Was anyone as shocked as I was to find out more about Frank’s, that is his name - right, personal life? I think it was very interesting that they would make him out to be such a ‘normal’ person outside of the ER.
I must also say…I was impressed by the dope smoking med student, I forget his name. He really came through when he was scared out of his mind!
Any other thoughts on last night’s episode?
Not a very good one, apparently.
It certainly was an attempt to humanize Frank after spending some time this season making him look like a bigoted fool. The remarks he made to Pratt about his black platoon members and how Pratt was what they could have been; and Frank’s wife’s remarks to Neela about how Frank thought she was one of the brightest imply that he’s been putting on an act at work. I wonder how much they’ll delve into that in later episodes.
I also wonder if they have plans to redeem the pot-smoking 3rd year. He’s been nothing but an idiot so far, he actually seemed competent last night.
Sam and Luka, plus the promiscuous 13 year old and Luka’s comments on casual sex… A little more subtly would make this storyline more palatable. But women do seem to fall for him on a regular basis.
Would snowplows stop a tank? It was loosly based on the real-life tank theft several years ago. The driver got hung up on some Jersey barriers on a median strip and the SWAT teams climbed on board, opened the hatch, and shot him.
I liked it. They obviously wanted to humanize Frank after his attack, and they did a good job, but I couldn’t help thinking that if he’s that swell a guy, why is he such a bigot? His character is more complex now, sure, but he doesn’t really make any sense. Having a Jekyl/Hyde complex doesn’t really make you deep.
Also, they missed a great oppotunity to kill off Morris, which was my only problem with that story line. It’s hard to stay focused on events when you’re cheering for a character to die.
The dope-smoking doc’s name is Morris. I liked how Carter insisted that Morris complete the procedure, instead of letting the others ward Morris off. If Morris is going to be an ER doctor, there’s no point in him hesitating to get his hands dirty.
I have only watched the show since '97, but it seems to me that Carter and Morris have some things in common. Wasn’t Carter an overwhelmed, weakish doctor when he first started on the show? And I remember Carter’s brief bout with pill-popping a few seasons back.
Wouldn’t it be strange if Morris somehow metamorphasizes into the new Carter in 3 or 4 seasons? Then again, he might just become another Malucci.
It seems to me that the writers have plans to have Morris redeem himself at some point … perhaps after a more serious foul-up than we’ve yet seen. For a while, though, it looked like Morris was going to be written out of the plot.
Speaking of that, whatever happened to Coop? Coop, Neela, and Morris – IIRC – all started in the ER at the same time. Neela gets plenty of plot action. Morris is kind of starting to. But what of Coop? Coop’s brash exchanges with Romano seemed to foreshadow a bigger role for Coop. Then, we find that Coop’s got asthma, and POOF! – he disappears from the show.
The apparent bigotry may be a defense mechanism to keep people away.
Also, the writers ask the viewer the following questions: What is the nature of bigotry? Does it manifest itself in varying degrees, or is being “a little bigotted” like being “a little pregnant”? When evaluating people, does bigotry trump all? Can someone be fundamentally good, and also a bigot? Can someone be totally insensitive on the surface in their everyday dealings with people – but when the chips are down and things really matter, can that same person demonstrate through action that they’re not bigotted after all?
Yeah, the whole Frank thing doesn’t make a lot of sense. Maybe it’s a holdover from being a good old Chicago cop (not that all Chi cops are that way, but there may be some enclaves of it), but he can see it’s not necessary to spout all that crap at the ER. He works to provide for his daughter but maybe he resents having to keep working rather than retre after two other careers so he mouths off?
What pissed me off was Sam’s behavior. If you say it’s casual, you can’t pull that jealous crap (throwing things in the ER in the middle of a life and death situation?!). I don’t like when women are portrayed like that (even as I can see the realism sometimes). Then again, I guess she’s been fired for unprofessional stunts before so it’s part of her character.
I completely agree with gigi with regards to Sam’s behaviour. It was interesting, to say the least, to see her whip that package at Luka during all that frenzy. And yes, if she wants it casual, then its casual. That is how life works. You make your bed, now lie in it (no pun intended.)
Does anyone think they have humanized Frank for the time being to get prepared to write him out of the show? Maybe this is a ploy to make us like him better when he is gone? I haven’t heard that he is leaving, but then again, sometimes you never know.
