I knew last week that Romano did not intend to lose Peter. After all it didn't make sense to anyone did it? Several characters commented that the hospital needed surgeons and why would Romano open himself and the hospital up to a lawsuit? Fifty thousand would be a frivolous amount compared to that mountain of cash going to the lawyers.

Romano wanted to tame Peter. Devious Romano stayed just this side of the law and now has made Peter come crawling back to him. I think Romano went to all this trouble just so Peter would never think of crossing him again. Look how his dealings affected "loyal" Elizabeth. First he sponsors her, then he "fires" her, then he gives her a job as his assistant. She empathized with Peter but did nothing at CCH to help him out. She even avoided his phone calls because she knows the wrath of Romano. Now Peter does too.

This ep was full of surprises for me: the birds, the shooting and most importantly Peter's treatment of Cleo. Boy, is he tough to be around sometimes. He almost made me feel sorry for her. If another actress played Cleo, I might have. Maybe someone could get word to her that TV has moving pictures and that she should feel free to actually change expressions at appropriate times.

-- maryann (map5860@aol.com), November 03, 2000

Answers

Is there any way to fix my typo on RomaNo's name? I just know he would hate that and I don't want to get on his bad side.

-- maryann (map5860@aol.com), November 03, 2000.

Maryann! You're fired! We're going to use your salary to implement a spell checker! (heh heh heh) --Rocket Romano

-- Just Call Me Chief (rocket@countygeneral.com), November 03, 2000.

Am I the only one that got the creeps when Benton opened the door to Romano's office and Romano was standing there in a brown shirt with a brown tie? He looked like a member of Hitler youth. I almost expected to see a poster of der Fuehrer (sp?) on the wall behind him.

-- rachel stephens (Rachel@flexiblestrategies.com), November 03, 2000.

No Rachel. You weren't the only one. It was almost like he was expecting him.

-- james (eorejim@aol.com), November 03, 2000.

Oh, I think he WAS expecting him. He "knew" Benton would come running back to "beg for a job". As someone else said, he somehow planned this thing to send Benton to his knees and remind him who is boss.

-- amanda (amanda.rehm@home.com), November 03, 2000.

Ewww..I didn't notice the brown shirt thing. I'll have to go back and look. It really hurt to watch Peter going to knock on Romano's door, beaten. I hated watching it. Maybe we'll find out next week that after Romano closed the door, Peter beat the snot out of him. (Cruel, but kind of a funny visual)

-- Rubi (mommyof2@sigecom.net), November 03, 2000.

You're right rubi, That is a great visual.

-- James (eorejim@aol.com), November 03, 2000.

You all are a fun group, I Love your speculations! Or madeup stuff, whatever! I missed this epi due to an animal emergency (maybe the puppy feels neglected Thurs nights) but all the visuals with Peter and Romano and what you saw happen and would like to SEE happen made me feel as if I did see it. We get so involved in these characters and at least in my case I know it is because I see myself reflected in at least something in each one. I have never had to beg for a job, but I have been put up against a wall in one. I have been through some things Carter has (unfortunately) and felt the rage that Abby felt in "Homecoming", etc. But back to Peter, having been in a similar position if I had face Rocket, no telling what I would have done behind a closed door!

-- Patti C. (pmcponygrl@aol.com), November 04, 2000.

Well...I for one have lost all respect for Peter for [a] not handling this like a man and hiring a lawyer to hit Romano the Ratfink where it really hurts or [b]Going public and ruining Romano's career. And then there's always [c] which is challenging him to a boxing match and 'accidently' beating the crap out of him. I can see it now....... "I'm sorry Dr. Romano, my glove just slipped off and then your gut fell onto my knee. Freak accident......"

-- Tabby Smith (tabbyS2@excite.com), November 04, 2000.

Tabbi, maybe the old Benton would have done exactly that. But what he did has something to do with what Peter told his nephew : "Sometimes beeing a man is doing things that you don't want to do". I have more respect for that Benton that places his relationship with his son above his career. It took more courage to go back to Romano's office and take the job he offered in order to keep Reese custody that to file a lawsuit and be vindicative. Actually, I love Benton's priorities.

-- Manon (brault@saglac.qc.ca), November 04, 2000.

I mean "Than to fill a lawsuit..."

-- Manon (brault@saglac.qc.ca), November 04, 2000.

"THAN to FILE a lawsuit".

-- Manon (brault@saglac.qc.ca), November 04, 2000.

