This was a rough episode.

The hospital has Susan and a hospital legal eagle (Armin Shimerman) go through the case that resulted in a patient's death under questionable circumstances last episode (Neela, Carter, and Gallant taking most of the fall for the death).

Gallant continues to be the martyr on the incident. It appears that the family won't press charges against the hospital. Gallant receives his Army orders to be shipped out to Iraq. Gallant comes across a war vet who's been going around the hospitals to get vicadin to sell to buy some other drug that helps with his migraines because the VA won't give him anything for his migraines. So Gallant is gone from County General for the time being. Neela gives him a rabbit's foot as he's about to leave in a cab to the airport. They share a brief kiss.

Corday finds out that she's been tabbed to be the head of surgery by Weaver, though Corday was never consulted for the position, and has to process such a nomination.

Pratt continues to be supportive of Deb's situation with her father's worsening mental condition.

Susan's pregnancy advances to the point that she was prescribed 5 weeks of bedrest, so she's pretty much gone from the ER.

Kovach and Sam continue to get more cozy with the quickies. Unfortunately, Sam's ex-husband shows up to throw a monkey wrench into the mix.

Abby failed her boards, while Neela passes (with flying colors, on presumes).

One of the worst days in Weaver's life has her losing Sandy, a victim of fighting a fire at a warehouse, and Weaver had to endure watching hours of grueling surgery while being witness to the heroic efforts used to try and stabilize her condition, but to no avail. Then, Sandy's family, never all that keen on Sandy's gay relationship with Weaver, conspire to keep their son Henry away from her, and Weaver is absolutely crushed by these 2 events. The final shot of Weaver was haunting. Laura Innes showed some really fine anguish of Weaver's loss of Sandy, and subsequent kidnapping of son Henry.

The stuff with Weaver and the family at the end was tough to watch. I felt so bad for her.

The rest of the episode was kind of blah.

Yeah that was interesting. Never would have thought the weaver thing with the kid would have happened?

So do you guys think that gallant is gone for good?

What was up with them trying to pin it on carter too?

You know, Weaver can be a bitch on wheels, but I really felt for her.

Now, it's obvious that they're cashing in the gay marriage controversy, so I was wondering about the events of tonight's episode.

I'm no expert in family law or anything, but legally, Sandy would be a single mother, the sole parent of her child, at worst. Should she not have therefore made her desire that Carrie gain custody of Henry in the event of her death legally binding? She did have a high-risk occupation, so this is something she should have taken into consideration, especially since the two didn't share the same rights and protections granted to married couples.

Which wouldn't necessarily prevent Sandy's family from contesting such a move, but it would give Carrie a much stronger leg to stand on. (Poor choice of words, but...)

The final scene with Carrie Weaver was extremely difficult to watch. But I applaud the writers for tackling a timely, incredibly sensitive subject. They've rarely shied away from controversial topics, but I think the goal here is to demonstrate, in a way the rest of the population can understand, the need for some form of gay union. And, of course, to garner ratings!

I'm not that big of a fan of Weaver, but I really felt sorry for her in the end. Great acting by Laura Innes. It looks like she's going to be headed toward a custody battle with Lopez's family. I doubt Weaver would just let the Lopez's take Henry without a fight. They already did a custody battle a few years ago with Benton and that got boring in a hurry.

I was laughing at weaver because I hate her
where'd that kiss between gallant and neela come from? have been missing their romance this season?
so with gallant being an Lt, possibly 1st Lt. (I didn't get a good look at the color of his bar) what will he be doing in Iraq? He's not a full doctor yet so at first (before I saw his rank insignia) I was figuring platoon medic or something, but I doubt an Lt would get that position. Probably going to be in a field hospital then?

I kept thinking "ITS PRINCIPAL SNYDER!!! DONT TRUST HIM!!!"

Big Snake, report to the conference room, STAT!

I had the same problem with 24 this season, a hero from Buffy had an affair with a villian from Angel?

It's been hinted at ever since Neela started. But they kicked it up a notch last week when at the end, after the whole event with the guy dying, Gallant told her he had been thinking of asking her out earlier that morning, and she responded by saying that she was thinking of saying yes.

Anyway, good episode. Sucks that Gallant might be away for sometime. I think Neela looked especially good there when she was calling Gallant a coward.

That's gotta be hard for Kerry. Damn.

So wait, Susan's gonna be in bed, Gallant's in Iraq, that's 2 people I like in the ER that'll be gone for a bit.

I have a bad feeling that they didn't commit anything to paper.

Once she calms down, she's going to be a total assassin on this. I don't think they know who they're screwing around with.

Intense. Carrie Innes was excellent at the end.

Gallant finally gets some respect and screen time the whole episode and gets shipped out.

Don't like Weaver, but felt really bad for her in the end. But I have to admit I saw it coming a mile away. As soon as her wife came in injured you knew she was going to die and the you knew her family was going to be a problem with the baby. It was a gut wrenching story line, but very prdictable IMO.

Well good thing Carrie is a doc and the cheif of a local hospital, she is going to have a lot of sources available to her to fight for custody, plus she is a viper, look out Lopez's. Still I can not stand Carrie (and I saw this coming as soon as they brought Sandy in), not in the good "I hate Rocket Romano way", so I really do not care what happens to her in future episodes.

From IMDB:

Sharif Atkins will be leaving "ER" by the end of the 2003-04 season to co-star in the new Fall 2004 NBC cop drama "Pearl City".

As soon as they showed Weaver and Sandy and Sandy's mom interacting at the begining of the episode, my wife called the ending.

But not undoubtedly before we get a new batch of "road trip" episodes.

^^ doubtful. As much as he is liked on this forum, I doubt he could carry a show solo. I don't think the regular audience would tune in either. But hey, I'm up for it. A little ER/MASH mix in Iraq. Change of pace from the moronic med-students.

But then Neela ALWAYS looks especially good. I'd eat bees for Parminder Nagra if she asked me to...

stupid episode the only thing positive is that I wont have to see anymore of this stupid unbelivable lesbian couple. Stupid from the start and I'm glad its over. But watch now they will incorportate a whole episode to the legal proceedings of her trying to get the kid back.

I still think they are going to bring back the mayor/governor? plotline. The guy she fudged some tests for.

But was it stupid?

I generally don't like this show just about any time they get into the characters' personal/family lives. They just don't seem to know how to do it well. I certainly don't think the lesbian couple was any stupider than any of the other. And I think the legal story might be good; it at least has the potential.

I still have occasional flashbacks about Benton's deaf son.