Summary/Review -- Nobody Doesn't Like Amanda Lee
Phyl
written entirely by Lisa Albert:
"Nobody Doesn't Like Amanda Lee"
Season 5, Episode 11
UK Airdate: 14 April
Written By: Linda Gase
Directed by: Richard Thorpe
Plot 1 - Mark and Amanda
Amanda arrives at the hospital and sees Mark shoveling snow in the
ambulance bay. He explains that they don't plow it very well, and
maintenance is not a help. She puts snow down his coat and they wrestle
a bit.
After treating a patient together, Amanda tells Carol that she is
looking forward to their double date that night. Amanda asks Carol if
she and Mark have ever slept together, and if Mark has a reputation of
playing around with coworkers. Amanda explains to an incredulous Carol
that Mark is very sexually aggressive and experimental - the previous
night they were together on the fire escape.
A commuter plane crashes at Meigs Field in Chicago, and Amanda assigns
all workers to prepare for a "mass casualty incident". Everyone springs
to action, however, after the preparations are made they discover that
there were no survivors of the plane crash.
Mark receives a telephone call, and a Fed Ex package from NASA. He
explains to Doug and Carol that he applied for the space program years
ago, and was accepted, however Jen was in law school and Rachel was very
young. They wouldn't let him defer, but an old friend of his is
currently working there. Both Carol and Doug tease Mark a bit, comparing
him to John Glenn.
Mark treats a forty-two year old woman named Edie, who had been hit by
bricks. Her psychologist explains that she is a severe agoraphobic who
had not been out of her house in five years. He was coaxing her out when
a chimney fell on both of them. Edie is having a panic attack, and Mark
attempts to calm her by saying "you are in a hospital - nothing bad can
happen to you here". Amanda talks to Edie and calms her down by getting
her to visualize a place where she feels safe. Mark later asks how she
did it and she explains that she wrote a paper on phobias as a student
that was published in the Cornell Medical Journal.
Mark gets Tony, the substitute desk clerk, to help him look up the
article on the Internet. Mark discovers that the author is listed as
A.W. Lee and the picture published is of a fortyish Asian man. Amanda
tells Mark that they made a mistake and corrected it in the following
issue. Mark tells her she should demand to correct the Internet version,
and Amanda tells him it is not a big deal. Mark asks Tony to pull the
rest of the articles by A.W. Lee, and places a call to Cornell.
Tony tells Mark that all of the journals were checked out. Mark also
asks Anspaugh if he knows anyone at Cornell, and Anspaugh admits that he
never checked Amanda's references, since she was referred from her
residency by an old army buddy of his. Later Carol sees Amanda cutting
out articles from hospital journals. Amanda tells Carol that she has a
migraine, and will have to cancel their dinner plans.
Mark and Tony attempt to transport Edie to CT. At first she panics when
a trauma comes by in the hall. When they get to the elevator, they
discover that it has stopped between floors. They finally get to CT, and
Edie remains calm during the testing. The technician leaves, and Amanda
enters and locks the door. She talks to a shocked Mark through the
microphone and tells him "I thought you were different, I thought you
understood the real me, obviously I was wrong". Mark asks her to unlock
the door so they can talk, and Amanda tells him "I loved you more then
any man has a right to be loved". She leaves, and Mark attempts to calm
Edie from another panic attack.
Mark and Edie are finally let out after the technician returns from an
hour lunch. Mark discovers that Amanda has several aliases, and has also
posed as a lawyer and an architect. She never attended medical school,
but stole A.W. Lee's transcript to get a residency. Doug quips "Why
didn't I think of that" and everyone else is shocked to learn about
Amanda.
Mark sees Edie preparing to walk home. She tells Mark that she feels
better than she has felt in years, and that "if I can survive this hell
hole I can survive anything". Doug comments to Carol that "Mark's made
some bad choices with women before but I think he out did himself this
time". Carol asks Mark about the fire escape, and Mark doesn't know what
she is talking about. Mark discovers a letter that Amanda left in his
locker, a poem that she "inspired him to write". As he begins to read
it, Yosh enters and quotes the poem as one by Octavio Paz. Doug comments
"looks like you inspired her to plagiarize".
Plot 2 - Kerry, Jeanie, and Reggie
Reggie, a Chicago cop, brings in a young boy with a fractured arm.
Reggie also has a minor hand injury, which he asks Jeanie to treat.
Reggie asks Jeanie out, and says that he doesn't care if she is HIV
positive. Jeanie refuses, saying she is not interested. Reggie later
apologizes to Jeanie if he offended her, but she tells him not to feel
sorry for her.
Carter tells Kerry that her mom called at the apartment. This surprises
Kerry, and she instructs Tony to page her if any calls come in for her.
Kerry treats Robin Gambrell, a twenty-eight year old woman in active
labor, brought in after a car accident. Her husband Mike had been out
with friends and had driven her to the hospital after her water broke.
En route they had an accident, that was Mike's fault. The driver of the
other car was an Army private named Aaron Drane. Elizabeth and Amanda
treat him, but he does not survive.
Reggie tells Kerry to get a blood alcohol level on Mike, because it is
standard procedure. She does and it comes back just over the legal
limit. Aaron's parent's arrive at the hospital, and Reggie tells them
that their son is dead. Reggie tells Kerry he needs to arrest Mike, but
Kerry asks him to wait until Robin delivers her baby. Reggie agrees, but
later Mr. Drane bursts into the room and accuses Mike of killing his
son. Mike attempts to apologize, and Robin gets increasingly upset.
Kerry suggests that Mike leave with Reggie, and try to post bail so he
can be back in time for the delivery. Mike remains in jail, and Kerry
delivers Robin's daughter.
