Ugghhh!!!! I can't believe it! The brilliance of ER's last two episodes is completly undermined by this sorry excuse of a story line. Now, this might have been OK two weeks from now, but WHY the hell did they pop the older Greene/Corday romance on us? An why do we need another tragedy with David Greene's cancer? It was like Lucy never existed. The episode itself wasn't so bad, its just in light of last week, it was so disheartening.I mean, fine, I'll accept the fact that "Life Goes On" in the ER, but there was virtually NO aftermath. Lucy's mom appeared and Carter seemed a bit depressed, but other than that, NOTHING!!! Come on, ER, you proved to us you can do it. Don't crash!

-- Jess (Mei0724@aol.com), February 24, 2000

Answers

I totally agree...Lucy who? A sorry follow up to 2 brilliant episodes. The producers not only dropped the ball, they buried it. It will be tough to win back any favor with grieving fans after that lack of emotion in tonights episo

-- Ann (isadora@ime.net), February 24, 2000.

I would have to totally agree! Did anyone catch the mention of a memorial service? It seemed as though only Carter was the one dealing with Lucy's death. And even he didn't show that much emotion. I was sort of expecting him to break down in front of Lucy's mother and cry or something. Hopefully there will be more shown dealing with the aftermath later. But hopefully not much later. I didn't see any previews for next week. So are we in for another rerun?

-- Robert Emory (berticus @worldnet.att.net), February 24, 2000.

Yes, another rerun - "Sins of the Fathers" I *think*

-- Shauna (shauna_h16@yahoo.com), February 24, 2000.

What a horrible and fragmented episode!

-- Kim (kwendt@utk.edu), February 24, 2000.

I didn't think this episode was horrid. I thought they again accomplished the task of more evolved storylines with the main characters. Though the whole episode didn't deal with Lucy's death, they *DID* bring it up. It was time to integrate the others back into leading stories again.

While I am pretty upset at yet another personal tragedy in the life of Mark Greene, we'll have to wait and see how this plays out. I'm not fond of the relationship between Mark and Elizabeth's parents.

Dave seemed pretty solemn when speaking to Lucy's mother, and Deb did mention there had been a memorial service, which I gather most if not all of the ER staff had attended.

Perhaps they are making this more of a long-term ordeal for Carter? They don't want to risk bombarding us with his reactions, thus risking the audience losing interest. This is how they seem to do long-standing storylines. Drag it out...one torturous week after torturous week...

-- Leigh (WillnGraceNYC@yahoo.com), February 24, 2000.

On you last paragarph - I hope so Leigh. *weary smile*

-- Shauna (shauna_h16@yahoo.com), February 24, 2000.

I agree with Leigh, as much as I would have loved the WHOLE episode to be about the aftermath of Lucy's death and Carter, that is not the way ER is run and I'm sure we will see more...Carter will be returning to work soon and he will most likely have problems with this...even Benton noticed that he's not right.

-- Elaine (mrsclooney78@hotmail.com), February 25, 2000.

I know it was disappointing to many people, but we need to remember that this is ER and not the Carter and Lucy show. They need to begin to intergrate the others back into their own storylines. Remember how much we want to see development in the new charaters? They need their own stories and they need to start before the new season. But Carter seems to remember, so it seems that this will torture him for awhile. Don't despair, I am sure that this storyline will go one for awhile.

-- 2222 (rachelrr@ivillage.com), February 25, 2000.

While this eppy was not as fast paced or emotion packed as the last two I think it was still a good solid one. Deb was visibly stressed over handling Lucy and Carter's charts-not by the work load but missing them. Dave sobered right up and was downright quiet when he realized he was talking to Lucy's mom. And poor sweet emotion torn Carter! I felt he showed tons of emotions-PAIN-physical along with frustration. PAIN-emotional-survivor guilt, gosh I was mean and critical to Lucy sometimes, was it my fault guilt, where do I go from here guilt, facing her mom-had to be really tough. His friends see he's struggling and I hope TPTB will show them helping him through his recovery. Another grief for Mark-again-real life is like this sometimes. And I for one needed to catch my breath a little after the last two shows!! I had tears during the locker scene myself.

-- Bev (bev.burris@eer-h.com), February 25, 2000.

