.
In other words, a correct diagnosis earlier may have saved a leg. The
diagnosis was missed, and telling the family this won't change what
has to happen now.
--
Hopefully my bad spelling didn't take away from my point.
Mike
Chicago IL
James Meek
Hollifield) wrote:
> E.R., Season 2, Episode 17, "The Match Game"
> Production number #457217
> PLOT FOUR: THE SINGLE GUY
> After work, Mark scopes out the
> singles bar crowd alone, and is striking out, when he loses one of his new
> contact lenses. Immediately after, he bumps into Kathy Snyder (see PLOT
> ONE), who helps him find his lost contact; it fell into his goatee.
Well, I for one hope we see her again, although I realize that any hint at
romance between her and Mark will lead to cries for her death from the
"Mark + Susan 4-ever" crowd. (If nothing else, she can be his transtional
person...) I don't particularly want her to regularly crop up as hospital
attorney, however; that's not a direction I'd like to see "ER" take.
> PLOT FIVE: TEMP FOR VICTORY
> No sooner does
> Hugo exit the ER than he gets accidentally run over by rookie paramedic
> Reilly Brown
You don't mention (and I think it's significant) that the main reason
Hugo's in the parking lot at the time is that Carol forgot to call a taxi
for him. I thought it quite interesting that, of the two of them, Jeanie
was the one to say that it was *both* of their faults, rather than blaming
one or the other.
Jeanie was a bit brusque with her "it's a nurse's job" comments, although
she's not really wrong. Carol, however, shouldn't be blaming Jeanie for
her job situation but the administration that's changing the proportion of
their hours. She's obviously smart, and I like her; I think it'd be
intriguing if this scenario inspired her to go back to school to become a
PA or NP (Nurse Practitioner). She'd be good--especially since she's a
main character on the show...
> Peter's past clashes with authority, namely Dr. Vucelich, have
taught him
> the opposite lesson however, and in fact, Mark Greene sort of blurts this
> connection out near the end of the episode, although I feel things would've
> been better had the audience been left to draw this conclusion on its own.
I didn't mind Mark's blatant comparison, though, because it's nice to see
Peter's hypocrisy challenged by someone he has to, if grudgingly, pay some
attention to. Do I think the hospital was right to withhold that
information? Not really. However, Peter argues that it's an ethical
decision, and I agree with that assessment. It's really Doug's ethical
decision, though, and perhaps Mark's and Kathy's, and they are the people
who need to resolve any ethical dilemmas. Peter's decision doesn't
address the ethics of the situation, it assuages his guilty conscience,
and he pays remarkably little price for that bit of soothing. What does
he care what Doug thinks?
> Like an alcoholic lapsing into drink, Carter is having a hard time breaking
> out of his old, bad habits -- and I don't think having Harper around is
> helpful. I've been a booster of her character ever since she actually
> evinced a little of it in "Days Like These", but more and more, I think
> she's revealing herself as a plain old bad influence.
I think she's more of a neutral player, really, which can be bad enough
when coupled with Carter's unthinking impulsiveness. Harper's not
helpful, but she's not really a corrupter, or even much of a catalyst.
I'll certainly admit that her character interests me less than it did
previously this season, but I think Carter gets to take the blame for his
appalling stupidity on his own.
> -Speaking of Dr. Hicks, I always like seeing CCH Pounder on this
> show, and Dr. Hicks is proving to be a more interesting character than last
> season, I think. Her brief conversation with Peter near the beginning of
> the episode was intriguing in that it cast some light on her position,
> namely that she's still four-square against Peter mouthing off about
> Vucelich. He doesn't have the solid proof, as she sees it -- so he should
> "keep your mouth shut".
I thought her commentary was a bit more incisive than that. Peter is
perfectly willing to grouse about Vucelich, and slam him in conversation,
but is unwilling to use any evidence he may have to bring about formal
procedures against him. I interpreted Dr. Hicks' commentary as a version
of "put up or shut up," and I think she's right--if Peter has evidence,
and won't bring it out, then he's got no business calling Vucelich's
character into question, however questionable that character is.
A good episode overall, if feeling somewhat rushed by the end. I really
liked the interaction between Doug and Peter while working on the recently
arrived patient. If looks could kill, they'd both be dead.
Thanks for the summary, Scott. It's always a great catalyst for
discussion, and I appreciate the structure it often provides for this
newsgroup.
--
James Meek | "Movies are schools of vice and crime...
j...@u.washington.edu | offering trips to hell for a nickel."
University of Washington | --Rev. Wilbur Crafts, 1910
Ceon Ramon
require the context.
In article <4jg0gg$j...@tribune.concentric.net>,
Scott Hollifield <Sco...@cris.com> wrote:
>E.R., Season 2, Episode 17, "The Match Game"
>PLOT ONE: FALSE TRUTHS
[...]
> Peter's past clashes with authority, namely Dr. Vucelich, have taught him
>the opposite lesson however, and in fact, Mark Greene sort of blurts this
>connection out near the end of the episode, although I feel things would've
>been better had the audience been left to draw this conclusion on its own.
The writing set us up for this with the earlier scene between Benton and
Hicks. I think Hicks is right, though: since Peter did not go through
with his confrontation about Vucelich's standards, he should stop making
innuendoes about the matter.
>Still and all, Peter seeks an outlet for his guilt and frustration over not
>speaking loudly enough before. Is it really the relative safety of his own
>career not being on the line that coaxes him into boldness, as Mark
>suggests? I think this idea has merit, since we've seen that the thing that
>Benton values more highly than anything else is his own advancement. More
>than that, though, I think Peter's chief agenda is to set things right in
>his own head by re-establishing his flagging role as crusading moralist --
>and the sometimes misguided and overeager pursuit of "setting things right"
>is a very common syndrome in this ER.
I've given a lot of thought to this, and while I believe there is merit to
Peter's position, I find the way he went about it was very blameworthy. He
sandbagged the hospital in general and Mark and Doug in particular. Rather
than taking it upon himself to tell Mr. Bowman about the negligence, he
should have told Mark and the attorney that if they didn't inform Bowman,
he would. Instead of allowing the hospital representatives to put the
information into a context of reparation, he made sure it was set up as a
hostile and bitter confrontation. I think he was very wrong in doing
this, and I don't think much of people who satisfy their own sense of
morality at the expense of others. Had Benton gone through with his
accusations against Vucelich he would have been risking his own career. By
usurping the hospital's authority in this case he puts the institution and
another doctor at risk. I don't much like Benton for doing this.
[...]
> -Doug sacrificing a healthy slice of his livelihood -- $5000 has to
>be a good-sized chunk of his savings, even for a doctor of his advancement
>-- to compensate for his moral failure in the matter of the Bowman kid was
>pretty heavy. It reminded me of a similiarly philanthropic gesture he made
>last season, in buying medicine for a poor family, although on a much larger
>scale, of course. Since Mr. Bowman is keeping his son away from Doug (and
>presumably his recommended oncologist), I guess Doug won't have to go
>through with it after all.
Peter pretty much saw to that, didn't he? No, he didn't know about what
Doug was setting up. But he didn't know about it because he acted
impulsively without full knowledge of the situation.
This is a complex ethical dilemma, and I realize there's lots of room
for interpretation and opinion; this is mine.
--Barbara
Gary Wong
summaries, but because it means we got a new episode. :-)
Sco...@cris.com (Scott Hollifield) writes:
>of Dr. Vucelich's study. Opinions seem to be divided in the hospital over
>whether Doug or Peter was right, but Jeanie is on Peter's side, and tells
[...]
>summer camp for snitching on another boy. "I guess you never learn," Peter
>says, as Jeanie stares at him.
Two things. I got the impression that everyone thought the family should
have been told, but Mark and Doug, were against doing it for the malpractice
implications. Lydia and Haleh both said that they would want to know if it
had been their kid. Also, I thought Jeanie was giving him an understanding
look, rather than a stare. A little reminder, perhaps, of prior shared
intimacy, and a relationship with Mrs. Benton.
>PLOT THREE: THE BUBBLY BURST
The other interesting point of this patient, the lawyer was the line he
gave at the beginning of his being up for partner at his firm. In a way,
then, he was also up for a match.
>PLOT FOUR: THE SINGLE GUY
I thought the bald guy was saying that he was using the prolongin cream to
live up to the reputation bald men have for increased potency due to the
higher levels of testerone they reportedly have, which is also the cause
of the male pattern baldness. :-) Also, to call what Mark was doing striking
out, that's being very, very kind.
>PLOT FIVE: TEMP FOR VICTORY
>than once), which necessitates Jeanie's attention as a P.A. No sooner does
>Hugo exit the ER than he gets accidentally run over by rookie paramedic
Actually, I got the impression that Hugo had been out there for awhile.
Waiting for his cab, which Carol didn't call, since she was on break.
Since she had just started eating her apple, I figured she had just started
her break, and later, she is most definitely not on break. I forget, did
Reilly and Shep bring in a patient after Jeanie leaves Hugo with Carol?