Reggie stops back at the hospital to get news on the baby so he can call
the jail. Jeanie tells him that she has plans that night, but she
suggests they go to a movie the following night. Reggie agrees to that.
At their apartment, Kerry tells Carter that both her adoptive parents
have been dead for a year. Kerry recently placed her name on the
Internet and wonders if her birth mother tried to call her.
Plot 3 - Carter and Lucy
Roxanne and Carter wake up together in his apartment. She wants him to
come to "girls night" to meet her friends, but he had offered to help
Lucy study to present rounds the following day. Carter agrees to meet
with her, and at work cancels with Lucy. Carter also has a positive
reaction to a TB skin test, but tells Lucy it is probably just from the
exposure in the projects. He will get a chest X-ray to confirm.
Dale meets Lucy when everyone is prepping for the plane crash trauma. He
invites her to go with him that night to the Grand Victoria riverboat
casino in Elgin. Carter reminds Lucy that she needs to study for rounds,
but Dale offers to help her on the drive to the boat. Lucy agrees to go,
and Carter looks annoyed.
While treating a patient named Mr. Wong, Lucy is drawing blood, while
Carter is giving him a shot in his other arm. Mr. Wong flinches, and
Lucy is stuck by the needle. Carter tells her to flush out the wound and
wait for him. Carter tells her they will do a rapid HIV test on Mr.
Wong, and apologizes again for not warning Mr. Wong when he stuck his
needle in him. The HIV test is negative, but Carter reminds Lucy to get
tested again in six months. Carter warns Dale to be nice to Lucy, and
Dale comments that he is always nice. Dale says that it is good news
that the HIV test was negative since he'll have a chance to score that
night.
Plot 4 - Benton
Benton is called to the ER to treat Dr. Park's granddaughter. He at
first thinks she has the stomach flu, but at Dr. Park's insistence, does
an ultrasound which reveals appendicitis. The girl's mother arrives,
also deaf, and Benton tells both that she will need surgery. Benton
observes the three signing, and learns the sign for father.
Benton is paged to the daycare, with the news that Reese was being
disruptive. The teacher tells Benton that it would be best for all if he
was switched to a special needs classroom.
It is time for the appendectomy, and the hospital interpreter still
hasn't arrived. Benton says they need to do the operation, and says Dr.
Parks can scrub in. During the procedure, Anspaugh comments that it must
have been difficult for Dr. Parks to go through medical school. Benton
tells Anspaugh it is not appropriate for them to talk about Dr. Parks
"behind her back". The surgery is successful, and Dr. Parks writes "job
well done" on a notepad for Benton.
At the end of the day Benton goes to pick Reese up in daycare. He
teaches him the sign for father, which Reese learns successfully. Benton
is delighted, and the two play together.
Plot 5 - Doug and Carol
Doug and Carol are getting food in the cafeteria when they see a woman
faint. In the ER Carol and Amanda learn that her name is Joi Abbott and
her eight year old son Ricky is in the hospital getting an MRI. Ricky
has advanced ALD. Doug tells Carol that most ALD children don't live
past the age of ten, and Carol learns that Ricky also had an older
brother who died of the disease.
Carol learns that Joi is anemic and brings her vitamins. Carol sees Joi
caring for Ricky, who is now in a wheelchair. Carol asks her if she has
anyone to help, and recommends respite care, which Joi refuses. Later in
the day Joi finds Carol and asks her to recommend someone.
Amanda tells Doug early in the day that she received a call from a
Portland HMO looking for someone to set up pediatric emergency clinics
around the country. Doug doesn't know what she is talking about, and
tells her "I'm not going anywhere". Later, after the truth is discovered
about Amanda, Doug wonders if the job offer was real.
Plot 6 - Elizabeth
Elizabeth writes a paper detailing her error with a patient due to her
lack of sleep. Benton tells her its too controversial, and Anspaugh
tells her it is not appropriate for publication. After the Amanda
incident, Elizabeth visits Anspaugh, and tells him that a patient died
under her and Amanda's care. Elizabeth tells Anspaugh that especially in
light of the Amanda incident, she is going to pursue publication for her
paper. Anspaugh tells her he will attach a cover letter to any
publication she chooses to send it too.
Review
A very different episode! I was suspicious of Amanda's character from
the horseback riding story a few episodes ago, but didn't think they'd
make her be quite this crazy, or that the storyline would be resolved
this quickly. I thought Mare Winningham's acting was good, but was
unimpressed by the plot in general - it seems a bit to soap opera for
ER. Two elements of this storyline did remind me a bit of season one,
first when they sprung into action to prep for the plane crash, followed
by the silence when they learned there were no survivors. The Edie story
also seemed like something from season one - a woman who walks out of
her house for the first time in five years to have a chimney fall on
her, then goes through various mishaps through the hospital.
Kerry's news was interesting. At first I thought she was surprised about
her mother's call because they were estranged. We really don't know very
much about Kerry's character, and it would be interesting to see her
develop a relationship with her birth family. It was also nice to see
Jeanie getting a bit of happiness, after last season.
Carter seems to be very protective of Lucy, hopefully they will keep
that at a friendship level. I was surprised to see the Roxanne
relationship still going, although I did enjoy the snippet from my
favorite Chicago radio station in their opening scene. I always enjoy
the interaction with Carter and Dale. Dale and Romano are two perfect
"characters you love to hate".
It was nice to see Dr. Parks again, and Benton's gradual acceptance of
his son's condition. I really loved the end scene, where Reese signed
father, and the two played.
As far as Doug and Carol, they had very little screen time, and most
seemed to support the Amanda/Mark storyline. Hopefully we will see more
focus on them in the next few episodes.
[No medical commentary this week.]