I've read lots of responses to my question Lucy Who posted after the last episode but let's face facts here. This was a traumatic murder that occured in their midsts and there are no ramifications in the next episode? (virtually none) You would think the reminders would be impossible for them to ignore...trauma room 3 is in the ER isn't it? This episode was so lame, almost a bore. The memorial to Lucy a passing mention? Luka's defining moment? Please...nothing new or defining there. I hope Lucy's memory haunts every producer in his/her sleep. Kellie Martin was wonderful and brought more depth to the character than many of the others before her...Lucy deserves more as do the fans of her character. The ER should never be the same after what occured there!!!!!! Apparently the producers and writers think differently. Well, enough said. I for one am more than di

-- Ann (isadora@ime.net), February 25, 2000

Answers

I tend to agree with you Ann :) I feel traumatized by Lucy's death myself - I'm not crazy, I know the differance between TV and reality, but I identified with Lucy, and she appeared at a time when I was getting bored with ER a little. I know there are many who didn't like Lucy, but I think her mistakes etc, made her really human. And I thought Kellie Martin did a wonderful job playing her (I've been a "fan" of hers for a long time - As she grew up on "Life Goes On" I did too). But all in all the ep wasn't the worst they've ever done. I am looking forward to what happens to Carter at least. I think there's alot going to happen there.

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

I am sure this is not the end, but they have to pace themselves so everyone is not like, "Enough, OK?" If every episode is Lucy from here out, it will be hard to change to anything else. Life will go on and the focus will naturally have to shift form dead Lucy (ifthe show is to continue) but I am sure there will be ramifications that will come about for some time to come. They probably don't want to blow all of their stories about this in 1 or 2 episodes. That is classic ER. Nothing is cleared up quickly, it is drawn out over weeks, months, even years. They are writing for a more mature audience than "Saved by the Bell." Life doesn't wrap itself up in 1 hour episodes. Some days are better than others and I am sure that we will find that to be the case.

-- 2222 (rachelrr@ivillage.com), February 26, 2000.

I agree... I wouldn't want to deal with major's character's death in one episode. What makes ER so great is usually issues aren't necessarily resolved in one hour.

-- Emma (webbef@hotmail.com), February 26, 2000.

I didn't mind them introducing new storylines, it would have been unnatural if they hadn't, but still, they could have packed a little more remorse in there than they did. I was hoping to see Kerry a bit disoriented, or Elizabeth a bit depressed, or that "talk later" between Carol and Mark!!! I would have been willing to accept Carol's reaction last week if there had been a bit of follow up. But noooo, she had to go chasing after a couple of snotty, prep school girls who did not gain my sympathy whatsoever. I'm sorry she had cancer, but what was she did she expect? Has she ever heard of AIDS? How dense is that? Anyway, I was just surprised that Carol didn't say ANYTHING about Lucy. Maybe they weren't best friends, but still...

-- Jess (mei0724@aol.com), February 26, 2000.

I agree - seems to me they should have paid a little more homage to the tragedy. Maybe at least showed some of the staff returning to work after the memorial service. Scott Anspaugh's memorial got more airtime than Lucy and he wasn't a part of the entire staff's everyday life for goodness sake.

As for Carol chasing the prep girls - I don't know how many of you guys are from Georgia but that storyline was taken DIRECTLY from a major story that happened in Conyers, GA where practically every sophmore, junior and senior in the town was going to orgies all the time and there was like a 200% increase in reported syphillis cases and it was a great big mess. I know telling you guys all of this was irrelevent - but it did make the episode seem more real for the folks here in Metro Atlanta.

-- Linda (l.brown@mindspring.com), February 26, 2000.

I work in a Hospital ER, and when you work with people long enough, they almost become family...even if it's the brother/sister you don't get along with or even the bastard step-child. What I am trying to say is even just out of respect something should have been said. It didn't need to be big or take up much time, but even an envelope being passed around to let people contribute for flowers would have let people know that this person was cared for. My first thought was that Kellie Martin left the show with bad feelings and that is why Lucy was brushed under the rug. I don't know if that is true, but that is how I felt.

-- shelly curtis (kokosc@yahoo.com), February 28, 2000.

Like many people, I am quite PO'd that the writers almost completely ignored what happened during the last epi. Unlike many of these people, I didn't even really like Lucy. But to have the majority of the characters acting like nothing ever happened is, IMHO, just as unrealistic as it would be to have a final closure in one episode. Can't there be a happy medium? Can't we see things slowly getting back to normal? If I remember correctly, after Mark got beat up, a large portion of the next few episodes were devoted to the repercussions (sp?). I'm not saying that the staff should be wandering around crying. But at the very least, it would sure traumatize me simply to know that one of my co-workers had been brutally stabbed to death and another nearly so a few hundred feet from where I was.

-- joy (jac301@is9.nyu.edu), February 28, 2000.