In Doug's defense, he was in the middle of a really hectic day, 48 patients?,
and only had about 12 minutes a patient, 10 for the Bowman kid. Hindsight,
knowing that there is a tumor does give 20/20 vision, after all.
Peter's moral stance has always been one of the things I like about him.
Frankly, I was disapointed in him when he didn't turn Vucelich to the
ethics committee. I thought it was reflected perfectly in his own
disappointment, as shown in his conversation with Walt.
I don't like Harper, but I don't think it's fair to include her in a slam
on Carter. He messed up. When the scene started with him sitting on the
stairs, telling Harper that he has resigned himself to not getting his
match, and that the patients will come first, I remember thinking, of course
he will get his match, but he will probably just desert whichever patient he
is working on at that time, getting caught up in his good news, rather then
taking care of them. Though I must admit the hottub suite in the hotel did
come as a surprise. I kept hoping something would come of the room service
waiter flipping the do not disturb over to maid service requested. :-)
I'm with you in hoping that if we do end up with a custody fight over little
Susie, that we don't get one over Rachel Greene. That would be just too much.
>out with the informercial director. Running into Kathy Snyder at the bar
>was an interesting twist, since her character was only introduced this week.
>I don't expect her to show up again either, but I wouldn't mind if she did,
>since this show could use some new blood about now.
Scott, I might be wrong, but I seem to recall you saying something similiar
about not expecting to see her the last time she showed up. :-) When she
advised Mark to accept the hospital's decision to settle in the O'Brien case.
Or that might have been some other poster who pointed out the cameos by
former China Beach stars. In any case, the end shot of them in the bar
gives me hope that Marg Helgenberger (sp?) will come back in the Doug and his
dad storyline. Which reminds me that my third thought when Mark says to call
the temp agency, was that some other China Beach star would do a cameo.
I really like Dana Delaney's performances, so that would have been cool. :-)
> -Showing up for work this week: Dr. Hicks, Jerry, Lydia and Haleh.
>AWOL: Randi, Kerry, Dr. Vucelich (again) and Conni, who's probably going to
>be enjoying maternity leave for the remainder of the season.
Does anyone know if the actor playing Conni is actually pregnant?
And where is the other desk clerk, who's name escapes me right now.
Once again, darn fine job, Scott. If you're still reading to this point. :-)
Always nice to have something to respond to, rather then writing from scratch.
Gary
no sig required.
N.J.Spera
|> Does anyone know if the actor playing Conni is actually pregnant?
I think I saw in a issue of People (the one with an article about
Audrey Meadows) that she recently (say in Feb) had a baby...so
she was pregnant.
Nancy
--
Nancy J. Spera aka Tangy # If I didn't know for a fact that #
n...@chevron.com # Elvis was working in a donut shop #
"Hearts can be mended, lives can't." # in Beaver Falls, I'd swear he was #
--Ned Ashton # masquerading as Ned in Port Charles #
E. Zielie-Mcfarland
>>
>> -Doug sacrificing a healthy slice of his livelihood -- $5000 has to
>>be a good-sized chunk of his savings, even for a doctor of his advancement
>>-- to compensate for his moral failure in the matter of the Bowman kid was
>>pretty heavy. It reminded me of a similiarly philanthropic gesture he made
>>last season, in buying medicine for a poor family, although on a much larger
>>scale, of course. Since Mr. Bowman is keeping his son away from Doug (and
>>presumably his recommended oncologist), I guess Doug won't have to go
>>through with it after all.
Barbara's response:
>
>Peter pretty much saw to that, didn't he? No, he didn't know about what
>Doug was setting up. But he didn't know about it because he acted
>impulsively without full knowledge of the situation.
>
>This is a complex ethical dilemma, and I realize there's lots of room
>for interpretation and opinion; this is mine.
Agreed. One of the worst outcomes about this, for me, is that I
got the impression the Bowman kid probably would now go untreated --
since it was only through Doug's offer that he was going to be
able to receive treatment from the oncologist at all. I don't know
enough about Medicaid to know if he would be covered by that. If not,
Peter has actually done a great deal of harm to the patient. I agree
it was a tough moral dilemma, and we have the benefit of knowing
all sides. But I agree with those who say the truth should have
come from Doug (who actually looked as though he wanted to tell
Mr. Bowman, but was restrained due to advice of hospital counsel).
Liz McF.
Blue Marlin
> -I chuckled at the brief allusion to Carter's wealthy background: he
>calls his dad on a portable phone to give him the good news, but the
>connection is crackly because the boat is too far out to sea. "Call me when
>you dock" indeed.
Major mistake there. The use of cellular phones in a hospital is
prohibited. It interferes with some life support equipment. Carter should
have known this. I believe an episode of "ER" alluded to something like this
last year.
+-------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Richard "Nick" Scalan | "Looked in my laptop what did I see |
| Student, University of | A flashing message said today therapy" |
| Texas at Austin | |
| | "Vampires, Mummies and the Holy Ghost" |
| mar...@mail.utexas.edu | Jimmy Buffet - Fruitcakes |
+-------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
Lisa Pavlov
writes:
<some snipped throughout>
>Nonetheless, Doug feels responsible for missing the
>tumor before, and personally tells Mr. Bowman about it -- although he does
>not mention that the tumor was detected before. Doug does, however, refer
>the Bowmans to an oncologist friend of his, and even arranges to pay for
>treatment, with a $5000 check and part-time work at his friend's clinic.
>Annoyed at the conspiracy of silence, Benton takes it upon himself to reveal
>the truth to Mr. Bowman, despite a direct order from Mark not to interfere.
>Afterward, Bowman confronts Doug, rebuffing Doug's apology with, "I don't
>want you near my grandson." Mark berates Peter for disobeying him; when
>Peter professes to uphold honesty over "some code", Mark shoots back that
>Peter is only acting out guilty feelings over his own silence in the matter
>of Dr. Vucelich's study. Opinions seem to be divided in the hospital over
>whether Doug or Peter was right,
I was extremely aggravated at Benton for telling the grandfather. I feel
strongly that it wasn't his truth to tell. How would Benton like it--if
someone had done it to him. Also, Doug was trying to do what he could for
the patient at this point, he needed time himself to digest what had
transpired, and his employer and boss had told him *not to tell*. All of
these made it understandable why he didn't tell the family at that point in
time. If Peter strongly disagreed, he should have pursued it through
hospital channels.
To be totally honest, I think I would have done the same thing at that point.
I don't think there was an obligation to tell the family since the treatment
course at that time was what everyone needed to focus on. Its a difficult
call--I would have liked to be honest and tell all (as I think Doug might
have felt) but, in this case, I don't see a compelling reason to.
Unfortunately, since health care practitioners are not gods, mistakes are
made. They need to be fixed so they don't happen again (if that's possible)
but if nothing different can be done, do we really need to know? I think its
a difficult call and one that's hard to envision if we haven't been in one's
shoes. I do know, I wouldn't want to go against my employer on this one.
>PLOT TWO: THE RETURN OF CHLOE (AGAIN)
>Susan finally agrees to meet her sister Chloe at a diner, to talk. Chloe
>claims to be clean five months now, and engaged "to a great guy". An
>impatient and skeptical Susan doesn't want to be hearing this, and pointedly
>tells Chloe: "You abandoned your child. And that's the best thing that ever
>happened to her." Concerned that Chloe might try to clandestinely take baby
>Susie, Susan alerts the day care and steps up security.
I think Susan's overreacting and that might push Chloe to act rashly. I
think they should all try and work something out that's truly in the best
interests of the child. I fully understand that Susan is the better parent
now but Chloe should be given the chance to be involved with the child. I
guess we'll see what happens.
>PLOT THREE: THE BUBBLY BURST
>Dizzy with happiness, Carter promptly forgets his impatient
>patient, and takes a three-hour lunch to celebrate the good news. The time
>is spent with Harper in a posh hotel hottub, wherein champagne is imbibed
>and pages from the hospital are ignored. Carter returns to work to find
>that Mr. Ledbetter's tests revealed leukemia, but because of his absence,
>Susan Lewis had to take charge of the case. Dr. Hicks abruptly asks Carter
>to scrub up for an impromptu operation, but Carter woefully reveals that he
>can't due to the champagne he drank.
Boy, if there's anything that shows that Carter needs to grow up, it was this
episode. This is one flaky guy and he had some much potential. Susan
shaking her head at him was exactly how I felt. Harper also, who I've
previously liked, should have encouraged him to save the celebration till
later although...that doesn't excuse his behavior. I don't think he should
be expelled or his match taken away this time, but he needs a formal warning
and if it happens again...
>PLOT FOUR: THE SINGLE GUY
Having been divorced young...I can empathize with Mark here...this was light
and fun. It was cute with him and the hosp. attorney (competition for
Susan??). I can live with the contacts but drop the goatee and blue tint.