These are good points, and I think you’re on to something. My only complaint about the Frank storyline (and I did dig it; this is a nitpick) is that he didn’t show these shades of gray that make you wonder about his character. He didn’t have a middle ground. There’s jerk Frank and saint Frank.
I will say that I was off the ER bandwagon for several years, and am back on in a big way. It’s been consistently good television, and last night was no exception.
I dunno, it seemed to me like he was doing the usual amount of standing around with a shocked stare and his thumb up his ass, getting in the way and being as useless as ever. He managed to perform one procedure correctly. Big deal. He’s supposed to be doing that all the time, every day. I’m not going to nominate him for any prizes.
Personally I liked Kerry’s suggestion that he go out onto Lakeshore Drive and reenact Tiananmen Square. 
The revelation about Pale Redheaded Girl and her dear daddy was pretty creepy. “Do you think people get what they deserve?” She was doing a nice job of making sure of that, I think.
“My daddy answers the phones.” Priceless.
Is anybody else thinking of Archie Bunker?
BTW, I think the actor who played Coop (Glenn Howerton) has another series, which would explain his disappearance. (He was never really given that much to do on ER.)
Hmm. I hadn’t thought of it that way. Her motives could be:
keeping him alive and taking care of him because that’s her father and it’s her duty
punishing him because she knows it’s not what he wants and he’ll suffer more that way (am I right that this is your interpretation?)
punishing herself by forcing herself to do this horrible duty because she feels the guilt of having slept with him
Depends who she means is getting what they deserve. She was playacting really well if she was punishing him by purposefully infecting him, etc., because she honestly looked so well-meaning and innocent. That’s way creepier than I thought.
I missed the first half of the show, so I gots a few questions:
Happy
The guy came in complaining of pain with no physical cause to be found, he’d been in several times, and didn’t get help, he (probably correctly) assumed that he wouldn’t get a psych admit. Abby wanted to admit him but Morris turned him loose. The guy was extremely pissed, said he’d come back with a tank, etc.
He had a forklift accident at work, brain damage as a result.
My interpretation was that she was keeping him alive as punishment. I don’t think her care for him was all that stellar, note his infected line (?) that they pulled out as soon as they started working him up. The switch at the end put a different interpretation on everything she said from the moment she was on screen.
t was one of the more realistic reactions to that sort of situation in the history of boradcast television. I mean, I dunno about you, but I’ve been around the block a few times and heard lots and lots of people tell each other “Oh, it’s not exclusive, it’s just casual!” And then when the other person actually acts as if it’s not exclusive, Person 1 flips their lid. Sam’s behaviour was nothing you won’t see in your local campus pub twenty times a night, and it fit her character just fine.
I don’t get the confusion over Frank, either. So he’s a bit of a bitter bigot. People who are bigots are not horned demons. It’s perfectly believable that an old guy like Frank prone to making bigoted comments might also love his wife and daughter. I saw no “Saint Frank” at all; I just saw a guy who loves his family. That’s not saintly, it’s just ordinary life. There are no shades of grey needed here; he’s a wisecracking bigot, but he adores his little girl. Those are not contradictory. A guy getting maudlin when he thinks he’s dying is pretty normal, too.
This was just about the only redeeming part of this episode for me.
Frank’s heart attack and all the stuff about his daughter/wife and how much he likes the job and the people there…that felt very contrived. I wish just once they’d let a character get sick/hurt/die without having to try to make us feel for them first.
Morris: he is an idiot. Honestly, I want to know how he even knew how to put the chest tube in correctly, since his roommate had apparently been carrying him while they were in med school and he hasn’t done anything since being in the E.R. Redeem him? No, the guy in the tank should have killed him off.
Luka & Sam? Sam needs to not whine about there being another girl in Luka’s life, since she was the one who wanted it casual. Luka should have told her so.
Well, Morris was also making his little comments (that I suppose he thinks are sarcastic or helpful) in front of the guy - like he was doing in front of the wife in the carbon monoxide family last week - and the guy flipped. Rightly so.
Sam’s behavior was inexcusable. First, you don’t throw temper tantrums in the ER during an emergency. Second, you don’t assume that because you saw some guy blink, he was telling you what you wanted to hear about his code status. That was bad, bad, bad. At that point she had no business making the daughter feel worse than she seemed to (plot lines revealed later notwithstanding) by saying “this isn’t what he wants.” That may be discussed before or after a code, but not during it, for Pete’s sake. She is an idiot.