I LOVED James Belushi in this epi. His story was such a great way to show the ER from a patient's POV. It was so great to see a patient's storyline that really held my interest.

His concern over his son was wonderful and I felt so sorry for him about the guilt he felt after feeling responsible for the death of his first son. His wife's reaction made me angry and its obvious she has not totally forgiven him after 16 years. I was a little disappointed in Carter's interaction with him and I hope this is not a foreshadowing about anything. He was distant and cold I thought. And Romano...someone lock him up until the patients are under! Poor Mr. Harris was terrified. The way the story was done they made it seem the son was maybe not going to make it, but after he found out his son was fine and he had to be rushed into surgery I thought for sure Mr. Harris was not going to make. And shame on TPTB for tricking up by showing Benton calling the time of death over someone else...I was like "no way!". Anyway, just wanted to send kudos out to Belushi and TPTB for giving us a nice storyline that had nothing to do with the doctor's for once!

-- amanda (amanda.rehm@home.com), January 05, 2001

Answers

I did notice that Carter was a little cold. But I figured he had other things on his mind. He may have been thinking about Mark who was having surgery that day and I think that he has basically taken over Marks job until Mark gets back.

-- Cammie (rmaelhorn@home.com), January 05, 2001.

Hey all, long time no post...

I think Carter may have some more responsibilities but with Attending Luka and Kerry, he may not had to have taken Mark's job, but who knows. I wonder if staffers are talking about his surgery. Or Deb's giving up her baby.

Other thoughts from last night: I so love Randi.

Line of the night (paraphrasing): "Never underestimate the elasticity of the anal sphinchter" -- Benton

This week: Father and son. Next week: mother and daughter, and Babe's owner!!! 'That'll do little Luka...that'll do..."

-- Larry B. (larrybro95@hotmail.com), January 05, 2001.

Maybe Carter's "coldness" had to do with being around Luka. We haven't found out completely if Carter does have any real feelings for Abby or if he is just concerned for her being in a relationship with Luka. I was so glad not to see "cold hearted" Luka last night. I think he may have actually smiled once!

-- Lisa (lisayas@yahoo.com), January 05, 2001.

Carter seemed distant in this eppy, although we didn't see much of him. I think the point of the whole show was to show the patient's point of view. Jim Belushi's character showed what a patient sees (Carter, Dave, Luka and the other personnel looking over him from above). You see what the patient experiences--the pain from the chest tube and his subsequent heart attack; Romano's callous attitude, etc. Even when he was asking about his son, no one told him very much, they were concentrating on procedures, tests, etc. It was interesting from that stand point. I wish we'd seen more of Carter but the storyline was very good. I also liked Mark and Elizabeth's scenes in New york and the surgery. I felt bad for Mark when he saw the little boy in recovery have complications. He looked as if he wanted to jump out of bed and go help him yet he was also a patient.

-- Laura (laurelc@wincom.net), January 05, 2001.

I don't know if i remember correctly, but even when Luka wasn't there, it seemed to me that Cleo and Abby was the one to help Mr. Harris figure out what was happening. Yes, Carter was a little cold, but it seemed to me, that he was doing all the medical stuff, while the other doctors were more into explaining what was happening. I have to agree that Romano was mean, Ok, VERY MEAN, but i thought his parts were very funny! I have a question- wasn't it Carter that put in that tube to his lung? Did he make a mistake, that hit a vain or something?

-- Irene (dot_5m@yahoo.com), January 05, 2001.

You know, I never thought I'd ever say this. In fact I thought it would be acold day in h*** before I'd ever say this but in last night's episode I hated Romano more than Cleo. Shocking, isn't it? But I really did. I think it was Carter that put the tube in.

-- Andie (non@no.com), January 05, 2001.

Full Agreement! Jim Belushi did a fantastic job. His expressions were perfect. I can't wait to watch this epi again tonight.

-- Stacy (kistro@yahoo.com), January 05, 2001.

Carter put in the tube. However, it was Dr, kayson, the cardiologist , that made the mistake by nicking an artery in the cath lab. I thought it was wrong for Abby to bring up last eppy incident in front of a patient. Even though she did not mentioned it specifically, she still should have had this conversation in private.I thought Carter did explain putting ina chest tube well enough last night. I do think Carter was a bit detached last night. I don't think he was mean or cold. He was just a bit detached.

Most likly , it was several reasons that made him appear that way. I think seeing it from a patients perspective instead of the audience perspective made his interaction with a lot of the characters more detached. When a person is a patient and worried about something like he was with his son , we tend to to not notice the characters around us as much. They don't seem to be there as much. The father's view seemed that way. All of the characters around him seemed a bit flatter except for Romano who appeared meaner. I think that was the point to to show how a Dr. can easily scare the living daylights out of you. I also think that Carter is probably thinking about Mark. I also think he might be a bit nevous about working right now after what happened at the end of the last shift we saw him in. It might be on his mind as well.

-- brenda (jckwfan@aol.com), January 05, 2001.

Since this storyline was from the paitient's POV, I thought that making Carter seemed detached was right on target. When you are on the other side what is going on seems a lot different. Once when I was pregnant, I went to see a dentist who I thought had a terrible bedside manner because she did not identify herself. She just came in and started asking me all kinds of questions. I called her on it and she was shocked because she did not see it that way. As we got to know each other it turned out she had just found out she was pregnant. It turns out, that I think she is a wonderful dentist and I refer everyone I know to her.

-- Sonya (sonya.johnson@argis.com), January 05, 2001.