;-)
>PLOT FIVE: TEMP FOR VICTORY
>Since Malik and Wendy are both out sick, the ER is short on nurses, and
>calls in one from the temp agency. It ironically turns out to be Carol,
>who's signed with the agency to supplement her increasingly slim hospital
>hours, although the temp position requires her to wear traditional
>nurse-whites replete with skirt and stockings. Greeting her at work is a
>picture of Jeanie, hung on the wall to commemorate Jeanie's honor of
>"employee of the month", Carol's irritation at which draws Doug's amusement.
>Today also falls the day of the traditional cleaning and treatment of Hugo,
>a corpulent street person whose bathing Carol unsuccessfully tries to
>delegate to Jeanie, who tells her more than once, "That's a nurse's job."
Bravo, a bit, to Jeannie for throwing Carol's behavior back at her. I'd say
Jeannie's progressed to being assertive enough now. You have to remember,
several episodes ago, Carol evaluated Jeannie as *not ER material*, which I
thought was overly harsh. The Hugo character was great. Obviously, they
shouldn't have carried it out so far--but I got the fun, they were really
beginning to find some humor in it all, which is probably a healthy step.
Although this was overdone (the rivalry), I'm glad the ER writers didn't just
drop it, since as I've said before, its a real-life issue in hospitals every
day. Although, now I think they need to bring it to some resolution...cause
that also happens in real life.
Oh, Shep and his partner...that part really cracked me up--Shep was really
riding that guy (24 v. 22 on the respirations, really). Hard enough to step
into Raul's shoes without being rided just for being new. I thought it was
hilarious when Shep came in and said that his partner just backed over the
patient (obviously, you knew the patient was really not too hurt). I mean,
doesn't Shep remember when he was new--sheesh! And it is really hard to back
up an ambulance ;-)
> His mother comes in to see him, and despite Susan's blunt recall
>of Freddie's toxicological state, refuses to believe that her son does
>drugs. When Susan begins rattling a litany of the injury and death her son
>has caused, she suddenly slaps Susan in the face and walks off.
That was a really good slap!
> This time around, though,
>he seems cowed into silence; perhaps past clashes with authority have taught
>him not to make waves.
So true, actually Doug really has seemed to improve the way he follows authority.
> Peter's past clashes with authority, namely Dr. Vucelich, have taught him
>the opposite lesson however, and in fact, Mark Greene sort of blurts this
>connection out near the end of the episode, although I feel things would've
>been better had the audience been left to draw this conclusion on its own.
>Still and all, Peter seeks an outlet for his guilt and frustration over not
>speaking loudly enough before. Is it really the relative safety of his own
>career not being on the line that coaxes him into boldness, as Mark
>suggests? I think this idea has merit, since we've seen that the thing that
>Benton values more highly than anything else is his own advancement. More
>than that, though, I think Peter's chief agenda is to set things right in
>his own head by re-establishing his flagging role as crusading moralist --
>and the sometimes misguided and overeager pursuit of "setting things right"
>is a very common syndrome in this ER.
Scott, I think Greene's remarks were right on the money and more to the point,
Benton needed to know that someone is *on to him*. My whole difficulty with the
Benton remarks to the family...is that they were not his to make, period. Benton
could toe the high moral road on Doug's case but not on a study that has much a much
wider audience. Doug's decision affected one family. Benton's decision to stay
silent on Vucelich's study has the potential to affect many families. Yet, no one
took his words away from him, like he took the words away from Doug. In this case,
I'm glad Mark said what he said for all of us to hear!!
>and I don't think having Harper around is
>helpful. I've been a booster of her character ever since she actually
>evinced a little of it in "Days Like These", but more and more, I think
>she's revealing herself as a plain old bad influence. Her shaky morals have
>always been evident, but the fact that she accompanies and encourages Carter
>on his career-threatening lunchtime celebration is something that should
>cause her to have *her* career brought into question as well.
I think less so a bad influence, then a very weak individual. I would have told
Carter that I'd join him in celebrating after the work day but not during it. She
went along. She's weak and thus she's NO influence ;-) I'm disappointed in her.
Also, if she got drunk in the middle of her workday, she should be disciplined for
that as well. Can't drink alcohol if you're responsible for caring for pts.
> The business with Chloe coming back to reclaim her daughter is
>little more than wheel-spinning, since we saw how clean she looked in "The
>Healer". Of course, her being clean and respectable-looking is a pretty
>twist in and of itself, but I hope that the fact that this plot is being
>emphasized means that Jenn Greene's pursuit of her own custody fight is
>being de-emphasized, or even better, thrown out. The effort to dress up
>Chloe is, I think, a well-meant attempt to balance the ethical scales --
>i.e. if Chloe is a clean, responsible person now, shouldn't she be allowed
>to have her daughter back? -- but they've already been weighted so heavily
>against Chloe, I fear that this will be a one-sided conflict.
I'm pulling for Chloe to clean up good!! but she and Susan (both) need to put little
Suzie's interest first. Work it out ladies. Susan should retain custody until
Chloe gets more established. But as long as Chloe stays clean, she's got to be
given a chance to see her kid. She was wrong to abandon the child but she's making
some effort now. That counts for something.
> -I chuckled at the brief allusion to Carter's wealthy background: he
>calls his dad on a portable phone to give him the good news, but the
>connection is crackly because the boat is too far out to sea. "Call me when
>you dock" indeed.
And boo his on Carter for using a cellular phone in the ER... I thought
that was a big no, no.
>
> -Line of the week --
> Mark: "Jerry, I feel like a Hell's Angel."
> Jerry: "I hate to break it to you, Dr. G., but an Angel
wouldn't be
> caught dead on a rice-burner. Goat's comin' in nice.
> What's it been, a couple of days?"
> Mark: "A week."
> Jerry: [shrugging] "Some guys need more time."
Jerry does a lot with a small part. He's great.
Ouch, sorry to be so long winded...got caught up in A NEW EPISODE!!
Lisa
--
Lisa Pavlov, hospital-based health planner and volunteer EMT ILMSPR!!
Our Virtual Home Address is at http://pages.prodigy.com/village/
but you can also email me at lhpa...@ix.netcom.com
I live in country-music deprived NYC...
but I hang out at USENET: rec.collecting.villages
Randy Turgeon
> Or that might have been some other poster who pointed out the cameos by
> former China Beach stars. In any case, the end shot of them in the bar
> gives me hope that Marg Helgenberger (sp?) will come back in the Doug and his
> dad storyline.
MINOR SPOILER BELOW!!!!!!!
I remember wathcing ET (Entertainment Tonight), and they did a small story on Marg Helgenberger.
They reported that they would have her back on e.r. and she will become involved with.......Doug
himself!!! Perhaps a way to get back at good ole' dad. Have an affair with his girlfriend!
Randy Turgeon
Scott Hollifield
: Thanks for the excellent summary, Scott. Just one point (maybe two) --
: and I won't quote your entire post!
: >not mention that the tumor was detected before. Doug does, however,
: ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
: How about "should have been detected," since it wasn't found until this
: time?
Yes, good point -- I goofed. Clearly, the tumor was not detected --
although it did surface on the x-rays of the time.
: > -Doug sacrificing a healthy slice of his livelihood -- $5000
: has to
: >be a good-sized chunk of his savings, even for a doctor of his
: advancement
: >-- to compensate for his moral failure in the matter of the Bowman kid
: ^ ^ ^
: I'm not sure this was a *moral* failure as much as it was a technical
: "failure." And doctors are NOT gods!
The technical failure was in missing the tumor; the moral (or ethical, I
guess) one was in not telling Mr. Bowman right then and there that he
missed the tumor. We don't know what action Mr. Bowman would have taken
if he'd known that Doug was negligent, but judging from his dialogue
("you don't even have the decency to tell me"), his main beef was Doug
not being straight with him.
: grandfather; I thought his offer to the oncologist represented a
: tremendous sacrifice (time AND money) on his part.
Oh, no doubt -- which is what makes his getting in trouble even more tragic.
Scott Hollifield
: As far as Harper goes, I was mulling over whether I like her or not, if
: she should have said, "gee, you're being an idiot" to Carter at the hotel
: (and not having seen the entire lunch activity decision, she could have
: said something like that, we just don't know it). i think that that was
: *his* decision though, and if someone makes that decision, and then
: invites you along, it certainly isn't something that should call your
: career into question.
Since Harper was shown as being at work that day too, she also was
drinking during rotation hours.
: And what are her shaky morals that have always been
: evident?, she slept with Doug, and how do we feel about Doug? No one's
: pointing the finger at him for being a bad influence and needing his
: career evaluated.
I wasn't even referring specifically to her sleeping with Doug; more
significant is that she practically threatened Mark Greene not to report
her for it. I seem to remember a couple of smaller other examples
of this sort of amorality surfacing with her (although the
particulars escape me). Clearly, she's no saint.
