11/4/04 "The Intern's Guide to the Galaxy"

My head is still swimming as the eternal question of quantity over quality in hospital care is examined as Pratt pits 3 interns (Abby, Neela, and Ray) against one another in terms of patient cases/dispo's handled in a shift, and each intern has students to manage throughout their shift.

Ray uses bribery (pastries) and fast-talking to get people to go the extra mile for him, but cutting corners gets him in hot water when he isn't paying attention to a distraught wife being asked by him if her brain-dead husband's body can be harvested for organs. So she goes nuts when the UNOS transplant surgeon shows up to harvest the organs, and Carter chews Ray out in front of his students. Heh heh.

Abby can't seem to get a single slam-dunk case in the ER today, and is faced with complicated cases that require more followup than usual. Abby goes the extra mile with a patient who discovers that she had sex with a HIV+ co-worker, and Abby pretends to get stuck by a needle to score the HIV cocktail of drugs for the patient. Abby even has Ray get someone in the pharmacy to doctor the patient's name on the label for the cocktail of drugs. Abby's student keeps hitting on her, but she keeps shooting him down.

Neela's first day back in the ER is stressful, and her thoroughness cause her to fall behind in the race to discharge patients. Neela drags her feet on informing a patient who she finally diagnoses as having leukemia. The patient goes AWOL, but is found later in the chapel, and Neela goes and does something she's not good at, offering comfort and hope to the patient.

The surgeon who replaced Corday likes to hold chemistry class while soon-to-be-brain-dead trauma is being handled by Ray and Abby, and the surgeon challenges Abby to stop deferring to Ray in crisis time. Later the surgeon wants the trio of interns to explain to him why radicals are bad when patients are brought back to life, but come back with tissue that isn't quite the same tissue before the trauma occured. Abby doesn't seem comfortable with the discussion of the chemistry involved and walks away to handle more patients.

Carter finally makes a move on Wendell (Madchen Amick's social worker character). Yay for Carter.

Anyhow, a pretty fast moving episode with light shed of various doctor care styles in an ER.

Yeah, Carter makes a move on this Wendall and I'm wonderin why he's not makin a move on Abbyagain. I know I would have.

Did anyone else catch the resemblence to that guy who kept asking Abby out and Carter?
He looked like a young Dr. Carter.

I know they've made Abby out to be better with bedside manner instead of brains but if she can't draw an oxygen atom she's in trouble.

Ray is a tool

You can tell we are in sweeps with ER pulling out a guest star and "
the greatest ER ever" taglines with next weeks episode

Abby said she could draw an Oxygen molecule, but that she doesn't like that guy and he gives her the creeps.

(She probably senses he's just getting test subjects for the Xindi. God help me for knowing that...)

Sara Gilbert?

Okay, NOW The Ugliest Woman In The World is a recurring guest on this show...

so when is the ray liotta ep?

That was like old school ER. I love just-woken-up Abby.

Quote:

Originally posted by Buck Turgidson
Abby said she could draw an Oxygen molecule, but that she doesn't like that guy and he gives her the creeps.

Perhaps she got a peek at his strap-on...?

And MrX, don't you know that every single episode is "the Greatest ER ever"..?!?!

What was the song playing at the start of the episode?

Used to watch ER way back in the day, stopped watching for a few seasons but have been tuning in so far this season.

That Ray cat irritates the hell out of me. His hair, his wonky goatee, his "rock star" leather bracelets...ugh!

Neela and Abby make all the pain go away though. Pretty fun episode.

Count,

The song was Where do I Begin, by the Chemical Brothers from their 1997 release, "Dig Your Own Hole".

Very good CD, but that is the only song on the whole CD that is that mellow and lyrical. The rest is fast moving techno.

Roseanne must be so proud, both her daughters are on medical shows.

Ray's an obnoxious ass. Like an ER doc would be wearing all of that shit on his wrists. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Carter chew his ass out in front of the med students.

I actually liked the new surgeon this ep. It was good to see him challenge the interns, particularly Abby in reference to Ray. And I liked Neela's little dig that he was probably using a permanent marker.

Carter and Madchen Amick - though we saw that coming a mile away.

And do you know what made this ep so great? No Weaver and very little Morris.

Though I like Kovac, it was nice to see them lay off the Sam/Luka storyline.

Didn't like the appearance of Sara Gilbert either.

Ray looks like Doogie Howser to me.

Bah, Sara Gilbert. One of two 24 cast members to appear last night. Kinda cool, even though she isn't the greatest.

That's who my wife thought it was at first, too.

Sure, Darlene and Other Becky have made good, but what about Original Becky?

I hear she is hitting Caruso up for a gig on CSI: miami.

thanks milwaukee

Same here.

Sara Gilbert

Carter & Wendall (so hot) = Anyone think Thandie Newton is gonna show up unannounced one of these days?

I like Ray's character. Good change of pace and contrast.

Overall good episode.

Ray's got really bad teeth for a supposedly teen heart throb.

I turned on close captions to watch this since everyone in the house was asleep, and I realized that this show must have 4 times the dialogue that most shows have...

Maybe he's British?


(That joke was sponsored by ClicheWorld magazine.)