Well, the spoilers warned that Benton was going to change and pursue things other than himself...but I thought they meant something like social work or something of that kind, I never considered that they meant sacrificing to stay with his baby. I wonder what's going to be Cleo's reaction to this and exactly how rude will Romano treat Benton., now that he knows that Benton NEEDS the job badly.

-- jules (jules@operamail.com), November 04, 2000.

I agree that it is significant that Peter lectured his nephew in the same episode that he had to knuckle under to Romano. HOWEVER, it made me absolutely sick that he didn't do EVERYTHING he could to avoid it, the #1 option being seeing a lawyer! As someone put it after last week's episode, his first stop should have been to hire a lawyer before he even went home to pout with his blues. It is making me angry that he hasn't even explored this option when he has so much evidence that he was fired wrongfully. Please tell me this isn't the end of it! Also...someone was lamenting the disappearance of Walter recently as well, it was nice to see him mentioned. However, I doubt that scrawny kid could "push" Walter and come out of it unharmed! Wasn't Walter a pretty substantial auto worker? I wouldn't mess with him! And on my last related note, my hatred for Cleo just keeps growing. Not only does she not suggest seeing a lawyer, she is so jealous and insecure. As I recall, she walked in on an identical scene between Peter and Elizabeth celebrating last season and said the same innanely tense line. And then her one concern when Peter is thankful to have work is herself. "When will I see you?" Being in a relationship means a)trust, and b) selflessness. I haven't seen her exhibit either. I certainly hope the writers are TRYING to make us hate her.

-- Becky (pattonrd@muohio.edu), November 04, 2000.

Well Becky, you're talking like it was important if the man in your life has a job or is being treated like trash by a little monkey like Romano? Who cares? What really matters is who he slept with before you even met him. And dont waste your time showing him support or pushing him to action against unfair treatment...no, act jealous. Didnt you read "100 ways to mixup the guy of your dreams"? ;)

-- jules (jules@operamail.com), November 04, 2000.

I thought that Jackie had two kids - a boy and a girl. Didn't the boy drive Peter(aka Shaft) and Elizabeth (aka Pippi Longstocking) around on Halloween two years ago? Who was that kid last Thursday? There's no way he could have pushed Walt around! He looked to be about twelve years old. BAd casting!

-- maryann (map5860@aol.com), November 04, 2000.

There may be another thread somewhere about this but in case there isn't it seems to fit here. I couldn't believe that Peter would even consider taking the job in Philly. My first thought was, what about Reese? So he goes and sees Carla and I have to say I agreed with her (which is hard for me because Jackie had her pegged right after she said Peter wasn't Reese's father). I wanted her to ask him about being an every-other-weekend dad. Was it just me, or did this all seem to be the old Peter who thought only of himself instead of the one who has become a caring father over time. A major disappointment.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), November 05, 2000.

Maybe Peter thought that he could get away with the job in Philly like Mrs Greene did with her job in St Louis...

-- jules (jules@operamail.com), November 05, 2000.

Took me a couple of minutes, Jules, to understand you meant Jen, Mark's ex, not his mother, right? Anyway, the big difference here (and I am NOT saying Jen was right, she most certainly wasn't) was there was a past history where Carla tried to leave (for Germany) and Peter fought to have her stay or leave Reese. Mark hadn't done that.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), November 05, 2000.

I think Jackie has 3 children; maybe someone remembers the epi where Peter is sleeping on her couch, or maybe the one at his mother's house, and is awakened by a child standing over him; my memory is fuzzy about what happened, but I think Jackie was there and said something to the boy to "let your Uncle Peter sleep". This was in S1 if I recall correctly, and that child couldn't have been more than 5 or so at the time, which would add up to the boy's age in BB. We have seen much more of Peter's older nephew and niece and not of this boy in subsequent seasons

-- Susan (jswee@earthlink.net), November 05, 2000.

As to why Benton would consider the job in Philly, he has been short of money as long as we've known him, so my reading was that he needed a job to continue to provide for Reese. (Carla's restaurant apears to be doing well, but if Peter couldn't keep supplying money, she would be likely to try to limit his access to Reese.) I expected him to say that he would come back on his days off to see Reese, rather than flying the child to Philly. Actually it's rather unfortunate that he didn't take the job, long enough for Cleo to dump him.

Peter's apparently not consulting a lawyer could have been handled in a few seconds of dialogue. (Pet peeve alert.) When the writers create a major plot hole like this, why can't they at least paste a couple of lines over it? "I even talked to a lawyer, but he said it would be my word against Romano's, and with his position I couldn't win." Or * something* rather than ignore the plot hole and hope we won't notice!

-- Driad (Driad@mailcity.com), November 05, 2000.