Scott Hollifield
: Well, I for one hope we see her again, although I realize that any hint at
: romance between her and Mark will lead to cries for her death from the
: "Mark + Susan 4-ever" crowd. (If nothing else, she can be his transtional
: person...) I don't particularly want her to regularly crop up as hospital
: attorney, however; that's not a direction I'd like to see "ER" take.
Why need it be a "direction"? The hospital has attorneys, we know; we've
seen them before (mainly in the O'Brien malpractice suit). Somehow I
don't see ER turning into Murder One because of the addition of one
lawyer character.
: You don't mention (and I think it's significant) that the main reason
: Hugo's in the parking lot at the time is that Carol forgot to call a taxi
: for him. I thought it quite interesting that, of the two of them, Jeanie
: was the one to say that it was *both* of their faults, rather than blaming
: one or the other.
You're right, that is significant.
: I think she's more of a neutral player, really, which can be bad enough
: when coupled with Carter's unthinking impulsiveness. Harper's not
: helpful, but she's not really a corrupter, or even much of a catalyst.
: I'll certainly admit that her character interests me less than it did
: previously this season, but I think Carter gets to take the blame for his
: appalling stupidity on his own.
Whereas I, on the other hand, believe that Harper is growing less
one-dimensional and developing more of an amoral streak, as I've asserted
elsewhere; but it's being done so quietly that it may well be
unintentional. Nevertheless, if anything, her character interests me
more than it did early this season.
: I thought her commentary was a bit more incisive than that. Peter is
: perfectly willing to grouse about Vucelich, and slam him in conversation,
: but is unwilling to use any evidence he may have to bring about formal
: procedures against him. I interpreted Dr. Hicks' commentary as a version
: of "put up or shut up," and I think she's right--if Peter has evidence,
: and won't bring it out, then he's got no business calling Vucelich's
: character into question, however questionable that character is.
I think it's more that Peter simply hasn't got the kind of evidence that
would do the job. He believes with all certainty that he's right, but
the physical evidence simply isn't there. As for Hicks, agreed that what
she said was essentially "put up or shut up" -- but I think she
leans on the "shut up" side.
: A good episode overall, if feeling somewhat rushed by the end. I really
: liked the interaction between Doug and Peter while working on the recently
: arrived patient. If looks could kill, they'd both be dead.
One bit I forgot to mention was the brief, wordless scene with Doug
sitting in the locker room, as Peter walks in, gets his things and walks
out. Doug eyes Peter as if expecting a confrontation, or maybe wanting
one; Peter's style of handling this is to pretend that Doug isn't even
there. I liked that scene.
--
"I'm glad I'm just a character in a story. Can you imagine being
like me for real?" -- Merryman, Animal Man #25
Scott Hollifield
: The writing set us up for this with the earlier scene between Benton and
: Hicks. I think Hicks is right, though: since Peter did not go through
: with his confrontation about Vucelich's standards, he should stop making
: innuendoes about the matter.
I tend to agree with this -- and your suggestion that Peter's venting
about the Bowman case was an indirect result of being stifled by Hicks'
reproach.
: I've given a lot of thought to this, and while I believe there is merit to
: Peter's position, I find the way he went about it was very blameworthy. He
: sandbagged the hospital in general and Mark and Doug in particular. Rather
: than taking it upon himself to tell Mr. Bowman about the negligence, he
: should have told Mark and the attorney that if they didn't inform Bowman,
: he would.
I think I agree with this too. The bottom line is that Peter was serving
the truth only secondarily, and his guilty conscience primarily.
Scott Hollifield
: Two things. I got the impression that everyone thought the family should
: have been told, but Mark and Doug, were against doing it for the malpractice
: implications. Lydia and Haleh both said that they would want to know if it
: had been their kid.
If I recall, Lydia thought Doug was right, while Haleh sided with Peter.
: Also, I thought Jeanie was giving him an understanding
: look, rather than a stare. A little reminder, perhaps, of prior shared
: intimacy, and a relationship with Mrs. Benton.
I think it was a stare -- particularly since Peter wasn't looking at her,
but staring down at his plate.
: The other interesting point of this patient, the lawyer was the line he
: gave at the beginning of his being up for partner at his firm. In a way,
: then, he was also up for a match.
Yup, I tried to obliquely note this in my summary but couldn't work it in
well. I'm a little surprised that we didn't find out some significant
piece of information about his career prospects at the end; there's him
receiving the fax, and we don't get to find out what it says.
: >PLOT FOUR: THE SINGLE GUY
: I thought the bald guy was saying that he was using the prolongin cream to
: live up to the reputation bald men have for increased potency due to the
: higher levels of testerone they reportedly have, which is also the cause
: of the male pattern baldness. :-)
That's exactly what I said, only shorter. :-)
: Also, to call what Mark was doing striking out, that's being very, very kind.
Well, to be fair, we only saw him drive away one woman, whereas he seemed
to be attracting another (Kathy Snyder) -- two if you count the director
earlier in the day.
: >PLOT FIVE: TEMP FOR VICTORY
: >than once), which necessitates Jeanie's attention as a P.A. No sooner does
: >Hugo exit the ER than he gets accidentally run over by rookie paramedic
: Actually, I got the impression that Hugo had been out there for awhile.
True. I got caught up in the figurativeness of the expression "no
soooner...", I guess.
: I don't like Harper, but I don't think it's fair to include her in a slam
: on Carter.
You're right, I should have slammed her individually. :-)
Two other people have called me on this, so let me make it clear -- I'm
not excusing Carter, or implying that he was being unwittingly lured to
vice by Harper. All I meant was that the closest she came to actively
helping him turn his attitude around was to say, "You're right, you've
been a real schmuck."
: Scott, I might be wrong, but I seem to recall you saying something similiar
: about not expecting to see her the last time she showed up. :-) When she
: advised Mark to accept the hospital's decision to settle in the O'Brien case.
Oops. Temporary amnesia time -- have we seen Kathy Snyder before?
: Does anyone know if the actor playing Conni is actually pregnant?
: And where is the other desk clerk, who's name escapes me right now.
I don't think Conni Marie Brazleton is actually pregnant since she showed
up in episodes leading up to her pregnancy story with nary a trace of it.
As for the "other" desk clerk, you're talking about Rolando, likely, who
doesn't show up much. There's also E. Ray Bozman, who's been in that
position exactly once. (And Timmy, whom we haven't seen since early last
season.)
--
Scott Hollifield * sco...@cris.com * http://www.cris.com/~scotth/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Susan Cho Yuk
: drinking during rotation hours.
Actually, I believe she said that she was a few minutes away from being
off. She said Carter wasn't, but he replied that after taking care of
one more patient, he was could take lunch.
Susan
Ken Rudolph
: In <4jg0gg$j...@tribune.concentric.net> Sco...@cris.com (Scott Hollifield)
: writes:
: > His mother comes in to see him, and despite Susan's blunt recall
: >of Freddie's toxicological state, refuses to believe that her son does
: >drugs. When Susan begins rattling a litany of the injury and death her son
: >has caused, she suddenly slaps Susan in the face and walks off.
: That was a really good slap!
One example of the subtlety of writing, directing, and acting on ER
occurred in the staff room after this slap. When Mark comes in and
starts talking, Susan is visibly startled and reacts exactly as
someone might who had recently had his space violently violated. I love
ER for realistic touches like this.
: > The business with Chloe coming back to reclaim her daughter is
: >little more than wheel-spinning, since we saw how clean she looked in "The
: >Healer". Of course, her being clean and respectable-looking is a pretty
: >twist in and of itself, but I hope that the fact that this plot is being
: >emphasized means that Jenn Greene's pursuit of her own custody fight is
: >being de-emphasized, or even better, thrown out. The effort to dress up
: >Chloe is, I think, a well-meant attempt to balance the ethical scales --
: >i.e. if Chloe is a clean, responsible person now, shouldn't she be allowed
: >to have her daughter back? -- but they've already been weighted so heavily
: >against Chloe, I fear that this will be a one-sided conflict.
: I'm pulling for Chloe to clean up good!! but she and Susan (both) need to put little
: Suzie's interest first. Work it out ladies. Susan should retain custody until
: Chloe gets more established. But as long as Chloe stays clean, she's got to be
: given a chance to see her kid. She was wrong to abandon the child but she's making
: some effort now. That counts for something.
We're being set up for Susan to lose little Susie to Chloe. Wasn't there
a famous case in Illinois (the same juristiction as ER) where the natural
mother got the child back even though everybody in the world knew that
the adoptive parents were more deserving? The court system has proved
over and over that the welfare of the child scores little compared to the
rights of natural parents to possess their children. I feel sorry for
the children in these cases, torn away from the parents they've bonded to
by courts which have other priorities.
