You mean you managed to avoid six days of promos? “On the next episode of E.R.… bang bang bang! budda-budda brakka-brakka kPSSSH! AAAAHH! drvvt drvvt kaBOOM!”
I’m impressed.
I’ve been very busy. 
Plus I tivo and fast forward a lot when I do watch network TV. I was probably the only viewer in America completely shocked by the entire scene. Then again I wasn’t planning to really watch ER (haven’t seen the last few episodes) but the Will & Grace finale was delicious so I stuck around.
I really sorry I did. Who on Earth would want to work in that ER ever again? If they killed off Jerry I’m never watching the show ever again.
And this time I really, really mean it. I can shake this addiction yes I can.
This wasn’t merely the worst season finale ER’s ever done, though it was that.
It wasn’t merely the worst single episode of ER ever, though it was that.
It wasn’t even merely the worst single episode of a hit TV show ever, though it was that.
This was quite possibly the worst hour of television in the history of the universe. Watching it you felt yourself get dumber, brain cell after brain cell committed suicide in protest. Watching it, you realized in horror that it went back in time and ruined previous episodes of ER. Watching it you wished for half the ensemble to be killed off so that the actors in question would be free to workon non-sucky projects. Watching it you realized that you’d wasted an hour of your life that could have been more pleasurably spent on a colonoscopy.
I certainly hope Maura Tierney gets a better gig. Watching that episode made me even sorrier than ever that News Radio had such a short run.
ER would have been great if it had stopped at some point. Which is why News Radio and Kids in the Hall ares held in such high regard. They left before they sucked.
ER should have stopped when all the original cast left - ER got really weird to the point of killing one guy by dropping a helicopter on him: after he lost an arm due to a … helicopter accident … at the hospital.
A decent rule in a series is to end it when the third original key cast member leaves. 24 is an exception to that rule, though 24 should end for a different reason: either find a new trick/gimmick, or end it before the gimmick has been driven 25 kilometers into the ground.
More famously: he was a Ghostbuster.
Freakin amen.
I had a long post about how ER has always kind of done this but it has now accelerated to where it seems like every episode has someone with a gun to their head/getting shot/other mortal peril. In the last three episodes, we’ve seen over half the cast in some kind of mortal peril (Gallant although he wasn’t a regular anymore, Pratt, Abby, Luka, Sam and her kid, Jerry).
At the end of the episode tonight, I said to myself “Well that’s the last ER I’ll ever watch.” I just couldn’t bring myself to care whether Abby lost her baby or if she died, if Luka died, if Jerry died (although I think his character is really cool, loved that one where he got struck by lightning shopping for Carrie or Morris), or if Sam and her kid ever came back. ER is just not enjoyable anymore. I think the first really cruel, unusual thing the writers did was with Omar Epps’s character. Then again with that Life Goes On girl. Then they did it again with Carrie’s partner. Again with Mark Green. Again with Romano (although nobody really cared about his character). Again with Carter’s baby. And now again with Gallant to Neela. It’s now where it happens during November sweeps, May sweeps, and again at the season finale. You know what they say, “Fool me six times, shame on me.”
I know tragedy happens in real life. It is just not as expected as it has become on ER – whenever a character has a shred of hope, the writers with glee grind them back into the dirt with events more horrible than anything I’ve ever seen on television. This is not entertainment anymore. It is sadistic voyeurism.
Oh I meant to comment on the violence as well. It was a total Tarantino or John Woo knockoff, from the stop-motion to the bizarre camera angles to the totally unrealistic discharge of ammunition from every angle without regard to bystanders. Not a thing added to the story line and completely distracting, like the art director’s intern got a chance to show off after a few months of patience fetching doughnuts and mocha lattes for the production staff.
FTR, I was thinking uterine rupture after Jerry tackled her onto the floor. That would be a bright red, not clotted hemorrhage, but I won’t hold ER to the Lost standard of attention to detail. Uterine rupture may be completely painless, so not completely unrealistic. It could also be a placental abruption but those are usually painful and with contractions, although it would be dark, clotted blood.
Wasn’t that also Worst Prison Escape Plan Ever. That setup had so many things that could go wrong that it was amazing that they get anywhere. Where do they escape to? Wisconsin? Indiana? With EVERY LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER looking for them to.
