Can anyone give me a synopsis of last night’s ER finale?
Thanks!
Well, for a finale, not that much happened. . .
Basically, Carter joins Luka in some banana republic for some volunteer work. Carter, who has lived such a privileged, antiseptic life gets the most incredible culture shocks: Polio? These people get polio? Whooping cough? We don’t have any medicine available for it? Gloves apparently being reused after being put into a basin with some “solution,” I think. The “hospital” a series of huts kept powered by generators. Anyway, a series of seeing how “the poor”, the real poor live–and at the mercy of warring factions that they don’t even seem to understand. He is incredibly frustrated at the fact that he can’t save some of his patients because he lacks the proper medical equipment. Luka puts it into perspective: “Today you saved 200 people. When was the last time you could say that?” At the end, he goes back to Chicago–Luka stays behind for the time being–and the program ends with him kissing a sleeping Abby on the cheek. Previously, it seemed as though he was about ready to dump her. Maybe he’s starting to think that would be a mistake. Stay tuned.
That whole relationship between Carter and Abby bugs me.
To expand on the spoiler-boxed stuff, Carter was shocked by how primitive the conditions were at the clinic in the Congo. One nurse said something along the lines of, “If they have a fever, it’s malaria, if it’s fever and vomiting it’s dynentary, and if it’s fever and these symptoms, then they have this other disease.”
Later, Carter and Luka went somewhere else deeper in the jungle and were giving kids the MMR vaccinations (measles, mumps and rubella) and one kid had what turned out to be pertussis, which could have been easily treatable in the States with a couple of dollars worth of eyrthromyicin (sp?), but all they had was penicillin, so he wasn’t going to get any better and would most likely die. That’s what made Carter mad, but prompted Luka to say, “You saved 200 kids today.”
Later, they were listening to music and dancing, when they were attacked by guerillas (misspelled as “gorillas” in TV Guide 
) and a little girl’s foot was blown off (very graphic) and Luka amputated her leg with a regular saw (and did it in about 2 minutes) and then carried her through the jungle as they all ran to escape the guerillas.
They made it back to the main clinic, but it had been ransacked by the guerillas. The guerillas came and held them all at gunpoint and killed a couple of people (one was a soldier for the government army, I think), and at the end, Carter left, but Luka stayed there with a couple of the sickest patients (including the little girl whose leg he amputated). Carter asked what he should tell Weaver and Luka said he didn’t care.
Then we saw Carter coming home and kissing Abby.
There was an article about this one in my paper yesterday, and this experience will be a real turning point for Carter. This show will wrap up in the second show next season. It was actually filmed in Hawaii, and they filmed the second part (which will be the second show of next season) at the same time.
Anything new with Elizabeth and Romano?
Ever since the moment he stood outside the operating door to make sure she got her nerve back after paralyzing that guy on accident…he stood, he watched her recover, he left…I’ve been a total shipper!
There was nothing new with Elizabeth and Romano; save for the final moments when Carter came back to Chicago and Abby, the entire episode took place in Congo.
To channel Guinastasia for a moment…
Carter and Luka are hot!!!
Boy, no kidding. That hot, sweaty, dirty, heroic doctor thing really does it for me…
Eh, forget Carter-I mean, he’s still hot.
But Luka was WHITE HOT!!!
Another point-Luka tells Carter what it’s like for these people. He says, (paraphrased), “US soldiers, come, drop a few bombs, then go back on an aircrafter carrier and watch Drew Carey. For these people, it’s a way of life. They don’t care about politics-just about surviving.”
With Luka’s past, naturally he’d know what it’s like.
Okay, I said last week that Luka must DIE, but now I think he should just remain out there where he can be the suffering martyr.
He IS hottest in that scenario, after all. 
I really enjoyed this episode.