--
--Ken Rudolph aka Lex (ke...@netcom.com or k...@mtcc.com)
---->See you in Chicago, May 30-June 3<-----
William Kucharski
lhpa...@ix.netcom.com (Lisa Pavlov) said the following:
>Boy, if there's anything that shows that Carter needs to grow up, it was this
>episode. This is one flaky guy and he had some much potential. Susan
>shaking her head at him was exactly how I felt. Harper also, who I've
>previously liked, should have encouraged him to save the celebration till
>later although...that doesn't excuse his behavior. I don't think he should
>be expelled or his match taken away this time, but he needs a formal warning
>and if it happens again...
IMHO, this is one of the "problems" with drama and real life conflicting. Just
as we knew Doug couldn't really be fired and stay that way because we knew
George Clooney wasn't leaving the show, we knew both last year and this year
that things will have to work our for Carter because Noah Wyle isn't leaving
either.
Things can be more stressful with a "guest star" - say if it was Harper who was
threatened with expulsion, but with a main character you know things will have
to somehow work out in the end. We knew he would have to get the sub-I last
year and knew he had to get the match this year, the only question is in the
precise dramatic turns the story will have to take if Carter really has screwed
up his career to work him into the storyline as a main character next season.
Since I doubt we'll see Carter as an orderly washing bed pans, things will have
to somehow work out for him in the end.
Personally, my favorite part of the episode was the stiffed waiter turning
Carter's sign from "Do Not Disturb" to "Maid, make up this room"... ;-)
--
| William Kucharski | Opinions expressed herein
| Internet: kuch...@netcom.com | are MINE alone, NOT those of
| Ham: N0OKQ | of NETCOM.
| President, "Just the Ten of Us" Fan Club | "Dittos from Louisville, CO"
Andrew Johnston
Hi Scott.
Another great summary--I missed your reviews almost as much as I missed ER
the past few weeks. However, a couple of points must be made.
In article <4jg0gg$j...@tribune.concentric.net>, Sco...@cris.com (Scott
Hollifield) wrote:
> E.R., Season 2, Episode 17, "The Match Game"
> Production number #457217
> Written by: Neal Baer
> Directed by: Thomas Schlamme
> I think the storyline I out-and-out enjoyed the most this week was
> Mark as a swinging single -- even though shots of him returning to his
> bespectacled, clean-shaven self next week indicate it won't last. As the
> character with whom I tend to identify the most, it's nice to see him making
> an effort, however reluctant, to enjoy himself following the extended
> hassles he's endured with Jenn. Despite a couple of moments intended to
> remind us of his subconscious sympatico with Susan (particularly when she
> favorably comments on his new eye color), I sort of expected to see him go
> out with the informercial director. Running into Kathy Snyder at the bar
> was an interesting twist, since her character was only introduced this week.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I'm sure I'm not the only person to tell you that Kathy Snyder has been
seen before--she was shown teaming up with Morgenstern to advise mark to
settle in the O'Brien case, in the aftermath of "Love's Labor Lost". I'm
sure she's been seen at least once since then, but I may be wrong. Also,
since I believe next week is a rerun, I'd imagine we'll see the
goatee-wearing Mark Green when we get the next new episode on April 12.
> I don't expect her to show up again either, but I wouldn't mind if she did,
> since this show could use some new blood about now.
Since she's been on before, she'll be on again, I'd imagine. It's kinda
funny that ER would add a hospital attorney to their roster of
charachters, now that CHICAGO HOPE has killed off theirs. Also interesting
is the fact that Thomas Schlamme, who directed many of HOPE's first season
episodes, has jumped the fence to ER (this is at least his second episode
this season) now that his wife, Christine Lahti, has joined the cast of
HOPE.
--
Andrew Johnston ap...@columbia.edu
"Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist"--R.W. Emerson
Tirya
: Major mistake there. The use of cellular phones in a hospital is
: have known this. I believe an episode of "ER" alluded to something like this
: last year.
I'm glad someone else noticed this, I thought I was going weird. I half
expected the cell phone to interact with some equipment as Carter was
strolling past all those patients.
BTW, has it ever been scientifically *proven* that a cell phone has
enough of an EMF to affect hospital equipment, or is it a guideline that
has been adopted as a "better safe than sorry" attitude?
Tir
--
/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\
/ Gone crazy. Back later. \
/ \
/ ti...@wwa.com \
/ http://sashimi.wwa.com/~tirya \
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lisa Pavlov
Hollifield) writes:
>Oops. Temporary amnesia time -- have we seen Kathy Snyder before?
I don't videotape so I could be wrong but I thought we saw her in the
scene with Mark and Morgenstern and the attorney when Morganstern and
the attorney were advising Mark to settle the malpractice suit from LLL
and Mark walked out on them.
If it wasn't that scene it was another cause we've seen her once
before.
Lisa
John H.Lee
them. However, I have recently had some problems in reaching your home
page. Is there any problems on your side I should be aware of? Thanks
for your time and patience, and I hope to be able to access your home
page again.
John Novak
>BTW, has it ever been scientifically *proven* that a cell phone has
>enough of an EMF to affect hospital equipment, or is it a guideline that
>has been adopted as a "better safe than sorry" attitude?
I'd be interested to hear from someone if it has, since I design
gadgets working in that frequency range but am not that familiar with
mediacl equipment.
I can see the cell phones interacting with something like an NMRI
machine, but I can't really see them messing with a simple monitoring
device. If they do interfere, then it is my professional opinion that
the medical devices are being designed very, very poorly. We are now
and forever awash in a soup of artificially generated electromagnetic
fields from hundreds of sources-- designing sensitive equipment and
failing to provide proper isolation in the modern world is
inexcuseable.
(What really gets me is the 'no walk-men allowed on during take-off'
on the airplanes. That one boggles me on several levels, but that's a
whole 'nother flamewar.)
--
John S. Novak, III j...@cegt201.bradley.edu
http://cegt201.bradley.edu/~jsn/index.html
The Humblest Man on the Net
James Meek
Hollifield) wrote:
>James Meek (j...@u.washington.edu) wrote:
>: I don't particularly want [Kathy] to regularly crop up as hospital
>: attorney, however; that's not a direction I'd like to see "ER" take.
>
>Why need it be a "direction"? The hospital has attorneys, we know; we've
>seen them before (mainly in the O'Brien malpractice suit). Somehow I
>don't see ER turning into Murder One because of the addition of one
>lawyer character.
Well, it needn't, which I guess was my point. Although the show I was
thinking of was "Chicago Hope," in terms of hospital attorneys. I don't
think the pacings of "ER" and "Murder One" would mix all that well.
Although wouldn't it be fascinating to spend all of next season going over
the legal ramifications and weelings 'n' dealings involved in "The Match
Game"'s missed diagnosis lawsuit? I suspect that people would beg for
reruns, then...
>: A good episode overall, if feeling somewhat rushed by the end. I really
>: liked the interaction between Doug and Peter while working on the recently
>: arrived patient. If looks could kill, they'd both be dead.
>
>One bit I forgot to mention was the brief, wordless scene with Doug
>sitting in the locker room, as Peter walks in, gets his things and walks
>out. Doug eyes Peter as if expecting a confrontation, or maybe wanting
>one; Peter's style of handling this is to pretend that Doug isn't even
>there. I liked that scene.
That was a great scene, if only because it's such a reversal from the
overt hostility in the operating room. Buckle my shoe, kiss my ass...
--
|"You can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge
James B. Meek | and still come out completely dry. Most
j...@u.washington.edu | people do."
| -Norton Juster, "The Phantom Tollbooth"
Ceon Ramon
Scott Hollifield <Sco...@cris.com> wrote:
>Gary Wong (gw...@s.psych.uiuc.edu) wrote:
>
>: The other interesting point of this patient, the lawyer was the line he
>: gave at the beginning of his being up for partner at his firm. In a way,
>: then, he was also up for a match.
>
>well. I'm a little surprised that we didn't find out some significant
>piece of information about his career prospects at the end; there's him
>receiving the fax, and we don't get to find out what it says.
I kind of thought this was one of those neat little ER punches: he'd been
frantic with anxiety to get away from the hospital and back into his Real
Life, where his greatest concern was whether or not he got the position,
only to have his world turned upside down. Whatever the fax told him was
completely meaningless to him at that point. The expression on his face
indicated that the fax might as well have been written in Swahili for all
the sense it made to him.
>: Does anyone know if the actor playing Conni is actually pregnant?
>: And where is the other desk clerk, who's name escapes me right now.
>
>I don't think Conni Marie Brazleton is actually pregnant since she showed
>up in episodes leading up to her pregnancy story with nary a trace of it.
I seem to remember one of the posters here who Keeps Up with Tidbits from
Tabloids <g> telling us she was actually pregnant.
While I'm here: I'm going a little crazy trying to think of the name of
the well-known actor who played Mr. Bowman. Anyone?
--Barbara
Kate Snedeker
sometime soon.
Ceon Ramon
>the well-known actor who played Mr. Bowman. Anyone?
The instant I sent this I suddenly remembered: it's the distinguished
stage actor Paul Winfield.
