Doug's other child

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Watching the rerun on TNT last night, I remembered that Doug once mentioned that he had a child, a son. When asked about it by Wendy he said he didn't know his son's name and that he'd never seen him. It seems like it's a pattern with Dr. Ross to leave his children once they're born. I hope it's a pattern that's broken with Tess and Kate.

-- Carin Haseltine (cdenisehaze@usa.net), April 06, 2000

Answers

I meant to say that Doug has a pattern to leave his children before they're born.--sorry

-- Carin (cdenisehaze@usa.net), April 06, 2000.

I think it's called commitmentphobia.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), April 07, 2000.

It's not commitmentphobia, it's far more complicated than that. He left before he had any knowledge of the pregnancy, and was then asked by the mother not to return due to her insecurities. Should he have, despite what Carol said? Yes. He was respecting her wishes, though, giving her space -- which is a sweet gesture. Now I'm sure Doug is getting restless letting Carol set the timetable. He seems to have figured out she wants him to ask, or more specifically I feel she wants him to return for her...let's hope he does. Without a Clooney return, proper closure to the storyline can never be achieved.

-- Arianne (CarolRossSusanGreene@yahoo.com), April 07, 2000.

Watching the TNT re-runs brought up Doug's son quite a bit. It seems like at least once every episode for 3 or 4 shows he mentioned that he had an 8 year old son. Maybe they were going to take it somewhere during the first couple of seasons, but decided not to. Maybe Doug was so traumatized by being rejected by the mother of his first child that he was afraid of turning out to be like his Dad, and thus thought the twins were best off with just Carol!

-- KJ (KristijohnsonSD@aol.com), April 07, 2000.

Doug's character also drank heavily in the first season, but that storyline was pretty much dropped over time too. I still say he has a major problem with commitment. He said in one epi that he'd stayed at County for 4 1/2 years, longer than he'd stayed anywhere.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), April 07, 2000.


I was under the impression that Doug's heavy drinking storyline wasn't really "dropped." I always viewed it that after he realized what kind of a destructive path he was headed down -- and when he finally seemed to realize that in order to get Carol back he'd have to change his ways -- he cleaned up his act, stopped his womanizing, etc.

Also, couldn't his son have been put up for adoption? Considering that Doug wasn't ready to be a father chances are the mother wasn't ready to be a parent, either. That would explain his not knowing the child's name and his not being "close" to the boy.

-- Arianne (CarolRossSusanGreene@yahoo.com), April 07, 2000.


I thought Doug decided to clean up his act after his 1-night-stand died and he didn't even know her name.

-- Linda (l.brown@mindspring.com), April 08, 2000.

Linda, that's pretty much true. Doug got a wake up call (hence the episode's name-Last Call) that his life was a bit messed up. I think he started to fix his life up a little before that too, I remember the 4th of July episode where a very clingy woman comes in and she wants to see him but as soon as she leaves he leaves a message for her and cancels. But the OD woman was kind of his turning point. After that he told Mark and Carol about seeing a therapist, and then near the end of season 3 (before the kiss) he tells Carol he reformed.

-- Elaine (mrsclooney78@hotmail.com), April 08, 2000.

I think the other turning point for Doug was when he ended up saving that kid in the storm drain. He still had his rebellion at work problem, but he seemed to clean up his drinking and such somewhat.

-- KJ (KristijohnsonSD@aol.com), April 09, 2000.

Great pick up Carin, that is one of the thinks that has been bugging me for ages. Doug really wanted to have a baby with Carol, lets hope he gets a chance to do it right this time!

-- helenmayne (helenmayne@compuserve.com), April 09, 2000.


I brought the drinking issue up earlier in this thread, but wanted to add another comment. I have a lot of friends who are members of AA. They'll tell you, as will many medical professionals, that it (alcoholism) doesn't just go away just because one stops drinking. I think that's what we saw with the reckless behavior regarding Joi (and letting her have the code to the medicine dispensing machine). What bothered me though was, with all the other personal stuff we saw, the drinking...or desire to drink...issue just went away. Without AA, without any kind of help. In AA that's normally called a dry drunk and I thought it might come back up. It would've made the storyline interesting and maybe been educational, to some degree, as well. But the writers never went down that path so I guess it's a closed door now.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), April 09, 2000.

HelenMayne, that's one of the things that makes it all the more sad -- this pregnancy wasn't an "Oops" situation. Doug & Carol planned for and wanted these babies. I hope, too, that he returns to make it right!! :- )

-- Arianne (CarolRossSusanGreene@yahoo.com), April 13, 2000.

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