Continuity, oh Continuity, where are thou when thou are needed? I insist, lets have a contest and send the one who has the most and deepest knowledge to the ER set, along with one of those foam bats used in therapy, so when the writters come along with something like this firing Benton, our champion can hit them in their heads while shouting and preventing them to eat lunch until they come up with something that justifies the characters behaviour and makes sense.

-- jules (jules@operamail.com), November 05, 2000.

First of all, I totally agree that it is unbelievable that Benton didn't fight this...if he had just reported it, he would never have a right to be fired. Though if Romano got away with it, there would be hell to pay.

Notice also, that he wasn't at all concerned w/ leaving Cleo, but his son made him stay (though I guess he'd be allowed to see Cleo, but not Reese)

-- Elaine (mrsclooney78@hotmail.com), November 05, 2000.

Elaine, can you blame him for not caring? Good idea, lets find a brand new hospital in Philly and lets all move out of Chicago without telling her

-- jules (jules@operamail.com), November 05, 2000.

Yeah, I don't really see Benton and Cleo lasting...they don't seem to have much there.

As for the wrath of Romano, I loved watching the rerun last night where Romano tells Doug to leave alone the case with that young girl and the operation. He wants to stall it but Romano says "Leave it alone Ross!" These two rarely had any interaction, but I was interesting to see it last night. Doug goes ahead with it anyways. THere are only a select few who seem to have no fear of Romano...Doug, Kerry (Lucy, just alittle)...I think they need someone new, like Malluchi to get in there and stand up to him.

-- Elaine (mrsclooney78@hotmail.com), November 06, 2000.

I agree with Manon on this one. Our society is so sue happy -- let's sue about everything. That is not Peter's style. He has never played cards like that (like when he left his race blank on the medical school ap). I think it was much more the manly thing to do to try to work this out on his own. It took a lot of guts to go crawling back to Romano. Who knows what the ramifications would be if he tried to sue. As someone pointed out Romano said the position had been cut due to budget constraints. Maybe this case is not as clear cut as it seems. Peter didn't give his name when he blew the whistle on Romano. There are alot of reasons why someone would not automatically sue. However, I would like to have seen him at least consult a lawyer.

And why is everyone blaming Cleo for not urging him to sue? She was trying to be supportive of the way he was handling this situation. I am no Cleo fan, but I actually liked her in this epi. I think she showed how tough it is to know what to do to help your loved one in a situaion like this.

-- amanda (amanda.rehm@home.com), November 06, 2000.

Amanda, I think a lot of things were just hanging loose, without explanation. "Sue happy", yes sometimes, and he's not the kind to play the racial card, ok; but the point is (at least for what I got from the legal comments to the lastt 2 chapters) he didnt have to use that card. He could have taken action without using that or like you mentioned, he could at least consult a lawyer. I think that Cleo is making no sense because one moment she shows no emotion (she looked sort of bored when Peter first told her about being fired) and the next she's all over Peter, she's the one who seems to have racial issues (like when she noted there were no black students), but then she didnt push for action, so its very confusing to know what she cares for, what she thinks (and her acting isnt helping either). I know that most people can act in contradictory ways and some of our favorite characters may have done that sometime, but we are just begining to know her and I dont think they can afford to do this.

-- jules (jules@operamail.com), November 06, 2000.

Amanda, sometimes it takes more guts to actually make a lawsuit. I was part of a wrongful termination process many years ago. It never went to court thankfully (was settled rather peacefully six or seven month later), but while it was going on the company that had fired at least one person each month for almost a year stopped firing people. I am not a big one for litigation, but I was tired of seeing the irresponsible management I'd seen for about a year and tired of seeing good people be hurt. Some of the people before me said they were sorry they'd signed away their rights because the behavior continued after them. This was a difficult time for me but in the end I came out in a better place and I think my former co-workers did too. Whistle blowers who are fired and then sue are heroes to me. They show us that you can do the right thing. Peter was able to stand up for his patient but not himself and in the end that leaves me with mixed respect for him.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), November 06, 2000.

Good point, Diana. If an employer is routinely discriminating against people then it definitely is very important to stand up to that and the one employee who takes the initiative is very courageous in that instance.

Romano is a jerk, but I don't think we have seen him fire anyone else and this is a TV show. There are a lot of unknown dynamics in Peter's situation too. I just really feel that NOT suing him is so Peter. He doesn't strike me as the type that would do that. I hated seeing him crawl back to Romano, but I did feel that that was a very courageous thing for him to do too.

-- amanda (amanda.rehm@home.com), November 07, 2000.