(Don't you hate it when this happens? It's like being in a store and
looking and looking and looking for some particular item; you finally
corner a clerk stocking shelves and ask where the dratted thing is and he
points to a space directly in front of your face.)
--Barbara
Mark Quigley
I saw an episode of Entertainment Tonight awhile back which featured the
actress. She really was pregnant and I believe she had a baby girl.
-Michelle-
Alan Sepinwall
considerably older than Mr. Winfield.
Alan Sepinwall * e-mail: sepi...@mail.sas.upenn.edu
Personal homepage: http://www.stwing.upenn.edu/~sepinwal/
NYPD Blue page: http://www.stwing.upenn.edu/~sepinwal/nypd.html
RANDOM QUOTE:
"Can I borrow your underpants for ten minutes?"
-Anthony Michael Hall, "Sixteen Candles"
Barb Johnson
ce...@u.washington.edu (Ceon Ramon) writes:
>
>>While I'm here: I'm going a little crazy trying to think of the name of
>>the well-known actor who played Mr. Bowman. Anyone?
>
>The instant I sent this I suddenly remembered: it's the distinguished
>stage actor Paul Winfield.
>
>(Don't you hate it when this happens? It's like being in a store and
>looking and looking and looking for some particular item; you finally
>corner a clerk stocking shelves and ask where the dratted thing is and he
>points to a space directly in front of your face.)
>
I think it was Bill Cobbs that played Mr. Bowman.
--Barb
Amanda King
: We're being set up for Susan to lose little Susie to Chloe. Wasn't there
: a famous case in Illinois (the same juristiction as ER) where the natural
: mother got the child back even though everybody in the world knew that
: the adoptive parents were more deserving? The court system has proved
: over and over that the welfare of the child scores little compared to the
: rights of natural parents to possess their children. I feel sorry for
: the children in these cases, torn away from the parents they've bonded to
: by courts which have other priorities.
Much as I HATE to agree with you, I do. Actually, though, it was the
biological father who "didn't know" that his son had been put up for
adoption (gee, he really stuck around to find out he got someone
pregnant...well, actually, I think they had a fight, then got back
together about 2 years later, then she told him about the kid.) The
court system awarded custody to the biological father, even though the
kid had been living with his parents (I can't remember if they were
adoptive, foster, or foster in the act of adopting, but I think they had
actually adopted him) for about 4 years, taking him away from the only
family he knew, including an older brother, and throwing him to some
strangers (biologically related, or not). Plus, the judge never saw the
kid. Last I heard, the biological father was claiming that the boy never
said he wanted to see his brother or his parents, so he hasn't. However,
the social workers say that the change in his disposition (he used to be
a normal, usually sunny kid, now he's quiet, not active, etc.) happened
very fast, and is not the best thing for him.
sorry that this is so disjointed, but I've been thinking about this court
case since Chloe left Susie with Susan. I hope it doesn't happen this
way, but everyone is always saying how much ER is like life, and that's
real life.
Amanda King Wake Forest '97
PS - if anyone wants the "whole" story, check out Bob Green's column in
the tempo section of back issues of the Chicago Tribune. If I could give
you dates, I would.
Other than that, I love this show!!!!!!
Ceon Ramon
Alan Sepinwall <sepi...@mail1.sas.upenn.edu> wrote:
>In article <4jjppc$g...@nntp4.u.washington.edu>,
>Ceon Ramon <ce...@u.washington.edu> wrote:
>>>the well-known actor who played Mr. Bowman. Anyone?
>>
>>The instant I sent this I suddenly remembered: it's the distinguished
>>stage actor Paul Winfield.
>>
>>(Don't you hate it when this happens? It's like being in a store and
>>looking and looking and looking for some particular item; you finally
>>corner a clerk stocking shelves and ask where the dratted thing is and he
>>points to a space directly in front of your face.)
>>
>considerably older than Mr. Winfield.
Oh right; and it wasn't Grapenuts but couscous.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
(Still, the actor whose name I was trying to remember was Paul
Winfield.)
Thanks, Alan.
--Barbara
TRACY
>Thanks for the excellent summary, Scott. Just one point (maybe two) --
>and I won't quote your entire post!
>
>>tumor before, and personally tells Mr. Bowman about it -- although he
>does
> ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
>How about "should have been detected," since it wasn't found until this
>stated several times that the earlier detection would have made no
>difference in the diagnosis and treatment. In other words, the young
>man would have had his leg amputated four months earlier. (IANA doctor,
>but it does seem that there must be *some* impact from the delay...?)
>
>> -Doug sacrificing a healthy slice of his livelihood -- $5000
>has to
>>be a good-sized chunk of his savings, even for a doctor of his
>advancement
>>-- to compensate for his moral failure in the matter of the Bowman kid
> ^ ^ ^
>
>I'm not sure this was a *moral* failure as much as it was a technical
>extremely reluctant to suppress his missed Dx when talking to the
>tremendous sacrifice (time AND money) on his part.
>
>Gallagher; she may be around for a few episodes.
>--
>m3
>Mary Margaret McCormick
>M-Cubed Consulting
>m...@qnet.com
>
I believe what was said was that "telling them" the tumor was there 4 months ago
would make no difference in treatment. I think there is a difference in
treatment.
Brian Pacula
<ka...@princeton.edu> wrote:
> The actress who plays Conni is indeed pregnant-and should be due
> sometime soon.
I do believe she's already *had* the baby. Last month I think.
-- Brian N. Pacula http://users.aol.com/gb8b/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"HeY DooDz i Am dA kEwl hAcKer aNd i HaVE kEwL wAreZ aND crACKz anD
anTi-AOL pRoggiEz sO eVen tHo I hAvE neVeR hAD a gUrLfriEnD yOu wiLL
gIVE mE pRopZ Or I WiLL phReAK yOu!!!!!!!!!!"
--- a message from our friend the Kewl [sic] Hacker
John Novak
>In the previous episode, the cell phone being used was a special kind
>with extra-strong range, etc. The patient was a cell-phone salesman, and
>the model was a new, "special" one, if I remember correctly. Ordinary
>cell phones don't interfere with most equipment.
This is probably some quite unreasonable pickiness by an engineer, but
I really can't see what difference simple signal strength would make
for most equipment. At cellular broadcasting frequencies, for most
pieces of equipment I can think of, it just ain't gonna matter.
At least we haven't seen a patient wth a brain tumor blame it on his
cellular or cordless phone...
gr...@mail.io.com
>Blue Marlin (mar...@mail.utexas.edu) wrote:
>: Major mistake there. The use of cellular phones in a hospital is
>: prohibited. It interferes with some life support equipment. Carter should
>: have known this. I believe an episode of "ER" alluded to something like this
>: last year.
>
>I'm glad someone else noticed this, I thought I was going weird. I half
>expected the cell phone to interact with some equipment as Carter was
>strolling past all those patients.
>
>enough of an EMF to affect hospital equipment, or is it a guideline that
>has been adopted as a "better safe than sorry" attitude?
I don't know, but last season wasn't there a story with a patient whose
cell phone usage interfered with some of the ER equipment?
Karen Wheless
>cell phone usage interfered with some of the ER equipment?
In the previous episode, the cell phone being used was a special kind
with extra-strong range, etc. The patient was a cell-phone salesman, and
the model was a new, "special" one, if I remember correctly. Ordinary
cell phones don't interfere with most equipment.
Karen
--
______________________________________________________________
Karen Wheless whe...@sunchem.chem.uga.edu
"Weed - a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered"
Ralph Waldo Emerson
John Shortess
>
>While I'm here: I'm going a little crazy trying to think of the name of
>the well-known actor who played Mr. Bowman. Anyone?
>
That was Bill Cobbs. He's been around forever, it seems, but I
remember him best as Lilly's father on "I'll Fly Away."
Kate Snedeker
treatment if the tumor had been discovered 4 months earlier. I remember
reading in a medical textbook (I'm not a doctor, just curious about
medical stuff) that now they often use intensive chemotherapy to shrink
the tumors, and sometimes don't need to amputate. And they are in sime
cases replacing parts of bones or knees that were cancerous. Amputation
is still a prevailing treatment, but by far not the only one. It also depends
on the kind of tumor.
Kate
Alithea Purcell
I am relatively new to this E-mail mumbo-jumbo, much less these
types of groups. I bet you can all relate to my feeling of absolute joy
when I discovered these things. As a TOTAL er fan I was thrilled about
some of the things I discovered while surfing through some of the things
written. 1. There are other major ER fans like myself (not alot of
people I know like the show- they are all insane!!!) and 2. I DO have
someplace to discuss my predictions. I kind of like just reading and
responding to people, but I think that I would prefer a more "personal"
one-on-one writing experience. So if anyone wants to chat OUTSIDE of this
group, I am very interested in meeting peple that share my passion-ER!!!
