I have read/heard many times that Lucy didn't fit in in the ER. Although I have to reluctantly understand this point of view...and a big influence on my opinion is that Lucy herself told this to Luka earlier this season, I think that this is mostly due to the way the writers decided to portray her...as struggling to fit in in a fast-paced ER. Carter did the same thing 5 or 6 years ago, but for some reason the rest of the character's stories overshadowed Lucy. I wanted to defend her though because it seems to me like she fit in much more last season. At first I thought it was really strange to have a girl come into ER and act like a real college/med student (i.e. the Halloween episode when Lucy is drunk at a party and someone gets alcohol poisoning and Carter gets mad at her for not being responsible) ER was always about more adult problems. But actually this was refreshing to see, esp. since I know not just adults watch the show, and her stories seemed more in touch with the "becoming an adult" idea. Anyways, after Carter and Lucy finally found a respectful friendship after The Good Fight, her character really developed. AND, to remind anyone, she seemed to fit in nicely. Carter enjoyed her friendship, he even became protective of her when Dale asked her out (and of course we all know Carter himself made out with her) And Carter wasn't the only one who liked her...Chuney was friendly with her and wanted Carter to get together with her, most of the nurses liked her, Malik and Jerry seemed to appreciate Carter's "scoring" with Lucy in Exam 6 (so, just about every nearly young guy in the ER thought she was cute), Kerry was to be her mentor, both Benton and Elizabeth respected her as a student...which was a turnaround for Benton, and she even got the seemingly soul respect from Romano. She was very different from the rest, but refreshing. If they had kept her paired up with Carter like they should have--and not neccessarily even romantically--ER entertainment would have been much better with Kellie Martin. Instead, they put her in the background. I just hope Kellie Martin's main reason for leaving is not ER itself, but that she really wanted to return to school and be with her new husband in NY.

So although this sounds mostly like a long tangent defending Lucy, I wanted to write and see what others think about her character...even though this forum is already taking up way too much of my time!...but I'm going to keep checking it anyways.

-- Elaine (mrsclooney78@hotmail.com), February 28, 2000

Answers

I totally agree with you. Last year Lucy had some really great story lines and I loved the show when she and Carter went looking for that girl's dad (The Good Fight?). She was the only one who really got Romano's respect. I think he actually say a lot of himself in her and admired her spunk. I loved how he reacted to her death. I think they did a good job last year of portraying how difficult it would be for a new person/med student to come into the ER. I really wish they would have done more with her this year. I can't blame Kellie Martin for wanting to leave. They sbould have developed characters they already had instead of bringing on 4 new ones.

-- amanda (amanda.rehm@home.com), February 28, 2000.

I never really percieved that Lucy did not fit in. I know she argued with Carter alot but.... I liked that she made mistakes, it made her more human to me. And that she was determined to go the extra mile for her patients - the girl in "The Good Fight", and Valerie etc. She obviously loved her job, and had a strong will. What was she supposed to be? All weak and compliant? How exactly did she not fit in? She did what all the others do.

-- Shauna (shauna_h16@yahoo.com), February 28, 2000.