After some much needed sleep I think I can look back on the episode with less bias. I still think that it was too fragmented. But the moving of the other characters makes sense. But I still wish that there had been at least *a little* more about Lucy and Carter(withouth it having to be "The Lucy and Carter Show" :) ). And I also still feel as someone else does in the post *Ideas on Carter...* that it was hard to distinguish if Carters visible emotional stress came from physical pain, or emotional pain (over Lucy) - or both (I'm hoping that it's that last one). And I know that ER doesn't usually deal with the aftereffects alot (they don't often see the patients again etc), and I wasn't expecting the whole episode to revolve around Lucy's death. I was just expecting more continuity, and hoping for a little more than what they gave. I still really liked the scenes of Lucy's mother, with Maluchi (sp) and Carter, and the ones of Carter.

-- Shauna (shauna_h16@yahoo.com), February 25, 2000.

I am torn about this episode. I think Noah Wylie's acting is to be commended. Carter seemed to me like he was on the edge in every scene. Is he okay? Will he break down? I think that he is still numb about the ordeal and that his full emotions for Lucy and the attack will come out months from now (say May sweeps time?) But this seems very normal to me. I am very glad they showed Carter and Benton together. Benton's conversation with Cleo was also much appreciated. It seems that Benton did give Carter a second thought during their teacher/student days together although Benton had professed otherwise. I would have liked to see the other "old timers" with Carter (esp. Weaver) but I'm sure this will come. Carter did tell Deb that he had visitors all day long from hospital staff and it is only a one hour show. I thought David Greene's escapades were a bit much until I realized that he knew about his cancer all along. He was not very healthy when we first met him and I always wondered how he improved so much.

Maryann

-- maryann (map5860@aol.com), February 25, 2000.

I actually liked this episode. I really like Luka and was glad to see him featured in some way other than the "wise but mysterious doctor- teacher." He seemed really vulnerable and uncertain about his actions. He's never seemed uncertain before. I thought Carter's scenes were all great. During each one, we saw him struggling with the physical and emotional aftereffect (I loved the wheelchair in the doorway thing with Benton). I also think this is a good storyline for Benton. We've gotten to see a lot more of Benton's emotions this season (who knew he had them?!)--reminds me of the Benton back in the original Jeannie Boulet days. As far as aftereffects, I think the way they dealt with it-- mentioning the memorial service, Maluchi's discomfort and trouble with the lock, etc.--was all apropos. I do hope we see some of the administrative "fall-out," but generally in real-life and on ER you wouldn't have that within days.

-- Elizabeth Roe (etr@in.net), February 25, 2000.

I have to agree with all of you that feel this episode was handled well. The writers would have a tough time sustaining the type of pacing and emotion from the last two shows. I think the aftermath of Carter dealing with his feelings about Lucy will go on for some time. Actually, after reading previews and message boards from last week when we all thought this show was going to be only about Kovak, I was happy to see them address Lucy/Carter. The scenes between Carter and Benton were touching. And I admit to a tear or two not only during the locker scene with Lucy's mother, but when Carter was talking to her. I think more of his distress was emotional rather then physical. I do wish they had elaborated on Deb's comment re: the Memorial service as being "strange" (or was is "wierd"). I would like to know more what she meant. Was it strange because they all knew her and it her death was so unexpected?

I think TPTB set it up nicely for future episodes showing the aftermath of Lucy's death, not only with Carter but with Lizzie, Mark and Kerry as well. At least here's hoping! My only compliant - where was Dr. Ramono??

-- Kelly (kwidener@excite.com), February 25, 2000.

Yeah, I know. My title was a bit too strong. It wasn't that bad, I was just expecting too much. My biggest problem with the episode was the lack of emotional reprecussions for the other characters. There surely could have been some more aftermath. For example, Carol seemed to care more about a couple of high school tramps than the death of a co-worker! And I still feel that they could have waited with David Greene's cancer.Oh, well. Oh, I really like Abby as an addition to the cast, she's awesome.

-- Jess (Mei0724@aol.com), February 25, 2000.

Actually, I thought Deb said the memorial service was "fine".

-- Danette (bjpind@televar.com), February 25, 2000.

Maybe the title "Be Patient" is a suggestion for us, the audience. We were all expecting--HOPING--for a great emotional conclusion to the last two epis, but life has gone on for the ER. Maybe the future holds more emotional turmoil (I hope). I was disappointed that they didn't actually show the memorial service tho. That would have been a nice touch.

-- Carla (chloe4293@netscape.net), February 25, 2000.

I have to agree with bev. the ep was very well done. Next week we will get our break with the rerun and we shall be patiently waiting for more to come.

-- Mary (kstcmom@yahoo.com), February 25, 2000.

Danette: I beleive Deb said "fine" paused and then said "wierd" (or strange). I will have to view it again, but I'm almost positive because I made mental note to myself, and was wondering what she meant, I wanted her to expand on that....

-- Kelly W. (kwidener@excite.com), February 25, 2000.