Those of you who have commented about Carter's detachment as seen through the eyes of the patient have made good points. I guess I was not thinking of it as being from Mr. Harris's point of view. Everytime I have been in the hospital I have felt that my doctor's were not as "nice" as I would have liked. But part of that is the fear that a patient has...which Jim Belushi showed very well. I just really liked this whole story line. As a side note...it was kind of neat how Mr. Harris seemed relieved when Benton walked into surgery. I think he thought Romano was some kind of monster :)

-- amanda (amanda.rehm@home.com), January 05, 2001.

I thought it was great how they showed both Mark's and James B. point's of view through their surgeries. How both were terrified and the caregivers were distant, or complaining about working a double etc. I am very interested in what kind of doctor Mark will be after his surgery. Any thoughts?

-- mk (mk27@gateway.net), January 05, 2001.

A few thoughts:

The tumor (and resulting treatment) storyline gave me pause when it first debuted, but I've learned to appreciate it. Not because of the story, but what Edwards and Kingston are doing with it. Hats off to two excellent actors.

I really enjoyed the approach of last nights epi. It was the stories of two patients, one we didn't know and weren't intially invested in, at a place familiar to us, and one we did know and were invested in, at a place unfamiliar to us. And you know what? If I hadn't been paying attention, I might have said it was the same story. Throw in that we know one of the patients is a doctor, and, Voila! we have a point to make. Mark said it right out: Doctors can get sick too. Mind the baseball bat! The rest of the show was so seamless that I didn't mind that one shot at my head. And I managed to duck, cause I saw it coming, what with the kid and all.

If you want to get a good look at the perspective of a doctor as patient, I recommend renting a movie called "The Doctor" starring William Hurt. It is a 2 hour long look at this phenomenon, and it is pretty realistic, according to a nurse friend.

Here's something funny: Kayson was the one that nicked Harris's artery right? Well, do you remember from season 1 what a hard time Kayson used to give Susan? And Div Cvetic, trying to cheer her up, told her that he (Kayson) loses so many patients, funeral homes give him bonuses! So when Kayson goofed, I laughed, thinking about that.

A nitpicky little thing but Babe's owner said "That'll do pig, that'll do" I don't think there was a "Little" in there. I guess I just can't picture 6'4" Luka as little.

-- S. Trelles (trelles@ix.netcom.com), January 05, 2001.

I hate to say it, because I actually did cry while Elizabeth was trying to help Mark "come back", but I am losing interest in the story already, maybe because I knew how it would be. This episode didn't hold my attention like the others, although as far as it's directing, I almost saw it as artsy (switching between the two patients: Belushi's character and Mark), and it was done well. AE *was* good. And opening with non-ER characters hasn't been done since season 1 or 2.

I agree that Carter was "detached" and it being from the point of view of a patient, it totally makes sense. Belushi's character asked just about every doctor who worked on him if he was leaving him (Malluchi, Carter, Kerry I think) and I think he asked Abby the same thing. He did assure him that Luka would take over for him. I think it may have just seemed odd because Carter is usually the overly caring one.

I guess they're adding nurse Dori to the nursing staff for awhile, and keeping the widescreen.

-- Elaine (mrsclooney78@hotmail.com), January 05, 2001.

I forgot to comment on the Cromwell storyline. Although I don't like the Luka/Abby storyline, I am kind of interested in this and how Crommwell will sense Luka's anguish. Luka's bitter "no" to Belushi asking "You're a father?" was pretty sad. I still think they should bring Luka's family back to life somehow, with some incredible story (sorry, way too far fetched and melodramatic, but I just saw Castaway and I'm so into that whole reunion after all those years idea...) Not gonna happen, I know.

-- Elaine (mrsclooney78@hotmail.com), January 05, 2001.

Got cut off...anyways, the mother and daughter storyline for next week is a bit too reminiscent to this week's, but I'm sure this mother and daughter will touch a nerve with Luka. It could be good.

-- Elaine (mrsclooney78@hotmail.com), January 05, 2001.

I also thought that the promos for next weeks episode looked alot like this weeks episode. I'm wondering if TPTB are running out of ideas?

-- Cammie (rmaelhorn@home.com), January 05, 2001.

I haven't seen this episode, but from what I've read here, I was, just like Elaine wondering, why you all think, that Carter seemed detached from the patient's POV. Wasn't he always the one that connected best with his patients of all the ER doctors?

-- Lizmia (sweetliz141@aol.com), January 06, 2001.

Oh, I'm sorry. I meant I was wondering why you all think that it was realistic for Carter to be so distant?

-- Lizmia (sweetliz141@aol.com), January 06, 2001.

Lizmia...what I meant when I said it was realistic for Carter to seem detached to Mr. Harris is just that to a patient the majority of the times a doctor DOES seem detached. As a patient you feel that you are the most important and that the doctor should devote all his attention to you. Now, we did not see Carter with other patients, but generally you are NOT the doctor's only patient and he has other responsibilities. So, to Mr. Harris Carter probably seemed detached and we were supposed to be seeing this from his point of view.

However, he did seem more detached than usual. Carter used to become more involved with his patients...especially in circumstances like this where his patients son was also there.

-- amanda (amanda.rehm@home.com), January 06, 2001.

I have to say, Carter wasn't *terribly* detached. I find it amusing that so many people have commented on the slight change in Carter's interaction w/ his patient. True Cleo was answering Belushi's questions about his son in the beginning instead of Carter, but we need to see more of that, we already know Carter has great people skills, we aren't sure of Cleo's. I thought he explained nicely to him what a CT was, assuring him that it was standard for any possible head injury, and not unusual to have. Both him and Abby tried to hide their concern when talking about his son's tests and he let him know who's care he was passing him on to when Luka took over. We'll all go nutz if Carter really loses it w/ a patient!

-- Elaine (mrsclooney78@hotmail.com), January 06, 2001.