That was pretty bad. That even made the Grey’s Anatomy finale seem completely plausible.
I don’t think they’re going to kill Abby’s baby. I mean, they killed Carter’s kid just a couple of seasons ago. Instead I think they’re going to do the scarily early preemie thing (Since she’s about six months along, having announced she was pregnant back in December). They haven’t done that plot in years, not since Benton’s son Reece.
And he was the developmentally delayed guy in The Hand that Rocks the Cradle.
What bugged me was Sam saying that the Vec would paralyze someone for 30 minutes. I pictured Luka not breathing for all those minutes, brain damage, maybe death. Next thing you know he’s able to move just fine within the restraints. 
Of course losing Abby and/or the baby is shades of Luka having lost his first family to violence by gun. I can imagine the baby will make it and a marriage ceremony is coming up.
Frigging Sam and her kid. Who cares anymore.
Amusingly, though, Neela’s scene where she blasts the Ghostbuster for encouraging his son back into a warzone kinda loses its punch when it’s clear that even the homefront ain’t all that safe.
In fact, she’s damn lucky she was at a funeral and not in the line of fire.
You’ve all pretty much said already what I had planned to say, but I’m going to vent anyway. Last night I kept thinking “Why am I still watching this?” Sadly, that’s not the first time I’ve thought that this season, though I didn’t really even watch it regularly. It’s just ridiculous. Can no one who works in the ER have a baby without it almost dying (or dying)? Do they think we’ve forgotten they killed Carter’s baby not all that long ago (when they should have killed that annoying girlfriend of his instead)? I’m sick of Sam. I wish they wouldn’t devote so much story to her. I knew Gallant was going to die the moment they sent him to Iraq. What would have been interesting would have been if they’d brought him home and had him deal with PTSD or something.
So yeah, I think this was the last time I’ll ever watch ER. As I told my husband a few weeks ago, I think Scrubs is a much more compelling medical show.
I stopped watching ER years ago (and if I hadn’t they *still * would have lost me with Romano), but lots of people refer to it as “The Dead Babies Hour”. It’s not just the staff, it’s the patients too. If a baby shows up, it’s there to die.
Shoot, Grey’s Anatomy is higher-level than this. It doesn’t pretend to be more than soap opera. I have kept watching ER just to look at Luka, and I wouldn’t mind a Ray/Neela hookup but I’m hoping that’s not enough to suck me back in!!
You’d think the place would get shut down, wouldn’t you? Dead babies all over the place, and they get shot up on a regular basis. And the police certainly don’t help matters any.
Dead babies, dead adults, heck this season we even had dead apes!
Face it, ANY patient that show up at that hospital is there to die, usally through staff incompetence. Dante's "Abandon all Hope, Ye Who Enter" is the sign on the door to County General.
Ever since Abby got pregnant, they have been teasing with "next week, Abby looses her baby" so my guess is that this time she finally will. This will drive her and Luka apart (again) and Luka will get to continue to be the E.R. slut (after all, I don't think he has slept with Neela yet).
The “Shootout at the E.R. Corral” was well…
Hilarious!
I found it funny that the only one who managed to hit ANYTHING was the guy who was standing there, with two guns, blasting away John Woo style. While the cops (who I seem to think might have had some sort of training with firearms), hit nothing. Heck, the two on the elevator had clear shots, and managed to miss, while "Two Gun", was able to hit one in a place where he wasn't wearing armor, after being supprised.
Of course, considering that her ex was holding Sam in front of him during the battle, and that her and Bratto were in the back of the van, when the cop shot at it, she is lucky that the cops were as good at shooting as the people in the E.R. are at saving lives.
I watch this show for two reasons, to see how bad it can get, and to see how high the body count gets. For both, I tend to think of it as "so bad, it's funny".I’m no longer a regular viewer but I would think after Marc Greene was stomped in the men’s room, after Carter and Lucy were stabbed and after Romano was attacked by Moby Helicopter, that there would now be a standing order:
Every time we have a disaster, check the whole freakin’ ER for victims. EVERY ROOM!
I told my wife prior to watching this episode that they really should close this place down. Was it built on top of an Indian burial ground? If I were a doctor, this would be the last place I would want to work. Attacks on hospital personnel seem to be rather common there.