Okay, an observation I have made regarding the exits of Carol Hathaway and Lucy Knight. Carol's exit, with fanfare, supreme writing, guest appearance, three episodes leading up to it, dramatic speeches and scenes and Carol the only central character. Contrast with Lucy's abrupt exit, murdered, TWO WORDS and two looks, basically a collection of blood and tubes for the majority of the episode (DON'T even bring up the seven minutes of Romano-Lizzy, Carter-Benton, Lizzy to Lucy.), no lead-up thingy, and a fair amount of the episode devoted to John and his surgery, treatment, etc. What happened? Writers and Prodcers on Carol's exit: She's leaving after six seasons, we need to bring Doug back so all the fans will go "awww", give Julianna a bunch of dramatic scenes and the episode, and make this the greatest writing in the whole season. Writers and Producers on Lucy's exit: Ah, let's stab her and get her out of here.

-- Monica (Moni4987@teen.com), May 12, 2000

Answers

Those are good points. I guess part of it is because Carol was on there for 6 years, and Lucy for only 1 1/2. Of course, she could have been on there longer if they had done anything with her character! I'm still not sure if Kellie Martin left because her character was going nowhere and she wanted out, or she just wanted to move on to other things.

I think that, even now, Lucy's death is being used to explore issues with Carter's character. There were not even any consequences for the other characters after Lucy's death. They barely even mentioned it. I don't know what to think about it, really. In a way, I think Carol deserved a bigger exit because she has been on the show since the very beginning. But I would have liked to see Lucy's death handled in a better way.

-- Melanie (msintn@hotmail.com), May 12, 2000.

I believe that Carol/JM got such a big exit because she's been on the show for six years, and is so well-loved. People have been invested in the Doug/Carol storyline for years, and really needed to see this. TPTB, not knowing how to write for Lucy, never gave her a big continuing storyline that could be followed up like that. And, whoever said it, is right. Lucy's death is material for Carter. Perhaps Carol's exit will be minor material for Mark and Luka, but her exit was most definately material for herself. What can I say? I loved it!! :-)

-- Arianne (CarolRossSusanGreene@yahoo.com), May 12, 2000.

Yes, Carol deserved a bigger exit, but it's not like she got a huge goodbye with the staff either. I mean they still get their goodbye, when she comes back, but tonight was OUR goodbye. It seems no one gets a huge goodbye though...Doug didn't at all (Doug kind of went poof too, except to Carol, and Mark slightly...I'll talk about Mark in a second), Susan I don't remember, did everyone say goodbye to her, or did she just say goodbye to Mark? Jeanne decided not to have a huge goodbye, since she left during Carol's baby shower.

Lucy got a lot of attention in AITF, but that's it. Carter still thinks of her, and her name has been mentioned in the past 3 episodes (yea for Mark for saying he would feel the same way Carter does too...blaming himself for Lucy's death...did Carter tell this to him, or is he just assuming?) but I hope that since they are tying together the Feb. sweeps with the May sweeps, they will put some closure to it and Carter will face her death.

As for what I said about Mark...was he being sarcastic the whole time about Luka's attachment to the girls? He definetly was at first, but then he lightened up. I hope he was only saying those things for Carol's sake, but in his heart he supported Doug...since he was (is?) his best friend. Any thoughts?

-- Elaine (mrsclooney78@hotmail.com), May 12, 2000.

i think they were having a goodbye party for susan when a trauma came in, and everyone was busy with it, and didnt even notice susan walk out the door.!! if i am remembering correctly, thats how it went with that.

-- ALexis Springer (lexicat1@webtv.net), May 12, 2000.

I agree that Carol and Lucy's exits were different.

Lucy's was dramatic and interesting.

Carol's was over-dramatic and shmaltzy.

Though I did think the Doug appearance was kind of cool.

-- Rusty Priske (rusty.priske@hrdc-drhc.gc.ca), May 12, 2000.

Rusty, I totally agree with you about the overdramatic and schmaltzy (and Lucy's exit being more interesting). I HATED the handling of the Carol plot in this episode. I'll be glad not to have to see any more of it.

-- Elizabeth (ebs42@yahoo.com), May 12, 2000.

But then, Alexis, Sherry Stringfield (Susan) didn't leave on the best of terms when she left to spend more time with her then boyfriend. She walked out on her contract, as opposed to GC and JM honoring their's and not renewing. Sherry couldn't even work on TV for a while, or maybe anywhere, until a certain amount of time had expired. I don't remember the details but it wasn't pretty. I also think she did the same thing on another show, maybe NYPD Blue?

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), May 12, 2000.