I think that it is very wierd that I like this show because I hardly
watch any thing besides this show. So anyways- I am interested in hooking
up with some people on the side (Donnn't worry... I'm not an insane ax
murderer- and I'm not interested in taking this "relationship" any further
than E-mail. Please respond if you are interested.
**DO NOT MAIL ME AT THE ABOVE ADDRESS. I AM NOT ALITHEA!**
My address is... huffmana.nova.edmonds.wednet.edu
Thanks so much to those who respond!!!
A. Huffman
COLEEN DYER
<BIG SNIP>
>>be enjoying maternity leave for the remainder of the season.
>Does anyone know if the actor playing Conni is actually pregnant?
>And where is the other desk clerk, who's name escapes me right now.
THe actress who plays Conni had her baby not too long ago, if I am not
mistaken.
Once again, another episode without Bob. Not that she would have helped much in
an episode like this, but I MISS BOB!!
>Once again, darn fine job, Scott. If you're still reading to this point. :-)
>Always nice to have something to respond to, rather then writing from scratch.
>
>Gary
>
I concur. THank you Scott!
Coleen
COLEEN DYER
>drinking during rotation hours.
>
><LOTS OF SNIPPAGE>
>--
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Scott Hollifield * sco...@cris.com * http://www.cris.com/~scotth/
>
Actually, when Carter was first trying to get her out to celebrate, she asked
him to wait because she was almost finished her shift. That's why she won't get
any of the heat that Carter is going to take.
Coleen
claypool
j...@u.washington.edu (James Meek) wrote:
>> PLOT FIVE: TEMP FOR VICTORY
>
>> No sooner does
>> Hugo exit the ER than he gets accidentally run over by rookie paramedic
>> Reilly Brown
>
>You don't mention (and I think it's significant) that the main reason
>Hugo's in the parking lot at the time is that Carol forgot to call a taxi
>for him. I thought it quite interesting that, of the two of them, Jeanie
>was the one to say that it was *both* of their faults, rather than blaming
>one or the other.
Well, it really was both of their faults. After all, if they weren't so anal
with who's job it was, the job would have gotten done. Blame shouldn't be set
on either of them, individually.
Kristen Clute
BTW, thanks for taking the time to do these!
In reply to M. M. McCormick (m...@qnet.com), Sco...@cris.com (Scott
Hollifield) wrote:
: >not mention that the tumor was detected before. Doug does, however,
> : ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
> : How about "should have been detected," since it wasn't found until this
> : time?
>
> Yes, good point -- I goofed. Clearly, the tumor was not detected --
> although it did surface on the x-rays of the time.
OK, I'm not a doctor and I know it's only a show, *but*, shouldn't a
Radiologist have noticed the tumor on the films and not Doug? In terms of
advancing the story, this would have been pointless, and if say, the
Radiologist was swamped that day and Doug read the x-ray, then it's a moot
point. But in my previous encounters in hospitals, where x-rays have been
taken on me, I'm pretty sure this task falls to the Radiologist (maybe
with the attending physician there). I didn't see any reason to blame
Doug for missing it, since it's not his specialty anyway.
Am I completely off base here or is this SOP? I want to know, so the next
time I have to have an x-ray, I've got the right dude there! :-)
Kristen
--
"Sure. Fine. Whatever."
The X-Files' Agent Dana Scully - _Syzygy_
Library
Actually, when Carter was first trying to get her out to celebrate, she
asked
>him to wait because she was almost finished her shift. That's why she won't get
>any of the heat that Carter is going to take.
>
>Coleen
for her to be drinking with someone she knew was. It is the equilavent of
allowing someone you know has been drinking to drive.
denise...@mail.colum.edu
Susan Sanders
writes:
>We're being set up for Susan to lose little Susie to Chloe. Wasn't there
>a famous case in Illinois (the same juristiction as ER) where the natural
>mother got the child back even though everybody in the world knew that
>the adoptive parents were more deserving? The court system has proved
Well, not only that, and perhaps more to the point since this is a TV
show, but kids get in the way on TV shows, unless it's a show about kids.
Having a kid enter one of the main character's lives makes great drama
for a while, but then what do you do with it? It ties the character down
too much; life becomes too mundane. And so you enter Murphy Brown
syndrome--the kid becomes essentially non-existant. If Susan loses
little Susie all kinds of possibilities open up--including, most
obviously, it gives Susan and Mark a new point of connectiveness, and an
avenue to begin a serious relationship. It also provides other future
dramatic possibilities--like Susan's reponse when Chloe's new-found
responsibleness gives way to her taste for drugs, and Susan's left
picking up the pieces once again.
Nancy Dooley
>From: Sco...@cris.com (Scott Hollifield)
>Subject: Re: ER: "The Match Game" Summary/Review
>Date: 29 Mar 1996 22:25:50 GMT
>Since Harper was shown as being at work that day too, she also was
>drinking during rotation hours.
I think Harper said she was going off-duty, but commented to Carter that he
wasn't.
I don't see any amorality in her behavior....
Nancy Dooley
"Celebrate our State." IOWA'S Sesquicentennial year, 1846-1996.
David Wren-Hardin
Amanda King <kin...@wfu.edu> wrote:
>
>sorry that this is so disjointed, but I've been thinking about this court
>case since Chloe left Susie with Susan. I hope it doesn't happen this
>way, but everyone is always saying how much ER is like life, and that's
>real life.
In the court case, the child had already been legally adopted. Susan
doesn't even have that leg to stand on. Parental rights have never
been terminated. Susan can sue for custody, but most likely what would
happen is that Susie would be place in a foster home until the courts
decided.
--
David Wren-Hardin | Support Darwinian evolution --
bd...@midway.uchicago.edu | Squash a weakling today.
da...@data.uchicago.edu |
http://student-www.uchicago.edu/users/bdh4/
Nancy Dooley
>From: Library <smc...@mail.colum.edu>
>Subject: Re: ER: "The Match Game" Summary/Review
I don't agree. Harper isn't his babysitter. Each adult is reponsible for
his/her own actions, ultimately. And drinking in a hot-tub is not equivalent
to a drunk driver.
John Novak
>I don't agree. Harper isn't his babysitter. Each adult is reponsible for
>his/her own actions, ultimately. And drinking in a hot-tub is not equivalent
>to a drunk driver.
I was going to say more or less the same thing, but then realized the
gravity of the situation-- Carter _could_ have tried to go and operate
anyway. He might have succeeded in doing so.
Granted, I would think that anyone who drank enough to think they
could get away with it couldn't get away with it, but the potential to
do severe damage to someone else is there.
Natalie
> But I agree with those who say the truth should have
>come from Doug (who actually looked as though he wanted to tell
>Mr. Bowman, but was restrained due to advice of hospital counsel).
>
>Liz McF.
I didn't get the impression that Doug wanted to tell the truth. He wanted
to make up for it, certainly, but it seemed like he was too
ashamed to admit his error to the family. I'm not sure, but I don't
remember him saying anything one way or the other during the confab with
Mark and Kathy Snyder. Besides, from what we know of Doug's own
impulsiveness, if he thought the family should have been told, he would
have told regardless of Mark's and Kathy's advice. And I see the fact
that he didn't handle it that way as a glimpse of humility from Doug.
Nat
Teej
>In <nancy-dooley....@uiowa.edu> nancy-...@uiowa.edu (Nancy Dooley) writes:
>>I don't agree. Harper isn't his babysitter. Each adult is reponsible for
>>his/her own actions, ultimately. And drinking in a hot-tub is not
>>equivalent to a drunk driver.
>I was going to say more or less the same thing, but then realized the
>gravity of the situation-- Carter _could_ have tried to go and operate
>anyway. He might have succeeded in doing so.
Gee.. I don't know.. Maybe Carter is trying to be more and more like
Dr. Ross. :-)
/s
Karin E Dietterich
>M. M. McCormick (m...@qnet.com) wrote:
>: Thanks for the excellent summary, Scott. Just one point (maybe two) --
>
>: ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
>: How about "should have been detected," since it wasn't found until this
>: time?
>
>Yes, good point -- I goofed. Clearly, the tumor was not detected --
>although it did surface on the x-rays of the time.
I was wondering about this. Whenever I've had x-rays done, the doctor that
was treating me at the time would look at them and make a preliminary
diagnosis based on the x-ray. However, the films were always viewed by
a radiologist to look for details that might have been missed by doctors
that aren't trained to see all of the possible things that might show on
an x-ray. Is this standard practice, or do I just have really good health
care?
It is completely understandable that Doug missed the tumor on the older
x-rays. He wasn't looking for it. The only reason they are seeing it now
is that they know to look for it.
I'm curious that a radiologist apparently didn't view the films or didn't
find the tumor either.
Karin
_____ ____ ____ | Karin E. Dietterich
| | / | __|| \ | k...@ssd.intel.com
| \ | __|| | | | Intel Server System Product Development
|__|__||____||____/ | #include <std/disclaimer.h>
"The last good thing written in C was Franz Schubert's Ninth Symphony."
