Mark isn't doing so well: Swift overrides him and casts doubts on his decisions. He's vague and unfocussed. Swift, without warning, gets him to present the case from Love's Labor Lost in a lecture hall, so his every decision is inspected for errors. Afterwards, over at Doc MaGoo's, Mark tells Susan that Jen is leaving him. It's curious to see the lead character - and Green is very much the lead - unravelling in the first season (although it does set the pattern for the Chief Resident's going a bit nuts from the pressure which the show continues to this day).
Susan, however, has to deal with the return of her very heavily pregnant sister Chloe. It's just taken me five minutes to decode my note on this, but it reads "man, were baby bumps unconvincing in those days".
Chen and Carter are competing over their procedural notebooks - keeping score of what they have done. It's odd to compare the emphasis on these two as students to the relative lack of academic ideas with, say Neela and Ray. In season 12 you don't get the sense that it is the end of the academic year to the same extent as you do in season 1. Chen is always shown as less competent than Carter. after a central line goes wrong, she flees. Carter eventually tracks her down at (very rich mother's) home. Despite his scruffiness he is relaxed at the party being thrown, giving away his own rich background. He convinces Chen to stay on at the ER.
Jake, Diane's son, has found out that Diane and Doug are a couple. Doug's response is to buy the kid a bike. I'm guessing this will tie with the previously mentioned loss of his son.
The trouble with doing this from notes is that I forget what some of the scribbles meant.
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
12.21 The Gallant Hero & the Tragic Victor
I'm trying to catch up on a backlog caused by summer, work business and a 'thing'.
Mikey dies. No-one in the audience is shocked because it has been clearly on the cards ever since he shipped back to Iraq and the Neela/Ray 'ship started to be in the text instead of the subtext. The episode is very nicely topped and tailed with Gallant: it starts with him alive, thinking of Neela, and ends with a tape he's made for her in the event of his death, in which he is thinking of Neela. Neela's reaction to the news - her desire to hear it straight away, her running away back to work, hiding on the roof, going home not because she wants to but because she is sick of everyone's concern - is wonderful. Parminda breaks your heart as Neela breaks down. Gallant was always thinking of her and instead she was buying a coffee or doing her laundry as he died. She's guilty not because anything had happened with Ray but that her thoughts had even strayed towards the idea. In the rooftop scene I was especially taken with the fact that she started to talk to Ray until he said he'd do anything, when she suddenly backs away as if remembering that he is part of the problem. Their burgeoning feelings have robbed them both of their best friends. Oh yes, and she has surgery next year which, as profshallowness remarks, is dangerously similar to what they did with Cordey but hopefully the different dynamics (Dubenko and Albright) will make it work.
Pratt is back from Africa and busy demonstrating that he has matured as a consequence. His own grief over Gallant makes much more sense and is well played. He also deals with two kids who have killed their abusive father and doesn't argue with Luka once. I like the new Pratt, I just hate the way they went about maturing him.
Clemente goes nuts. No-one in the audience is shocked because it has been clearly on the cards ever since he arrived. Again, that's a nice piece of mirroring. At the start of his storyline, he was pretending to be a patient on drugs in order to see how this new ER operated. At the end of his storyline, he is a patient, zombied out on drugs, and being wheeled upstairs.
Mikey dies. No-one in the audience is shocked because it has been clearly on the cards ever since he shipped back to Iraq and the Neela/Ray 'ship started to be in the text instead of the subtext. The episode is very nicely topped and tailed with Gallant: it starts with him alive, thinking of Neela, and ends with a tape he's made for her in the event of his death, in which he is thinking of Neela. Neela's reaction to the news - her desire to hear it straight away, her running away back to work, hiding on the roof, going home not because she wants to but because she is sick of everyone's concern - is wonderful. Parminda breaks your heart as Neela breaks down. Gallant was always thinking of her and instead she was buying a coffee or doing her laundry as he died. She's guilty not because anything had happened with Ray but that her thoughts had even strayed towards the idea. In the rooftop scene I was especially taken with the fact that she started to talk to Ray until he said he'd do anything, when she suddenly backs away as if remembering that he is part of the problem. Their burgeoning feelings have robbed them both of their best friends. Oh yes, and she has surgery next year which, as profshallowness remarks, is dangerously similar to what they did with Cordey but hopefully the different dynamics (Dubenko and Albright) will make it work.
Pratt is back from Africa and busy demonstrating that he has matured as a consequence. His own grief over Gallant makes much more sense and is well played. He also deals with two kids who have killed their abusive father and doesn't argue with Luka once. I like the new Pratt, I just hate the way they went about maturing him.
Clemente goes nuts. No-one in the audience is shocked because it has been clearly on the cards ever since he arrived. Again, that's a nice piece of mirroring. At the start of his storyline, he was pretending to be a patient on drugs in order to see how this new ER operated. At the end of his storyline, he is a patient, zombied out on drugs, and being wheeled upstairs.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