--Christa Ptatschek
Matt Ciarelli
>Blue Marlin (mar...@mail.utexas.edu) wrote:
>
>: Major mistake there. The use of cellular phones in a hospital is
>: prohibited. It interferes with some life support equipment. Carter should
>: have known this. I believe an episode of "ER" alluded to something like this
>: last year.
>
>in the season. That really ticked me off - this is the second time this
>season that someone has been shown using a cellular phone inside of the
>hospital with no one griping or complaining at them. (There was the case
>of that older female physician giving birth in one of the trauma rooms..
>The episode name escapes me, but it was after Christmas..)
>
>
>--
>sugi...@cuug.ab.ca http://www.cuug.ab.ca:8001/~sugimotl
>gat/md/t/s, er resident<tm>, dreamer, shaper, singer, maker
>"to cure sometimes, to relieve often, to comfort always."
Yes, that's right, there was a cellular phone used in the episode with lots of
new mothers....I think that was "Baby Shower," IIRC. And, you know what else is
funny? When we first saw what havoc a cell-phone could wreak among the hospital
electronics, it was Dr. Greene who told the guy that owned it, "Get that thing
out of the hospital now!!" or something close to that. And then the second time
we saw a cell-phone being used, Greene stood by and let the woman who was hav-
ing the baby use her cell-phone without one complaint about what it might be do-
ing to the hospitial's systems. Does that mean Greene's a bit of a hypocrite? I
wonder..... :-) (To all of Mark's fans, I'm just joking about the hypocrite
thing, don't be upset.)
Matt Ciarelli
e-mail: TW...@grove.iup.edu
Website: http://www.iup.edu/~twsd/index.html
CoftheE
always someone elses fault, especially if he's been anywhere near Harper.
Harper was off duty, able to go anywhere and do anything she wanted,
Carter was not, but did anyway, leaving his patient and the hospital
looking for him for 3 hours, returning when he was ready and tipsy too.
Carter is human, he can and does make mistakes. Harper was not at fault
here. Carter was: and he knows it.
Curve of the Earth
Helix the Cat
> >Even though Harper was not on duty at the time, I think it was unethical
> >for her to be drinking with someone she knew was. It is the equilavent of
> >allowing someone you know has been drinking to drive.
> > denise...@mail.colum.edu
> >
>
> his/her own actions, ultimately. And drinking in a hot-tub is not equivalent
> to a drunk driver.
It is if you give them a scalpel and a patient. The bottom line is that
yes, Carter should've known better, but Harper should've said something to him
when she saw that he was getting carried away.
--- Helix
****************************************************************************
*I wanted to make love to her in the worst way -- standing ... in a hammoc.*
* --- The Reduced Shakespeare Company's *
* "Complete Hisory of America, Abridged" *
*--------------------------------------------------------------------------*
*Helix the Cat *
*ad...@jinx.sckans.edu *
*http://www.sckans.edu/~adam *
****************************************************************************
David Blizzard
available on video?
If possible please reply directly to "bliz...@cs.athabascau.ca" as I
don't get to check the newsgroups often. Thanks.
Dave Blizzard.
Mike Herron
>In article <4jl4sk$e...@sun.cuug.ab.ca>, sugi...@cuug.ab.ca (Phloem) writes:
>>Blue Marlin (mar...@mail.utexas.edu) wrote:
>>
>>: Major mistake there. The use of cellular phones in a hospital is
>>: prohibited. It interferes with some life support equipment. Carter should
>>: have known this. I believe an episode of "ER" alluded to something like this
>>: last year.
>>
>>Yeah, last year it was done, and it was done as some comic relief early
>>in the season. That really ticked me off - this is the second time this
>>season that someone has been shown using a cellular phone inside of the
>>hospital with no one griping or complaining at them. (There was the case
>>of that older female physician giving birth in one of the trauma rooms..
>>The episode name escapes me, but it was after Christmas..)
The original Cellular Phone episode concerned a woman who came in with
chest pains and tightness in the chest. Dr. Greene diagnosed it as a
problem with the pacemaker, after she describes the pains as feeling
like an electrical shock. Mark could not figure out what was causing
the problem, though.
I don't recall why the man with the cell phone was in there, but Susan
fought with him most of the episode to examine him and get him to stay
off the phone.
Later both the salesman and the woman with chest pains are out near
the front desk when the salesman takes a call on the cell phone when
the woman begins to get chest pains/shocks again and the electric
wheelchair she is sitting in starts to spin around. ( *** Minor flaw
here)
Mark is there and makes the connection between the phone and the chest
pains/shocks. Mark see's the guy with the phone asks the guy what is
that, pointing to the cell phone. The salesman tells him it's the
most powerful cel phone on the market.
Greene has him shut it down and the shocks/chest pains stop and the
wheelchair stops spinning...
*** A cell phone no matter how powerful will not cause an electric
wheelchair to spin in circle like that one did... Any electric
wheelchair and specifically that type will not be effected by a cell
phone no matter how powerful the phone is...
Mike Herron
Nancy Dooley
>From: Helix the Cat <ad...@jinx.sckans.edu>
>Subject: Re: ER: "The Match Game" Summary/Review
>Nancy Dooley wrote:
>> >Even though Harper was not on duty at the time, I think it was unethical
>> >for her to be drinking with someone she knew was. It is the equilavent of
>> >allowing someone you know has been drinking to drive.
>> > denise...@mail.colum.edu
>> >
>>
>> I don't agree. Harper isn't his babysitter. Each adult is reponsible for
>> his/her own actions, ultimately. And drinking in a hot-tub is not equivalent
>> to a drunk driver.
> It is if you give them a scalpel and a patient. The bottom line is that
>yes, Carter should've known better, but Harper should've said something to him
>when she saw that he was getting carried away.
> --- Helix
Sorry, I still disagree. It smacks too much of those people who can't refrain
from trying to take charge of others' behavior "for their own good."
Shannon Travolta
They are not showing up on my end, although all the responses
are. Thanks.
--
Shannon King sk...@cs.smith.edu
"You couldn't get a clue during the clue mating season in a field full of
horny clues if you smeared your body with clue musk and did the clue
mating dance." -- Edward Flaherty
denise rogers
happened. I, for one, feel that Harper should have at least told him
what a fool he was being and refused to participate in what could be
professional suicide. denise...@mail.colum.edu
Moonbeam
>tm...@grove.iup.edu (COLEEN DYER) wrote:
>Actually, when Carter was first trying to get her out to celebrate, she
>asked
>>him to wait because she was almost finished her shift. That's why she won't get
>>any of the heat that Carter is going to take.
>>
>>Coleen
>Even though Harper was not on duty at the time, I think it was unethical
>for her to be drinking with someone she knew was. It is the equilavent of
>allowing someone you know has been drinking to drive.
> denise...@mail.colum.edu
>
No, no, no, no, no. I am so tired of the woman being held
accountable for what the man does. He's grown up, he's of age, he can
be solely blamed. Let him hang himself- it's not Harper's
responsibility at all. Drunk driving is another thing, though.
Others are innocently being put in danger by your inaction. Someone
may get hurt, so you must step in to avoid that. Atleast Carter was
man enough and responsible enough not to operate while having had
alcohol. At this point, if Harper had been there, would she then be
expected to say or do something.
We cannot babysit the men. They are perfectly capable of making their
own decisions and take the consequences alone.
Moonbeam
COLEEN DYER
>>I don't know, but last season wasn't there a story with a patient whose
>>cell phone usage interfered with some of the ER equipment?
>
>In the previous episode, the cell phone being used was a special kind
>with extra-strong range, etc. The patient was a cell-phone salesman, and
>the model was a new, "special" one, if I remember correctly. Ordinary
>cell phones don't interfere with most equipment.
>
>Karen
>
>--
> ______________________________________________________________
> Karen Wheless whe...@sunchem.chem.uga.edu
> "Weed - a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered"
> Ralph Waldo Emerson
Well, if Carter was talking to his father from a boat, wouldn't you think that
would indicate a pretty strong cell phone?
Coleen
Scott Jeffrey Parker
>Coleen
Carter's cell phone wouldn't broadcast directly to the boat, instead
it would broadcast to the nearest cell tower, which in downtown Chicago
wouldn't be very far away. Therefore, the phone Carter was using need not be
very powerfull. The phone on the boat, however, may have to be more powerfull
than the average cell phone in order to reach a cell from out on the water.
Scott Parker
Troy N. Diggs
Yes, on two counts.
First off, M:I is available on Columbia House video, however, I don't
know how you'd go about ordering. The commercials for it will creep up
from time to time.
Second, the cable network fX shows M:I every day at 6:00 ET, so you might
want to get someone with fX to copy the shows off for ya.
TND
------------------------------------------------------------
Troy N. Diggs eMail: TDi...@aztec.astate.edu
Really Important eMail: TDi...@quapaw.astate.edu
WWW: http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/1770/
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on the "Taster's Choice" commercials
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